TGL Season 1 is over. Here's what we thought – and where it goes from here
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Getting ready, actually, for our third and final day of co-hosting Golf Today on Golf Channel. Hope you guys have been enjoying this so far. We'll have some behind-the-scenes ridiculousness that has transpired over the past couple of days, as well as some of our travails into the big city at the end of this podcast. But first, Rex, I want to start with TGL.

Because it is fresh. Let's keep it right now, this discussion, strictly on the TGL finale, which played out on Tuesday night. What did you think as Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel became the inaugural champions with their Atlanta Drive team?

I think we said it this morning when I was being your very high paid Uber driver from the hotel over to the studios, like it was entertaining. And we've been pretty consistent on what we thought of this all along that I had high hopes for it, but I didn't necessarily think it was for you and I, you and I like our golf and 72 hole increments at traditional golf courses and,

it's kind of what we like, like we've never really known what the hammer was like, because it's not been part of the lexicon when it comes to what we cover when it comes to golf. But I was wildly entertained, entertained. Anyone who watched last night that isn't probably just doesn't like golf. Golf probably isn't your thing. And it's not traditional. It's not really for you and I, it's for my son. It's for your son when he gets a little bit older. And, and,

The way it ended up finishing, and I'm not quite sure. I particularly like the idea that they spread it over two nights because that seemed a little ridiculous. You're clearly just trying to play this out as long as possible. But I'll go immediately to the midseason rule change when it came to the hammer.

It would have been really easy for TGL and those running TGL just to decide, you know what? We'll fix it next year. Let's just finish the season the way it is. But I think they recognize that, you know, this is this is dumb. This isn't working. So they created a scenario. I thought the hammers last night were the best part of it. There was a strategy to it. There was a lot of fun to it. It almost seemed like there was some trash talk to it. Mark Russell got pulled in because of a late hammer throw like.

everything about that. I thought the hammer will stand. I wish we had that sound so bad. The hammer will stand. So I was, I was, I was a big fan and I think next year, my guess is they expand the teams. My guess is they get players a little bit more opportunity to pick and choose their spots is I think from a travel perspective for the players, this first season was probably a really good learning experience, but I enjoyed it. Yeah. A lot of that. I agree with game two, uh,

was not as well played as game one. And I think it's fair to say that these guys were probably so thankful that this is not going to game three. Had New York won game two, he would have forced the best of three. They would have been playing in the simulator for like four and a half hours. And if you're a player like Xander Shoffley, who's already sort of mentioned a couple of times just how taxing it has been. And keep in mind, he's played like a

a third of the TGL season for New York golf club. Imagine how Cam young, Ricky Fowler and the others are feeling like it has been a bit of a burden, particularly at this stretch of the season to not have to go to game three, even if it did end a disappointing fashion.

I'm with you. I think they were probably a little bit relieved. Yes, the hammer has been the best part. I think TGL executives deserve a lot of credit for adapting, as you mentioned, sort of mid-season, recognizing this was the flaw in sort of the competition standpoint and getting it on board as opposed to sort of, you know,

putting out a back burner until season two you saw I think the the strategy uh implementing some of the like data analysts uh going with the hammer strategy I'll get into that in a little bit um but I thought it was I thought it was a good finale I thought it was a fitting finale I thought it was an exciting uh finale at the end particularly with the Billy Horschel uh highlight that I'm sure we'll be bringing up on golf today uh later today what did you think though Rex of like

the whole season. You know, how would you evaluate it? You went to the arena, I believe twice. I was there once for the kickoff event. We've had Jeff Newbarth, the ESPN producer on the show talking about it. We've talked about it constantly. How would you sort of put a bow now on the TGL season?

We're going to have a larger conversation on today's golf today, but this is a format that allows us a little bit more flexibility because my guess is if I said this on air on linear TV, you would have thrown something at me. So I'm not going to say this actually on the set, but I'm going to go with the idea that if you looked at this as just a content product.

