2024 awards! Breakouts, surprises, letdowns, favorite moments
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. It's awards season, it's holiday season, and on this edition we're going to name our superlatives for the 2024 season on either the PGA Tour or the LPGA Tour. Rex, I think the easiest one of all is to start with the best player. This should take roughly 10 seconds. The best player of 2024 was who and why?

Uh, the golf right. Association of America does players of the year. And we set the ballot out. I had to do the ballot. Um, and I actually felt silly. Historically, we put three players, uh,

on there. There was no reason to put three. There was no reason to put two. And this is no disrespect to Xander Shoffley. This is no disrespect to Rory McIlroy, who both had really, really good seasons, Xander, obviously, with the two major championships. Scotty, this is not even a conversation. The best part about it is when you look at the way he finished out the year, and I'm not talking about the match that he was

paired with Rory in Vegas. I'm talking about what he did at the Hero World Challenge when, all right, like his ball striking is the constant now. There is no fluctuation there. The curve is pretty clear. Like this is the level and he's going to stay there. The part that gets you is now that he's decided I'm going to tinker even more with my putting. I'm even going to try harder to make sure that I get this done. So I'm going to go to something like a claw grip when I'm inside 10 feet. He missed one putt from 10 feet and then in the Bahamas. That version of Scotty Scheffler,

should scare the rest of the field. Not Tiger Woods scare, and that's a conversation we've had, but when his ball striking is going to be that good, and he can finish fourth in the field in strokes game putting. He can pick up, I think it was two and a half strokes in the Bahamas on the field. That's when he wins by six strokes. That's when you start noticing. It's not that he won seven official events and nine times this year on the PGA Tour counting the Olympics. It's that he did it in such dominant fashion, and there's still room for improvement.

Yeah. There is a little bit of room for improvement when your ball striking is as good as Scotty Scheffler's is there.

There's more margin for error. You can afford to have a bad driving day. You can afford to have a bad putting day because you are continually applying pressure on your opponents. The outcomes and what is reasonable gets reduced so much. Where your good days are 62, as he showed that it was in 2024 to win a golf tournament at the Olympics. And bad days are what?

73, 74, nothing that you cannot recover from. That is Scottie Scheffler. It's not just that he can make birdies because everyone on the PGA Tour can make a bunch of birdies. It is how many mistakes he limits with his ball strike, and that is why Scottie Scheffler was the best player. How about Rex? Why was Rory McIlroy even on the Bout for the Player of the Year? He won one time on the PGA Tour. Yes, he had the close, the narrow miss at the U.S. Open. How about some love to Hideki Matsuyama? Hideki Matsuyama won a playoff event.

And a signature event on the PGA Tour. Put Hideki Matsuyama on the PGA Tour Player of the Year. Well, no, to correct you on this one, that's the PGA Tour Player of the Year. And I think they can handle it however they want to handle it because they're going to look at it from a MyEpic standpoint.

The Golf Writers Association of America takes in what you've done around the globe. It's why Jon Rahm won our Player of the Year last year, based almost entirely on what he'd done in the major championships, but also he played on Live Golf. I think if you look at what Rory did in Europe that rated him to at least be on the ballot again in this particular year, we probably shouldn't have had more than one player. It was Scotty's award. Just be done with it and send it to him.

How about breakout player? Who is the breakout player of 2024? That can mean anything. That can be a player who came out of nowhere. That can be the player who elevated to new heights. How are you interpreting this for 2024, Rex?

Well, it came out of nowhere. It's going to get me in trouble here with you and our colleague, Brintley Romine, because you guys are going to sit with your arms up in the air and scream that we've known about Nick Dunlap forever. And yes, for those of you who cover the college game as well as you do, yes, you knew about Nick Dunlap coming into this season. I think for everyone else on the planet, he was very much an unknown quantity. And when you look at what he did, not just at the American Express, I was at that event. It was so impressive to see him not just win. It's the way he won.

