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the rsm classic actually inside the dog house which is located on the 17th green here at sea island golf club i was actually worried right we were gonna have to burn down the dog house if things did not go well on saturday night against tennessee fortunately georgia had the best game of the season carson beck was not throwing interceptions mike bobo dialing up a great offensive game plan defense did not allow a point in the second half so now we can rejoice

and relish in the presence of greatness here in the doghouse. I can always judge how your Saturdays are going based on how many text messages I get from you. And for the first half, I got nothing. It was crickets. 17 to 17 at the half, if I'm not mistaken? Yes, after going down to nothing. A little nervy? Yes. Were you a little bit? And I was a little nervy because we planned this out for quite a while. We planned to come up. We were going to do this in the doghouse. We came up here last year. We did it at our favorite barbecue place, just our property at Southern Soul. So we wanted to mix it up a little bit. But I was like, if Georgia loses...

What are we going to do? Like, what are we doing? I mean, I did enjoy the Southern Soul. Thanks to cameraman Mike Wolf, who was back with us this year, giving us a special shoot at the season finale. More on that, the RSM, the last week of the PG Tour regular season. First of all, Rex, let's begin across the pond.

Troy McIlroy winning in Dubai as he seemingly always does. Now a sixth race to Dubai title, tied for second all-time with Seve Ballesteros, two behind Colin Montgomery. You would think Rory in his age 35 season, that is still a goal that he can very much achieve. What are your thoughts now on Rory? It's technically worldwide victory number four.

You know, he did have the team victory with Shane Lowry as well, won a signature event on the PGA Tour, won in Dubai earlier in the year. Does the end of season title on the DP World Tour color the way that you're thinking about Rory's 2024? I think so, because he gave himself a B, which I thought was an interesting way for him to do that, because you can tell what's important to him. Clearly the majors are what matters to a player of that caliber. And so I don't know how much more this improves his own outlook,

Outlook towards this season is it a B+ now probably would be my guess but if you're looking big picture and he's really good at this He talked about it earlier in the week that he likes the legacy. He likes the idea of being tied with Seve right now He likes the idea as you pointed out of being mid 30s I have an opportunity to do something special become the most winningest European player ever most players don't think in that context

You know that. Like, they stay in their shelves. They're not going to think, all right, what's going to be my legacy as I get older. Rory has a very clear plan, and my guess is, even though the majors are still what they are, and they were still filled with disappointment, the U.S. Open being the primary example, no, I think this probably improves this year dramatically. It certainly is going to make the holidays a lot easier. Yeah, and I think we talked about it a couple weeks ago where...

Once you perform the way that Rory did in the major championships, you need a way to sort of justify your existence in playing worldwide golf and playing 27 times as Rory McIlroy did in 2024. Obviously, it was a massive disappointment how things turned out, particularly at Pinehurst over that last hour. And so you need to look as a way to rationalize, how did I actually play in 2024? Well, now he probably had the third best season.

In golf, you're tying obviously Scottie Scheffler, who is the presumed PGA Tour Player of the Year, and Xander Schauffele, who picked off his first two major championships. That's something that Rory can hang his hat on. He got as close as he has gotten to winning a major championship at the U.S. Open. Now it's about getting across the line. I was surprised afterward in his interview with Tim Barter of Sky Sports how emotional Rory was.

Rory was. That's why I think when you look at the totality of his 2024, I know we're going to touch on this on golf today, like this was an emotionally draining year for Rory. And everything that went on, on the golf course, the disappointment there, the family drama that was sort of circulating in the summer as well. He's still, even if he's sort of in an unofficial capacity or at least part of this transaction subcommittee, he's still in the throes

this PGA Tour live drama seemingly asked every time he meets a microphone, what's the world of golf going to look like? That has to take a toll, but I think he saw his year end positively. And that should almost be like a warning shot

for the rest of the golf world, was it not? - You think Scottie's sitting around worrying about next year? I don't think that's happening. - I think he noticed. I think he noticed the way that Rory has played over these past couple of weeks, and particularly now heading into 2025. - And I think most players, Scottie, Xander included, know that when Rory is playing well, he is a force. When he's driving the ball the way we know he can drive the ball, he can absolutely dominate a field. He used to win majors by multiple strokes, so it's not as though he can't do it. I would circle back around, and you kind of glossed over that

bit the family drama was he and his wife filed for divorce yeah South Florida and then they decided gloss over I just wanted to dive too deep I want to go too deep into it and then a few weeks later decided not to get divorced for whatever reason you're right emotional is probably exactly the way I would put his year because of everything that's transpired more on the golf course than off the golf course but

Let's just go back to Pinehurst on that Sunday afternoon. And he storms out of the parking lot and he needs a week essentially walking around New York City to get right. I mean, he sort of just wandered around and thought about where he was in his career and what he wanted to accomplish.

