Behind the scenes of Golf Channel's TV operation in 2024
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Jail Podcast with Rex and Lav. Well, the people of YouTube have spoken, and we have a very special guest with us. It is not NBC Sports veteran Steve Sands. It is not Golf Channel insider Todd Lewis. No, after putting up to our fans on YouTube, the guest today is Golf Channel senior producer Andrew Bradley, who from this point on will be referred to as Brad. You have been with the Golf Channel since 2006.

He's our lead field producer at Golf Channel at all the biggest events. Brad, how's it going today? Doing well. Thanks for having me, guys. I'm sure your fans must have just taken a wild stab and said, you know what, let's just try someone different than those two pretty faces that go on the air. So hopefully that'll work out well for them. No, fans spoke. They know what they wanted. They wanted you. Brad, makes me happy to see your face. We're going to start this with a pretty generic question because myself, let's use the royal we. All of us, me, Lab,

all of the writers make fun of you because anyone that's listening to this pod, anyone who has watched the golf, anyone who has watched the golf channel over the last, I don't know, five, six, seven years, they've heard your voice on a regular basis. They regularly hear you asking questions. And the one question we always teach you about is talk about your round, because that's the question that you always ask players to get them talking. Give me an idea of some of the best stories you've got. As you interview almost every player that comes to the scrum area. Oh my goodness. It's,

you know, over the past, like about four years, it's like COVID. I just sit up there and I, and, and I was helping the PJ tour out and, and doing everything. And like, you just, you sometimes you're sitting up there for four or five hours and there's no TV. Sometimes you have no idea what's going on in the golf. You're looking at the shot lane computer, but you got to get them talking. Right. And you guys know that. I mean, it's hard to get these guys talking sometimes, especially if they come up here three, four straight days. So it's,

I actually, Steve, to go back to one of the people who didn't join the show, Steve Sands, always kind of, he's like, you know, just get them talking. Ask them to assess their round. Don't you try to inject what you think their round is. Like, ask them.

So sometimes I would ask that. Dealing with the part at a PGA Tour forum member, John Rahm, always, if I kind of get up there, I'm looking at how he characterized- You can't kill John Rahm. He's not dead. He just went to another tour. Please don't kill John Rahm. And somehow, some way, he sometimes would just look at me. Sometimes he'd give me the good answer. Sometimes he'd be like,

just kind of look at me and stare. And I'm like, I'm just, just trying to get you to talk. I'm just trying to get you to talk to this kid. And he, and he thought, can I give you something? Then you can, and then you listen. But some of the best actually, not even like about the assess your round or characterize your round or whatever. It was when we're in COVID and they're doing all the international. And so you need, they say, Hey, Andrew, can you just ask them to, you know,

you know, assessed around in their language, in their native language. So 2020, we're going back to this. So I'm like, man, I'm tired of saying, hey, can you just assess around in Victor Hovland, for example, in Norwegian. So I do Google Translate, I listen to it. Okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And so Victor goes through all his English stuff. And I go, all right, Victor. And I asked him the question in Norwegian.

And me and my camera guy, John Fico and Victor just start dying, laughing. I mean, dying, laughing. Cause like, like I'm like, I'm like, I mean, I butcher that. No, no, no, no. You, you actually, you asked a question. You said two words though. And so from then on, it was just kind of, it was a good way to kind of get to know the guys a little bit better and, and have a little bit of fun. But,

How about this? I mean, like when you get like, like when Sam Burns was like the final group at Genesis, I think it was like last year and he comes out afterwards and he didn't play well, doesn't win. And you're

you're trying to get answers out of him and he'll, you know, just, it's, it's hard. It's, it's, it's the, it's the man, you feel bad asking this guy to come out and do this after they lose it. But you, but for us, it's a word television medium. We need that on air. Like you guys can go and get a quote from him real quick. And if he gives you three or four answers, you know, three or four words, that's what you put in the story. But for us, we like, you need a 30, 40 second answer, something like that. So it's, it's tough sometimes. Um,

But yeah, like the international stuff was always really fun. And just, I did it to step struck. I'm like, like, hey, can you get his answer in German? I go.