Like it was close and he had to learn in real time how to win on the PGA tour. That was fun to watch. It was like a science experiment sort of unfolding out in front of you. And it's not just that he did that. It's how he,

went through the rest of the season. There was a slump. It may be a predictable slump after doing what he did. And then to come out the other end and to win again, only player ever in the history of the PGA tour that goes back a long time to win a PGA tour event as an amateur and a professional on the same season. That to me is a breakout star.

Yeah, and this was not a fluke. Nick Delknight did not come from nowhere. He was a standout junior player. He was probably, had he stayed in college during his sophomore year at Alabama, he was probably going to win the Haskins Award as the player of the year. That's the caliber and the stature that he'd already developed in the game. And I love the fact, not that just he became the first player since Phil Mickelson in 1991 to win on the PGA Tour as an amateur. It's, as you mentioned, it's the follow-up. The fact that he validated that

with another victory at the Barracuda Championship, was great. He nearly won a playoff event in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. I was sort of stumping for him as a potential U.S. President's Cupper this year. It would not surprise at all if Nick Dunlap was on that U.S. Ryder Cup team next year. I agree with you, Nick Dunlap, breakout player. If we're interpreting it in slightly different ways,

I think you can make an argument for some pretty bold-faced names, Rex, with Nelly Korda on the LPGA Tour elevating in new ways, winning seven times, another major championship, became more visible, seemed to at least –

slightly embrace her role as a golf superstar. She's been sort of reluctant in the past to sort of take on that mantle. I think we saw at various times in 2024, whether it was playing with Caitlin Clark in a pro-am or appearing in the SI Swimsuit Edition, like she's getting a little bit more comfortable in her skin. And it's great to see that breakout that way. And like...

if we're not going to be able to slide him into another category, like we have to show Xander Shoffley some love. This is a dude who we've been ragging on since 2017 for failing to get it done.

in the major championships for the record that he had. Like, how did he not have a major championship to his credit? All he does is win two of them in 2024. He had eight consecutive top 20 finishes in the majors. He had a runner. He had a pair of runner up finishes. He had six top fives. And then he, he nails it down in 2024 wins two of them. And I think as you project to 2025 and the two majors that Xander Shoffley has not won,

in the Masters and the U.S. Open. Historically, traditionally, those are the majors to which Xander has performed best. All of a sudden, he has a pretty clear path to potentially winning the career Grand Slam. Xander Shoffley, in a way, was a breakout player as well. Rex, how about your biggest disappointment in 2024? Okay. Okay.

Okay, Lap, these are supposed to be quick hits. You just rifled off three players in one category. Let's get a little quicker on this. You seem to be bogging yourself down. Let's be a little quicker. I also want to circle back around and say you were also the person, before you take your victory lap for stumping for Nick Dunlap to be on the President's Cup team, you were also the person that fought with me and said that he should not have turned pro and he should have stayed at Alabama. So we do need to circle around. I do think that the slump that he endured and the poor play that he endured was in large part –

because of the whirlwind that he experienced immediately after the win at the American Express. Would things have been different in 2024 had he taken some time to settle himself, finish out his college season? Who knows?

Who knows? Okay. Kudos to Nick Dunlap for coming out the other side. Biggest disappointment. And this one is tough because I'm going to probably get aggregated on this one. And because in my mind, it has to be John Rom. And I know Data Goff is going to tell me that he is still one of the top five, maybe top three players on the planet. And certainly the talent is there. Don't get me wrong, John. Please don't comment me with this one. I know you're still a top three, top five player. Aaron Oberholzer completely agrees with you.

Yes, yes, yes. I'm going into dangerous territory here. But the bet that you made for yourself going to live golf means that you only really have four times a year to prove your worth. This year it was five times with the Olympics. And I will go back to the Olympics because I had a colleague of mine who pointed something out that going into that final round in Paris when he was pretty much a lock.

to win the gold medal. That was going to be a pivotal round for him because it was going to be the last time most golf fans were going to see him. That was going to be the lasting memory for Jon Rahm in 2024 and struggled mightily.