I will say that yes, what he was able, finishing the year this way certainly should set him up for success going into next year, but he still seems to be searching for the formula. It's been a decade since he's won a major championship. - I mean, yeah, he's searching for a formula, he's gonna tweak his schedule again next year, probably gonna trim three or four events.

that he played this year on the PGA Tour. I trimmed that off of his schedule for 2025. It's clearly not a physical component. Obviously, there's something that Rory's trying to change in his golf swing to make it more efficient, to make it more reliable in crunch time. It almost seems like Rory's trying to get his game and his body motion and his action in such a place where sort of the mental game just sort of falls in line with that.

Like, Scottie Scheffler is so good because his ball striking is so good. He knows his ball striking is going to be good each and every time that he tees it up. That sort of lessens the burden that he has on him mentally. Roy seems to be getting in a similar vein as well. How many people are going to lock themselves in a closet now and decide, I'm not going to look where the ball goes. I'm just going to work on body movement. That sounds like the perfect swing thought for me. It certainly cannot hurt. I also was struck, as we look ahead to Roy Rex, like...

Brody has been an amazing player on the worldwide stage for more than 15 years. I mean, he has lived inside the top 20 through injuries, 20 dramas. I mean, 10, 10, mostly he had a brief dropout, but like through slumps, through sort of niggling injuries, through off course drama, through sort of this existential crisis, the PJ tours facing, like he has always been a great player.

Like, this was a nod, I thought, to Rory's longevity, that even though he was not particularly happy with this game, he still produced a four-win season in 2024. It's remarkable that he's still doing it at this high of a level. Someone told me this stat the other day, and I tend to believe it because of the source, but the average career for a PGA Tour player is two and a half years. That's the average career. Now, there's a lot of guys who get the Tour card for one year, and obviously they bring down the average. It's like an NFL running back.

Kind of. Two and a half years. Your knee gets blown out. Maybe you blow an Achilles. Shoulder gets screwed up. Who knows? Kind of, because what you look at right now is Langer. At 67 years old, he wins for that.

gazillionth time on the PGA Tour champions and you just anticipate that, oh, you can do this forever. Tom Brady did it in football, but no one else really does it in football. In this particular game, you do it forever and that's not necessarily the case. If it's two and a half years, and to your point, look at what he's done. He's just not kept his tour card. That in itself is pretty impressive. I don't even know, he's maybe missed the Tour championship once in his career? - I wanna say it was 2020. That's the only year that he did not have a win.

Otherwise, he's guaranteed to put two or three wins worldwide on the schedule. And we did this. I think we've done this relatively recently. If you look at the number of players right now who have multiple PGA Tour victories, who is the next one to get to 20 victories? That's the benchmark. That's when you get lifetime status on the PGA Tour. There's a handful. Scotty and Xander, certainly atop the list. We put Morikawa on there. Justin Thomas is knocking on the door. He's knocking on the door. He's not moving along as quickly as he had. As he was, yeah.

But the point is, is there was a time when you had Phil Mickelson's and Davis Love's and certainly Tiger Woods. You had a lot of 20-time winners, and that's the benchmark. EJ, Ernie, I mean, the list goes on and on. I mean, it's getting tougher.

It's getting deeper. They're gonna impeach it towards deeper than it ever has. It's going to be a more difficult task. I think it just shows how great the Scotties and Xanders and Rorys really are to actually clear that benchmark. Would you give Roy a B? B plus? I'd give Roy a B plus. Yeah. I mean, it was basically four bad holes.

cost him a major championship. He was as close as he has been in a very, very long time. All right, so let's keep it moving. Another team that Rory McIlroy is almost assuredly going to be a part of is the 2025 European Ryder Cup team. Some reporting from our buddy James Corrigan of The Telegraph. Last week with the PGA of America, pending board approval, ready to pay

the US players a $400,000 stipend per player. That's interesting in itself, and we'll certainly get into that. But how about Rory, sort of speaking for the European team, saying, "No, no.