That guy speaks better English than some guys that are from America. Georgia education. He has a Georgia accent. I had no idea that he actually spoke – they actually spoke German. No idea. So it's just – those are some of the fun things over the last few years to kind of get to know these guys a little bit better and have a little bit of fun as well because you sit up there for hours upon hours. I do think players now have an understanding of what –

is basically just a lead-off question. It's just a way – the PGA Tour media official could say it, like, how would you assess your round? But it's funny you mentioned Jon Rahm because he was always the player who hated that question, but he also hated if you were reporting, like, oh, it looks like you really struggled with the driver today or you didn't make many putts out there today. And he would take great offense. They're like, oh, you want to go try? Like these greens are running 13 and a half. Exactly.

With 8% slope. Why don't you go putt? 100%. It's hilarious in terms of how you get those guys going. Just real quick, Brad, for people who are unfamiliar with you, just some biographical stuff. You were a general producer at Golf Channel for a while, worked at studio shows, cutting highlights, doing graphics, whatever the case may be. Explain what you do now. Explain actually what a lead field producer does when you get to the golf course and how you sort of go about your day.

Yeah. So for, I've been the golf channel for 18 and a half years now, um, loved every minute of it. And, um, so I, I produced shows back in the, in the, uh, in house for a while, uh, from about 2007 to 2014 and just kind of wanted a little bit of something different. So, uh, as a field producer, you know, your job is you're, you're coordinating everything for our new shows for golf central, golf central pregame live from, uh,

morning drive golf today, whatever, you know, shows have been on the air and you're coordinating everything from live shots, from getting, um, sit down, you have a generator to run power off of, uh, you got two camera guys, you got a reporter, you got to work with, um, so you're, you know, the live shots you see, whether you guys are on site and doing a, and doing a hit for one of the shows or Todd Lewis or Steve Bukowski, Keira Dixon, Steve Sands, whomever you might see. Um, it's also working with the PGA tour now with their, um,

with their quick quote camera to make sure that's going back to our, to our, um, to Stanford to make sure we're getting that feed in there. Uh, we need highlights, uh, before the broadcast, after the broadcast is off the air, getting the, you know, working with our camera guys to go get those live, the tapes with our reporters, uh, B roll just to help, you know, for bump shot for bumps, you know, going to break or covering some, uh, when you guys may talk about a player, uh,

that kind of stuff. And just everything working with our, what our reporters are going to talk about, you know, and if you got, if you guys need help out there, Hey, what do you, what have you heard? You know, anything and everything to kind of help coordinate and feed all that back via these little backpacks called our live views, which is a bonded cellular, just uses all cell signal to do. We feed those back to Stanford, you know,

Yeah, it's just kind of like everything, anything and everything to kind of help. And if the broadcast needs stuff, if they get if they see we got a live to take before the broadcast. Hey, can you bring that down? And we what we call ingested put into a tape deck and ingested into their truck so that they can run it in their show somewhere. So just got anything and everything to help what we do on the air, whether it's news or the broadcast as well.

Now, it's just the three of us. We can be honest. It's just me, you, and Lab. We're sitting around a bar. We're talking. Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings. You said you work with reporters. A lot of reporters. Who's your favorite reporter and who's your least favorite reporter? Oh, wow. Oh, man.

You're really going to put me on the spot like that, Rex? Nah, I'm not going to do that. No one's listening. It's just the three of us. I will say, like, if a reporter, for example, I'm just throwing this out there, didn't like how bright the lights are when the cameras come on. Maybe something like that. I'm just kind of spitballing. I heard that there was a reporter, I'm not going to say maybe when, 2018 Ryder Cup, where someone may have complained a little bit, and our camera guy may not have known actually what his last name was. May have, I don't know.

I don't know. I had to join Dora. I want to call him Lavender. Sure. Lavender. I think that's it. You got a little bit, you got a little too bright with the lights. Apparently they're at the Ryder cup. I have light sensitive eyes. Oh, you have a lot of, a lot of things. We won't get into that. I'm sure he's colorblind. The guy can't, luckily he knows that maybe that's gray on the shirt. He can read Georgia. I'm sure. Yeah. He didn't know he was going to be on TV today. That's why he wore that t-shirt. No, as a serious question. And,

Lab and I sort of bat this one back around over the course of an entire year. And this is kind of putting you on the spot, but is there a question that you wish you would have asked? And is there one, maybe if it's easier that you wish you didn't ask, does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. Um,

