Low scores, less carnage. Has PGA National gone soft?
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is the winner of the Cognizant Classic. After making the cut on the number, took advantage of a couple back nine miscues from Jake Knapp and some stalled runs from some of the other contenders. Rex, what was your biggest takeaway from Sunday at PGA National?

I think Jake Knapp surprises me when you got a guy who shot 59 to start the week. Expectations are pretty high and we all know what he can do, especially on a golf course like PGA National. We're going to talk a little bit how easy it was playing, but still you've got to go out and hit your golf ball. So I think that one surprises me, not only that he didn't end up winning, but he ended up, I think he played his way out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week because via the Aon 5 and Aon 10. So that's pretty shocking when you consider that.

He already has a pretty good resume. Expectations for him are pretty high. However, I will go to the other side of this. And look, the fixation now among professional golf is on the signature events for all the reasons that we're going to see next week. And that's going to be an elite field playing on a historic golf course, Mr. Prommel's golf course, all of those things. But when you get a story like this, I think you and I both, it resonates at least a little bit because you had a guy that just made the cut.

Just on the number. Had to grind it out on Friday afternoon just to be around for the weekend. Starts the final round four-stroked back. I'm not quite sure even if he's deep down inside being honest with himself, he would admit that, yeah, I thought I could win. I'm not even quite sure if Joe Highsmith would agree to that right now. And he shoots 64-64 on the weekend to get his first PGA Tour victory. We're going to have Brad Faxon on.

in a minute. But I was absolutely blown away by the interview that he did with our colleague Damon Hack when he talked about, no, I really wasn't nervous. He got ahead of myself a little bit on the back nine and sort of had to settle down. But I wasn't nervous. That does not sound like a first-time winner to me. But I think this is, to your point, a perfect

situation where a player who has not been there before can do so without expectations and then sort of exceed even what he thought was possible this is a player who has struggled mightily on the greens on the pga tour and what he did on the weekend again well out of contention was 135 feet of putts made on saturday shot 64 led the field in putting and on sunday the biggest round of his life

Coming from behind and chasing down Jake Knapp, made 96 feet worth of putts, fourth in the field, shot another 64. This is a player who, and Joe Highsmith, can certainly cook. I covered the 2021 NCAA Championships at Greyhawks. This is a player who's sort of scuffling going into that championship, hits an incredible shot, goes 3-0 in match play, helped Pepperdine win the national championship. This is a player who did not play particularly well on the PGA Tour last year. What does he do in the fall? Finishes in the top 10 twice.

Top 25 in all of his events. Ends up getting his PGA Tour card for 2025. Had not done much of anything to this point. Plays decently last week in Mexico, finished in the top 20, and now he is a winner on the PGA Tour. To me, though, the biggest takeaway for me

What was Jake Knapp? This is in particular the shot that he hit into 11. This is a player who maybe wasn't in complete command or control of his golf swing. You know, I always find it funny, Rex, that people will look to the 59 that he shot on Thursday. And, you know, how how can you back up a low round with another good one? Oftentimes that is the aberration. Oftentimes that's the anomaly.

It's not, how do you back it up? It's, you know, how do we just get this thing into the house at this point? And shooting 70, 68, 72, the rest of the way is kind of what I expected Jake Knapp to do. Now, what I did not expect him to do was to hit the pitching wedge into the water on 11 when he had the lead, when you know that you cannot miss. And he talked to reporters afterward, Jake Knapp did, and said, look, it was a, it was a mishit.

You know, if he had to do it all over again, obviously you're blasting that 30 feet long. If he had to do all over again with the ball somewhat submerged in the hazard short of 11 green, he would take a harder swing to make sure that you're getting it out there just to take six or in this case, seven out of the equation. You know, that was the golf tournament right there. It takes them out of not just for Cognizant Classic, the Arnold Palmer Invitational as well. This one for Jake Knapp is certainly going to be stinging.

And I do want to go back to Thursday because you're right. It's on that particular golf course to shoot a 59 is really impressive to the point that I actually did a deep dive. He became it was the 15th round sub 60 on the PGA Tour 14th player to do it. If you get it twice as it somehow that that's easier. Fifty eight and a fifty nine. But statistically, I wanted to see how this one stacked up to the other. Not great. Not great.

But not terrible. And I will say this, and it's probably strokes gained total is what I ended up falling back on, figuring that that's the best way to do it. And by far, Jim Furyk's 58 is by far statistically the best round ever shot. If you look at what it is, I think he picked up more than 12 strokes.

on the field. Jake Knapp picked up 9.6 shots on the field, which is in the upper third of if you're breaking these down. And I guess the conversation can turn to our sub 60 rounds, even historical now on the PGA tour. I think they're noteworthy. I'm not quite sure. Yeah. I don't know that they're historical anymore, but by comparison, Scotty's 59 was much better. At least statistically that was 10 and a half shots better than the rest of the field. So I think if you put it relative to where he was, uh,

I think only because it's PGA national, there's always going to be that star, not an asterisk, a star next to it, because we can sit and think about the Greenbrier or TBC river Highlands, or not for YLA at Sony open when JT did it, all of these other courses that have given up sub 50 rounds. You're like, I'm sub 60 rounds. You're like, yeah, I could see that coming. If you'd asked me at the beginning of the week, well, there's going to be a 59 this week. There's no way like it just doesn't happen. Now the golf course was playing much easier than it has historically, but that one's still pretty impressive.