You can keep your money, maybe divert those funds elsewhere, give it to the European Challenge Tour. We don't want anything to sort of mess up the nucleus and the chemistry and sort of the team vibes that we have. What did you make of sort of this pay-for-play drama that is now circulating around the 2025 Rada Cup?

I wrote about it in the Friday column and I had a very strong opinion and I ended up on the wrong side of social media on this one. So it's going to be an unpopular... You got ratioed. I did get ratioed. This is going to be a strong opinion and I do believe it and it's not going to be a popular one, but they should be paid. And we just had this conversation a few weeks ago about the PG of America is going to charge $750 for essentially a general admission one day ticket to...

to the right. - Oh, I know. My wife was in the lottery and she's like, "Hey, what do you think? Should I pay for this?" I said, "If you can potentially resell it for more, yes." - I mean, she 100% would be able to resell it. My point was, last I heard, I think they're trending towards selling out. And if they will sell out, then you can argue $750 isn't enough. And I think this is part of the disease that's infecting professional golf right now, if I'm being honest.

Everybody wants to act like a juvenile. Like all of this is pro bono work. Like this is all charities. There are charities involved and the PGA Tour has been at the top of that food chain for a long time. That's not the case anymore. You have private equity involved in the PGA Tour. That's a business. They want to return on their business. The PGA of America

It's going to charge $750 because that's a business. That's how they generate income. And for the players to stand up and say, yes, we want to be paid too, the players slash the labor, yes, of course, they should be paid. They should get their piece of the pie. I have nothing against this. Again, they're not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. Now, I will say I agree with them. But they've done it for 100 years in the Ryder Cup. They've done it out of the goodness of their heart. Why now? Because this is the age of athlete-player empowerment.

And I don't think that we're going to find a better example of exactly what that means than where we are right now. Expecting them to do this and not get paid when the PGA of America makes an enormous amount of money from this. The PGA Tour makes an enormous amount of money to this. The PGA of America has to pay the tour rights fees for their players to participate in that event. So the only people that aren't getting paid is the players, the product.

in this particular case. Of course they would. The only part of the story that I kind of golfed at was $400,000? That's what I'm saying. So just to play devil's advocate. That's an 11th place finish at a signature event. 13th out of the players championship. It's a laughable sum that they're actually giving them. Kind of.

relative terms. And I hate saying that because someone's going to... My God, we would all kill for $400,000. Yes, but if you're looking at this, Scotty Scheffler made $75 million this year on the golf course, like not even counting. So $400,000 is not that big of a deal. And you're looking at like revenue sharing for the entire Ryder Cup, like cutting them $400,000 per person is not equal. I guess to play devil's advocate here, Rex, is players have 51 other weeks a year to

to make money. They can go play literally anywhere around the globe, assuming they get permission from the PGA Tour. Can't you just for one week just suck it up and play for country, play for pride, play for each other, play for something bigger than yourself? I think Rory's point was the Ryder Cup and the Olympics are the most purest form of competition because you don't get paid. And I would actually come in on the other side that because the Olympics would be so messy, I agree with you there.

Like, look, this is a chance to truly represent your country in the Olympics, the biggest sporting event there is in all of sports. So that one I get, because it would be so messy. But in this particular case, we're talking about so much money. And the idea that, no, the players, you just have to be expected to show up, that you don't get anything. You come, and if you lose, you're going to get beat up. If you lose your match, whatever the case may be. It drives me nuts that the PGA of America wants to charge $750 a ticket.

And everyone went nuts. And they're not doing this for free. They're in this as a business. They're in this to make money. So yes, I see where you're coming from, but no, I don't have that expectation because I wouldn't want anyone to have the same expectation on me. It does seem a little odd that one team would be getting paid and the other team doesn't.