And that's a great question. I'll give you a second here. I'll kind of gas bag for just a second to let you think about it. Because the one that I wish I would have asked, and this has come up really over the last few years, is in a moment of clarity where if I had a chance to talk with the PGA Tour commissioner now, Jay Monahan,

The question that I really just want to know on the record is why didn't you just take the original phone call from the public investment fund or performance 54 or whoever it might've been instead of just trying to box them out? Because I'm not quite sure if I would have gotten a very good answer, but I think that goes to the heart of where we are right now in professional golf. Yeah. You know, um,

I mean, Rex, you really put me on the spot here because it's going back to all these things. I know it's – Come on. You asked a bad one. We all ask bad ones. You can throw a bad one out there. I ask plenty of bad ones. No, I think it's – I don't know if I can come up with one on the spotlight because I apologize. How about this? I got a better question for you. I think one of the highlights or lowlights, if you're Scottie Scheffler, was the arrest –

before the second round of the PGA Championship in May in Louisville. How did you spend your Scotty arrest day? Keep in mind, golf was not on the air for about 12 hours. Rex was down at the jail. I was flying over to the golf course. How did you spend that day, which I would argue is one of the most surreal, bizarre days we've ever had, and I think was sort of the day of 2024 in terms of golf?

I spent that day, I woke up and I was getting ready to actually go to the gym because again, as you said, we didn't have shows. So I was going to go down to the gym, get a workout in. And all of a sudden I get a text message, go, did you see what happened to Scotty? I go, turn on, I just turn on ESPN because I know they had the coverage and they had shows on early. And all of a sudden I'm seeing all this stuff. I'm like, oh, wow.

You got to be kidding me. This is not happening. And so immediately we're all on text chains. I'm on one with Rex, you know, Todd Lewis and our producer, Matt Haggerty. And they're just trying to figure out what we can do, what we can't do. Now, all of our equipment is out of the golf course. So like Todd's text me, Hey, what can we do? Can we get down to the jail to have a camera? I go, Todd, like all the cameras, all of our lobbies, anything that we could do anything to do a show with is back at the golf course, which is a good 40 minutes away from where we were staying in Louisville.

So, what I did was, and got dressed, you know, didn't really actually, you know, and then we kind of rushed out there. And what we were tasked with was literally just when Scotty got onto the practice facility, from when he got into the practice facility to when he teed off on the first hole and really kind of a little bit past that, follow him.

So we had a camera on him doing all through his whole warmup and everything else like that, walked him to the first tee, had a camera on the first tee. And just to kind of chronicle everything that was kind of going on and doing it in what we call live mode, which is just, you know, full speed with all audio. And so that was kind of crazy. I interviewed the lawyer with Todd Lewis that day at some point, at some point.

And then, yeah, just was kind of there when Scottie was getting kind of asked those questions when we finished up to shooting. I mean, might've been the best round of the year, by the way, on the PGA tour. I mean, the guy shot 65 when he was stretching in jail. I mean, as you said, one of the most surreal moments of the year. And then just they're listening to him take the questions and answering what he can, what he can and can't answer and be,

As nice as possible without throwing the Louisville PD under the bus. But it was, that was, that was a crazy day. It was, it was very insane of, of how all that was going on. And as you guys said, we were not on the air because we don't, we don't for the layman's we don't have the rights, you know, there for, for that, for that nature. So it was crazy.

Now, Lab and I talk about this a lot, how terrifying TV can be, and it seems to come at you fast. And over the history of your career, Lab pointed out that there was a time in your career when you produced studio shows. You produced me and the Vodka Show a long time ago for the Grey Goose Show. A long time ago. A long time ago. Give me one of those terrifying moments as a producer where everything seemed like it was going wrong. Yeah.

You know what one of the craziest ones was? The Charlie Belgian at the old Disney. Disney. The Disney. Now we're going back in the five. I was producing that night and we're watching the broadcast and all that's kind of unfolding. And so for us, I mean, we're coming on live right after that show. It's our broadcast. So we've got, we luckily have a lot of

ways to do things and so we're coming on we've got a you know we're you're trying to get an interview with charlie belgium you're trying to set up the you're trying to work with the the truck to get the broadcast cameras to set up like a interview with maybe i think it's jerry fultz back in the day uh doing that but the craziness that was kind of going on trying to figure out what went on what was going wrong you could see what was going wrong in front of us but we couldn't