And by and large, in the major championships, he was not Jon Rahm. He played well on occasion, but certainly he did not deliver like we've come to expect from Jon Rahm in the major championships, which is the bar that he has set for himself, like it or not. So my biggest disappointment is going to be Jon Rahm, not saying that he can't turn it around in 2025. And I'm not even going down the road anymore that maybe Liv Goff...

is not best for him as a player. It's not motivating him the way he likes to be motivated. I'm talking about more of performing where you want it the most. That's the major championships. That was the Olympics. That will be the Ryder Cup next year, more than likely, based on how it all plays out. So I think next year he turns it around. But this year, I think, is a disappointment.

I understand what you're saying, Rex. I certainly do. The Masters title defense did not go as he wanted. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship. What, did he have a five-shot lead at the back of the Olympics? Six! He led Scotty Scheffler by six strokes at the turn. Yeah. And let that one get away. However...

However... However is carrying a lot of weight in that sentence, man. He is number three in Data Golf rankings, which again is supposed to be non-biased, looking at strokes, gain metrics across all the certain tours. They still have him, Jon Rahm, at number three. Jon Rahm, who you say was a disappointment in majors, top 10 at the US Open, tied for second in the Open Championship. Jon Rahm, who you mentioned...

his live golf performances don't carry much weight. He was still the number one player on live golf this year. He never finished worse than 10th. He won twice. He won the individual crown. That's probably a little harsh to say that this was a disappointing season for John Rahm. He did not play his best. Keep in mind that back half of 2023. Yes. He probably some votes were stolen to Scottie Scheffler, uh,

because of John Rahm's defection to live golf when the bouts went out. However, he did not play his best that summer. That continued into the early part of 2024. I chalked that more up to poor timing, not having a swing where he wanted it. I think from summer and fall on, John Rahm was clearly, once again, one of the best players in the world. It would not surprise me again if John Rahm returns to that form in 2025. For me...

You got on me for making this too long. I got three guys. I got three guys for making this a disappointment. You're killing me. Jordan Spieth, the hand wrist surgery after what had been a pretty auspicious start to 2024. That was a disappointment. Victor Hovland, the reigning FedExCup champion, backed it up the following year with just two top tens, zero wins. He got to a point in the summertime, Rex, where he just did not want to be

in tournament competition, even thought about withdrawing from the PGA Championship ahead of time because he thought he had no chance to win. Ended up finishing in a tie for second there. And I will go with a different Liv player as one of my biggest disappointments with Brooks Koepka. Yes, he won twice on Liv, but he was outside the top 25 now in five consecutive majors. He's going to be turning 35 next year. You'll wonder if the window of opportunity for Brooks, at least in the big events, is starting to close just a little bit.

How about a player who is on the rise?

based on the way they played this year and you have your eye on for 2025 okay again this is not a point counterpoint i don't need to get your thoughts on my player on the rise or my biggest disappointments let's go with wrong but if you're wrong i have to point it out jesus let's go with mavic mcneely he wins the rsm classic for his first pga tour victory and again give you your flowers this goes back to his college days when you were a huge fan not just for his game but for his intellect and i think we saw both of those things very very brightly

in 2024 when it comes to not only winning at the RSM Classic, but he played solid throughout the entire season. I think he sort of found something in his swing. He sort of gravitated a little bit from Butch Harmon, who is retiring, to Scott Hamilton. And I think that's been good for him because you know Mav better than I do. Mav probably has a tendency to overthink things because when you have an intellect and you have an IQ that is that high, that sometimes you're probably going to go down rabbit holes that as a golfer, you probably shouldn't. Scott Hamilton is the anti-that.

