Emotional season finale a preview of a tougher, tighter Tour
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lab. Happy Thanksgiving week.

Later in the podcast, we'll get into what Rex and I are doing for Thanksgiving and how we're preparing our days on what is the greatest man day of the year. But first, a thanks for all the kind words about last week's record in Sea Island. Hope we do much more of that in 2025. Help us out. Spread the word. Like and subscribe. Comment. Let us know what you like and don't like about our podcast. Rex, you have returned from Sea Island, your fifth major, if not your fourth major, and

of the year. How was the week? The week was good. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. The Thursday and Friday was an adventure both on and off the golf course. But I think, and someone texted me when I was driving home yesterday morning, a tournament official pointing out that anyone that doesn't understand or wants to dismiss the importance of the fall,

didn't watch on Sunday when you had Joel Damon doing really, really magical and emotional things. And I would suggest anyone go and read a Bentley reminds story on golf channel.com. It was a very emotional week all the way around. And I think there is an importance to the fall, but you only see it in that window is, was my sort of response. Yes. It was a really, really cool week because you had a lot of things going on. You had a lot of players playing for a lot of different things, but you didn't sustain that over eight weeks.

I actually would like to start somewhere else. And this is a bit self-indulgent.

And look, I've been really clear. I don't criticize anyone on TV about anything they do because I don't want people criticizing me because Lord knows I do plenty to get criticized on TV. However, I'm turning a really hard spotlight on myself here. I don't know if anybody watched the coverage on Friday, but your reporter was sent on a – it wasn't a pirate ship. Everyone wanted to say it was a pirate ship. It was actually a privateer ship. It was called the Tall Ship. Tall Ship.

Tall Ship Lynx, it was a 127-foot replica of a schooner from the War of 1812. I can get into all of this, really, if you want to. That's not the interesting part. And the least, not only was it really bad TV, and I will take responsibility for a large portion of it being really bad TV because I thought it was a good idea to maybe have a playful interview on live tournament coverage with someone who was dressed up as a pirate. Turns out, terrible idea. It was a bad interview. Didn't go well. He yammered for three minutes. Let's move on. That was a bad editorial decision.

Going out in the middle of, it was the sound, but it's a big body of water on a day when the winds are blowing 30 miles an hour. And trying to do some sort of TV just from a technical standpoint was a challenge. So we had issues there. I couldn't hear Steve Sands talking to me. I couldn't hear his questions. I was terrified there was a follow-up because it was howling on this boat. I

I have come to realize why you and I are like our toxic trait is hunkering down in the living room when there's a hurricane coming and watching the weather channel. Because this is what this was nothing but one hour of the weather channel where it was just it was bad TV and you just had to roll with the punches and the technology wasn't there. The part that really caught me, though, and someone either it.

at golf channel or maybe it's the pga tour is responsible for this i don't know who it is so i apologize for calling you out you put us in harm's way and i will and i will say this

And this is rambling. I apologize. It's Thanksgiving week, but it was on my mind. I was ruminating about this all the way home on the drive home yesterday that it was like a four hour cruise. And clearly I'm not going to be out on there for four hours. So the idea was I do two or three hits on the boat, spend about an hour out there, and then they send a quote unquote chase boat after us, which is kind of one of those boats you see that the harbor pilots take, you know, they send the harbor pilots out on.

First and foremost, the chase boat, we got out of radio range. So it was late coming to get us. And then when it finally showed up, they just pull alongside. Neither boat stops. So we're still moving at like, I think the captain told me, like 10 knots in quote unquote high seas, 30 mile an hour winds. And I'm having to jump down onto the chase boat.

why this is happening. So I was kind of the first one. And again, there was a crowd on this boat. This was a real cruise. We were just along for the ride. And like people are filming. They're like, everyone expected this to go really, really poorly. I was the first to make the jump and I did it. And I was like, all right, this is fine.