and then sending a producer and a camera and a reporter to the hospital that night this was the panic attack that the panic had while he was in contention for the pg tour event yeah yeah and it was it was it was crazy as because like you got your because luckily we have like um especially then at that time we had what we got and we still have coordinating producers kind of sitting in the back of the you know when you're in the front and the so in a in a in a production um

when you're producing, you're sitting in the front bench and then there's like back bench and you have someone back there kind of watching and making sure you've got everything kind of going on right. And kind of maybe planning ahead for you a little bit, if you're getting in some crazy stuff and luckily you had someone back there to try to work with all that stuff to make it a little smoother, but it was, that was actually really crazy. I was talking about that with one of our former colleagues about that. He was the field producer that went to the hospital and we're just kind of laughing about like, man, that was, that was nuts. That was kind of not along, not on the Scotty lines, but you know,

It's something that was pretty, pretty insane that was going on when you have to come on immediately following that broadcast and, and, and make sense of everything. So Brad, there's two things that you're tasked with that I wanted to get into today.

uh, that you do in 2024 first is the segments with Johnson Wagner, who was one of the breakout stars of 2024. I think we're going to like you pitching him as like a emerging star for the sports. I mean, this year, like, like he was, he was a really big force on golf TV. The second one I want to do is Todd Lewis and how you do the post, uh,

major victory interviews alongside T. So let's first start with Johnson since he's such a fan favorite. How do you guys come up with the segments for what he's going to be doing on live? I'm sure the early shows and when he's out on the golf course, sort of getting a feel for it, but also those post-game shows on live from where he's out on the golf course recreating some of the seminal moments from the day. How do you guys sort of take us through that process?

Oh, those were some of my favorite moments from the year. I mean, I had so much fun work with Johnson. He's a, as we all know, he's a very affable guy. He doesn't take himself seriously. I'm the one that's actually like when he's hitting some of those shots that didn't go so well, I'm the one that's like bending my head over and I feel bad for him because I want people to remember this guy won three times in the PGA tour. Like this guy was a very, very, very good golfer and still is. I've played with him. Um,

So let's go early week stuff. So Johnson will come to the course, and he'll have an idea for each of those nights of what hole he wants to do, a shot, something that he's already kind of talked to, whether it's a superintendent, whether it's the person who's setting up the golf course, players maybe, and he comes up with those ideas. So he has that idea of – so then what we do is we go out, and so at certain majors, let's go U.S. Open players, we have –

three cameras usually there. So we've got a, what we call catch cameras, a regular camera that he's hitting a shot can, can get the, you know, the ball follow. We have what we call gimbal camera, which is a camera. It's kind of like on someone's hands. It's a, it's very smooth moving camera. They can kind of move with him that you're seeing. That is just with Johnson. And then a lot of times, you know, when those us opens and those players, we have a drone, which really made it really cool this year. So we all kind of like when Johnson kind of explains it to me, okay, then we got explained to the camera guys and,

explain to them so we can make this look the best we possibly can and then go execute. And so Johnson would come with ideas of what he kind of wants to do and how he wants to kind of work the shots and, um,

let's go for one of them the monday the u.s open monday the u.s open we're out at the second holes at uh and so we're trying to get a signal on our live views and we weren't getting because we do these things live we're not taping them we want these to be live won't be very you know organic and everything like that and so we had to go to the ninth hole i mean this is gonna be great this is this is a great story so go to the ninth hole um and so we've got a good signal there i'm like all right good i knew we had a good signal there because i was there earlier in the day getting sound

So we're sitting there, we're waiting for a while, probably about 90 minutes. And here comes, and this, and so this had been far enough in where everyone's seen Johnson's chipping, what was we'll call them. And so, and we've got the stars of golf coming through.

Like I'm not, we're talking instructors. We're talking caddies. We're talking players. Sky Sheffield comes through, tries to help him and Ted Scott, try to help Johnson Wagner with his, with his shipping. Like Teddy Scott is, is, is adamant. He can fix this adamant. He can fix this. Nope. No chance. So here comes, here comes Claude Harmon, you know, come through. I can fix you. I can fix you. Nope.