He's going to make it as simple as possible. And do you want to do this? Then feel this, bud. Like, this is what I want you to go with. It has been an epiphany and an amazing breakthrough for him and the way he's sort of established himself as a spokesperson for a certain level of player on the PGA Tour. To be quite frank, we have turned for years now to Roy McIlroy when it comes to all things football.

sort of political pro-golf related. His thoughts on live golf, his thoughts on Ryder Cup payments, his thoughts on a whole spectrum of things. And now you turn to Maverick McNeely when you hear about, and this happened at the RSM Classic, when he was sort of asked a random question about field sizes. And he went on in a very Ryan Lavner-esque way

10 minute sort of diatribe about why he feels like 70 is just a random number. Let's come up with a new number. And his response was, I love 120. And then he laid out why he thinks it's that good. Not only is he performing on the golf course, I love the idea of what he could potentially mean to the PGA tour off the golf course. PGA tour is looking for a new CEO.

What about Maverick? I'd vote for him. 100%. Mav was also credited with coming up with the formula for the point distribution for FedExCup and signature and non-signature events as well. I like that pick a lot. For me, this was an easy one. Player on the rise is Luke Clanton, who is still in college, a senior at Florida State. Four top 10 finishes. We just talked about the reigning FedExCup champion and Victor Hovling having two top 10s.

Luke Lantin, still an amateur, not getting paid, at least not formally, in non-NIL deals. Four top tens, incredible. He's 90th in the world as an amateur, the first amateur since 1958 to post back-to-back top ten finishes on the PGA Tour. That came this fall and culminated at the RSM Classic. He is going to finish out his senior year where, again, he is enjoying quite a lucrative career.

amateur career through NIL, and then he will launch his pro career. We'll have no shortage of sponsor exemptions. It would not surprise me, Rex, I'm not sure how you feel about it as well, if Luke Clanton made that sort of Ludwig Oberg leap from college senior to then getting on a Ryder Cup team as we saw Ludwig Oberg do in 2023 for the Europeans. It could possibly happen for Luke Clanton as well. All right.

Feel good story. What warmed your cold blooded heart in 2024 Rex? You're just going to keep going to whatever newcomers on the PGA tour, Europe or us every single year or international. Cause you're just going to do it every single year with the president's cup and the Ryder cup, just to pick someone that is so far off the radar. Cause you know, eventually if I do this long enough, it's going to, it's going to land. I'm going to land one of these. I already got Ludwig. What? Why not? Luke Clinton?

Uh, okay. That's your go-to where every single year you're just going to do it. Uh, feel good for me. And we had to, I'm going to pull back the curtain a little bit. We're actually recording these podcasts on consecutive days because in a previous podcast, sort of recapping the PNC championship, you talked about the passion.

of wanting to actually win something that means something. And for me, that was Joel Damon and he did not win the RSM classic, but he certainly felt like he won just the pressure. He was under that week, knowing how things are going to change next year on the PGA tour, knowing how important it is to finish inside the top one 25, just to give yourself the best opportunity to survive one more year of

on the PGA Tour. He had to make the cut. I mean, he had to just grind away on a really, really difficult Friday on the seaside course, and then what he ended up doing on Sunday, and just all the emotions and how it came pouring out. I love that story. I love that story as well. A couple guys on the PGA Tour were turning from injury, whether it was Daniel Berger with the back issue, almost went to RSM. Gary Woodland, our boy, had a very serious injury.

brain issue, came back, had a couple of top 20 finishes. This fall he was honored by the GWA for sort of the courage and inspiration that he showed in 2024. I'm going to go a different direction and say Lydia Ko.

She has had and sort of been followed, Rex, over these past couple years about trying to get the final point for LPGA Hall of Fame eligibility. Had been unable to get it done. It looked like she was going to do it in one of the first events of the LPGA season. Ended up coughing that one up to Nelly Korda. And then what did she do? We had the summer of Lydia Coe. Ended up winning three times. She won...

