Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme are joined by Sports Illustrated's Bob Harig (live from a Delta Lounge in Atlanta!) to discuss a Bloomberg report that the DP World Tour is in negotiations with LIV Golf to reinstate previously suspended members. Bob charts the progression of the PGA TOUR/LIV/DP World Tour relationship, and discusses potential implications for the PGA TOUR if LIV and the DPWT can cut a deal. Smylie and Charlie then recap Ryggs Johnston's surprise win at the Australian Open and preview the Hero World Challenge. Is the golf world heading for a shakeup? Tune in for all the insider takes!
Highlights:
• Bob Harig explains the complexities of the DP World Tour-LIV negotiations
• The guys discuss the impact on PGA Tour players and events
• Charlie's Thanksgiving fried turkey adventure
• A look at the rising stars coming through different Tour pathways
Don't miss Smylie's upcoming pro-am appearance and his promise to "get his steps in" at the Hero World Challenge.
#golf #pgatour #livgolf #dpworldtour #golfpodcast #heroworldchallenge #australianopen
#pgatour #livgolfnews #livgolf #golfpodcast #golftips #golfcoach #golfchannel #golftrip
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
02:16 - LPGA Commissioner Stepping Down
06:34 - Fried Turkey Report
10:26 - Mack Brown Getting Fired
14:35 - Introduction to Bob Harig
15:53 - Bob Harig Joins the Show
17:00 - LIV and DP World Tour Negotiations
26:59 - PGA Tour's Reaction
27:57 - Future Implications
29:15 - Greg Norman’s Regrets
33:20 - DP World Tour's Influence
39:42 - PGA Tour's Market Position
44:40 - Policy Board Changes
52:59 - Bob Harig Discussion
53:37 - DP World Tour News Wrap-Up
53:38 - Ryggs Johnston Wins Australian Open
58:29 - PGA Tour Player & Rookie of the Year
1:00:41 - Summary and Conclusions
1:02:53 - Hudson Swafford Update
1:07:28 - Thomas Pieters Joins 4 Aces
1:08:33 - Hero World Challenge Preview
1:11:51 - Final Thoughts
1:12:25 - Like & Subscribe
Carreon is an edge-of-your-seat action thriller that follows a young TSA agent who's blackmailed into an impossible situation at the height of Christmas Eve travel pandemonium. Either let a dangerous package slip through security and risk the lives of many, or save the passengers and risk the life of his pregnant girlfriend. Starring Taryn Edgerton, Sophia Carson, and Jason Bateman, Carreon is a holiday thrill ride with nail-biting non-stop action and suspense. Watch Carreon only on Netflix December 13th. Rated PG-13. [MUSIC] The glad girl grew coming at you with a throwback jam. That was glad for his flex-drawstring trash bags featuring pine salt, original scent. And that's better than all good, it's all glad. [MUSIC] >> [APPLAUSE] >> I'm Smiley Coffin, and this is The Smiley Show. [MUSIC] >> Welcome back to another episode of The Smiley Show. I'm Charlie Hume, he is Smiley Kaufman, and we are firmly out of Thanksgiving break. I have my head still in the clouds a little bit here. We're in that weird interim period of time that exists between Thanksgiving and Christmas, where we're all just kind of mentally checked out, ready to get to 2025. But here we are, still potting away. And Smiley, we dropped a very cool James Seekman, a short game instructional video that you did with him at Shadow Ridge on Monday. So if you haven't checked that out and like me, you could use a little help in the chipping area, the scoring wedges area, bunker play, putting, it's all in there, so go check that out. But Smiley, this is the first time we've seen each other post Thanksgiving. So first of all, how is yours a second of all, do you want the Fried Turkey report? >> I definitely want the Fried Turkey report. Only thing I'll say about Thanksgiving is, God man, like every single time I get to this time of the year in October, I'm like still looking forward to really getting in shape for 2025. And I tell you what, I'm off to really tough like holiday season. Like I really need to be hitting the weight room, I need to be running, whatever it is. I definitely need to do a better job of working out during this time of the year. But guess what's really hard to do, working out this time of the year? Because you kind of just wake up, you feel groggy, eating all this fart, you know, car-bloated food, you just feel kind of lethargic. And then you just kind of do it all over again. And that's what I did all last week. I think it's good to do that from time to time. The R&R was great, but definitely feel like going to Bahamas this week for the hero, looking forward to get those steps in. Let's get those steps in. Almost, I'm gonna wear a rain suit every day, even if it's 85. >> Just wear like three trash bags. Just absolutely sweat it out there. I want to see those things just full of perspiration by the time we're done. >> We got breaking news. >> What's up? >> LPGA Commissioner, Molly. I don't know where we'll ask you to be. >> Marco Saman? >> She's stepping down. >> Oh, wow. >> That's breaking news on Golf Show. >> That is breaking news here. >> How about that? >> I mean, by the time that you're listening to this, it's several days old. >> So, Liz Moore is going to serve as interim commissioner. This is after, so Mike Wan was a commissioner before Molly. Molly, do you say Marco Saman? Like, do you pronounce it all? >> Yeah, I'd say it with 95% certainty. That's how you pronounce her name. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Well, she's stepping down. >> There you go. >> There you go. >> Yeah, that's an interesting one. I think that it's an interesting period of time for the LPGA where a lot of women's sports are experiencing a lot of growth in the sense of television contracts. And of course, historically, the part of the last agreement that was done is that the PGA would negotiate a joint contract, I'm sorry, the PGA tour would negotiate a joint contract for both their league and for the LPGA. As a result of that, there's been a number of situations where LPGA events have been taped delayed, like marquee events, marquee rounds, and there's been some frustration from players on that tour as to why they're getting knocked to tape delay when they're a number of different places. It could be streamed or, you know, simulcast or other channels that could be used. And so I think it's an interesting, you know, it's one of those things too. There was the whole thing at the CME, the season ending banquet where players weren't there and the title sponsor was a little upset. And so, you know, I don't know that I'd put all of that on Molly, but as a commissioner, it feels like there are a number of things that could have been done to better organize and advance the women's game and to a period of prosperity and kind of follow and step with all the other women's major professional sports that are experiencing that. And so maybe just time for a fresh voice, a fresh set of leadership, and to capitalize on the opportunity and get them some more TV dollars. So if you want more on that conversation too in a player that's been there, seeing that is Jessica Quarter. We got her on it a couple of weeks, so that'll be one to actually, I mean, it'd been fun to have her talk about the commissioner stepping down, but it's fine. Yeah, that one's already recorded. So the match, I'll just, I'll hard turn it back to where we were, which is to say that I fried turkey. Well, fried turkey, but also I just wanted to add comment on your little spiel about working out because I feel like I try to do the same thing every year. It's a, I don't want to be, you know, joining everyone else on January 1. I want to get like a month's worth of work in, but similar to how you've talked about numerous times on the show, it dad back being a thing that makes playing golf hard, working out hard. The thing that we have not to deal with is the variable of our children going to daycare or preschool with other children. And it's a Petri dish. It's an absolute, I'm getting the crud, man. You might be able to hear right now, like I'm trying to clear something that I picked up into Thanksgiving week. It just, it really, it makes it almost impossible. You go this week, you're drinking festive drinks. My mother-in-law made a delicious eggnog that I mixed with some nice whiskey, homemade eggnog. Do a little bit of that, do a little bit of fried turkey. And then when you want to go, you did pick up the weights, hop on the pellets on, you're like, oh, I feel like I want to die because my son brought home something exotic and foreign from preschool. So that's, it's just, you know, not to continue griping, but it is very difficult to get on the workout. I'm on a hot streak lately with when Enochar does bring something home from daycare is that I'm out of town. And it seems always hit the house when I have like the one week I'm gone. So on a bit of like, you know, like when you feel like you're due for a delay in a, in a flight, like you've had such a great run. And the first time you think about, oh man, you know what? I haven't had a delay in a long time. That next day or that next flight is when you have your first away. So I think now that I'm speaking into existence, I'm definitely going to get sick tonight. Yeah. Well, fingers crossed that doesn't happen to you because this has not been enjoyable and especially you're about to fly internationally. So that would be, that would make it all, all the worst. But okay, fried turkey report. You ready for this? Yeah. This is, this is a, really think I found something here. So had so much, my mother-in-law Holly and my stepfather-in-law Fred in town this last week, Fred and I got the three last good golf days of the year in North Carolina this week, just like peak low 60s weather really enjoyed that. So which a little brunch at the club, Hope Valley, and he had this fried chicken. He said, this is the best fried chicken I've ever had. And chef comes out and he asks him, hey, what'd you do? So I soaked it overnight in Texas peat hot sauce. So I had a plan to fry this turkey, but I didn't have a plan to brine this turkey until I heard this chef telling this to Fred. And I said, wait a second now. What have we soaked our turkey in Texas peat hot sauce? So I went out and I got six 24 ounce bottles of Texas peat. 24 ounce bottles. 