I know. And it just, it makes me sad more than anything else. Like this was, this was one of the first tournaments that I covered as a golf journalist covering the old Honda classic and,

Tiger played there, made the spirited run shot 62. Roy McIlroy won there to get to number one in the world. Like it felt like a big deal. It felt like a happening. It felt like shooting something in the low to mid 60s was like a monumental achievement. It certainly seems like PGA National has been defanged. And like, I know you can't control the weather. I know it rained earlier in the week.

the wind didn't blow as hard in South Florida as it typically does. But Jake Knapp's 59 is not going to go down, Rex, at the end of the year as like one of the best rounds of the year. And that would have seemed unfathomable on January 1. Oh, I disagree. No, absolutely. I still, no, I'm way off. And I'm also going to circle back around. And the golf course played under par, but less than half a stroke under par. By comparison, it was the lowest scoring day ever.

Last year, PGA Nationals, I'm talking about for the week. It was 70.51 for the week. So less than half a stroke on the par. By comparison, it was 1.75 strokes on the par last year. So by comparison, last year was easier. Last year is the year that should have made you sad. This should have been a rebound year if we're being honest. No, I'm just.

I'm just depressed. This is not the same champions course of all those special things that happened here, as you pointed out. I mean, we have seen days where it is just insanely brutal. A lot of the top players don't play this tournament because that golf course is so hard. And maybe, I guess, you pointed out all the obvious reasons. There was rain earlier in the week. We didn't get nearly as much wind. And the rough.

was down and it was, it was overseeded. It was overseed. The Bermuda was, it's a lot easier to chip off of. It's a lot easier to be aggressive out of all these things factored into. Yes, it played easier, but I don't think it was easy by any stretch of the imagination.

nation 19 under par won the golf tournament that's the lowest winning total ever at pj national 38 players wrecks were double digits under par as we mentioned joe has been shot 64 64 on the weekend to win bermuda grass you and i both live in florida is so hard and so the decision to overseed i can understand as a resort golf course like you want to improve

the quality of the golf course throughout the entire year. And so I, I totally get that Brown and splotchy doesn't necessarily look good on television, but the decision to oversee, not just in the rough, but also in the fairways and the green surrounds, like just makes it so much easier. There's not as much unpredictability with the lies. It's easier from the fairway. We're not trying to necessarily pinch it like you typically would and tightly moan, uh,

Bermuda Fairways, it's easier, as you mentioned, to save par around the greens. But the whole vibe of the Cognizant just isn't the same over the past couple years. The hospitality areas that surround the Bear Trap, in particular the 17th hole, are not as big anymore. The tournament director told the Palm Beach Post earlier in the week, the demand just doesn't support

that sort of infrastructure anymore. And it's depressing to me because South Florida is now the golf Mecca, particularly for PGA Tour players. That is where the vast majority of the elite players are residing. And to not have a premier event in these players' backyards just feels like a huge swing and a miss. And so when you're trying to look at what this reconfigured PGA Tour schedule could look like,

a signature event has to be in south florida come to where the players are whether that's at trump dural and that gets sort of reintegrated back to the pg tour schedule or they find another venue or make the signature event and force the top players to be there it just feels like a huge swing and a miss to me rex this is not going to age well for me i can feel it already but i'm gonna go ahead and say it south florida fans are not very good sports fans either either i'm gonna go ahead and say we've all seen those those were happening days it was

Not, but we all, we've seen all the pictures of even when the Miami heat were winning people leaving at halftime, even when they were a successful team, even when they had LeBron and they were winning NBA championships. We all know what the attendance is at dolphins games. They're just not very good sports fans in that area of the country. But you know what they do do? They play a lot of golf.

Cause there's a lot of golf courses. You play a lot of golf and there is something to be said for when I was there earlier this week on Monday and Tuesday, it is a different vibe. And I think I'll, I'll go with you on that one that it did make me sad because there was a glory days of this event when it showed up at PGA national. It was before that it was spiraling. It had been to five or six bad golf courses, a couple of TPCs down in South Florida. It wasn't getting good fields. It was probably going to fall off the schedule and they moved it to PGA national, which was a championship championship.

quality golf course. They did it during a time in the history of the professional game when players were starting to move to South Florida and Jack Nicklaus and Barbara Nicklaus got involved with the hospital. All of those things sort of converged to create that vibe that you remember earlier in your career. Cause earlier in my career, and I just told this story this week,

It was not a good event. That was the first event that our former boss, the late Jeff Babineau, sent me to in South Florida, TPC Heron Bay. I'm not even quite sure it's even, oh yes, that's the look on your face you should have. It just, it was spiraling. It was not a good tournament and they really revived it. And I'll give Ken Kennerly and his staff so much credit because they did a good job of turning it into exactly what you remember. It was an event for the community and the players started to flock there. However, as the tour schedule has changed,

They have to take some weeks off. And I actually think it was Brad Faxon who we're going to have on later, who did a really good job of pointing out during the telecast this week that there was a time when it made perfect sense to play what was the Honda Classic right around the time you were playing Doral.

to get ready to go to the Players' Championship. Everything seemed to fit together perfectly. Now everything's a bit more disjointed, for lack of a better term, because of the way the signature events have turned the schedule into these players have to play in specific time zones. And yes, some of them are going to add. Ricky Fowler, for example, is going to add the occasional Cognizant, but it's not going to happen very often. Make the Cognizant Classic great again.