The Women's Open at St. Andrews, the home of golf, followed up with the Olympic Slam, winning a gold medal to go along with her silver and bronze. Lydia has been an absolute delight to follow and cover such a well-adjusted

adult now after, you know, some pretty interesting years as a teenager with a lot of turmoil. She's now really coming to her own. And now as she approaches an age where she was thinking about retirement, it seems like Lydia Ko is playing the best golf of her life. I thought that was a great feel-good story for 2024, hopefully a couple more good seasons to come.

How about shot of the year? What's the shot that you still think back and say, wow, first of all, not only can I not do that, but that was so significant and altered the trajectory of the year. That's almost every shot that's hit on the PGA tour. I cannot do that. I think it's a fair assessment to make. I think there's probably some two and three footers that I might be able to coax in on a good day. Um,

I'm going to go and I got to give credit to our colleague, the AP golf writer, Doug Ferguson. He does a really, really cool column at the end of every year where he goes through the entire bag. So it would be driver through putter and he kind of picks the best drive of the year and the best three wood of the year and on down the bag. And he and I were just having this conversation at the PNC championship. And this one stood out to me because I kind of was asking him, you know, how did you come up with a seven iron? And,

And he immediately goes, well, that one was easy. And I'm like looking at him like, how was it easy? Yes, that was my reaction as well. And he pointed out the seven iron that Scotty Scheffler hit on the 71st hole at the Olympics in Paris. And he was in the right rough and everyone else was bogeying that hole, making double bogeys. And he hits just a towering magical seven iron to, I don't know, five feet for birdie to set up what was a coronation walk coming down 18. And for Scotty, and I love this answer that I got from Scotty at the Hero World Challenge.

Him, when I was asking him about his seven victories, and he was real quick to correct me in the moment, and he goes, it's eight. He counts the Olympics. And he immediately went to the idea that the back nine in Paris was the best golf he played all season long, which is saying something when you consider how well we just talked about why he's the easy choice for the player of the year on front. But when you consider he was six shots behind Jon Rahm making the turn, not only was he not in the hunt for a gold medal, he really wasn't even in the hunt for a bronze medal.

at that point. And the flawless golf that he played coming down the stretch to cap it off with what I agree was a really, really cool shot. I don't even really remember that shot, which is apparently your most memorable shot of the year. I remember him like driving it left. When I was reminded, I went back and watched it. And it was like, once you're, once you put it in context, you're like, yeah, that was really good. And given the moment, given the context, given everything that was up for grabs, it was special. Didn't he like gouge it out of the rough and like chase it on and like 20 feet?

I think it was closer than 20 feet. It was definitely, I mean, it wasn't a gimme putt, but I think it was closer than 20 feet. One of the shots that I remember of Scottie, this is not my pick, but one of the shots I remember is the four iron shot.

that he hit on nine at the tour championship. He had just made, I believe it's double after shanking it out of the bunker and he stepped up and he hit a four iron on that devilish long par three at Eastlake and hit, I believe that was like five feet. And just that sort of like reminded you like, no, I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to frit away with this big lead. That's one of the shots I remember from Scotty Scheffler. My shank, which our colleague Mark Slayball asked him about. It's a good answer. You guys should look it up.

Do you guys, would you mind taking me through the shank? No, I don't want to go through the shank. I was going to say Lydia Ko, who I just mentioned as my feel good story. Remember the 71st hole, the road hole at St. Andrews. It's absolutely pouring down rain. It's windy. It's cold. She hits like this four hybrid that skirts past the road hole bunker, sets up a two-putt par. However, you cannot give the shot of the year to a shot that eventually led to just a two-putt par. Instead, I'll go to a shot that led to a one-putt par

And that, of course, was Bryce DeChambeau. That's good. Every second hole at the U.S. Open, the hardest shot in golf, a 50-yard bunker shot that could have gone terribly wrong. He could have chunked it and made bogey and lost the U.S. Open. He could have scold it and made God knows what and hit it up into the clubhouse and likely would have gotten out of bounds.

and then made a double bogey to lose as well. Instead, he splashes out to about four feet, a shot that was later recreated by our own Johnson Wagner in spectacular fashion, again, on his second take, not his initial take, but that was the shot of the year, the shot of Bryson DeChambeau's entire career, and a shot that will go down in one of the greatest in U.S. Open history.