A cameraman, super cameraman Gunner was right behind me with a camera on his shoulder, no less. And he did it and he was fine. My producer for the week, Sarah, who did a fantastic job. No offense, Sarah. She's like four foot six. She's not very tall.

And I think she wanted to do what we had just done as average height males at 5'10", 5'11", and realized halfway over, oh, I'm not going to make it. My legs aren't nearly long enough. And if it hadn't been for the crew member on the chase boat to literally reach out and grab her, not only would she have gone in the water, but she would have gone in the water between these two boats moving at speed in high seas.

And so we laughed about it and we kind of, we pull her on the boat and we're heading back to Harbor. And there was a moment where I think it sunk into all of us, where we just sort of sunk into our seats and didn't say much for a long time. Cause we were like, yeah, that, that could have gone terribly, terribly wrong. Oh, that might be the greatest five minutes in the history of this podcast. The only thing I could, I was actually watching,

The coverage on Friday. I knew this was happening. I wanted to see it for myself. Clearly, they were leaning in, Rex, to your background. Not as a former Marine, which you've corrected me on several times. But on your background as a Marine, I cannot imagine them sending Kira Kay out there. I can't imagine George Savarikas and his beautiful tan out there. I mean, Damon's...

not going out there. Kara's not going out there. Clearly you are going out there. So I can see them leaning into that role. The bigger question for me is why were we doing this on Friday of the RSM Classic? If this is such a consequential day,

of the PGA tour. If, if careers and livelihoods are being altered by what happens, particularly if those players miss the 36, we've, we've got you risking your life on the open sea. Oh, it was, it was fantastic. I know it was not a good television for you, but I must say as a,

As a viewer, I could not get enough. I knew it was going to end poorly. It was just a matter of how poorly on the scale it was going to falter. Yeah, I don't have an answer for that. And I've kind of asked a couple of times now, like, what were we trying to do? And look, I don't want to dismiss this. I had a chance to interview Captain Sean before we actually set sail. And he kind of laid out exactly. It's sort of an educational question.

thing. You know, normally they bring kids up, kids on up midweek and they kind of teach them about sailing and war of 1812 and the historical significance of being on St. Simon's Island. To your point though, on a very consequential day on the PGA tour, I'm not quite sure to the point that, well,

And I've never done this before. So I had to talk my producer, Mags, into bringing Troy on because I didn't have anything else to report. At some point, I'm just screaming on the boat, it's Wendy, that's Steve Sands, and then hoping he hears me and hoping everything was working out. So I'm like, okay, I can be playful with this pirate thinking, you know, maybe that can eat up two or three minutes and I can be done with it. And I made the mistake of like asking in a very joking way. I think the question was asking for a friend

How do you fight seasickness? And he broke into a three minute, very, very technical, very, very drawn out, yammering answer of how you do it to the point that my producers in my ear screaming, that's enough. Stop him. Stop him now. And I don't know how to do that. I've never done that before on live TV. I'm just kind of like, nope, your time is done. Stop talking now. It did not go well. It was bad TV.

Rex is interviewing a pirate. Meanwhile, players on the PGA Tour, their dreams are crushed. Wags are furious. Agents are booking trips to Springfield and Greenville and Columbia where the Corn Fairy Tour season is going to be played in 2025. It was all...

quite ridiculous. I'm glad you mentioned Rex, the race for the one 25, because this was the big grand finale for the PGA tour in 2024. As we noted last week, the podcast, which was approved by the policy board, PGA tour is essentially about to get a lot more intense, right? It's about to get more cutthroat overall. It is going to get harder to,

to retain your playing privileges year in and year out by trimming from 125 fully exempt players to 100. We ended up seeing on Sunday in Sea Island, two players move inside that top 125 with Daniel Berger and boys are good to see Boog

back at his best. I loved his answer. I believe it was on Saturday night where he was asked about sort of him being in this position for players scrapping for status and making sure that he's going to be fully exempt for 2025. And he said, I'm looking around and I see guys who I should not be

fighting with. Like he, he still thinks of himself as a top 25 player in the world, which he was before he got injured and took essentially two years away from the game. It's great to see Boog back ended up tying for second one shot behind Maverick McNeely and Henrik Norlander also secured his status among the top 125. Joel Damon had the emotional moment. What did you think of how it all sort of played out and the drama among those scrapping for status?