I want to say Pete Cowan came through and Pete Cowan's just shaking his head. Just like, just like, and he's like, I need some more time than just this. So,

Oh, Pete's great because he won't pull any punches. So here comes like Brooks Koepka and a couple other guys. And I've known Brooks for a long, long time. And this will involve me a little bit. It's just a little selfish, but it just kind of goes to the point. So Brooks is looking at me and he's watching Johnson. And he goes, why don't you hit a shot? I go, that's not what I do. That's not what I do. He goes, I want you to embarrass yourself. So he throws the ball down and gives me his club.

And so, and Johnson set up this little hole on like a little knob on the right side of the green. We're on the right side of the green. So short side shot. All right, this is going to be embarrassing. You know, Ricky Elliott's videoing it is Brooks's caddy.

And I clip it to about a foot and Johnson just looks at me and a few choice words. We can't say on this wonderful podcast came out and, and, and just laughing this hysterically. You're also a very good player, Brad. Let's not, let's not shortchange you at all. It's like your recs out there. Whoa.

but in that moment, it was just, it was just very funny. And so then Johnson's got to sit there, Johnson's got to sit there and hit that shot on air later. And it just didn't go well because just, you know, you know, it's just grainy out there and everything. And, but yeah,

Those segments are so much fun because he just, he's bringing great information. And then, yeah, he hits these shots that are very squirrely. Xander Schauffele won Thursday at the, also I got away from him. So when we get into play, he sits there and just watches the golf. And when he sees a shot that maybe has a chance to be that shot, that kind of shot that you want to show,

he'll go we'll go to the producers or maybe i might be out doing something else he'll go to the producers and say hey listen that's that's what i want to do and they say okay let's keep that for now and then if it gets later and later i'm like hey okay there we go so that was when vander on the fourth hole drove it up close to the green at valhalla and hit a and clipped a real nice pitch shot to a couple feet and again like you know we get out there early and everything and you know johnson just you know just struggling like some of these shots it's like

You just want to give him a hug. You know, I remember that. I remember that one. Cause it was like a, it was like a 40 or 50 yard pitch. Right. And he, he like chunks two of them and then blades another one and just like walked off and just walked off. And I'm probably giving him a hug off camera because I just felt so bad for him. But those segments, I mean, and obviously the,

So the real viral moment, let's go to the U.S. Open. I mean, in my 18 years, one of the coolest, probably the coolest moment I've been a part of, and this is going back to Tigers, great wins that I've seen and everything else like that. That moment was so cool. Bryson coming over to that point. We actually had started, we were going to be in the fairway to show Bryson's second shot out of the trees and then walk up and play the third shot.

Well, it was getting a little later in the show and we were getting a little, you know, we didn't have as much time. So we, John said, I kind of talked about, okay, let's just go up to the bunker. And we told our producers like, yeah, yeah, go do that. So we obviously get into that segment and he hits the first shot. He hits, we like to call that a home run, you know, just flies the green, just circle the bases. And then, you know, you just see fish up on prices coming up. I, someone had texted me and luckily the text didn't go through quick enough. Otherwise I would have known beforehand that he was coming.

Man, when he came over and started and he gets in that bunker and Todd brings that mic over, which was not on the same delay, what we call delay. So it wasn't on the same timing as Johnson's mic. So we had to like redo that for like the re-airs and they had to kind of marry the audio together. And he's down in there and he's got that trophy. And then Johnson hits that shot. I mean, I've never, like someone who just thinned one over the green almost broke a window probably. To hit that shot to how close he hit it to that was,

And then the reaction afterwards, grabbing the trophy was tremendous. And, and you, and again, like that's why doing those things live means so much because you can't recreate that stuff. You can't. And so that was, that was one of the cooler moments. I think that the biggest thing with Johnson stuff is that he is, he's at the trust of those players. Some guys that you would sit there and say, would you think that, would you guys think that Xander Shoffler would want to do a walk and talk during his practice round, a major championship? Yeah, probably not. Did want the U S open.

With Patrick Cantlay in the group, you know, like guys who were really just into their, into their craft and don't want to really do their, and no, but they're really into what they want to do. And they did a shop. They're doing it. The US open price of the shambo did one earlier that week. He did one earlier that week, you know, we've gotten guys, Scotty Sheffield did one to open the show on, I think Wednesday at the open championship. We're getting, it's not like we're, it's not just like you're getting the top guys to do it because they trust Johnson and the segments have just become really incredibly cool.

So, okay, on your second question, Lev. Two-parter. Two-parter. So the after major, you're talking about the sit-downs, right, Lev?