That is my stump speech for 2025 and beyond. Speaking of South Florida, South Florida native and Luke Clanton did earn Rex's PGA Tour card after the NCAA championships in May.

The Florida State junior will be eligible to take up PGA Tour membership. He got the 20th and final point that he needed through the PGA Tour University Accelerator Program at PGA National. Your thoughts on what Luke Clanton can become, because it's already quite obvious he's quite good. You must have been burning with rage when our colleague, Brintley Romine, tweeted, and I quote,

Keep an eye out Luke Clanton on this year's Ryder cup team, because that is right in your wheelhouse. That is the kind of take that even in early March, long before he's ever played in a PGA tour event as a member, you would have logged on to. So Brett Lee, well done for beating lab to the punch on that one. Cause that's right in his wheelhouse.

I mean, this is obviously building off of Ludwig Oberg a couple years ago, gets his tour card through PGA Tour University, makes him headway on the PGA Tour, and then obviously started on the European Ryder Cup team, and now he's among the fixtures in the world ranking. I don't think it's that far-fetched that Luke Clanton can be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, but I think that's more of like an indictment of the current crop of American players. Like, to get on this team...

He's obviously going to have to play well this summer, but he's going to have to beat out the likes, most likely, of like a Russell Henley, a Tony Finau, a Maverick McNeely, a Billy Horschel, like those types of players. And so if Luke Clanton, once he joins the pay-for-play set,

performs well as Ludwig Oberg did. Remember back in 2023, you had a couple of opportunities to win, went to Europe, won a couple of weeks prior to the Ryder Cup. And so that made Luke Donald's decision very easy. Bethpage Black is going to set up very well for Luke Clanton in his power game. And Keegan Bradley is going to be able to judge this summer if Luke Clanton can stand up to what is going to be a very tense situation

And the biggest stage you can possibly manufacture for a 21 year old. But I do think Keegan Bradley is going to have his eyes out for what Luke Clanton could potentially do this summer. It's up to him then to complete the task.

And I want to be perfectly clear, having a chance to cover him a little bit earlier in the season at the American Express, a couple of other places, wildly impressed with what he's been able to do by now. I've had a chance to talk with his coach at FSU, Trey Jones, just about how much confidence they have in him and the idea that they weren't feeling any panic about him getting that last point. They knew eventually the last point would fall into place and he would get his PGA Tour card. All of those qualifiers being set, he hasn't done anything wrong.

It leads me to believe that, yes, he can qualify for a Ryder Cup team.

He had the most top tens ever by an amateur on the PGA Tour last season with four. The most top tens in a season ever. Very impressive. Top tens are not going to get you on that Ryder Cup team. You and I both know that. Statistically, show me how a top ten is going to get you on the Ryder Cup team. Top tens got Ludwig Goldberg on the European Ryder Cup team. No, he actually had one in Europe. That's how he got on the European Ryder Cup team. Don't be revisionist here. He actually won. Qualification had already ended. It was up to Luke Dowd to then make a pick.

But what he had done after he had won, what he had done on the PGA tour was have a bunch of top tens. Yes. So that's not when you start talking about him being a pick. I think that's an entirely different conversation. He's like, he's not going to qualify automatically. He's not going to qualify. No, there's not enough time. He's not in the major championships. It's not going to happen.

He's not in the major championships. And so to be clear, I don't see... You're right. Keegan Bradley is going to keep a very close eye on him. But let's just be realistic about this. This is something that you were going to jump to and I was ready for it because it's not going to happen unless he comes out and wins. Like if he strings together... But he could. But he could. That's the beauty. He hasn't. That's the only thing I'm saying. Like right now, he is what his record says he is. And he's a really, really good player with a lot of potential. And I can't lean in to that enough. Like I'm very impressed by everything he has done. I just...

I have to pump the brakes here a little bit when you and Brintley's of the world get a little too breathless about the young college guy coming out. I'm just saying it would not, as I stated, it would not be too far-fetched

for Luke Lantin to be a pick for the U S Ryder. Can we put that in a lower third? It would not be too far fetched. No, it's it honestly isn't like, I love his Moxie. I love his swagger. I love his power game. I love his speed. Had he had enough rounds to qualify on the PJ tour last year, he would have been top 10 in approach play. Can he clean up a couple of things?

Sure. Can the scoring get a little bit tighter? Sure. He's going to have ample opportunity to prove it to Keegan Bradley, to Rex Hoggard, and the rest of the golf world that Luke Clinton has the goods. Again, it would not surprise me if he plays his way into the conversation. The goods.

Right. Just as a reminder, we do this podcast actually twice a week. We're actually in court. Plenty more hot takes on the Wednesday podcast as well. It's available wherever you get your podcast available on our YouTube channel as well. Brad Faxon on the other side of the short break.