Well, you got the quote wrong because I did use the quote for the pregame show on Sunday, I believe. I was summarizing the quote. Well, no, I didn't want to summarize because I think it's the actual quote that lands it because it's maximum boot. Like this is what we expected of him when he was a top 25 player. And it's clearly what he still is. And the quote is, quote, at one tenth of what I am, I'm better than most players on the PGA Tour.

Guys don't say that. Like Tiger caught trash way back in the day for saying I won a tournament with my B game and my C game. This is a step even further for a guy that's not Tiger Woods. And it just shows you. I love it. It's irrational confidence based on what he's done the last few years, primarily because of injury. I will give you that. But yeah, that's fine. That's on me. It's irrational confidence. However, I'm with you. I'm here for all of it.

I'm absolutely here for all of it. Like, that's exactly the Daniel Berger that I remember. That's why he was such a fierce competitor in match play, a guy you would not want to go up against. He could drop 10 birdies on you and think absolutely none of it. So it's great to see Daniel Berger, who was coming off a pretty serious back injury that he thought could potentially spoil his career, will be able to play and have a full card for 2025. And I think you asked me specifically about Joel. It was fun to watch because not only –

Was he under just an immense amount of pressure for the entire fall? And you and I spent a lot of time talking about it. Go back to the Zozo when he got a sponsor exemption. I think that raised some eyebrows, but he was right there in that one 22 to 25 category the entire fall. So this had been eating at him for a while and he simply was not playing well. And for him to make he needed to make up just a five and a half footer on Friday afternoon just to make the cut.

And the celebration between he and his caddie, Gino, and Joel's wife, like you could tell how significant this was. He got very emotional in the interviews afterwards. It was fun on Sunday when he finally got it done. And, you know, I think at some point there was a level of confidence that, okay, I'm playing well enough now in this particular moment in time that I can finish 35th.

And that's essentially what he had to do somewhere in that neighborhood just to sort of cling to that final spot. But it was still kind of touch and go. And that's the kind of drama that you'd like to see throughout the fall. That's the kind of storytelling. That's the kind of sort of raw emotion that you'd like to see. But you don't really get it throughout the fall. You really only get it for the last two events, maybe. And I mean, was this not the absolute perfect player for the tour?

to have on Sunday in the season finale. I mean, Joel Damon, he is a media darling. He's a star on Netflix, full swing. Like you can imagine the episode that's going to be coming out of Sea Island. Like he's emotional, he's expressive. He's repeatedly mentioned, you know, how stressful the season's been, how meaningful a full PGA Tour card is to him. You know, if this was Henrik Norlander, no offense to Henrik Norlander, you're probably not getting the same sort of visceral response that you did from Joel Damon. Like we want to see more of this.

Like Joel Damon is the antithesis of everything that we have seen over the past couple years on the PGA Tour with greed and money and power. This is a guy who loves the PGA Tour lifestyle. He loves playing golf. He loves being with his friends on tour. You know, maybe he's not the most talented guy. Joel Damon's never going to threaten anybody.

like a Daniel Berger, a top 25 player in the world. And Daniel Berger is, is fully healthy, but he keeps with it. He keeps stringing out his career. He's making, he's making a living. Like those are the stories you want. Again, it's just the fall in the tournament director who called you on the way home on Monday. Yes.

the fall is meaningful. It is consequential, but it loses the significance when it's drawn out over two months and it's drawn out over eight or nine weeks, it's drawn out over eight or nine tournaments, you know, it's,

Scarcity is what makes the PG tour most compelling when you have real consequences and fewer opportunities in which to do so. I would just love to see the fall trip. I know I'm selling a broken record on this podcast, but you can have that same drama that you had Sunday on Sea Island. You could just have it a month earlier and then that opens the rest of the fall for other opportunities, other formats, a team play, more worldwide schedule, whatever you want to do.