24 ounce bottles. So there was, I don't know what the math is. 144 ounces. That's my Texas peat. I got an 11 pound turkey. I put it in one of those, those brine bags. Dumped in all six bottles, tied this bad boy up from Tuesday night until mid Thursday morning. That thing was soaking in Texas peat. All right. Then I dumped it all out on Thursday, pat the whole thing dry. My buddy, Rob Christensen, who was like my spiritual like Turkey frying guru who led me to this whole thing. He, yeah, I was like FaceTimed him like five times on Thanksgiving. Am I going to kill myself? Like, what am I doing here? It's like, no, you're good. Everything's good. He gave me this little rub, this sort of like jalapenos sage type, my god. We're going from the Texas peat to a jalapeno rub. Yes. So we mercy, we dry this thing out. We pat this thing. We cover this thing. We use the whole bottle of seasoning on this. And then set up the set up the pot in the driveway, fried in a peanut oil. You got to get that thing up to 375 degrees initially on the oil. And then you drop this bad boy in and it's a little nerve racking. You got it. I'm like, yeah, hook. Yeah. And it starts to bubble like crazy. You're like, Oh, I'm gonna burn my house down. And then it kind of settles a little bit. And I'd say it really only took about 20, 25 minutes to get the oil hot. And then another like 30, 35 to fry the turkey. And that thing came out delicious. Like the shot that's good. Was it spicy? That's what I'm wondering. Like, I hear Texas Peter, your jalapeno. And I wonder, was it like just a hint? Or was it, hey, like we're like Nashville is hot chicken hot. So it really wasn't spicy. That was kind of the shocker is that it was, I think that makes sense. It does it. It really does it. I guess I'm sure I think that some people do this where they inject it. Like they get a little kind of base for thing. The needle in there, they inject it, that would have added more spice. But just kind of soaking it. What it did is it gave it more like moisture. But it so then if I'm frying the turkey, it's not going to come out crazy dry. But the turkey soap wasn't spiced. You may had a little hint. The best part was the skin had some kick to it. So you get a little slice of turkey with a little slice of that kind of outer skin, you eat that and it was like perfect. The kick was, I wonder if that had something to do with the the the rut that you're talking about in the Texas peat. Maybe that gets into all the oils and and as it fries, that's what like where it all goes and that inside the turkey that that keeps it, you know, tasting like a turkey. I mean, we're we're not a science podcast. We are not a a culinary podcast. Like I this was the most novice thing. But your theory that you just laid out, that sounds right to me. So that that's what we're going off of now on. But I'd say a frying turkey is going to be my new thing. That's going to be I'm going to be frying all sorts of stuff now now that I figured this thing out. So big success. House is still intact as far as I can tell. Good. Good. And there we go. So how about it? Hey, Mac Brown's getting fired, originally. So that's happening. LSU won their watch game of the year, which is it's crazy how fast football season goes. All right. Can I tell you one of the most insane things I saw on the North Carolina football message board as to one of the names being floated around for this job? Can you take a guess who it is? I'm going to go with man. I feel like the hot name everybody always talks about is prime. But I don't I don't think it's prime. Who would have a North Carolina tie that played their movies out? You got to think in a more absurd direction. Okay. I don't know then. So because there are rumors that that Dion Sanders reached out, you know, whatever, but there's this insider plugged in on the message boards who said that the most interesting name he's heard that the entire board of trustees is pushing to hire to scarred all candidates for would be replacing a 73 year old coach with another 73 year old. Please tell me it's beamer. Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick. Dude, I cannot possibly say my favorite rumor before we hired Brian Kelly was that Mike Tomman was an option to be the coach at LSU. I was like, you guys are so dumb to think that these NFL coaches are going to leave just coaching and just getting a game plan together and managing adults to managing the most hectic business in the world right now, which is NFL and somehow trying to deal with an 18 year old kid and their agent and rerecruiting your roster to stupid periods of when you can and can't talk to players. And then all this to say is if you when you lose games, then you potentially get fired. Now it would be smart to go do it because these buyouts are just ridiculous that they have in the college game. So maybe fees in it for the buyout game, then go do it because what it's like going to live. It's like, hey, if you're not interested in and whatever, like if you just want to get paid, go be a college football coach, get a ridiculous buyout and do nothing. Yeah, I mean, I'd say it like this. What is Bill Belichick famously good at? Coaching Xs and O's football game theory. What is Bill Belichick famously terrible at? Interpersonal relationships. So let me get this straight. So in a game that's all about recruiting high school recruiting the portal recruiting the players on your own team and constructing a very elaborate NIL and rev share scheme and a completely new landscape of the sport, bring it but might be the worst possible idea on the planet. But with all that said, I'm so here for it. Let's sign the guy up. Y'all hire coach. Oh, that'd be sick. I would go to the Carolina fans. Coacheau would be great. You being on a coacheau? 100% I'd be on a coacheau. Sweet. All right. I love Carolina. So I mean, look, a lot of rumors swirling. I have no idea who we're actually going to end up with. But apparently I think I saw Rhett lastly was like a candidate, but I mean, I guess it just extended him. So you have to play the buyout that he just signed. Why would you leave a Dallas market that's like, he's put SMU back on the map and, you know, there's no reason to. I mean, I think the trendy like up and come her name is John Sumrall from Tulane. I don't know, man. I just I don't know. I've heard so many weird names. I'm not going to get around. It definitely is moving on was the right thing. Now you just got to go nail the hire. If I were y'all the guy I would go hire as a bandi head coach. That's that to me is the guy you should go and hire. Well, I mean, we'll definitely check in on this because I was going to say we might have a coaching vacancy at LSU, but I think the nature of that buyout is going to be too steep. I think Kelly's going to get some more time. So the only coaching update that we'll have in the offseason is who eventually replaces Mac Brown on whether it's another 73 year old and Bill Belichick. But yeah, we're moving on new era football. I'm happy about that. Smiley, I think now was about the right time to start teeing up some golf, given that we've done an ample amount of Thanksgiving talk and college football talk. And we're going to have more golf on the back end of the show. But right now we're going to get to Bob Herrick, a sports illustrated golf rider, had a great conversation with him regarding the report over Thanksgiving week was the Thanksgiving bombshell that talks have resumed because this has been a number of different talks that have happened between the PIF and the DP World Tour about paying fines, about some sort of partnership. And it looks like those have been revived to a degree that would infuse some cash into the DP World Tour and also allow for the players that had lost their membership and were facing fines to go back and play some of those events. And could be a mutually beneficial arrangement given TV contract negotiations that are going on right now for the DP World Tour. So yes, we have that conversation on tap. And then on the back end, we got a little bit of, we got a little DP World Tour golf to talk about the the Australian Open. We've also got some PGA Tour player of the year rookie, the year nominees and a little bit of a hero field. So shall we get right to Bob now, Smiley? Yeah, let's do it. Let's talk to Bob. Let's do it. Here he is. Bob Herrick from Sports Illustrated. All right, guys. Welcome back to another episode of The Smiley Show. Today, we are joined by Bob Herrick, Sports Illustrated Golf Writer, and joining us today from the Delta Sky Lounge. So if you happen to hear a little bit of, you know, Frank Sinatra, a little bit of elevator music, that is courtesy of an Atlanta airport. So I'm sure that'll be frustrated for some people, but also kind of like peaceful for other depending on how you view airports. So Bob, thank you for joining us, my man. Yeah, thanks. I'm glad we could work it out. Absolutely. And Charlie is going to join us in on this interview. And Charlie, why don't you just give us a little set up of