And we're pleased to be joined now by Brad Faxon, the eight-time PGA Tour winner who was on the call this past weekend for NBC Sports and Fax. Thank you so much for joining us. First of all, how do you explain this? Joe Highsmith has struggled mightily this season on the PGA Tour, on the greens. He gets the weekend at PGA National. All of a sudden, he looks like prime Brad Faxon. How does this happen? It's hard to explain some of this stuff in this crazy game. You know, he's missed...

what, missed three cuts this year. He played well last week in Mexico, maybe found something, you know, had a decent finish. We know he played good college golf. He was on a great team at Pepperdine, won the national championships. But when you see a guy like that,

come down the stretch on a pretty hard nine holes of golf. Typically, the last nine holes here in any competition is difficult, but with the bear trap, the reputation of those closing hoes, and he just continued to fire at the flagstick, make birdies, that putty made on 17, that really ice it, was remarkable. And, you know, Lav, if you thought about this week, the crazy things that happened, Joe Smith winning, but...

Jake Knapp shooting 59, which is unheard of or unthinkable, really, at PGA National. And then Highsmith shooting a 128 on the weekend there. Makes the cut on the number at five under, right? You never would believe five under would be a cut at PGA National. And makes a five-footer to finish on the cut line. It's just an unexplainable game of golf that we all love.

Now, I did want to ask you about the golf course. We'll get around to that. But I was taken when Joe did his interview with our colleague Damon Hack after the fact. He talked about how calm he was trying to win for the first time on the PGA Tour. As someone who's been in that position before, is there a part of you that maybe is a little jealous, maybe thinks to themselves, how was he so calm? I wasn't that calm. No. So on the practice range this morning, I saw Jim McKay Bones, who always follows the last group.

And kind of all eyes were on Jake Knapp after his 59, you know, and he shot in the 50s the first round, 70s the second round, 60s the third round. You're like, what's coming with Knapp? And he got off to a good start and looked pretty comfortable. Hadn't really driven it great, but, you know, after 10 holes, he was...

doing what he needed to do to keep his lead. And then another unthinkable hits a pitching wedge in the water and then goes to try and play it, leaves it in. And, you know, Bones had said that Jake didn't want to talk really, was kind of focused today. He was really grinding by himself, not only on the putting green, but on the range. And I said to Bones, I said, you know, you can play this game

well when you're nervous, you can play poorly when you're nervous, you can play well when you're confident, and you can play poorly when you're feeling good and feeling confident. And I said to myself, going on the air, I think if Jake Knapp's not feeling good about himself, that's okay. I almost wanted to say, you don't have to be perfect here to play well.

But it's funny, you know, I think what Joe said that resonated with me in his interview with Damon was that he had no expectation to go out there and win. You know, he was so far behind, I'm just going to go play and, you know, a good finish probably would have meant a lot to him. And I think when you play without expectation, that's when you can play your best.

Facts, you notice any difference? We're in this era of, you know, players who are supposed to be more accessible, more open to the media partners, particularly on the broadcast team. Have you noticed any difference over these past couple of weeks? Are players more willing to offer little tidbits of information than they had been in previous years? You mean other than Rory McIlroy? I mean, we need a million Rory McIlroys. Yeah.

I don't know. Jake didn't want to do that interview today. You know, he talked on the course yesterday. And I understand that a little bit. I actually last year at St. Judith at Memphis, we sat down, we meaning NBC, Dan Hicks, myself, Tommy Roy, our producer, and Sam Float, who kind of runs golf for NBC now, sat down with Justin Thomas and

Max Homa and a couple of guys from the tour, John Friedman about accessibility and how much that means to the broadcast for us and what it's doing for other sports. And that, that kind of inside the ropes look that we love, you know, if we can get that, if we can get an interview with a player during the round or right before they go to the tee, like with Rory, it means the world to us. And I still feel like players are very cautious with that.

I think it sometimes can be a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you're especially a budding PGA Tour player, you've got sponsors' names all over your shirt or your hat, or both, why not do it? What have you got to lose? And show us who you are. I mean, I think a lot of times the players have shunned the media because they don't like it when we say you hit a bad shot, maybe, when you did hit a bad shot. What are we supposed to do?

But I think you have to see the players open up more and more now. And maybe full swing, you know, different ideas like that help us to get to know someone like Joel Damon. And it brings the personalities out in the players. And where do the players want to draw the line as far as letting us in a team room at a Ryder Cup?

or like that simple walk when you're going from the practice putting green to the first tee. Why is Rory, as someone who's close to Rory, you're his putting coach, but you're also his friend, why is he so comfortable in that situation where he's fine talking during a round, doing the in-round interview, he's fine talking after the round, he just seems more comfortable than most other people. Is it just personality driven? Yeah, it's not something that's always...

I think you have to learn that. I think he had great parents that taught him that. His dad is a very affable guy, likes to talk to friends. You know, Rory quit school at 17 years old, turned pro in the middle of his 17th and 18th years. But he's scholarly, he's worldly, he's street smart.

I think his parents did a good job raising him in that. And he also is curious and he talks to everyone. He's got a memory like I can't believe what this guy can remember while he's trying to be the best player in the world, while he's trying to be a husband and a father, while he's running a gigantic business off the golf course together and how he puts this pieces together.

of the puzzle and lets us in so much to his life, to his game. He amazes me when he sees any of us in the media, how he knows your name. He can have a conversation on the spot with you. He reads books. He knows history. He thinks about positive thinking and improvement in every single way. And he should be a role model for every single player.

Facts other than players not wanting to talk to you on the range this week at PGA National. I'm curious, you know, what's what's different about this event now than maybe where it was five or 10 years ago? I mean, you live in the area. You've been going to the golf tournament for a while now. What's different in 2025 than over the past decade?