And do all two things. One, are you 100% sure that Joel is doing the Netflix series this year for the third season? It would be the third season because the cameras weren't there. I don't think he's doing it for the third season. It's also possible, Rex, that the shooting could have already wrapped.

Oh, yeah. Because it typically drops like in February. And so the turnaround time might not have been conducive to that. I would assume I would assume Joel Damon, who has been, again, the star of the first two seasons, would be it again. It's also possible that the shooting schedules didn't line up.

That one's probably pretty good. And I will say there was sort of an interesting moment when Joel was being interviewed on Sunday and someone said something which you touched on at the beginning of this about the importance of next season on the PGA Tour because of the changing dynamics, because of how everything will be narrowed. However, incrementally now, instead of 125, that cushion is gone. Now it's 100. Now it's instead of.

of 20, instead of 30 Korn Ferry tour cards, it's only 20. All of these things are condensed, which are only going to heighten these moments. It's only going to make more of these sort of viral emotional moments that we saw. But someone said something to Joel about it and he stopped and he goes, that doesn't start next year. To the point that when he got done with that interview and came to do the interview with me, he goes, are you sure about that? We go to a hundred next year. I'm like, yeah, man, it was in the memo. Like we've been talking about this for a month.

And it almost took away from the moment because suddenly his mind is spiraling that, oh, well, I've done it now, but now I've got to be 25 spots better to do it again next year. And it didn't seem like much, but on the PGA Tour number 99 to number 124, that's a pretty significant difference in what you did over the course of a season. Joel would be the first person, if he was on this podcast, to say, I did not play well this season. I had a really, really bad season. And he clung to that spot.

So it gives you an idea. If you finish 99, you probably don't have that same outlook. You're probably thinking to yourself, yeah, I played pretty decent, man. It's hard out here on the PGA Tour. So you get the idea of how much more intense next year is going to be. Yeah, I think it was a little confusing, wasn't it? Because when the PGA Tour is talking about these changes, the verbiage they use was, quote, beginning in 2026.

And so you think of 2025 as like a regular year and then it starts in 2026. That's actually not going to be the case. Like you're going to be cutting to the top 100 after next year. Corn Ferry Tour after the 2025 season will be cut from 30 spots to 20. And so you're going like this was a really bad year heading into 2025 to only get conditional status because you are going to see a lot of PGA Tour members now.

basically trying to compile as many tournament starts as possible to accrue enough FedExCup points to make sure you're going to be inside the top 100. I remember doing a couple stories over the years about the players who were sort of logging all the starts in the fall, basically accumulating as many points as possible to give themselves a head start. That was always something that bothered Phil Mickelson, who wanted to take off the entire fall and then turn up at Torrey and not be so far behind. It

It's going to be sort of a different version of that in 2025, where you're going to see a lot of players run ragged and playing eight, nine, possibly 10 weeks in a row just to make sure they're giving themselves enough opportunity to get inside the top 100. It's such a big difference in terms of the point total that you do need in order to maintain playing privileges on the PGA Tour. Did you still, being out there, like,

I know it's the island. I know it's a little bit sleepy. It's a, it's a, it's a great town. But as we talked last week on the podcast, like maybe the tour could do a better job of marketing it, maybe moving it, putting in prime time, whatever you want to do. Like did the season finale Rex being onsite leave you wanting more in terms of the drama? Like, did it, did it maximize the potential of what the PJ tour could be doing on that Sunday? Yeah.