where we're going to go in this interview. There's there's so many different things to talk about with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, the PIF, and where live fits in all of this. And so Charlie, why don't you give us a little set up here? Yeah, well, I love that this is happening the way it is because in my past life as a PGA Tour radio producer and any sort of golf breaking news, first text that shoot off was to Bob Herrick. And so here we are doing it again on the smiley show to kind of get the full unpack here. And Bob, there was a report, really a Thanksgiving bombshell that Bloomberg originally posted and the headline is Saudi back to live golf is said to way deal with DP World Tour. And you subsequently wrote something for Sports Illustrated kind of further unpacking that and just what was happening there where where the PIF and the DP World Tour were discussing ways in which live players who previously held DP World Tour membership could get back on the DP World Tour. And so there are there are so many layers to this story really stretching all the way back to the November 2020 original announcement of this strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour and then the sort of strengthening of that alliance in June 2022. So I think what makes the most sense for people who maybe aren't aware, people who are trying to pull pieces of yarn across a bulletin board to understand this whole thing is starting back there and just explaining the nature of that original and then reinforced strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour and why it's so important for the DP World Tour to have the financial backing that the PGA Tour has provided for the last several years. Yeah well listen I think you have to go back even a little far. They're back to sort of the pandemic timeframe maybe 2021. The PIF you know the public investment fund live which hadn't even launched but it hadn't even been named actually met with the DP World Tour. It's you know the stories are different depending on who tells them but you know there was allegedly an offer made. What kind of an offer you don't exactly know is just a financial offer. There seems to be you know a feeling that they laid out their live plan. They laid out what they wanted to do and they wanted to partner with the DP World Tour and now if you're the DP World Tour there's so many things right there that you have to think about. First of all live hasn't even launched. Do you really are you really buying into this idea of this team concept and having you know this separate entity how would that work because they've been criticized for not doing this you know but of course hindsight being what it is. Also you know look the political ramifications at the time the DP World Tour had an official event on their tour the Saudi International which actually is this week but it's part of the Asian Tour now but back then it was part of their tour and they were heavily criticized when they did it. As we all know the political ramifications dealing with Saudi it was very soon after Khashoggi you know I mean these are things we you know that have nothing to do with on the course golf but certainly are an issue when you're talking about this whole dynamic. So they allegedly had this meeting in Malta of all places and the story is is that they made an offer in the DP World Tour never took it to their players they turned it down and they took it they turned it down to go with the safer option which was the PJ tour the strategic alliance and you know at that time the circumstances suggested that was probably the right move for that they they understood that they were going to get financial backing from the PJ tour which bought into European tour productions Jay got a seat on their board their guaranteed purses I mean you know so like whatever their total value of purses was in 2021 the tour guaranteed that going forward plus it three three or four percent increase every year. So we let's say they lost a five million dollar event well the tour was going to guarantee that five million plus it was kind of hard for them to turn that down right so then live launches and everybody you know everybody's losing players and you know the difference with the DP World Tour and the PJ Tour is that the membership requirements the idea of playing live and playing the PJ Tour is a member never made sense to me how are you going to do that how are you going to play 15 and 14 you know like nobody does that you know Patrick Reed might have done it but but in also if we can you know if you want to get into all the the rules the tour is never allowed for conflicting events in the U.S. Carry on is an edge of your seat action thriller that follows a young TSA agent who's blackmailed into an impossible situation at the height of Christmas Eve travel pandemonium either let a dangerous package slip through security and risk the lives of many or save the passengers and risk the life of his pregnant girlfriend starring Taryn Edgerton Sophia Carson and Jason Bateman carry on is a holiday thrill ride with nail biting non-stop action and suspense watch Carry on only on Netflix December 13th rated PG-13 The glad girl grew coming at you with a throwback jam that was glad 4th flex drawstring trash bags featuring pine salt original synth and that's better than all good it's all glad that's I mean so there was all sorts of roadblocks there not as much on the DP World Tour side and so this is where their core players guys like Polter and Westwood and Stenson cried foul they were like look we've always gone and played other tours around the world and still been members here how is this any different well you know one of the reasons it was probably different was because the DP World Tour has this agreement with PJ tour which didn't want anybody to do that so then you get to this in 2022 remember when they first launched a bunch of the players so you know they I guess you'd say sued or they they they appealed and so what happened was is they were allowed to play under this thing where the tour was going to have this arbitration panel where they were going to go before a UK court arbitration panel to decide if their penalties were fair and around the time of the masters in 2023 that court ruled in the DP World Tour's favor so the DP World Tour was basically set well told you're allowed to enforce your rules your rules are you can enforce penalties and fines if a guy breaks your rules which is playing in a conflicting event without permission so that's how we got to this point now like a year plus removed from that where I think the DP World Tour is sort of realizing you know we could use some of these guys especially in the fall don't we don't we want John Rahm to play in Spain don't we want you know you know several of their guys Hatton you know Paul Casey's played Peter's played wanted to play in his home country event you know and but yet they had these rules in place and people have criticized DP World Tour but what are they supposed to do like if you don't enforce your rules then then what about this the average DP World Tour player who wants to do something but can't because of their rules well he's gonna look at these guys so what happened was actually I wrote earlier this year that remember in September there was all this chatter around Rahm the fines right and not paying the fines yeah and same with Hatton it was less chatter but Rahm was the big one he he was it was coming up to a deadline of that September live event and and he had to either pay the fines or not enter the event well if he doesn't enter that event um since it's his home country if he skipped it he would have needed to play two he needs the four DP World Tour events to be eligible for the Ryder Cup next year the Olympics would have counted as one well he at the last minute appealed and so the DP World Tour said okay great we're gonna kick that can down the road you can play um he played twice in Spain he played the the Dunhill with the Olympics he has his four okay but now these fines which they're apparently allowed to impose it's been stalled and and Rahm's point has been I don't think the fines are fair that's what Poulter Stenson and Westwood are saying Poulter has now come out and said live would pay my fines but out of principle I don't want to pay them I don't want them to pay them I don't want to have to pay over two million dollars just for the right to go play a tour I don't feel like a tour I don't feel I should have ever been denied the right to play so it's um so so bait but but at that time in September I sort of got word that live had gone to the DP World Tour and tried to make a deal it's different than what's being reported now but they said to them look this fine thing is ridiculous we'll give you six million pounds we will make scheduling adjustments so that another you know at the time they live they had two live events going up against big DP World Tour events we will encourage our players to play in your tournaments um in exchange for you dropping the fines and just like getting rid of this in their minds nonsense you want these guys your sponsors want these guys you want them in the Ryder Cup and you know to DP World Tour's credit they acknowledged they had this meeting but they turned they turned down the offer so now fast forward a couple of months and it sounds like it's to me what we're hearing is is is is more than what that was offered six million pounds it sounds to me like they're offering much greater financial incentives obviously the ability to go back and forth to be able to be a member and you know it seems to have some