How about biggest surprise? This could be a player who surprised you, a moment that surprised you, a news event that surprised you. What was it in 2024, Rex?

I'm going to go all Ryan Labner and come up with a couple of different options because being at the Olympics, Lydia Ko winning, we put so much pressure and talked about it coming into the week that not only was it going to complete the podium slam, it was going to give her a gold, bronze, and silver medal in the Olympics, which no one obviously has done in the history of golf in the Olympics, but it was also going to earn her enough points essentially for the Hall of Fame, if I remember correctly. And that's the one that stands out. It was Scottie Scheffler's

actual emotion when he stepped on the podium after going through what was a really grinding week. But I'm actually going to go in a bit of a different direction. I was at the Canadian Open for Robert McIntyre's victory there, his first victory on the PGA Tour. He had his dad on the bag. It was a really emotional moment. And then just a few weeks later, I was at the Scottish Open. And I cannot relate to you.

how special that was and that crowd and that moment. It's not a major championship. You had Rory in the mix, and I can tell you that it felt like a major championship. It felt like a Ryder Cup with all of Scotland behind Robert McIntyre. For him to win that and the emotions that went into it, he may go on to win major championships. I don't think it will mean as much as that victory did to him. Can I have a couple?

You usually do. You usually do. Go on. I mean, the biggest surprise has to be the number one player in the world getting arrested ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship. Still a surreal day. By far the most surreal day of 2024 was Scottie Shuffler getting arrested at 6 a.m., spending some time in a jail cell before playing his second round and then shooting in the 60s at Valhalla. I would also say Rex Anthony Kim's long-awaited return to competitive golf.

in 2024 was a surprise. That was not something that was on any of our radars on January 1st. And even though he did not play particularly well, it was interesting to see him sort of back in the limelight once again. But I'm going for my biggest surprise of the year.

Keegan Bradley being named U.S. Ryder Cup captain. Here's a player who is now 12th in the world as we sit here at the end of 2024. He's going to be 39 years old when matches are played at Bethpage Black at the end of 2025. That's the youngest since Arnold Palmer in 1963. This came out of nowhere. This was supposed to be Phil Mickelson's captaincy. Then it was supposed to be Tiger Woods' captaincy. Then it was going to be

I don't know, Stewart Sink's captaincy. And instead, it is Keegan Bradley, who all he did after that announcement, he didn't fall off a cliff. His game didn't go to hell. He won the BMW championship. His second event in the FedExCup playoffs. He was named then to the U.S. President's Cup team, where he earned the clinching point at Royal Montreal. It's going to be fascinating to see how Keegan handles that added spotlight.

in 2025, whether again, like historically speaking, his game is going to go into a tailspin because he's going to be pulled in so many other directions. But you know, anytime he, if he shoots 65 to open up at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, the first question is going to be, what does this mean for the Ryder Cup?

Would you pick yourself? You know, what if you're playing well? What does that mean for team bonding? Like all of these sort of things are going to encircle every single good round that Keegan Bradley plays. And again, at number 12 in the world, it doesn't look like his game is going anywhere. I think, go ahead.

I think I said this on the podcast we did during that crazy day on Friday at Valhalla. And you're right. Scotty Scheffler, the world number one getting arrested and then going out and actually playing well in the PGA Championship. All of that is surreal. I was standing in the rain and doing the Dan Patrick show later that morning. And at some point, Dan goes, Rex, you've covered the game for a long time. This has to be the strangest, most surreal moment in the history of your career. And I gave it a long pregnant pause. And my response was,

Dan, I've covered Tiger Woods his entire career. So no, I don't know if that was the strangest day I've ever experienced, but it certainly ranks up there. How about from a personal perspective?