I'm talking sit-downs or on the 72nd hole where Xander Schauffele just won the PGA Championship in dramatic fashion. You have the awards presentation. CBS gets the call, whatever the case may be. And then you guys are rushing onto the grid. What are those moments like? And did you have any sort of memorable ones this year? Yeah, so...

memorable ones. I mean, so we do a couple of different kinds. So like now we, now we've tried to start getting some of the winners when there are kind of majors onto our set. Right. So Xander came onto the set at the, at the PGA and Bryson at the U S open standard did go onto our set. I think again, at the, at the open championship as well. So, um,

Those take away from doing the sit-down interviews then. But the Masters, we still do a sit-down because it's just the way things go. So after the – whether it's Augusta National, PGA of America, USGA, RNA, all have a run of show, as they call it, for after a player wins. And so let's go with the Masters. So they have a – they'll do the –

They'll go to Butler cabin. Then they've got to go back out for the, the, the trophy presentation, another green jacket ceremony on the, on the putting green there. And then they've got to go do a press room with you guys. They've got to go do a toast and then they come to us. So we have a couple hours to get set up for the sit down interview. Now we use, we work with ESPN, um,

uh, for a lot of the gear there and we kind of set it up and do it together. Um, but those sit downs are really cool because they give us five minutes, which is a good amount of time. I think it's plenty of time to get some good questions out, especially Scotty isn't the longest, you know, winded answers. Um, um, but he gives you good answers. And so you get, you can get good five questions in with them. And so, um, those are really cool. They're awesome to kind of sit there. It's very, there's not a lot of people in the room and you kind of can listen to,

you know, the answers he gives, you know, about three or four different people.

So those are cool. So the moment's actually like Xander wins. So we're, we're ready to go. So we have a camera ready. It's me. It's Todd, our vice president of player relations. Courtney hold is usually there. Our manager of player relations, Alex Russell is usually there just to kind of help. We all kind of coordinate to make sure that we're not, that we're in the right spot, right. That we're, that we're there ready to go. And so we're usually maybe third in line, you know, sometimes for those things and yeah, you just kind of just eat the,

Winter comes over to you. Todd gets his about three questions on those. They want to keep those moving, especially since we're going to get the winter for probably 10 minutes on the set afterwards. Is Todd coming up with his own questions? Are you working together with Todd? Are you spoon-feeding Todd? How does that work? No, Todd and I definitely collaborate with the questions. And Todd is –

He's so good. He's so good at what he does. So a lot of times, like, you know, we'll, we'll collaborate. He'll ask me what I think. I'll give him a couple of questions. I think are kind of poignant, bigger picture questions. Like, I mean, if there's something that really needs to be talked about from that day. Yeah. But we, when you have those times, you want to go big, especially with the master sit down, you want to go big picture, right? You don't want to just get into what went on in the day because this is going to air the next day on golf today. So you want to go big picture. And so we kind of talk about some big picture topics, uh,

I think it was Scotty, where you are, two green jackets in a matter of three years or whatever. So where that kind of pantheon of golf, where that kind of puts you and everything like that. And Xander, you want to

You want to get out of them. Like, like that was his first major at the P at the PGA. You know what that, that feeling is to get that monkey off his back. So you've been so good in the majors for so many years. And then you get to the, you know, the open championship one and it's, you know, you just, now you just won two out of three, you know, and what is this? How you want to get those, those, those bigger answers out of them and what they, what they kind of, kind of feel at that time, because it's, you know, talking about a,

the second shot on 11 you know okay great you know that that's it was a great shot that maybe helped them win the championship but we want to know the bigger the bigger things and you know if that's because we all talk about it you know the writers and everybody it's okay you get one now you gotta get that second one you know that that's the the validation and so that was the one with xander was what was that validation you want themes you're talking we're talking themed interviews as opposed to getting down to the nitty-gritty like you might do for a serious xm

interview right like immediately after you know walk us through the break on what you saw on 18 there yeah exactly because and xander was able to walk up 18 with with no problem so it wasn't like there was like there's drama on 18 you could just sit there and go okay we're we're gonna get into big we're gonna get a bigger picture and there was some time there you guys know there's some time in between there's a time to really talk talk through some answers um

But for me, like, so when we're at majors, like, we get to – like, we try to get some, you know, like you guys do. We try to talk to the caddies. So, you know, talking to Austin Kaiser, you know, twice this year was really cool because I think he gives some – he gives you some good insight because they're such a good team together, right, and gives you some good insight on what they kind of talk about out there and how they –

maybe after a bad break, you know, he refocuses Xander and everything else like that. And kind of what he sees from his side of where Xander's kind of going in his career with those two wins. Not as good as Stefan, though. I mean, Stefan is, he is, I mean, there's no one better than Xander's dad to talk to. I always enjoy that.