The thing I don't understand is being able to stay home the week the tournament's in your backyard and not go to the golf course. I lived in Orlando for the first 10 or 12 years of my career, and we had Arnold's tournament and we had the tournament Disney. And I'm like, I'm playing in these things, whether I like the course or the event or not. I would be playing golf most likely myself.

And, you know, when you're down here and see the boatloads of players that live in this area, Jack Nicklaus is, you know, arguably the greatest golfer ever. He and Barbara, kind of the chairs, the money goes to the Nicklaus Children's Hospital. I believe in giving back, and I believe that's a way to give back. Maybe not for yourself, right? I mean, but to not want to play for Jack Nicklaus.

and Barbara to support your community, the hospital. A lot of these players have kids or are going to have kids here. It's kind of, it's a black mark a little bit. It's disappointing. I know everybody has a schedule. They look at purse stuff, how many tournaments in a row they can or cannot play. You get the signature events that follow this back-to-back.

So, you know, a part of me as a former player understands, look, you want to be at your best going to every event. But at the same time, you know, skip the Monday, Tuesday, play nine holes in the pro-am and play Thursday and Friday and see how it goes.

Now, another part of this week, which has been interesting, you touched on the idea. Were you a fan of the softer side of PGA National? Certainly Billy Horschel spoke out against how easy the golf course was playing. Is this the version you want to see or do you want to see the version from four or five or six years ago that was beating guys up? I like, well, I guess I'd answer that two different ways. As a player and as an announcer, I think when any players play and well, you want the conditions to be tougher.

So I saw Billy Horsch, Brian Harmon, even to a certain respect, Jordan Spieth said this on his Pro-Am day, and he had only played here once as an amateur when he was 16 years old, that this new ryegrass, the overseed in the fairways, overseed in the rough, made the course much more gettable. Everything early in the week was fairly soft, better lies in the fairways, easier to chip

around the greens. No doubt. We saw that in the numbers of the scores, the record low cut at five under. And I don't know. I don't want to see a 59 at PGA national. I don't want to see one 28 on the weekend. I want to see some carnage. Like we saw yesterday afternoon with a few players through the bear trap. And, you know, maybe that's one of the reasons why some of the players just stay away in the past season.

15, 16, 17 can feel a little bit too difficult. You have the 17th hole here that sort of simulated a little bit 16 at waste management, which got out of hand or gets out of hand. Some players think so. Maybe it's too many. I don't think these players, when they go to PGA National, it's not one of their favorite courses. It's not like even the guys that live around here are going to drive over for a

Odd round of golf in the middle of May or April or November. It's a crowded public resort with four other courses, so players always have their own places to play. But gosh, I agree with Horschel. It needs to be tougher. But I do still believe that that's why I don't like only signature events for a tour, that there are great stories when you have a smaller field. And we had, or a lesser field, we had some big names here

uh ricky fowler was in the mix that was good for us jordan speed coming here to play and coming back from wrist surgery was important jake knapp who is a star in the making and i still think will be a guy we're going to watch for a long time but a guy like joe highsmith is life-changing stuff for him he certainly deserved to win with how he played and how he handled himself

And I think there's a big part of the PGA Tour where people like that. They like to see the unknown guy come out of nowhere. What's top of mind for you as we really get into the heart now of the Florida swing? The Masters roughly a month away, Arnold Palmer this week, the Players' Championship on deck after that. What's sort of an unanswered question that you have at this point in the season that you really want to see this week at Bay Hill?

Well, if you look straight off the top of the world rankings, you know, Scotty and Xander, we haven't seen much of them or much of them play well, both of them having some injuries. Scotty, why are you pretending you're an Italian chef when you're German? I am unfortunate. And he's played pretty good. He hasn't played great, hasn't driven it like we know he can. Xander, that rib injury, I had an intercostal muscle injury when I was playing in it.

still feels badly in your rib. It doesn't heal quickly. I think a lot of people were surprised that he came back and announced this late commitment to play at Bay Hill, which is fantastic for us. We've seen Rory start off strong, winning it with record numbers at Pebble, the way he drove it. So I think there's a lot of unknowns. You know, if you're

Luke Donald, the Ryder Cup captain, you have to be ecstatic about your team's start. Rory actually joked to me last week that he didn't want his team to be peaking too early.

But as we lead up into the Masters, you know, there's always the great questions. You know, can Scotty Scheffler do it again? How's Xander's going to feel? Can Rory, you know, get off the schneid here and win a major, win a Masters, win the Grand Slam? Personally, I wish the Masters wasn't the first tournament for his sake sometimes, the first major of the year. And then you have so many players that are knocking on the door,

Oberg, how well he played at the Masters last year, his win at Torrey Pines at Genesis. There's a lot of exciting things, and we're going to see all these top players play together in the next two weeks. You just rattled off a list of names that sounded like an NFL midseason injury report. You talked about Scheffler with the hand injury. Obviously, everything that Xander's been dealing with. Jordan Spieth coming back from the wrist injury. Of those three, and I think I've asked you this before, which one concerns you the most? I don't think Scheffler concerns me at all.