legs but again the DP World Tour sort of caught did they turn their back on the PJ Tour is a PJ Tour going to be okay with this and as I've written and said it still doesn't bring the game back together no because because Scotty and Xander aren't going to go play DP World Tour events be member I don't think yeah you know you know why would they and and so then we still have this this issue where you know a majority of the top players yeah and also is Bryson on Brooks or they're going to become members of the DP World Tour maybe not you know like I think they're fine I think they would be fine just playing their live events playing the majors and maybe you know cherry picking a few other tournaments which of course guys on the PJ Tour they don't like that idea the cherry picking so here we are it's kind of it's still kind of a mess and I'm not really sure where it goes well how should the PJ Tour feel about this the fans the players the executives I think when you read about how live golf is going to pay all these fines and potentially having a schedule that collaborates with live and the DP World Tour you know what I'm sitting here looking at this as is okay the PJ Tour has a deal with the DP World Tour now how are they able the DP World Tour to talk to the PIF you would think that there would be provisions in this whole contract to where they would not be able to talk to another entity without some form of payment back to the PJ Tour and all this so I just don't know exactly where you know I how I should feel about the DP World Tour being under the PGA Tour talking to live golf and potentially making it another avenue for PGA Tour players to go to live and be like yep I can go play live and also I can go play DP World Tour events and it to me I I don't like the idea of it because it it just gives more players incentive to go to live golf that's exactly why I would think the tour would be against it you know what this is what they're fighting right now and this is what I've you know all along yeah I'm just trying to stay right down the middle on all this but you know when I talk to the live people I'm like what did you expect them to do did you expect them to just allow their players to go play play live events with no repercussions whatsoever if that kind of money is being offered of course a bunch of guys are going to do it if there's if there's no if there is no fallout for them doing it well then they would just do it well but doesn't that ruin the tour why wouldn't they want to protect themselves you know I mean this is the whole the thing that's lost is the whole reason they have TV contracts the reason sponsors pay all this money is because they have some knowledge some semblance of of assurance of the kind of fields that they're going to get and this is why the tours had a react they've gone to these signature events to assure named players so I don't I would blame the PGA tour for being upset with the with the DP World Tour just going off on their own and doing this because it probably does undermine them a little bit you know a few weeks ago I got I was able to get Norman on the phone Greg Norman lives commissioner to talk about some of the things that have occurred and I asked him you know I actually asked him the question about if he's he's going to be out of a job soon and he and he's being reported yeah he acknowledged his contract is up in 2025 but I asked him you know what are some of your what are some of your highlights of what are some of your regrets and you know one of his regrets is he said look you know we've we've not been able to get a TV deal we've we've had roadblocks to sponsorship like he was honest about that so it's true it's hurt them you know but he said I you know one of the biggest regrets is if they would have just had a conversation but I'm still I still go back to when we didn't know what this is going to be what would that conversation have been and what would you have expected them to do would you expect him yep you're right just okay these guys can go play we're going to diminish our own tournaments you know and well it's a monopoly it's it's it's you know you know that's unfair well these are the rules you know and I go back to I've written this Norman's talked about this and I I kind of get his side of this in a way you know back 30 years ago they didn't have a home tour rule like they do now for Rory so Rory can play unlimited DP World Tour events in Europe he still has to get releases to play in the Middle East but he can play any event he wants any time he wants on the DP World Tour in Europe but the rule is he has got he's got to play the 15 in the US and if you remember several years ago a couple of years after Martin Kimer won the US Open and the players he came up short I think it was in 2015 very hard to do you know it's he miscalculated he thought he was gonna he didn't make it through the playoffs and so like he gets he gets to the playoffs and he only has 14 and the tour was hard line about it they he could not be a member in 2016 because he didn't meet that requirement so so like you see these guys who do both and about that they work really hard to make sure they get their 15 in so that they don't mess that up but in Norman's day they didn't have the home tour rule and so Norman as a you know obviously a very marketable guy you know top player he would get offers to go play in Europe he would do that he'd play Dubai he'd play a couple events in Europe every year and then in the winter time this time of year their summer in Australia he'd go home to Australia and they had a much more robust tour back then and he'd play the Aussie Open the PGA the Masters he wanted to maybe play a couple others you know Greg never showed up in the US until March until Doral which was the first one so he would play down there several events in the in the winter and in the early spring well he needed a release for every one okay they were only going to give him three so when he when he asked for the fourth the tour would extract something out of him it's the reason you would see him show up in a place like Milwaukee or an outlier place the tour would say okay we'll give you that fourth or fifth or six but you need to go to Milwaukee to the next three years you need to do this and that Wrangler he was like why can't I just go do what I want as long as I meet the minimum so like you've got this balance here I still say that was that wouldn't work with 14 live events you know you know how you're gonna play you have to play there 14 there's no wiggle room no but then you're going to try to play you know okay maybe you say 11 if you're in the majors 10 if you're in the players but still if you're the tour why would you lower that number so like this is this is why it's difficult I think I think this is one of the hold-ups in the whole in the whole thing how do these guys come back they can't come back and play a full schedule and be a member no I don't know what they want to be but yet are you gonna let them cherry pick events then like that's kind of wrangled guys who are staying loyal to the tour Bob it smiley lays out the PGA tour viewpoint on this which is a fair one of you're propping up the DP world tour you know why does it make sense for uh to allow that tour to go out and negotiate with uh it's not maybe not necessarily a hostile party right now but one that you're trying to kind of hold some leverage against and in negotiation to bring this thing back together on the DP world tour side of things I read something recently from Guy Kenning's where he felt good about the state of the tour going forward and he did not want the the F word in this case the feeder tour or being used as it related to this tour but I wonder just your your thoughts on what is happening in terms of negotiation in relation to to to the state of the DP world tour because obviously right now they need the financial support from the PGA tour but they're sending their 10 best players over to the PGA tour every single year and now to your point they're devoid of all these big names that have gone to live that would you know would play in a lot of those events uh so so then in a time where they're negotiating for their lifeblood in terms of tv contracts and dollars that way they don't have a strength to feel that's going to be good enough to go out and sell that thing so with that in mind is that in a way sort of force the DP world tours hand where it's it's a decision as to whether they want to continue being you know closer and closer to a PGA tour feeder tour or go take this money bring these guys back from live and maybe regain a place of stature in the world of golf it's higher than where they'll end up if they continue sending their best players over to America. I think that's definitely it the latter I think they see an opportunity to strengthen some of their fields throughout the year they could they could easily have guys start off in the Middle East in fact Rama's doing that he's going to play in Dubai I think Hatton is too so let's say they strengthen their Middle East schedule and you had a couple events before live gets started maybe you have a little bit of an opening in the summer time around the time of the open so that a guy could play the Scottish of course because of the cosination with the PGA tour that might not work but in theory right some of the events in Europe around the open and then the back end after the tour championship is really when the DP world tour has some of its better events you know look at what they had this this fall and the French open they you know the DP the the Dunhill links obviously the Spanish open was