He was walking around with a flask all day long. Like that, that just makes it a perfect way to interview the father of the winner of the open championship. You and I had a similar moment actually, as you sit and talk about it and it dawned on me, you were the field producer. I was the reporter at the Scottish open. And I remember you and I collaborating after Robert McIntyre had won. He was so emotional and really an amazing interview. Like it was one of my, I think I counted it last week is one of my most enjoyable experiences just because of the emotion, the raw emotion and what it meant to him. Was there an answer to,

that you got this year that surprised you for whatever reason? Either it was a really good answer, either it was kind of snarky. Is there anything that stands out? You know what? You mentioned Robert McIntyre. He's become actually one of my favorite people to talk to because he's not... Yes, okay, very low talker. You know, you got to boost the audio, as we like to call it. But he's...

he's very thoughtful. And like, when you started hearing him talk about like, this is the one he wanted to win as much as any major or anything like that. And he talked about the struggles. I think that like,

We seem to think that when guys get on the PGA tour, that is the coup de grace. They're on the PGA tour. They're going to make millions of dollars and they're going to travel, you know, you know, lavishly and everything. And he kind of got into like what was going on back at Myrtle beach when he, when he struggled down the stretch and couldn't get the, you know, the wind there and how he was, uh,

He really, you know, before that, the RBC Canadian, when how he just was struggling with being over in America, missing everyone back at home. It was just so honest. Like guys like will hide things sometimes because they, maybe they don't want to be so forthright with what they, with what they're feeling, but he didn't, he didn't care. He just, he just talked from the, you know, from the heart and it made you think like, okay,

This is a guy who was a Walker Cup player, who was a very good amateur player, who came along and won a few times on the DP World Tour. And you're thinking, okay, guy gets his card through the DP World Tour 10. He's going to come over here and do real well. And he was just kind of struggling through some things, especially emotionally, missing family, missing friends. I think that that was...

And we all remember when he went back over and he didn't play Memorial, right? He just, he went back over to celebrate with his, after the RBC Canadian. And you think, oh, that's stupid. You shouldn't do that.

Well, but that meant something. He's like, I'm going to go back over and do that because that's what I need to do for myself. And he was just so honest about that. And I think that that was actually one of those things where I was like, okay, you know what? This is the guy I like to cheer for because he's a, he's a very, I mean, obviously, you know, he's going to go and have a blast. Like after his win, I remember, you know, seeing videos of what he was, you know, just having some fun afterwards after the Scottish Open win.

it's, you know, and he's, and he was honest. Remember he said in the press conference afterwards, someone asked him, are you going to, you know, what is your practice? You know, you know, you're going to, when you get to the, for the open championship, he goes, don't expect me there on Monday, you know, he was going to go part in and that's, and that's, and that's the good stuff. So you kind of brought that up. That actually was actually a really good, a really good, just kind of interview it and not just the, the live, the tape that you did, but the, you know, the presser afterwards and just him just being very honest throughout the year about his, about, about what he kind of felt. Yeah.

you know, and that, I think that that's kind of, you know, one of those things where it's like, you get some of these things and then you get like, and then you get guys like, I mean, I don't mean to bring this up. It's like, then Rory at the U S open where he doesn't step up to the microphone. Some people think it's like, okay, that's a,

you're okay. You're Rory McIlroy. You've earned the clout to kind of do that. But at some points, like sometimes it's really good. Just when you get those guys and it's like, when you get like in other sports, you get guys just being very honest. Like, I feel like you would have gotten a really, and maybe too honest answer out of Rory about how it kind of felt. So like that was maybe like, I feel like a miss this year. Like again, he's,

He's a wonderful champion and a great guy. I mean, Rory's awesome. We all know that he's incredibly good at this time. But I just wish he would have stepped up there. That was one thing I think we kind of like, in my opinion this year, that was kind of a little bit of a miss was that at that US Open. Brad, let's go rapid fire to wrap up this podcast. I want quick answers. And it's ironic that I'm asking you to do this because Rex and I will do rapid fire and then I go on for about 90 seconds. Give me your favorite player to cover and why.