It certainly looks like Jordan Spieth played well enough. You know, he's so exciting to watch and listen to and watch his gyrations while he plays. I think his wrist feels strong. But, you know, our Aaron Oberholzer will tell you how his wrist issues, I mean, ruined his career. So that's a delicate part of the body. You know, the one thing that's interesting to me

Is the players now, as you go back 25 years ago when Tiger and David Duvall were one and two, and they were really the first top two players that you can see definitive changes in their body composition as they got bigger and stronger and golf got cooler and was thrust into the spotlight with Tiger and the money that followed him.

These guys, a lot of these people, and Jake Knapp's one of those guys. We did a feature on his workouts today. Kepka did that as well. Rory's in incredible shape. What's too far? I mean, I think a lot of these guys would rather go to the gym now than go to the practice chipping and putting green. To me, it's something we have to watch out for. Do these injuries...

That, you know, you're lifting more weight than you ever had. What's too much? What's the right way? What's the wrong way? I still think we're kind of a little bit in the infancy on professional golfers and what they have to do and what they shouldn't do for their workouts.

Fax, I want to get deep in the weeds on something with you. I think this is going to be like golf porn to you, but the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational, I'll remember that as like the time that you and Rory's relationship kind of became Facebook official. You went on to win that golf tournament and you've been with him ever since. How have you seen Rory's putting evolve over that time? You know, you can look at stats and they'll show you a steady trend.

much more consistent back around the putting green. And what he did just a month ago at Pebble Beach was as good as he can put or anybody can put no matter who you are. I think what he, you know, to me, first of all, listen, it's not so much what I tell him. It's really what I've told him is how good he is as a player to just let that unlock and open. He,

doesn't go to bed at night worried about putting right now. I know that. And what a feeling that is that he doesn't have to think about his technique, you know, like he would have the previous few years I'm saying, and we all go through those ups and downs, but I think Rory can tell you what he thinks about and what he feels in simple sentences when players are stuck, you know, and putting seems to be that one area where,

players go through those periods where they have no idea what to do. And it's exasperating because you can hit good putts that don't go in. And is it my stroke or is it just the way the game is? And he's had a lot more ups and downs. And really there's a case that last year, 2024, with how well he putted, you know, for most of the year inside of that, you know, eight feet range, you know, and even 10 feet and under, it was as good as he he's putted. And, and,

We know that players like, like Scotty that hit the ball, like Rory so well, T to green, they don't need to be the best putters in the world. When you get somebody that gets going, like Xander, maybe the best putter of the top hitters of the golf ball, the most consistent it's, it's hard to beat them when they're on like that. And I think there's, you know, Rory's resilient. He's gone through a lot in his career.

He's these, these near misses make him stronger and make him want it more. I'm not doubting that. I, I have more confidence in his, his putting now than I did when I first met him. And I think he does too. That's the most important thing.

I guess along those same lines, I found that really interesting. If Rory has a poor putting week like he did at Torrey Pines, which came just a couple of weeks after Pebble Beach, how do you approach that as his coach? Like, are you looking at the game film like an offensive coordinator and like trying to nitpick technique and that sort of thing? Or are you just sort of shrugging it off as a one off and said, look,

Greens were bumpy. Just didn't have it that week. Your stroke looks great. Let's just, let's just move on and look ahead to Florida. That's a great question. And he put it very well. The first two days there at, at Torrey ponds, it wasn't like he just tanked the whole week. I think when you, when you see somebody that's put it beautifully for two days and then putts poorly, you,

I don't think your stroke just dissolves or goes away overnight. I think those things, you get a clash of a couple of putts that you didn't hit well that miss, you know, maybe a putt that lips out instead of going in and greens get bumpy and your attitude changes a little bit. And again,

I don't really bring that up. My philosophy would be when I was playing, if I had a bad putting week, that I tried to forget it as much as possible. And if I went to Rory and started bringing that up, if he brought it up to me, that's a different situation. And I know every player, I don't know if I'm a coach, whatever I'm called, if every player, whoever they talk to, if they constantly talked about the bad stuff, how does it get better?

Brad, I'm gonna let you get out of here on this because you do have a tee time tomorrow at one of the most coveted events, the Seminole Pro member on Monday at Seminole Golf Club there in South Florida, real close to where you live. Everyone wants to play in this and it's probably going to have a better field than some events on the PGA Tour. Why? Again, I think the I really think, well, first of all, Seminole is one of the best

golf places in the world with an unbelievably high IQ membership. And I really feel like as, as the game has gotten more popular, more worldwide money's come into the game in a, in a big way. And the field at the Seminole pro member has been outstanding for,

for 15, 20 years, at least when they brought it back. And I remember playing with Tim Neer, who was the chairman of Seminole before Jimmy Dunn, and he would play with Arnold Palmer. So when Arnold played, Jack played, all the top players played. And I think these players all have relationships with members from maybe the areas where they're from. I think

the elite somehow know who these, these players, these members are through, you know, just meeting them out of different ways through the game of golf. And, you know, where a lot of people would have shunned playing with amateurs. This is one I hope I get invited to. I want to play and I'm already terrorized because I,

I play about one o'clock. I'm playing with a longtime friend, Tom Ryan, who used to run CVS Pharmacy, which is a Rhode Island-based company. And we're in the group with Vinnie Giles and Gary Koch, who everybody knows Gary is one of the best golf announcers in history and still a good golfer. I know that right as we're on that first or 10th tee when we tee off, the players walking off nine and 18 will be players like

Tom Brady, Rory McIlroy. And they'll be watching my swing as I try and swoop one down there where I hopefully lands under over grass. It's just like, I'm looking down this list and I'm going, I can't believe who I'm seeing that's playing here. The members that are playing the pros that play with each member and how fun it is. And I think there's that, you know, you're only playing to win. They have one winning growth score, one winning net score,

But your life lives an eternity up on that mahogany in the locker room, one of the greatest locker rooms in golf. Maybe Tom Ryan and I, something good happens. He makes birdies on his stroke holes, and I make a few long putts. I don't know. There's always hope on Sunday night, right?