quite good then they have those two season ending events in the Middle East uh the Irish open they were Rory finished back in I mean they could they could really strengthen that and make the fall sort of you know they're strong part and and you could see where maybe some sponsors are asking them for that we we wanted that on the show a number of times of like finding that that early morning market segment that almost aligns with the Premier League watch window of just putting high quality golf and high quality courses there what seem to make a ton of sense it does and and I mean if you if you look at what they're trying to do I could see a situation where I still not quite sure how Liv fits into it you know like the idea of a world tour and the PGA tour becomes just more of a domestic tour which is fine actually the PGA tour is mostly a domestic tour you know and unless they and I guess the other side of it is is maybe the PGA tour and the DP world tour ought to have a few more cosection events yeah you know like if they were to cosec what if they were to cosection Dubai see the problem with doing that though is of course you hurt your domestic tournaments and people who are on the outside I hear this all the time from people around the world who are not Americans we don't live in the US you know we were spoiled we have all this great golf they don't have it and and and I always just say to them though I go the money is here like look at the purse at the Aussie open just this past week it was like two million dollars you know I mean you know I remember several years ago when they when the not the last president's couple but the one before that where the president's cup was at Royal Melbourne the week before the Australian open and couples was the captain and he kind of made it a a condition for tiger to get a sponsors pick I want you to play in the Aussie open the week before and tiger went and and the appearance for you got was equal to the what the total purse was and it was way below his market value yeah like they don't they just don't have the same they don't have the same financial resources if you go way back there's a reason the world golf events all moved to the US they didn't used to all be in the US but the reason was is the sponsors wanted the TV audience they you know that's where the money is and so like this is a tough dynamic and I mean if you're the tour and you can stage these big money events in the US like why is it your problem that it doesn't work in Asia or and I'm not saying it wouldn't but it doesn't work to the same level and so this idea of some sort of a world tour you know I it's it's complicated it's not easy yeah exactly you know the bottom line is you know that what Liv is doing is not commercially viable there is not a single tournament they play of the 14 that is bringing back even just to cover their purse no way when you consider that every pj tour event has its purse taken care of through TV and a title sponsor and then some there has the money the money that goes back to the tour there's other money that gets spent out paid out for charity Liv doesn't have that for any of them even it's most it's most popular then in Adelaide it's not bringing back 25 million dollars it take its sales and you know the the the the the Aussie government is is paying them to come there which is great but it's still not covering all of their bills so in other words it's not it's not commercially viable but because they have a big benefactor they can absorb it but if you had to do this where the the bills had to be paid and you had to come out ahead it's not happening what's what's now well Bob can we play the game a little bit towards the pj tour in this we've talked a lot about how the DP world tour struggles from a financial standpoint getting top players but let's turn the page and look at the pj tour and all this so in in all the conversation we just had you it would make it seem like the pj tour is in a great spot in a reality is yes the pj tour players are making more money than they've ever made but when you look at you know the landscape of potential ratings how much you know it costs potentially as a sponsor to come into to be a pj tour title sponsor do you feel like there's a bit of a bubble right now for the pj tour and could it burst because right now once you set a precedent of hey 25 million dollar purses for signature events it's it's really easy you know to to always go up on prices but to come back down that's a tougher hill now because now once you set the precedent as soon as you come back down on purses it'll look like the sky's falling right it's a tough it's a tough spot to be and i mean it really the tour has done a remarkable job over the years of of sort of incrementally increasing purses even in tough economic times you know and on 2007 8 9 time frame when the us went through a real tough stretch i remember they're being calls for the tour you need a lower purses or hold them the same you know give these sponsors a break and the tour weather it never really happened i mean they held they held their ground and they kept they kept they kept doing increases even and it was pretty amazing sorry guys airport this is we're on the scene this is a live report that built the sky lounge so uh but anyway they they were they they managed to weather that and now we've gotten to this point where they keep increasing them a little bit more uh one thing i'll say those smiley is you know it was sort of a not made a big deal of but the tour did lower purses in the fall every one of those purses except for Bermuda went down and so there was a bit of a correction there and that you know what that's probably should have happened those are those are not going to get a lot of ratings in the fall they now that you've changed the way the schedule works you're not going to have a lot of star players there probably did need to be a correction there but the bubble that you talk about is real because the sponsors are having they whatever the purses the sponsor pays more yeah they do you know so if it's a three million dollar purse that sponsor might be on the hook for 22 23 24 and just a couple years ago those same tournaments were 12 12 million dollars but and and what what more are you getting out of it like you said the tv ratings are a little flat some of them have fallen off a little um it's expensive i mean golf still you know i understand the need i thought i thought what happened was is there there was this notion that golfers were underpaid especially when you consider that there's no guaranteed money in the sport and i always love the example you know tiger back when he was tiger he would he would bring so much attention to an event they would sell out sell their tickets he was he was entered sell corporate hospitality the tv ratings would double but on Thursday morning he was guaranteed zero and you know Steph Curry could go 0 for 50 and he's not guaranteed zero you know so so that was always a thing that i thought like they needed to correct that in some way but now they've and what they've really done is that's that's the signature events that's the playoff events and and the fed ex money but it's probably gone too far yeah you know it's like Scotty million make it 29 million dollars before before the fed ex money Zander making 18 is probably a little bit farther than they wanted to see it go and and how are you going to sustain this commercially you know well they're leaning on their tournaments now to kick in a little bit more towards the purse how long can you do that how long can you do that i mean these these local organizing people you know they they spend their whole year putting that tournament together and pinching pennies and cutting corners you know so they can give a million or two million dollars to charity yeah and and you know they have small staffs and you know they you know how many 5k runs can you add how many hospitality tents can you add how many you know how many concerts how many things can you do to keep helping it to raise more money it comes a point when you know it's just it's exhausting well it's not the same non-for-profit organization that we we've known for the last couple decades it's becoming much more of a financial institution than it and then it used to be and i guess one of my last questions for you bob would be and this is something that charlie and i have discussed about with the policy board changes that recently just came out that the pj tours basically it's becoming much more cut they're going from 125 to 100 cards and one of the most interesting things i thought with all the proposed changes that event that have just gone through is that the dp world tour um instead of having 10 cards that were given still remain that they have 10 cards given and i thought that was the most shocking thing that it seemed obvious to me that the corn fairy tour going cut down from 30 to 20 that's a huge number and the 10 dp world tour cards didn't get cut at all to me that is another example of why the pj tour is it's it's it's trying to bait the dp world tour into just realizing hey we're we're a good partner yeah exactly i mean uh you know if they were going to cut them back they could have cut them back to eight or seven you know i do think one thing all is you know the dp world tour guys had success uh you know i i think seven or eight of them kept their card right um you know i like it i like having new names and Matthew Brevon different storylines we're getting the holy guard brothers coming this year we're excited about all this but also i i still feel like the players coming from the dp world tour