Well, I don't think they do a good enough job in the fall period of maximizing the storytelling because it just wasn't 125. It was the Aeon 10 as well. And I was sort of surprised guys talking about how important that was, because clearly if you can get into those first signature events, you're

if you do anything at all, you've gotten off to a really good start to your season. I don't think necessarily I walked away from Seattle and wanting more because it delivered not just on the one 25 bubble. Certainly Joel made that interesting. Uh, I think Maverick McNeely getting that first PGA tour victory was significant. I think you had the guys trying to get those 10 spots between 51 and 60 to try to get into those first two, two of the first three signature events. Uh,

I think the bigger deal is what we've already touched on. It just gets so diluted over the course of eight weeks, two months to do this, that you almost become tone deaf to it. And the timing of this to your point is probably not great going head to head with the LPGA season finale, which was significant. And there was a lot going on then. I'm not quite sure what the tour would want to do about it. I keep going back to the idea that 2026 is going to be a

a historic year for the PGA tour for a lot of different reasons, just not for the reasons we point out as far as field sizes and fully exempt members. I truly think in the, whatever the tour looks like in 2026 will be dramatically different than what we've become accustomed to. And I think that applies to the fall too. Yeah. I think your point is well taken. Like you can become desensitized to,

To all these players who are sort of nondescript and they're, you know, they have two top tens this season while playing 25 events. Like they all sort of look the same. It's hard to engender too much emotion when these players are getting so many opportunities to keep their cards. Like Sam Ryder, who's now number 125, hit 29 starts this year.

It's hard to engender much sympathy for those players if they don't earn status. Again, you still will get the emotional story like a Joel Damon, but those who are missing out, you're still going to get 12 to 17 starts based on your priority for next year. To me, Rex, I know you're a big fan of this now that you're illegally streaming this in. I'd love to see in the future a red zone type coverage

for the season finale where you do, we mentioned George Savaric. It's like a George Savaric is in, in studio. And then he's bouncing around like fast paced to here's Joel Damon, a must make five footer for par on 14. And let's go to Zach Blair who just pumped one OB on, on 17 to do his chances, like very quick paced, almost fast,

Almost an alternate viewing experience of just the guys who are fighting for status. I feel like that's a missed opportunity in particular for the season finale. Would that work from Bermuda? Would that work for Vegas? Probably not. But for the season finale, I'd love to see them lean into it. Particularly those guys either on the cut line on Friday as opposed to you –

sort of interviewing a pirate or particularly on Sunday with the guys trying to get those top 125. One other player I did want to touch on Rex who figured prominently in this tournament as he has done now a couple of times on the PGA tour is Luke Clanton, the standout senior from Florida state. I believe this was the first chance that you've had to watch him in person. Incredibly impressive, particularly at his age. This is now his fourth top 10 finish and,

in eight starts on the PGA tour with this PGA tour university accelerated program. He is essentially now locked up a PGA tour card when he turns pro after the college season in May or June, he has 17 points needs to get to 20 points. He is a virtual lock to win the Hogan award, which would quarter sort of cross that threshold. What was your main takeaway in seeing Luke Lanton who,

who once again nearly won on the pg tour and became the second amateur this year to win the pg tour which would be a phenomenal achievement considering we hadn't seen it since 1991.

It feels like we can just take the conversation from the Amex when Nick Dunlap was that amateur to win on the PGA tour and just re-rack it. And I had a chance to talk with Trey Jones, the coach of Florida State of Luke's. And it is amazing how more and more players and not just Luke. And you're right. This was the first time I had a chance to really watch him up close and personal. He has every shot. There's no part of his game that normally a player coming out of college, you can say he hits the ball a mile, solid wedge player, but he needs to work on a short game or whatever the case may be.

I didn't see any of that. And if you look at what he has done this season on the PGA Tour statistically, there aren't really any holes. He's right there where he needs to be in almost every statistical category. The part that gets me is there was just no fear. I loved during the telecast and some of it was on air and some of it was off air. But especially on Sunday when he's coming down the stretch and he kind of started to get that wild look in his eyes and he put himself in some really, really bad spots.