Well, Fax, we appreciate you joining us. Play well at Seminole. I hear there's official World Golf ranking points that might be up for grabs. Signature event sponsor exemptions could be up for grabs. Potentially, if you play your cards right, could even get a one-match contract with TGL. Thanks so much for joining us. Great talking to you guys. Love to do it anytime.

And now back by popular demand, it's time for the world famous love it or laugh it segment. Rex, both Jordan Spieth and Ricky Fowler were passed over for sponsor exemptions for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. You loving or laughing that sort of discretion for the sponsor invites. I haven't done this yet in the love it or laugh it section, but I'm right in the middle and I can't pick one. And I know, I know that's wildly unsatisfying for everyone. However,

I think you and I both have been very vocally critical of the idea that a lot of the policy board members from the PGA Tour have gotten these invitations into the signature events. And both of us have pointed out that that's not the way this should work, that these are coveted events and you can't just limit it to just a few people who, for all the right reasons, decided to get involved in the governance of the PGA Tour. So in this particular case, Jordan Spieth actually just rotated off the policy board, so maybe that speaks volumes about why he's not there. But I ended up having a long conversation with a tour player recently

on the putting green down at PGA national this week about it. And he pointed out a really important thing to say that if you want a field, if you want to start playing in the field right now, Jordan speeds probably at the top of the list. Maybe only Tiger woods is going to be above him. I don't disagree with that.

There's a reason why sponsors get exemptions. So I can see both sides of it. I think there has to be some sort of limitation to it. And I think that's where you and I both landed that if you want to start handing these out to policy board members, that's fine. But you need to limit them to two or three or whatever the case may be.

Yeah, put a cap on it. I think that's perfectly reasonable. Two or three a year. I could totally understand. I am, since this is Lovett, Lovett apparently, or just ride the fence. I'm going to go with Lovett. You know, it's nothing personal against the guys who actually did get those spots, but I couldn't help but chuckle with Sam Saunders' explanation to Adam Shupak, our friend at Golf Week, who reported this and said that Rafael Campos wrote the, quote, most thoughtful letter and was the most

effort he's ever seen in a letter to determine organizers asking for a sponsor exemption like is this what this has come down to like who writes the best letter a popularity contest a a well-written letter like if you're going to have 70 spots you have to make them count and i've been on record and we did it last week on this very podcast these spots should be earned

and not given. If they're going to be given, put a cap on it or expand the field to 100 where you don't have to make these sorts of decisions where it's really trimming it down to these tiny little spots.

One year, our colleague here at the Golf Channel now, Tripp Eisenhower, got an exemption into what was the Wells Fargo Championship at the time because he sent a video to the tournament director explaining how he was going to talk to all his pro-am partners about what true barbecue tastes like. So anything works. I mean, it certainly does. And it certainly did. In this case, Xander Schauffele, Rex, will make his long way to return this week in Orlando, but reportedly has still been on a ball count, hadn't played a full round of golf previously.

prior to this past weekend, you loving or laughing that he'll actually be ready for Augusta.

Oh, I'm loving it because I look, I don't think any player has ever followed the advice that no one's ever come back too early. I mean, too late from an injury. And I think this is a perfect example of that. He has literally drug his feet and made sure that when he shows up, he's going to be 100 percent. He doesn't have a whole lot of time, but he's got a couple of starts. Assume he would play Bay Hill, the players championship. That'll give him a couple of rounds to get his feet underneath him. I still like that. He'll be ready for the Masters.

Yeah, probably needs to add one more Tampa and doing three in a row. He has played there before. Maybe he adds Houston as like sort of a final gauge of where he could potentially be playing. I hope so that he's going to be ready for the Masters because he would have been among the short list of contenders. I don't feel great about it, though. Brad Faxon was on the podcast saying how tricky those rib issues can be. Scotty Scheffler talked about how much he had lost when he had to shut it down for a month or so. Xander Schauffele missed roughly two months

of PGA tour action. He's really going to be playing catch up. I like the fact that Xander is sort of thinking long-term on this. He wants to be good at the end of the season too, but I worry it could be a slow burn of the season for X. All right. And finally, Keegan Bradley in a clip that was shown on Netflix is full swing said that they're going to go to Beth page and they're going to whoop up on the euros. Take a listen.