Oh, man. You know what? Xander Shoffley. Because? I think he's just very honest. He's very easygoing, and he'll give you time, and he's – you ask him a question, he'll answer it, and he makes you think a little bit. Conversely, not the worst player to cover, but who are among the hardest players to cover, either because they're quick with their time, they don't give you good answers, they can be a little bit snarky, however you want to interpret that.

Come on. This is easy. Come on. Cameron Young. Cameron Young. Let's just be honest. Nice fella. He's boring. He's a little boring. Before he left, John Rahm was tough at times with some of the stuff. He didn't die. Nope.

Still alive. In fact, he may be back on the PGA Tour in the next couple of years. Who knows? I think Victor Hovland at some points can be. Sometimes he won't talk after some bad rounds again. But conversely, when he does talk, he'll give you some good answers as well. Favorite venue and why? I love...

Man, are we going full scale here? Because we always talk about this. We go on like everything that we get into or just, okay. You're not going to offend Cromwell. If you don't say that, you can say whatever on top of your mind. I actually don't, I don't, I don't hate Cromwell. I don't hate Cromwell. I don't, I mean, I love, I love Miracle Village. I mean, other than the media center being a little bit old, I love the golf course. I love the town. Dublin's a great little town there. I do love it.

I'm going to be remiss if I don't say it. I'm leaving tomorrow. Maui is tremendous. Can you really beat Maui in December? I don't know. I've never covered it. You can't. I have covered it. Conversely, worst stop on the PGA Tour. He's never going to answer this. Oh, man. Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Oh, no, don't do that. No, man. Zerk was... The actual tournament. I'm not talking about the town. I'm not talking about the city. I'm not talking about French Quarter. I'm talking about the worst tournaments to cover. It is easily the Zerk Classic of New Orleans as someone who covered six or seven of them. I haven't covered that in a long time. That's...

That one was bad back in the day. Media Center Food might be one of the worst I've ever seen. It is really bad. I'm very fortunate. I get to go to all the big tournaments and the signature events. Big time. Not going to lie, I covered Rocket Mortgage once. It wasn't my favorite.

Wasn't my favorite. You're driving through a pretty bad part of town to get to that golf course. So Rocket Mortgage, probably not the greatest. Brad, do you have a bucket list tournament you've yet to cover that you want to? Todd and I have talked about this. A few tournaments that haven't...

I don't know if there's a bucket list. I've been very fortunate. I've gone to, I've gone to Turkey to cover tournaments, which is pretty cool. Rex and I've been over there to do that. Then did you buy to cover a few events, you know, over the years? Really? Tiger tracker days. Yeah. Like, um, I've been, I mean, going to like, um, you know, Korea going, go to Japan to cover the Zozo. That was really cool. And tiger one. Um, you know, like, you know what I haven't been to that actually really wouldn't mind doing. And it's amazing. I haven't been to this is Wentworth, uh, the BMW PGA wouldn't mind going and covering Wentworth. I haven't spent a lot of time. It's just covered that. I believe.

A couple of times. Yeah, a couple of times. I mean, that's a, to go on the PGA tour, there's actually not a, there's not an event that I really haven't covered that really had the interest. Maybe the John Deere, just because everyone talks very highly about, for whatever reason, the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa, but they do talk. But other than that, I really don't have any in the, on the PGA tour schedule. Rex, you got anything else before we let

brad's go from this podcast we appreciate you joining us buddy no man thanks for joining us thank you now everyone knows i appreciate you having me on i did not do as good of a job as steve sands and todd lewis um at all we didn't have to use the tv voice buzzer on you once you should be proud hey boy if you'd done those two every single second it would have been the tv voice buzzer i mean i mean todd gets that todd's on a flight right now so you'll never see this but todd gets that that that deep tv voice going i'm like dude todd

Bring it down a little bit. We have a little bit of a siren for T. Lou, who I'm sure will be joining us for the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lav in the early parts of 2025. Brads, we appreciate you joining us. Hope you guys enjoyed this look sort of behind the scenes of how Golf Channel operates on the TV side. Brads, enjoy the trip to Hawaii. We'll see you in the early part of 2025. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. We'll talk to you guys next week.

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