And it wasn't easy to chip around this golf course, as you learned last week at Frederica. But this time of year, trying to chip off Bermuda, especially grainy Bermuda, is really difficult. And that golf course has very sandy soil. So you're asking a lot of your short game if you put yourself in a bad spot. If you don't have a straightforward chip, if you have to be a little creative, if you have to be a little handsy. Yeah.

It's not a recipe for success. And I was taken by during the telecast, both Johnson Wagner and Smiley Kaufman were talking about he'd missed a shot left over a bunker and he has to hit this crazy sort of flop shot. And in the break, they both said like, no way, I'm not hitting that shot. We all know what Johnson has done with his short game this season on the golf channel. But even Smiley was like, you...

you don't have enough nerves to hit this shot. And he pulled it off without even blinking. Almost like, hmm, it was the easiest thing in the world. That's what gets you. And we talk all the time about these young players. And I also want to point out, it's my first time getting a chance to watch

Michael Thorpe-Boranson. And he's impressive as well. I mean, if you look at what he was able to do this week and in very limited starts this season on the PGA Tour, it applies to them and Nick Dunlap. They just show up as fully formed adults now on the PGA Tour. And that was the conversation with Trey Jones that,

whatever learning curve there used to be is gone. It's, this isn't sort of specific to a player anymore. There used to be a time when maybe there was one or two coming out of college every two or three years that could make the transition straight from college to the PGA tour. It seems like the vast majority of the top players in college golf are just ready. Now, if you give them the opportunity, which PGA tour you was doing a good job of that, that they can come out and make the most of it. And they play without any fear.

Yeah, a couple things on this. Like, when you look at Luke Clanton's skill set, had he had enough rounds to qualify on the PG Tour, like, he'd be second on the PG Tour in strokes gained approach. Like, he a phenomenal...

Ball striker. Sure, he can clean up his wedges, but I think that's true of any 21 or 22-year-old who's coming out of college. He can always clean that up. He has proven he is more than good enough to be a fully formed, fully fledged, fully exempt PGA Tour member, which he will be again after the conclusion of his senior season at Florida State. By all accounts, Luke Clanton will be remaining in college, finishing out his college career with the Seminoles.

I'd love to see Augusta National extend an invite. You know how much they sort of relish and cherish their amateurs at the Masters. Would love to see Luke Clanton get one of those invites as well. You mentioned sort of this crop of players who are fearless, who are ready, who are proven. And you look at 2025, the quality of these players who are, I think,

All of them, 23 or younger, whether it's going to be Gordon Sargent, who's finally going to be making his way to the pro ranks. He's already earned his PGA Tour card, essentially deferred it. He's struggled a little bit with his game right now at Vanderbilt. Nick Dunlap, already a winner on the PGA Tour, almost won another tournament. Michael Theodore-Bjornsson, who was number one in the PGA Tour University. Carl Villops, who was a standout player at Stanford, got his card in limited starts on the Korn Ferry Tour this summer, and obviously the number one player

for PG Tour U in 2025 will also make his way on the PG Tour. These players are ready because colleges understand now the importance of getting them ready, whether it's playing an elite schedule, playing on the hardest golf courses you could possibly fathom in the most difficult conditions. It's so competitive on these top squads just to crack the lineup or to be the number one guy. It's sort of an iron sharpens iron sort of mentality. The training facilities and the

money that these universities are pumping into their college golf programs with nutritionists and trainers and lifting and the equipment that can be optimized for a player's performance. Like it's all coalescing into a PGA tour that's skewing younger and younger and, and sort of creating these players who,

who are more prepared and ready to take on the challenge of being one of the world's best players right away. We hadn't seen that in a long time. Like Ricky was the first one who sort of came out. Jordan Spieth was a generational talent at his age. Even Scotty Sheffield, you know, needed, and Justin Thomas needed a year or two of apprenticeship before they made their way onto the PGA Tour. These guys are bold. They're fearless. Wouldn't surprise me at all if one or two of them sort of pulled that Ludwig Oberg approach

and sort of made that quick leap onto the Ryder Cup team in 2025. One other topic before we get out of here and start talking about Thanksgiving Rex was Tiger Woods announced he will not play in next week's Hero Will Challenge, a tournament that does benefit his foundation in the Bahamas. No real surprise there. He had the microdiscectomy procedure later this fall. Updates on his status have been scarce recently.