are going to want to potentially go to live golf like it seems like that's the avenue now it's it's the if you play well in a major you win a major that's like an exemption to live golf or if you're a european tour player that plays well enough it's like there's your avenue to get to live golf so it's it's like you raise them up and then 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per month new customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees extra speed slower above 40 gigabyte ctales believe i think i think it's uh you know that's the potential and i still not sure like i'm i'm not convinced that the huge upfront money is going to continue with live you know they really want to lean into their teams they want the teams to be self-sufficient so that means the teams have to pay these guys instead of the league and but i mean how does the league pay them if those or the teams pay them if they're not if they have no value you know the whole idea was to sell them you know rom and fill and all these captains at 25 equity stakes in these teams well like none of them have sold well why would they nobody knows what the future is going to look like like nobody's quite sure if there's even going to be a live as we know it and maybe it'll get less than maybe the only be 10 i i know there's people that like it there's it's more outside the u.s the team concept the the franchise model owning a team you know right it would probably be big money guys who are in it for the ego and they like it like this idea you know but they're still they're not going to want to just throw good money after bad you're going to want it to get a return and so you know with american tv deal would that be the what kind of gets maybe investors involved it's like hey we got an american tv network that's that's in it's like to me that's what would potentially be you know i mean that that would help a lot like well but more than that i think less roadblocks like like if in other words if you make a deal with pj tour that means you have pj tours blessing that means it's a company that wants to sponsor them doesn't have to fear repercussions from the pj tour because the tour has said you're okay maybe they work out a deal with both the other thing is the tv windows can't be the same let's the other thing that norman has said we want to be additive how can you be additive when you're making a fan chutes you know the the green brier event that ramen brooks were in a playoff end was the exact same time that he'd deck he was winning the fedex tournament this coming year their schedule has two of their events against fedex playoff events they also now again it's around the world but another one they play against phoenix they play against genesis of course huge time zone difference but you know the way they've been doing it they put it on tape to lay at the very same time the pj tours on if you want to watch a live good luck selling a tv contract against that that's pulling a what rating in the middle of the night you know that's a good damn damn if you don't really at least if it's live it could be you know like the Adelaide event you could do like what a lot of us just did for the australia you know you know at least if it's live you can watch it in the u.s and and and you know i mean the idea of i know they they tell the streaming you know you can watch it streaming live that's fine but you know i'm not sure that's where the money is like the tour still this day is getting the bulk of its money from nbc golf channel and cbs not from espan plus you know it's it's not where the most of the money is so i would think it would work the same for live you know and so that's but but more than that i think it's it's the getting rid of the roadblocks let's say the two entities work together okay so look live you know why don't you start your shotgun at 11 and end at four o'clock and we'll be on from you know dental four and then the pj tour broadcast can come on at four instead of overlapping you know or you know end at three or whatever it works so that that you give it a fighting chance like in it's it's hard for them to have a fighting chance when you're going up against the behemoth that's pj tour on over the air network tv you know and this is around the world too i mean you know the obviously the the tour has deals with sky and and other places in europe and and live has to fight against that so um if those roblox get taken down and they all work together well then okay then now maybe those teams could sell i also think they probably have to play less events instead of 14 maybe it's 10 you know and and schedule them a little bit better that allows these guys to i don't i don't think you could cherry pick but i i think there is a way where you could have some live guys play on in pj tour events and i'm real easy off the top my ad one is because the signature events aren't full you could say we'll add up to four live guys no more than 80 players as long as we don't take a spot from anybody else but in return for that they have to add a regular pj tour event so in other words they can't just play signature events so if Bryson wants to play Arnold Palmer Riviera and and and memorials say he's got a john beer yeah yeah maybe the tour has to negotiate that with them all right look you play those when we need you to play three other ones and you know maybe that is the the avenue because those guys aren't going to play 15 mm-hmm they probably you know they probably shouldn't be eligible for the FedEx cup i don't think they would be but not going to get the equity that's been promised so maybe that's the trade-off you know but who knows to be honest with you there's nobody really knows how they integrate all this again and again we're that whole DP world tour living doesn't integrate the whole golf world it still leaves them out well bob i i tend to agree with you on just about all this and you laid it out perfectly and um and i'll i'll see you this next week at the hero and i look forward to more discussions with because this isn't going to stop uh it's going to keep on going i don't think we're there's not necessarily an end in sight uh but from the PGA tour standpoint you know it it's it's it's going to be interesting to follow because the DP world tour uh where they kind of decide to to to who to shake hands with and who to do deals with uh i think we'll decide kind of uh where this thing eventually uh nets out but a lot to a lot to uh keep up with and uh we'll definitely have you back on to keep us posted because Charlie and i can't do this alone i can tell you it's good to talk it out believe me all right bob i appreciate it and most of the time they have these little sliders in the uh in the deltas guy one so you'll grab you a slider and uh exactly a cup of coffee for the afternoon absolutely you can shout down here's pretty soon thank you i bob thanks for having me i appreciate it well big thanks to bob here from joining us from a rather noisy delt skylount we we started out it was like some smooth frank sonatra and then i think about halfway through that interview there was like a like a shrilling sort of horn going on there smiley i'm not quite sure what was what was happening and first i thought it was it was someone's ringtone and then i was like oh no this is this is a song that's playing a lounge uh but i mean look good good good of bobber take some time out on his way down uh to work at the hero to to discuss uh the the latest piece of breaking news in the the the pif pj tour dp world tour sort of rodeo negotiations uh so next time i'm on the docket smiley is uh riggs johnston winning the isps honda australian open and his second start on the dp world tour and i i love the story for a number of different reasons first of all so raises it's a 24-year-old dp world tour rookie he's from a town of 3 000 people in montana called libby uh he is named after mel gibson's character and lead the weapon which is like just the most amazing thing in the world every time i think i see his name now i think of uh the it's always sunny in philadelphia uh remake of lead the weapon where we're maxing riggs so we have that that aspect of a story uh this was his second ever dp world tour star didn't even get a practice round on kingston e uh kingston heath because of inclement weather like he went from multiple stages of dp world tour of q school right into his first start last week the bmw australian open and then onto this course no practice round goes out and wins the thing um here's what i think is most interesting about his story it's because it's something we discussed on the show a number of different times like just a pathway from american ammeter player trying to get their professional status or card trying to figure out which pathway they're gonna take and now the dp world tour becoming a more viable pathway for these guys so riggs played in the arizona state and had sort of an up and down career finished third of the 2021 nc double a championship then missed out on the post-season lineup entirely in 2022 after kind of a run of of you know uh inconsistent results in 2023 he makes the match play at the at the usam and wins a match this past summer he turns pro and plays every event on the pj tour america's canadian swing but just registers one top 10 finish so he's trying to figure out his plans for the fall his college coach matt therman says hey i really think you should go play q school in spain he rules through three stages there including a six round final stage in tarragona spain i'm sure i mispronounced that by his pair of 65 ties for seventh earns his card in his debut last week