Okay, Rex, are you loving or laughing that sort of bulletin board material? I love it. Look, they're going to have enough bulletin board material. Luke Donald's a magician when it comes to this. I think you and I have joked quite a bit about it, that they're going to have a poster that you'll be able to see from spacing that we play for, for pride. They play for pay.

because there's a lot of things that are going to go into this. So I don't think Keegan's going to tip the scales one way or the other. And there's a reason why the PG of America went after Keegan. He was really not on anyone's short list to be the next captain. However, they wanted someone who was fiery. They wanted someone who was connected to the area. And he clicks off both of those boxes. And I think this is what we're going to get from Keegan. For those of us who carry notebooks for a living, we should love it. First of all, I love, I, I'm,

I'm laughing at that. This is bulletin board material. Like this is not controversial at all. And I, and I, and I think like that this was one of the only takeaways that people have had from this entire series tells you all that you need to know how many episodes Rex, if you plowed through at this point, uh,

Three at your urging. That's why I wanted to make sure we got to this, this topic. Cause I did want to watch them and I need to footnote this really, really early. And we, we both have said this repeatedly, the episode that this series isn't for you. And I, there isn't for someone who would be considered an inside when it comes to the PGA tour, because if I do learn something from this, I should probably be ashamed of myself to be honest with you.

However, I came away from those three episodes just as empty, maybe is the way I would put it, as I did from the first season and the second season. And here's why. It's geared towards someone who is very much a novice golf fan, which I get. And you're trying to grow the audience. I'm perfectly fine with that. What I see, what you see, as someone who is on the inside, is twofold. One, you're seeing an organization that has virtually limitless access to

to the PGA Tour players. They're going to their houses. They're going into areas of golf courses that you and I aren't allowed to go into. They have access that has never been granted to a media outlet before in the history of the PGA Tour. That's one. Two, they have resources that almost seem unlimited. The example that I always use is I went straight to the Travelers Championship after last year's US Open on the off chance there was going to be some sort of breaking news.

Netflix was clearly under the same mindset. They sent two separate crews to be there on just the off chance that something was going to happen. You and I both know how much that cost and resources. And when you come away with, I watched the episode of Scottie Scheffler getting arrested and there was absolutely nothing new there. It was just, yeah, I was shocked. Well, that's exactly what we were saying on that Thursday and it hasn't changed since then.

This was exactly what happened with the framework agreement deal where they sort of build and marketed this as like, we were there when the cameras were rolling and they ended up not getting anything. You had the biggest star of the year. That was Bryce DeChambeau. The biggest story of the year that was Skye Shepard getting arrested. You had the biggest drama of the year. That was the Roy McIlroy's divorce. And you had the biggest tournament of the year that US opened. They crammed that all into one 42 minute episode because they could not unearth anything new. If you're looking from like,

any sort of details or nuggets from the big events or the big stories, you're not going to get it from Netflix's full swing. All right, let's go to listener questions. We had a good one here from at phrase underscore 18. Rex, is there a world where the best players travel globally under these proposed changes of what could happen with the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund? Or is that just, again, a way to satisfy America? What do you think?

I think there's not just a world for it, that there is probably some sort of movement behind closed doors towards this, because that seems the inevitable conclusion. We have signature events. We have a tour that seems to be narrowing itself to just the top event at established venues with the best players playing on them. We have the DP World Tour. We would add all of their favorites.

quote unquote signature events. You're talking about the BMW PGA and a few stops in the Middle East and maybe the European Open and the Irish Open, Scottish Open could all fit into that category. Not only is there a world, I feel like it's inevitable. Yeah, I mean, I certainly hope that there is an appetite among the top American players, namely like a Scotty Scheffler and a Xander Schauffele to want to play globally, to grow the brand and to play these national opens that should be celebrated and played by the very best players in the world. I think we would all love

a sort of elevated tour in which you're taking the very best of what the PGA tour schedule is the very best of the DP world tour has to offer these national opens and putting them all with the best players. That should be the goal. That is why the DP world tour is still sort of privy to these conversations and a, in a key part of this. And if I think if talks somehow break down to the PGA tour and the PIF, and they maybe take another look at the DP world tour, I think that is like,

That should be a go-to for them is highlighting the Irish Open, the Scottish Open, some of the premier events in the DP World Tour and really make it count. All right, before we get out of here, I wanted to have a little bit of fun with this, Rex. We had a caricature.

sent to me on my Instagram by my friend, Sam. You can find him at Villastrations on Instagram. What do you think of this depiction of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lav? When you first sent it to me, I was trying to figure out who they were, but then as I took a closer look,

This is what I would like for us to do. So, Sam, maybe we can take another crack at it. I will say he got your skin condition perfect, and he got my five head perfect. So he's moving in the right direction. I actually kind of like it now. I mean, it's very accurate. I do have a receding hairline. I do have rosacea. I'm not sure if this depiction made me want to shave, but I did shave. I also want to say, for the record, Rex, that I'm like 20 pounds heavier than you, max.

It looks like I ate you. And I would take exception...

with that but but other than that like i think they kind of nailed it even even like down to my apple watch it's crazy and and i will give sam again again i'm gonna go back for sam here because i feel like he he did a good job on some fronts yes your face looks fat you look like the person that ate ryan labner however i think you have a round face and as a kid this is what they do if you've ever been to disney and they they draw you they do you with this clownish head sometimes and you already have a clownish head so we had to lean into it a little bit more egghead

Totally get it. I do appreciate it. If you do like that caricature of Rex, good news. You can see him all week on golf today. He'll be co-hosting with George Severikis. Rex and I will be on the show together on Monday to do two segments for golf today round table. Apparently they ran out of guests. Rex, hope you have a good week. Thank you guys for listening. In the meantime, you guys know the drill NBC sports.com slash golf for all latest news notes and updates. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support.

We'll talk to you guys on Wednesday afternoon.

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