He will, however, still be meeting with the media early next week. You will be there before heading home after the pre-week festivities. What do you want to hear from Tiger? What are you expecting to hear? What would you like to hear? And is the PNC Championship still on the table with Son Charlie?

Yes, I think the PNC is definitely on the table for a number of reasons. One, two rounds. Two, he gets to ride in a golf cart. And three, he can lean on Charlie, who gets to play shorter tees. It all sets up well for him. That's his fifth major, let's be honest about it. So I wasn't surprised last night, Monday night, when we got an email from one of our bosses about the announcement that Tiger wasn't playing because I didn't anticipate it.

he was going to play. Like for every indication from the camp was he, he's not close to being ready to compete at least even at the hero world challenge. What I want to ask him really has nothing to do with his game. And I think this has been sort of,

The evolving relationship with Tiger Woods these years, there was always a time when the first 10 minutes of his press conferences were always filled with questions about his health and what his schedule might be like and what his expectations are. I expect that to be the last 10 minutes, if at all, because I think there's so many other things going on in the world of off right now that he is directly concerned.

responsible for. He is directly involved with, and we're talking about him being on the policy board and the negotiations with the public investment fund and the changes that you and I to the PGA tour just talked about it. We haven't gotten his thoughts on these things at all. His thoughts on if Ryder cup, us Ryder cup players should be paid. Like there is a litany of things that I would want to ask him long before I ever got to, Oh yeah. How's your back? I know it's, it's interesting. Cause that was, you know, in the mid 2010s,

when he was dealing with the back injury starting out, it was always, that was a topic of conversation because Tiger was still very much a foremost player on the PGA Tour. We have every metric available to us in terms of page views or video clicks and downloads. And people seem to care less about how Tiger is playing right now than ever before. And yet I would argue he might be at his most interesting moment

position just as sort of a global figure and sort of a mover and shaker in the golf world and what he has the potential to sort of reshape the pga tour for the future again i'm not anticipating he's going to be an open book and sharing what some of his reservations are with a potential deal with the saudi public investment fund what he's looking for out of a deal i'm not anticipating that but i think his vision for what the pga tour could and should look like you know sort of separate

From Piff involvement, I think would is certainly on the table and something that we need to hear from him. You know, we sort of hear from we certainly hear from the players are going to be marginalized by these changes. But how about a player who has dominated the sport for 25 years? What does he see as the potential path forward? What should golf fans be excited about?

in the future about the PGA tour. I think that's certainly on the table for Tiger. And this goes well beyond, look, we would always ask Tiger Woods sort of out of left field questions because he was Tiger Woods and you wanted to get his thoughts on all manner of things, just not in the world of golf, but in the world of sports, really in this particular case, this goes well beyond that. He's sitting in on these meetings. He will have a voice. He'll be, I don't want to overstate this, but he'll probably be the one who ultimately decides which way the policy board goes on this simply because of who he is and the voice that he has

In that room. So all of these are significant questions, not just because he's Tiger Woods. It's because he's a guy who actually has some sort of control that none of this isn't him whispering in Jay Monahan's ear anymore. This is him directly involved in this particular issue and him having his opinion one way or the other.