finishes 43rd of the bmw australian pj champion chip and then this week wins he's in the 2025 open championship and he climbs more than 600 spots to 316 in the official world golf ranking so i i just i guess just want to revive the discussion that we've had on the show a number of times of just are you is this interesting to see a guy now pursuing that pathway at the urging of a coach or mentor saying hey didn't really work for you here in the america's you could give it another crack you could try to make it the corn fairy tour why don't you go over to europe and try this and to start saying it looks like it's working yeah i know it's it's something that i think you'll continue to see uh i would say that if anybody's ever followed the canadian tour or corn fairy tour but mainly like the the latin american tour and the canadian tour and what those purses are they're so small and it's so expensive to try to to be a professional golfer and traveling international flights to canada and to south america to try to make a living but also try to improve your status to make to the corn fairy tour it's the financial burden is absurd so to basically give yourself an opportunity to skip a step now granted i would say the corn fairy tour and dp world tour i would i would pick the corn fairy tour every single day of the week if you're an american because why wouldn't you just travel domestic play that tour do you have 10 extra cards compared to the dp world tour um but if you're somebody who struggles getting through q school and and you can afford doing both and you're able to sketch it out why wouldn't you do both q schools two two options is better than one uh so i think you'll continue to see it um congrats to riggs yeah big congrats to him and it is interesting because i the this town libby in montana that he's from is i guess the northern most part of of that sort of state and and again not a geography podcast here but it would have it would have seemed to me that a guy from the northernmost part of montana would have done pretty well on the canadian swing uh of the pj tour america's instead it takes going to spain and you qualify for q school there and then going down under and playing links golf that probably wasn't uh as native to him uh to go ahead and get that first one and get his career started so just uh interesting to kind of keep tabs on on that seeing if there are other guys that decide to pursue that because you know look a lot of season left it's it's only just begun but if he keeps playing well this season and he finishes in that top 10 he's he's head of the pj tour and probably a lot quicker than he would have had he stuck to the pj tour america's corn fairy tour pathway so uh good start for rigs uh another another one i want to kind of ping you on here is we have our nominees for the pj tour player of the year and i want i want to just know if you want to give us a a hot take vote for anyone uh obviously it's player of the year is scottie chef or rookie of the year's nik don lab well there you go you you beat me to the punch the nominees for the pj tour player of the year are scottie sheffler zander schofley roy mackele roy the nominees for the rookie of the year uh three friends of the show nik don lab max grazerman jake nap and then matthew bavon as well i was gonna say matthew bavon would have been the one who i would expected um is another rookie year yeah it's it's there's no debate on it uh when you win twice as a rookie you win the award especially as an amateur so uh expect that to be the results there um yeah but yeah nothing it was so debatable last year you know even the year before that um where we were you know following that race uh i guess it is somewhat debatable for pj tour players about like which season they would take but from just a general you know looking at just what scottie sheffler accomplishes he on the pj tour it's it's it's definitely scottie sheffler yeah i wanted to make a contrarian argument for zander uh after the open championship we were trying to kind of we're able to see something scottie still scottie won the playoffs and then and then whatever they went out the went out the door so i will say on the rookie the year front it's kind of interesting looking at that spread and and the various places they came from you have a guy who obviously made his way on tour by virtue of winning a tournament as an amateur and immediately getting his card but that look like he was on track to gain his card either via the pj tour you accelerated or the pj tour you proper program in nik don lab you have two corn fairy tour grads and max grays are men in jake nap and you have a dp world tour grad and mattie bavon so to me it's actually kind of illustrates the correct pathways are being established they roughly correlate percentage wise with the number of cards that are being issued through each of those different pathways and all you know those guys from from four different sort of lanes are really three different sort of lanes had success this year and kind of we're in the running for the p for the rookie of the year then the year so it's i think that's cool definitely is um and uh and thank you bob by the way because i still have my head churning about some of the things that he was talking about and like being frustrated of this news cycle that's come out today it's a very newsy day you know with the rumors with tony fenal potentially going to live golf tour another name that people are talking about and so like in my head it's like god the pj tour is just sitting ducks year after year poaching players to live golf and i just i'm tired of it i'm just ready for it to end um especially if live continues to to gain steam if and from what i hear if the live golf tour gets a network deal in the states it'll be a rear type of thing that we talked about with bob but still it just uh with the dp world tour potentially letting guys coming back realizing that their model potentially just with the pj tour being a cashflow crutch um is not going to be enough uh it it's it's scary what you know some of these fields are going to eventually look like and the pj tour players don't want the live guys to come back they have it so good right now because they're making so much money the fields are are definitely weaker and but why would they want anything to change they don't want these players to come back because because it's good for their pockets it's good for pockets on both sides and who gets hurt in all of this the fans the the networks the who the people that cover the game i think they get hurt the most uh except podcasts because we can just continue to talk about the nonsense but but even still i i'd even say that you know really gonna get meta here it hurts shows like ours as well because it's a fragmented world you know it's it's there's so much golf to cover and and inevitably no matter what we say someone's gonna listen to this or watch this and draw a conclusion that we're on one side or we're on the other side and say you know i or or just have a lack of general interest in non-major golf you know i'm just saying i'm so tired of all this talk to me when when it's you know that's where the master's the pj the that's where the open and if it's not that i really don't care and i think that's it's just really bad for the game of golf so i think that um yeah i mean you mentioned a couple things tony fee now let's all put our tinfoil hats on we're now in the zone of speculation rectus speculation none of this is real but he withdrew from the hero world challenge and some people are saying uh he's considering a move to live uh there have been rumors that he could join smash rumors he could join john rom's legion 13 team is another name too that keeps on getting floated that um it's not out yet but people keep citing another source that i'm i'm worried about one player in particular we'll see if that if that happens or not um but that that again player uh now no no no um it would be it would be a problem for the two or another um well yeah i think the other piece of news today too that we've talked a little bit about is uh hudson swafford trying to make his way back on the pj tour being frustrated by you know his ability to to earn entry into some of these fields which is is a little bit rich if you ask me it's we're all looking for the guy that got us here and we've anybody can point them out we got to wear in the hot dog suit you know look i i know that uh hudson swafford seems like a nice family man i love hud but man he just got a you just got a you know like you can't have an answer uh from the pj tour and all this until it gets settled i mean uh no he shouldn't have his past champion status after all this like you got to start from ground zero man like you were the one that got us in this position you were one of the players that left um he shouldn't have status when he comes back he needs to start right from ground zero um and if if it's sitting out of here and and then going from there i i think that's i think two or players would be fine with that it's like hey you want to earn your way back on here all right well you got to do it like everybody else has like you can't just come back right i think the only players that will be able to come back or uh the brook to cap god you know john rom the the players that they actually want to come back players that are marketable a and b who actually played good golf on the free money no cut tour yeah if you can't play good golf on the free money no cut tour i'm sorry i don't have a ton of empathy for you i really i wish i could i i just don't so at that point it's you know especially in a