How about your favorite moment covering the sport? Not a favorite moment at a golf tournament or that another athlete have. Your personal favorite moment covering the game in 2024. I'm going to go to Bryson winning the U.S. Open, taking a literal victory lap around the property, joining our very own, as you pointed out, Johnson Wagner in the bunker in the darkness after going on the live from set. And it put golf in such a unique spot because you had –

Look, we have these forces competing against each other that are tearing apart the game at the professional level. And suddenly you had this person that was right square in the middle of it. And like, look, Bryson has been outspoken about some certain things when it comes to the PGA Tour and what's going on with Liv Goff. But I think it was a it was a moment in time that actually moved Goff forward. However, you know.

And it's not as though he was the one that, that brought the sides together. Cause that didn't happen. Can you please just leave Stella alone? She's fine. Just, just let her join the pod. Let her be part of the joke for just once. I just think that moment of him becoming maximum Bryson was really, really cool. That was a moment too, where it felt like the game was finally healing. Um,

Like, even though Rory didn't necessarily congratulate Bryson in that moment, it felt like, boy, you have these two tours combined that have been so fractious over the past couple years. All of a sudden now there is potential to have all the best players in the world together again. I also think Rex, like from a personal standpoint in covering the game.

what I love doing is these in-depth TV features, right? And I, what the one that I did in 2024 was Eric Van Roy. And that really resonated with me. It aired during the PGA championship. If you're not familiar with his story in 2023 at the worldwide technology championship with his best friend, uh, on sort of his deathbed, uh,

it was, it was an incredibly emotional time for him. And somehow he was able to channel all of that energy that he was feeling in a positive direction. One for the first time, a lot of them to keep his PJ tour card for 2024 and, and doing that interview, uh,

with Eric and I know you rag on me for getting like incredibly emotional and too invested in these stories I was sobbing like to the point that they had to cut off my microphone and kudos to Eric because he was crying too but he was still able to like at least detail the entire ordeal behind the camera and I'm interviewing him in the cameras right here and I'm doing it and I'm talking behind and he's talking to me like I'm absolutely sobbing like head and hands

Like those those sorts of stories are incredibly difficult to report. They're incredibly difficult to write. They're incredibly difficult when you spend so much time sort of planning and thinking about it and making sure that you want to honor that.

not just Eric's journey, but also John Trasmar, his best friend, and making sure that you're doing right by the family as well. Those are, to me, the most rewarding experiences that you can have in sort of the storytelling format and platform that we have. I look forward to doing a couple more of those sorts of heart-wrenching stories in 2025. I know we have one queued up for the Masters, but those are the ones that are most fulfilling personally for me. I

I am not emotional shaming you. That's not what I'm doing here at all. You do get very emotional and not just in those instances, just in general and life. So that's the part that I kind of lean into. Certainly in that situation, it's understandable when you're reporting that story, sort of getting lost in the moment. I'm not going to lie at the PNC championship on Sunday afternoon. I got a little emotional because in that context, you're like, oh, wow.

Like I can imagine how cool that would be to do this with your son. So you can sort of put yourself in those shoes. What gets me is how you just can't seem to let the emotion go. I mean, that's, that's fair. Like it's, it's, it sticks with me. Like those, there's, there's certain experiences in my career that I've had. Like I, I can still think back and that will certainly be one of them. It was, it was an all day cry fest and like, it was just so emotionally draining, but it just sort of heightens,

My want and desire as a storyteller to make sure that the emotion that I experienced listening to Eric Van Roen's story translates then to the medium that I'm trying to do in a TV feature. Hopefully you guys had an opportunity to catch that. If not, it's available wherever you get your TV features. Right. That is going to do it for this superlatives edition.

of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lab. We hope you enjoyed this recap. There's so much more to get to in 2025. It's going to be a big year for the podcast, big year for Golf Channel, big year for yours truly. And Rex, we appreciate you joining us along the journey. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. In the meantime, NBCSports.com slash golf for our latest news, notes, and updates. Have a great rest to your 2024, and we'll see you in 2025.

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