And it gets a little boring here, but the idea is any content when it comes to sports is a valuable property. And I'll point to TGL being a great example of that. Now I'll point to the undefeated, the three on three league that just finished up their season. Any content is valuable content. And I think there's a lot of folks specifically in our industry, industry, the golf media that were really skeptical of this. I think you and I had a version, had a level of skepticism.

when we came into it. And after being in the arena, I think maybe we changed our idea a little bit. And then after watching the competition, we probably changed our mind a little bit because it seemed like,

like what this was going to become is eight or nine consecutive weeks of the match. And I didn't find that to be particularly interesting or particularly informative, but what you did end up with, and I'll go back to the idea that from the very start, you and I both agreed for this to work, you got to have personalities. Like the golf is going to take care of itself. There's going to be good golf. We saw plenty of that last night. We, I think we saw plenty of that over the course of the season, but the personalities are really, really,

what's going to drive this. We love the technology. We love everything about the concept of two hour condensed windows of golf, but if you don't have a personality, you're probably not going to last long. What we learned from the season, I think is that the technology is really cool and there it's only going to get better. And that there are certain players, not every player, but any stretch of the imagination that have amazing personalities. I'll point to Billy Horschel, who apparently loses his mind a lot on the golf course and

What he did last night, what he had done over the last few weeks, that was entertaining. I think watching Justin Thomas, who put his money where his mouth is, when it came to being more engaging with the audience. I think Ludwig Oberg, earlier in the season, proved that, oh, not only is he...

super talented player and a good looking kid with a huge future ahead of him, but he's funny and he's got a good, he's got a good personality. And then you factor in the sort of the strategy part of it. And you're right. I was kind of fascinated by that as well. When you hear them talking about Xander being probably the best example of this, because it seems to me he and Patrick Cantlay probably took the deepest, deepest dive when it came to the numbers. And when it's,

You they're only going to make that putt 25 percent of the time. So this is when we throw the hammer. That's fun for me to watch. Yeah. And I think that'll only be sort of expanded upon in future seasons where it's going to be sort of a date of vomit.

and all you can sort of take in in that respect because gambling is a huge part of what this business model is. They've rarely touched on it on broadcast in season one. That's expected to change in future seasons where they're going to really get into the data, really get into the betting and the odds and that sort of angle. Everyone, Rex, is going to have an opinion on this. There's going to be countless think pieces about what TGL was, is, and can be after season one. I'm sure the comment section on YouTube

that we're going to have after this podcast is going to be people fighting whether they liked it, whether they didn't like it. And I'm not going to come on the podcast and tell you you should like this or you shouldn't like this. From my opinion, how I view this from sort of 30,000 feet is that I don't view TGL as an overwhelming success that is somehow going to like revolutionize the sport.

But conversely, I don't think that this is by any stretch of the imagination, a flop either. You know, ratings were very solid as front of the program. Josh Carpenter of sports business journal pointed out. They were very favorable over comparable windows and TGL executives did that on purpose, uh,

to make sure that it is standing out above what ESPN would have typically programmed on either their ESPN or ESPN2 windows. That was very smart on their respect with future TV rights going to be up for bidding. And so I like the fact that TGL continued to innovate throughout the season, not just with the hammer rule, but some of the technology as well with like the pin cam. And I think overall, and again, I'm not trying to tell people how they should feel about this. Overall, I enjoyed it more than I thought that I would.

Keep in mind, I'm 37 years old. You're 57 years old. We are not the target demographic here. We're not particularly young. We're not in sort of a positional need where we need to get to know these guys better. You know, I think you're still going to be on camera. There's still going to be a little bit of a performative thing. You know, we're seeing these guys, you know, inside the ropes as competitors. But, you know, as as credentialed journalists, we're also seeing them, you

interact with their families, with their fans, spending time with them on the range or out to dinner, whatever the case may be. We're not in a position like the casual fan who's trying to learn more about a Billy Horschel, about a Ludwig Oberg. I hope that makes a little bit of sense. And you and I are not gambling, at least I don't think we are. We are not gambling on the action, which again is one of the cruxes of this entire enterprise is the gambling aspect of that.