day and age of trying to protect the the the you know the growth of the i mean i hate to use the cliche growth game tour but i mean in the context of what's happening in the current current tour we're already talking about shrinking cars from 125 to 100 for shrinking the corn fairy tour pathway from 30 to 20 you know obviously deep you were a tour remains the same in 10 but where live players fit in there i mean a few school five yeah so it now it's already going to be an issue bringing over the big live names but if you're hudson swafford and you're second off a dfl live and you're talking about how you're going to come back and play on this tour you got to get to the back and line buddy i i'm sorry that just that's just how it has to be um so i you know i think that's interesting i think the female thing would obviously be a big blow um in terms of the one more likable players in the game uh but i i also we're in a very very interesting point where it seems like all the different parties have some pieces of leverage but are very exposed in other places and and you know you see it with the whole thing we talked about with with bob with the dp world tour where there are a tour that is being propped up in a lot of ways financially by the pj tour but they're looking at the legacy of what they're going to become and they they're losing you know their best players of the pj tour in terms of graduation through those 10 cards and they have lost a lot of their most recognizable faces in leaving for live and so it's what do you have left that you're going to sell to a tv audience or to a fan not much so it makes a ton of sense to even if you have the financial profit for the pj tour take lives money and get those guys back you know on the pj tour side i think that in some instances they can wait out you know live to a certain degree because they have more of the best players in the world but if you keep losing the tony phenas and other names you know slowly people stop caring about your day-to-day product and then on live side it's you know you got a whole fresh set of contracts that are coming up you don't want to pay huge signing bonuses again because you're hoping the teams are going to do that to bob's point the teams don't have any value yet because they haven't been sold to presenting sponsors and i just it just feels like there are multiple entities that are just losing time and money in this whole thing and to bring it back to the point you may to start the real loser here's the fan who just saying you know what i want to go out and play golf and watch the majors and that's it it's a shame it's a shame yeah it is and we'll keep we'll keep following it all and we'll see what ends up happening the the only piece of live news uh the markets open um thomas peters is going to the four aces uh as pat perez seems to be rolling off i'd imagine we'll probably get in the broadcast with the live side and um yeah again like the fact that they're you know getting you know making these moves and uh from from the live team side and standpoint i mean they're gonna keep marching on man i mean that that means that the range goats are getting absolutely decimated i don't know uh what's what's coming out another day bubble is done and thomas peters is done there's gonna be had to be a real refresh at range goats one range goat way at the patch so to speak the grazing patch uh i really i regret that i didn't pull out my wild cards half of this conversation sitting in a box here somewhere i've worn it maybe since that master show we did i don't know where your cliques at is but we can break it back out no idea i saw some like european tour player turn down a clique's contract and that's that's when you know uh my guy you that i didn't even know his name turned on a clique's contract we're just in a bad spot as an organization we are in a tough spot uh any any thoughts as related to the the hero world challenge this week i know you're about to head down there uh get a little get some steps in as you mentioned but you know what are you looking forward to most this week playing the wednesday pro hands so a bit nervous about uh the hyah is coming out in full force uh but other than that uh way forward of the week it's always a good one the field's light you know max home is not playing tony fina obviously withdrawing not playing um zander shofwey the big name that's not playing uh so it's just but he didn't play last year either i was actually trying to look at this and compare on a year to your base you must not like the golf course uh we might guess it's it's uh it's very grainy course um but there's only she was 18 20 players playing this thing so it's um it's the most i i understand i don't understand a lot of lib golf like twitter people's arguments on a lot of things like how the pj tour fans and twitter people will call live a no cut uh you know exhibition okay this this hero thing is kind of in that category of like earning world rock ranking points so i i this is like the example of of a pj tour kind of uh the one event that's the most i wouldn't say it's like live but it definitely is in that category of these players have it really nice they're making a lot of money uh with no cut and getting world record points i have a little trivia question for you here because i was i was looking at this field and i had the same initial reaction it's like man this doesn't seem as strong as past years and i went compared it to last year's field can you name the top 10 players in this year's field and the top 10 players in last year's field like at time of tournament like who is in the top 10 top 10 in the world um like that actually played yes like the top 10 players in in in each of those field this is this is a complicated question i can just give that's that's too much just give it to me okay so so this year there are only three scottie sheffler first in the world luva go berg fifth in the world and windam clerk sixth in the world everyone else in this year's field it is is beyond top 10 in the world last year you got scottie at one victor hovlin of four max home at seven napitz patrick at eight brian harman at nine and windam clerk at ten it's interesting yeah that's where we're at well it'll be it'll be i'm glad you're getting your steps in down there we need the full report i'm gonna give you an update on pro so how does that work are you playing with another tour pro or you're just playing with the group the tour pro because i think they have a morning and an afternoon wave so not only having 18 20 i don't know how to get 20 guys is because someone not played it well they can't they can't fill out the pro am um morning and afternoon with only 20 players so they have to bring in a bunch of guys to play i don't know where else they're bringing i want to see where he's in here i don't know last year like i saw akshi was there um like taylor my gumri like i saw these guys in the airport i'm like wow i'm surprised these guys are in the field right now i'm just playing the pro am so they're just making much cash and yeah love it well we're excited to them for that report on the backside of the hero world world challenge and uh that's i guess all we have for you for today's episode and then we have Jessica cordon next week as you mentioned uh dropping on the uh the 11th i think i have my dates right there with the update on on the state of women's golf uh although check out our short game video too check out our as mission off top check out the short game video with seek really really good stuff uh and and start shaving start working on it now it's the same thing as working out you know it's get an early start so once it starts getting warm again in 2025 you're gonna be ready to go you can work on a lot of this stuff inside so it's well worth it no matter where you are looking forward to it should be forward to it well thanks so much for watching and listening as always we'll be back here very soon to talk to you again you know listen to this podcast is really cool and all of our friends and subscribers but make sure you like it to subscribe it's cool see what you guys are doing i know golf fans appreciate it but we we do too so please keep it up for all the good people of youtube like and subscribe you guys have some good takes so i'm happy to come on and and shoot the karyon is an edge of your seat action thriller that follows a young tsa agent who's blackmailed into an impossible situation at the height of christmas eve travel pandemonium either let a dangerous package slip through security and risk the lives of many or save the passengers and risk the life of his pregnant girlfriend starring taren edgerton sofia karsen and jason bateman karyon is a holiday thrill ride with nail biting non-stop action and suspense watch karyon only on netflix December 13th rated pg 13 the glad girl grew coming at you with a throwback jam that was glad for his flex drawstring trash vax featuring pine salt original simp and that's better than our good it's all glad [BLANK_AUDIO]
Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme are joined by Sports Illustrated's Bob Harig (live from a Delta Lounge in Atlanta!) to discuss a Bloomberg report that the DP World Tour is in negotiations with LIV Golf to reinstate previously suspended members. Bob charts the progression of the PGA TOUR/LIV/DP World Tour relationship, and discusses potential implications for the PGA TOUR if LIV and the DPWT can cut a deal. Smylie and Charlie then recap Ryggs Johnston's surprise win at the Australian Open and preview the Hero World Challenge. Is the golf world heading for a shakeup? Tune in for all the insider takes!