Right? Now, yes, they can say they want to divert their funds elsewhere, they want to put it into the slush fund for the European Tour, they want to save some tournaments, however you want to sort of move that money around, which I think he factored in like $5 to $8 million, essentially, which is not a small sum. But, however, it does seem inequitable, and it also seems, Rex, like this is teed up for the European team.

where you have the greedy Americans who are desperate to get paid regardless of playing on the richest circuit in the world versus the European teams who are just these gritty guys who are putting on their hard hats, they're taking their lunch pails, they're just going to work. They're just playing for each other. You can see those divergent storylines. And Rory and Luke Donald and John Rahm and Terrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry, those guys have to be licking their chops

knowing that the greedy Americans, if things do not go well, it's going to be absolutely combustible. Now I made my argument, and I will say this on the other side, I don't like my allies here. So to your point, I don't like the American players who do want to get paid, because for all of the reasons you pointed out, and Rory was very quick to doing it, and he won't be the last. They will weaponize this, and it'll be posters everywhere.

in the team room about "Beat the Greedy Americans" and that's the message they'll send to the public and it's brilliant. Like, Luke Donald is not going to miss this opportunity. Optically, it's a nightmare for the US radicals. And it's gonna be in New York City. And someone's going to end up buying your wife's tickets for ten times what your wife paid for them. And they're probably gonna be a little angry about that. It's going to be an ugly scene. Not at your house, 'cause you'll get all the money. Of course. Actually, she never got those tickets.

some sort of snafu in the lottery system, I do have an email out to Julius Mason, our friend, the Fiji of America. Hopefully we can get that remedied. We asked for listener questions. I wanted to take a break. We asked for listener questions at last podcast. People apparently loved our Caitlin Clark episode. Like, you look at the YouTube comments. It's the first time we'd ever talked WNBA on the podcast. First time we'd ever talked Caitlin Clark and her impact on golf. Welcome, all of our new fans. Yeah.

and all of our new listeners. But here was one that we did get from Isaac Quinton. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that last name correctly. There's two in there. Yes. Give us an unforeseen, off-the-radar name with potential to play in the next Ryder Cup since that's what we're talking about right now. We actually had a meeting before we did. Who's going to be getting paid, in other words, or not? Or not.

We actually had a meeting about it before this podcast, which we never do. Long-time listeners will understand. So you have an idea of what I'm going to say, and I'm going to just use him as an example. Bryson DeChambeau, or any live player, is going to play for the U.S. team. I said unforeseen or off the radar, and Bryson DeChambeau, world number 10, reigning U.S. Open champion, is not...

off the radar and he certainly would not be unforeseen. He'll have exactly four opportunities to stay inside the tent, that world number tent. You and I both know it. It's going to be difficult. Brooks Koepka did it. He did. And it's going to be really hard for one of those guys to do it. It's going to be really hard for one of those guys to do it. Keegan Bradley said, I want to take the 12 best players regardless of tour formation. Now it's a little different for the Europeans because Jon Rahm and Hatton and the rest of them have access to the DP World Tour events as long as they play. For now. Yeah, for now.

as long as they pay their fines. For any American, though, any American to qualify for the U.S. team, I'm not talking about a pick. I'm talking about qualifying for the U.S. team. It would have to be considered out of the blocks because you have such a small window. You only have a finite amount of time to pull this off, and we've seen how difficult it was. So I'm going to go with any American, Bryson, Brooks, probably not DJ, but you get the idea.

Patrick Reed. Sure. Patrick Reed, if he has a little bit of a surge in play. That is your unforeseen off the radar. Isaac Quinton is going to be furious that you had a cop out. Isaac, you know where I'm coming from. Isaac, I'll give you some names. You know where I'm coming from. How about Maverick McNeely coming off the best season of his career right on the cusp

of the top 50. He's going to be playing in at least the first two signature events of 2025. Maybe he can parlay that into an even bigger jump. How about Michael Thjorm Bjornsson? I know you love when I talk about these young, inexperienced players who clearly have big game. Ludwig Oberg sort of made that leap quickly following a decorated career at Texas Tech. How about Michael Thjorm Bjornsson? He of PGA Tour University Royalty.

Maybe he can make that U.S. Ryder Cup team. On the European side, how about a disblast in the past? A player who will have PGA Tour status in 2025, Matteo Manicero. I was shocked by this. Has actually never played

on a European Ryder Cup team. He was, I mean, the it kid a decade ago, sort of in a similar vein as Jordan Spieth, up to 80th in the world, three wins in the last two years. Now that he has PGA Tour status, who knows? Maybe the resurgence can continue on the Ryder Cup. Some big news is going to be happening, potentially not behind us here on 17, but more at the RSM Classic in general with the PGA Tour policy board vote on Monday night when this podcast airs.