Yeah. And are there certain factions on the PGA tour policy board or on the transaction subcommittee? We see sort of Rory on one side is tiger dragging his feet, slowing down the progress. These are all things that hopefully when we speak next Wednesday,

uh, from the hero world challenge and you in the Bahamas, that we'll have some better insight. You are not in new Orleans wrecks for Thanksgiving. Very surprised by that. What is on the docket? What is your Turkey or Thanksgiving meal prep? Uh, having been new New Orleans last couple of years for Thanksgiving, I think, uh, bunkmate made it clear that we're going next year, that this is the end of, end of the road. And this has everything to do with, we have, you know, pretty much grown kids now. And so she doesn't want to leave them.

pretty much. She doesn't want to leave them. So that's why we haven't been going to New Orleans next year. Apparently she doesn't care if we leave them, we're going to New Orleans regardless. So what we're going to do is have just a traditional family Thanksgiving on Thursday, which I had a long conversation with Davis love about smoking a Turkey, having

have no interest in that. That seems like a lot of work. I'm not quite sure if I've got that one in me. So we'll cook the traditional turkey just in an oven, which is the way people do it. All right. You can hold your, you have that Graziano look on your face. And then we have like a Friendsgiving on Friday where it's kind of, I do meatballs. We just kind of do whatever we like the best.

you are not appealing to our potential barbecue or liquor sponsors by saying you're doing your Thanksgiving turkey in the oven. And that smoking turkey quote sounds like a lot of work. Yes, it is a lot of work. And as a man, we should take pride in what we're putting on the table. Thank you for asking what we're going to be doing this lovely, uh,

vinyl sided building is here at Reynolds Lake Oconee where we always head for Thanksgiving. I will be smoking a turkey and yes, it is a lot of work. It is a lot of prep, but when it turns out perfectly, it is certainly rewarding. We have a couple of friends, Rex, in the golf media world who have been reaching out, want to know what the process is

for doing a whole bird is, I don't want to name names because it could be embarrassing for them, but I'm happy to share on this podcast exactly what I'm doing. So right now we're recording this podcast on Tuesday morning, two days before Thanksgiving. Today is the day folks, happy brining day, because today is the day that you need to spatchcock your turkey, spatchcock

spatchcocking is cutting out the backbone, laying it flat so it cooks more evenly, and then put it in a 24-hour brine. You can either make your own. There are plenty that you can get from Publix or any of your local supermarkets. I do a brine for 24 hours, rinse the brine off. I'm sorry, I'm putting that in a briner bucket, putting it in the fridge, rinse it off after 24 hours. And then this is, I think, a crucial step, Rex.

You have to let it air dry in the fridge for 24 hours. Everyone's complaint with turkey is A, that it's flavorless and B, having rubbery skin, right? Those are always the two complaints that you hear about turkey. The one way to impart moisture and flavor is to brine, to inject, and to season.

And the way to ensure that you get crispy skin or at least try to get crispy skin is a cooking at a high enough temperature to 75 plus and then sort of air drying that skin in the fridge for 24 hours. So that's my prep over the next two days. Then I'll be slathering the whole bird and mayonnaise. You do not taste it. Don't worry. It's just a layer of fat. I'll be injecting with Creole butter.

I'll be seasoning with meat church voodoo. I'll be smoking on the Weber Smoky Mountain at 275 for about two hours until it hits 155 in the breast. Folks, do not go over 155. It will carry over cook. You've been cooking it for at least two hours. Don't worry. It will be perfectly safe to eat. Just hit it at 155. If you go over than that, you're going to dry out the bird and it is going to cost you and your family is going to mock you and you will be the subject of

of much scorn. All right. That is the Thanksgiving day bird prep. You're welcome in advance. We will have a full recap of Thanksgiving on next week podcast, as well as Rex's report in the hero world challenge and Tiger woods media appearance next Wednesday. I'll be in Connecticut after co-hosting golf today. And again, Rex will be in the Bahamas. Hope you have a great rest of your Thanksgiving week. Thanks so much for listening.

Thanks for the support. Like and subscribe. Tell your friends. Spread the gospel. The Golf Show Podcast with Brexton Lath is where it's at.

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