episode drops, Rex. It will be old news by then. We're expecting a PGA Tour memo. You have been talking for weeks. You expect this to be greenlit, rubber stamped, whatever phrase you want to use. I guess the big picture question is when you're trimming down your membership from 125 to 100, when you're eliminating some Monday qualifiers, when you're sort of redistributing some of the points in the signature events,

the pace of play procedures that are going to be put in place. What do you think these moves, assuming they are going to be approved by the PGDR policy board, what do you think that means for fan interest? You think it's a positive?

it's a positive development for fan interest or do you think it's negative the direction the PGA Tour is going? I will say because this dovetails with what they've done with the signature events and there has been a measure of pushback among the fans. The idea being that I'm not quite sure 70 players is the magical elixir here. I'm not sure 80 players is the magical elixir. I think that's something they're probably going to continue to look at. I don't think immediately fans will care one way or the other because the guy that finished 101st

on the points list next year probably wasn't going to get many headlines anyway if we're being honest. I think where you're going to see it is down the road and we've had this conversation. Five years ago if we were sitting at this table you might or may not have thrown out a name Scotty Schiffler as an unforeseen American coming out of college. Off the radar type. Yeah, off the radar type because no one really saw that coming and it's because the

the tour provided those pathways for Scottie Scheffler and the other young stars to do it. I think the concern here, certainly among players and observers, is are you making this too closed of a shop that maybe whatever the next Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele is, they slip through the cracks somehow because you're contracting the number of players who actually have a way to do this. Yeah, I think there's a difference between cutthroat and competitive play.

and being closed, right? Or contracting too much if you're the PGA Tour. 100 fully exempt tour members is still a ton. Yeah. Like, I understand the belief that fewer players means fewer storylines.

But if you're the PGA Tour, you already have hooked in your hardcore, dedicated fans who are going to be tuning in week in, week out, regardless if it's the RSM or the Masters. You already have those fans who are already deeply invested in those 100 players anyway. What you're essentially doing is trying to streamline the process for everyone else. Make it as easy to follow as possible, which is what every sport is.

is doing they're trying to make it shorter they're trying to make it cleaner they're trying to make it less messy that's that's big picture 30 000 foot view that's what the pga tour is trying to do and look they can always change it right like i think they're going to 100 i think the biggest surprise though rex is that they haven't staggered this right like it's a it's a steep cut off and it's immediate they're not staggering it to 121 year 115 110 105 100 they're literally cutting off

25 guys right at the knees. I think that was a little bit of a surprise. I think that'll be a little bit of a shell shock. But when you look to 30, 25, 10 off the coin for you. Yeah, 35. Sure. Good point there. I think it makes 2025 more compelling.

all of a sudden if you're a golf fan because there's going to be 10 fewer spots on the corn fairy tour so now all of a sudden that tour becomes more competitive more interesting to watch and certainly on the pga tour you're looking at guys who if you're looking in sort of that 101 to 125 range like

There's some names in there. It's Matt Kuchar, Nikolai Hogard, Nate Lashley has popped up. Your boy Ryan Fox is sort of in that range as well. Chris Goddard won an opposite field event on the PGA Tour. Those guys have had decent seasons. Maybe they pop up in terms of a Matt Kuchar at the Wyndham Championship where he had a good week there. But they haven't had sustained level seasons.

excellence throughout the course of the season and those are the guys the PGA Tour in particular is targeting. Not the one-week stories, not the two-week stories, but more guys who have popped up

consistently over an eight month season. Two things. One, an observation and two, a correction. The observation is when are we shaving again? Not going to happen? I can't imagine a scenario This is the first time you and I have been in person since Montreal for the President's Cup. I'm not sure I've shaved since then. Until my wife tells me no. Everything in my life

is geared toward making sure that I'm attractive for my wife. And? So far, so good. And that's working for you? Loves it. All right. I don't have much hair up top.

but it is it is thick and manly and the second correction is and we we do have to do this as much love as we got for last week's podcast we appreciate all the comments there is a pro-am event on the lpg tour the thing you were so passionate about and wanting they actually start their season is my understanding of the prime event so i'll uh it is uh shout out to our pr guru jamie palatini yes diamond resorts is the kickoff event for the lpga

But again, it's during football season. There's other events going on in the PGA Tour. Dominate the landscape if you're the LPGA. Kaitlyn Clark wouldn't even be able to play Rex in that event because obviously she would be in the throes of the WNBA season.

Do you have any thoughts on your faux pas? No, not on my faux pas, on the situation that's going to be unfolding on the PGA Tour moving forward. I was talking with your boy Matt McNeely last week when we had him on golf today. He brought up a really good point right when we were in break about this or next year is going to be the most pressure-packed year on the PGA Tour, probably in the history of the PGA Tour. And 25, 35 cards probably didn't sound like a lot, but

This goes back to another conversation I had with a player at the end of the regular season this year, where this particular player finished inside the 125 but didn't qualify for the playoffs. And this player was angry, saying it's the worst year of his career. And I actually had to look it up while I was on the phone with the player and be like, no, technically it's the fourth best year of your career. It's the goal post.

moving and this is a dramatic movement of the goalpost. And again, I think what you'll end up with is a product that you won't be able to tell the difference between what it is now and what it will be in 2026. I think the only real concern is those Scottie Schefflers of the world. How do you make sure that those players don't fall through the cracks? Yeah, and there's been an argument that you look at some of the top tier players on the PGA Tour, they kind of fell in that 21 to 30 range

on the Korn Ferry Tour and had that been the case where it's only 20 cards, maybe those guys never make it on PG Tour, maybe it takes it longer to do so. So I can sort of see that argument. My counter to that would be by trimming to 20 cards on the Korn Ferry Tour.

corn for tour for the p_g_ tour those guys now actually have a realistic opportunity to retain their planes that have a true car for for next season it's not this the pseudo card we're sort of making do with twelve to fifteen stars and still for playing p_g_a_ toward work to make sure you're getting on there these guys will have every opportunity if they play well to earn their card it's at the top fifty make sure it's on top one hundred it move on that way that we might counter that also don't love seeing the monday qualifiers

trimmed. They're not outright cut. Like, they're still going to have Monday qualifiers like they're having this week at the RSM. It's just going to be at fewer tournaments. Pechator's counter to that, of course. Those guys have a very little hit rate. They do. Right. They're not turning in top five finishes. Maybe they made the cut. 70-something percent, I believe, missed the cut. More likely. You don't have a lot. Uh,

And just real quick, the vote is Monday night with the policy board. My understanding is it will be passed, but there could be adjustments, addendments to it. Certainly, we have seen over the last few weeks player pushback. And I think the PGA Tour probably anticipated this. That's why they got out in front of it with the memo they sent the players a few weeks ago. But if it doesn't go through as is, I would not be surprised. Because something tells me when they get in the room and they start actually deciding, okay, we're either going to do this or not, there might be some adjustments. Yeah, it's the PAC folks.

Correct, who did all the legwork. Yeah, absolutely. And now they're pushing it to the board level where the likes of Patrick Cantlay as well as Peter Malnati are going to be bandering sort of around those topics. We are here, Rex, at the season finale, the last event finally in the PGA TOUR season. I've always been pushing for the fall to be shortened. You can't have a Q-School-esque season of consequence and meaning. I mean, this is shorter. I don't know how much shorter you want. If it takes eight or nine tournaments. I mean, come on. It's an eight or nine event fall season.

trimming it is the easiest way to make it more meaningful. Nonetheless, you are here to document all the happenings. What is one thing you are most looking forward to watching this week since you are the Golf Central reporter? As you pointed out, it's a seven-week Q School. It's eight events, but I didn't count those as a championship. So certainly you're going to be watching those guys right around 125. Wesley Bryan played well in Bermuda last week. He moved to that bubble position, 125. The one that has me interested in is Joel Damon.

because we talked about him during Zozo. He got the sponsor exemption to go there, and I believe he dropped to 123 this week, though. He dropped three spots. He's currently 124 heading into the season finale. So those are the ones you want to watch because that's where the emotions come from. And this is where, haven't covered any of the fall events, because this is where everything seems to happen. This is where the stories are. If you want to do storytelling, if you want to be the Golf Central reporter, or Collie Brintley will be up here over the weekend to record it for GolfChannel.com, this is where

where careers are made. And as I pointed out, if you have a tour card going into next year, you already have a bit of a leg up. At least you have an opportunity, because it's only going to get more and more difficult to get onto the PGA Tour. One of the criticisms I've made of the PGA Tour is that there's still too many lifelines. And I'd love to see it even more dramatic. And I think that's what the PGA Tour misses here, where

I want a 125 complete cutoff. Not this conditional status of 126 to 150. Those guys are still going to get a dozen starts on the PGA Tour. Most likely you can also get sponsor exemptions as well. I think true relegation and promotion, like more severe consequences...

or rewards for good and poor play, I think is the direction they would go. When it comes to Joel Damon, and look, I love Joel Damon. I think everyone loves Joel Damon. We love documenting him. I did a good feature on him last year. I absolutely love what he stands for. To me, if Joel Damon loses his PGA Tour card, he's probably going to be just fine.

He's going to still get starts. He still has past champion status. He could have any media job in golf media that he wants to. I don't think that's going to be the case necessarily for other players. Other guys right down the bubble, like a Daniel Berger, who has come back this season from a pretty serious back injury. That's something that I want to monitor. Hayden Springer had a good story. He advanced through Q School last year, sort of on that bubble. Pearson Cooney, former top-ranked amateur in the world at Texas, number one player.

Alejandro Toste almost won a golf tournament in Houston. Just shows how you need to sort of sustain that excellence. He's number 136, and Gary Woodland, our boy, 139 as well. I think it touches on a larger discussion, though, Rex, but we are in Sea Island. It is sort of a relaxing and yet tense atmosphere at the season finale, but you love this week. I mean, this is, we always joke, this is like your fifth major, if not the sixth. What do you love about this week?

so much about coming here. Why are the vibes so high for you when it comes? I think anyone that's ever been just to the community. Like, you don't even have to be a golf fan, and we'll get into the golf part of it. It's a very golfy place, and there's some real high-quality golf courses around here. But anyone who's just been to the community, it has a laid-back feel to it. We don't go to, you mentioned it, like, last time we were together, it was in Montreal. Not exactly a laid-back golf community going on there. Nasty. Atlanta before. Occasionally nasty. Uh,

the Quebecers were not the nicest folks in the world. I'm with you on that one. Go back before that and it's Atlanta. Again, not really a laid back golf community. Memphis, I think you went to the BMW Championship. Keep going back. You don't go to places like this. Hilton Head would be the only example I can kind of give it to you. And I remember way back in the day when Disney would have been the last event on the

BGA tour schedule and how guys, even if you were fighting for your job, you still went to Disney with your family and you still kind of made a vacation out of it. Now, this is what they do here. You'll see it, like you and I are gonna go try to play some golf this afternoon. You'll just see it throughout the entire community. And then you factor the golf into it. You had never been to this golf course before, but without any wind, it's so much fun to play. Now we never get it that way for the tournament,

but it's a really enjoyable experience you and I are going across the island later this afternoon to play Frederica it's one of my favorite places in the world to go yes support the logo as you typically do I think they I heard it's a good hang is this true that Frederica actually has our YouTube channel running podcast uh on on repeat that's right and they don't like that appreciate the gesture whatever that is yeah that's Turtleson a shout out Turtleson thank you so much uh for the apparel do you think that works though Rex like does does Sea Island work

as the last regular season stop? Or should the PGA TOUR sort of lean into the drama? Should they lean into the entertainment and put this on the West Coast? Put this in prime time on the East? Put it at an even more difficult golf course? Maybe it's more photogenic? Like, what do you think? Like, is this a good spot to determine PGA TOUR status?

I do because even though the golf course is pretty user-friendly without wind. I made the caveat. And it's going to be windy. It's going to be cold this weekend. Since they moved to November, that's kind of the MO, where you end up with, you can have a really, really bad weather day. And look, as much as we love being here, as much as I love being here, and just the vibe of the island, I still think you get that. To your point, yes, if you moved it to the West Coast and you finished this up in primetime,

That would be brilliant. Like of all your harebrained ideas, that one I actually like. Yeah, like I don't like sleepiness for the season finale. It's like an LPGA Pro-Am. Why don't they do that? Seriously. Just got to lean into it. Again, me and Cobo for that one. Sorry to all my friends, particularly Christina Lance at the LPGA. We'll be back next week, Rex, for a full recap of the RSM Classic. He won 125 cards.

that will be doled out at the end of this week. We'll also have a full recap of our round at Frederica and our death match. Surely that will be some high-quality competition. But as always, thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. You guys are the drill. NBCSports.com slash golf for all the latest news, notes, and nuggets. We'll be back next week. How do you modernize vulnerable legacy mission software when it takes all your resources to keep it running?

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