And so I think, you know, moving forward, I think it's only going to grow. I think it's only going to improve again. Do I think it's going to monopolize the golf landscape? Do I think it's going to somehow be a direct competitor of the, of the PGA tour or live golf? No, because I think that sort of carved out their niche and it is, it is differentiated itself enough from the week to week PGA tour schedule.

And I want to continue this conversation, but I'm actually in Courtney Holt's office. And to pull back the curtain a little bit, Courtney Holt technically does not run the Golf Channel, but I think you and I both would agree. She might as well be. She might as well be. If you need something done when it comes to the Golf Channel and NBC Sports, Courtney Holt. But I'm looking over here, and she must have 15 pictures of Tom Brady. I think Courtney Holt might have a little crush on Tom Brady. She is a Patriots fan, so I was a little thrown by – sorry. I got a little distracted by Tom Brady staring at me in so many different ways.

And I think it's safe to say, looking ahead to next season and what the future of TGL is going to be, they're going to expand. There's going to be a women's league. I can imagine they'll come up with some sort of mixed team events. I would imagine there's going to be expansion, two or three teams. We can have a conversation about maybe this is the bridge of how live golf, those players come back. It's, it would be a really easy formula to come up with. Yeah. Live golf can have two teams. PGA tour can have two teams on live golf.

And TGL is that bridge between the two sides. It would be really easy to expand teams because you talked about it. I think Xander Shofflett is gas. I think most players who played the majority of the starts this season will tell you it was really hard, especially when you're coming from the West Coast, even on a private flight. It still wasn't easy to make the trip over. Billy Horschel actually played the Cognizant Classic, played Monday, actually.

I actually drove to Bay Hill on Monday practice in the morning and drove back to South Florida to play the match that night. That's kind of on him, but you get an idea. It gives you a sense of how taxing this was on players. If you go to five man teams and only three of them are playing, that creates a lot of flexibility. The question of that is who is going to have that personality that we just talked about? Because I tend to agree with everything you said. I don't think I'm quite in line.

in the middle of the fence the way you seem to be. I'm leaning towards it's really good content in the age of any sports content is going to be a valuable asset. And I'm not going to debate. I find TGL to be a very valuable asset going forward as a media product and as a potential franchise product. I think you brought up the idea that franchises probably doubled in value.

Since the beginning of this season, just based on what happened. So all of those things combined, I think is very interesting. You brought up a real, an interesting point yesterday when we were sort of kicking it around because we are going to talk about it today on golf today about maybe altering the schedule a little bit. I'm not quite sure that's what ESPN would want, but that's an interesting concept as well.

Yeah, we talked about that a little bit on the Sunday podcast because one of the issues that we've mentioned is this is like the crunch time, the run-up to the Masters. Players' attention who are playing the PGA Tour are already thinking ahead to the year's first major. Imagine then if you then throw in another wrinkle with TGL. I think it makes the most sense –

If you are TGL to probably have two, maybe three, if you can squeeze them in regular season matchups in the month of December on Tuesday and Wednesday, everyone's already home. You're getting ready for the holidays. You're looking for something else on your television on Tuesday, Wednesday, they're not any other sport. I know football's going on, but Tuesday and Wednesday should be open on

on the calendar that would then bump up the schedule, obviously that we see in the spring. I think if you were TGL, you would love to end the week of like the Cognizant classic where the PG tour is already in Palm beach. Obviously the SoFi centers in Palm beach. So many of the tour players live in Palm beach just to make, particularly if it's going to be a two night finale, potentially three games.

just make it a little bit easier. And then you don't run into the issue that you have now where there's a little bit of a letdown. You look, you look at the ratings for what you had for one of the first semifinals. It was 400,000 viewers. You contrast that to where you had the first two weeks, one week, one was 700,000 week two, a tiger and Rory was close to a million viewers.

So there's obviously been a pretty precipitous fall sort of bumping up at the schedule, condensing it and not sort of having this hangover letdown effect after a huge event in the PGA Tour schedule with the Players Championship. That seems to make a lot of sense. You, Rex, brought up the idea of expansion. And I wonder if there is an appetite among fans for that.

I think it's pretty clear listening to TGL president Mike McCarley, our former boss here at Golf Channel, like there's clearly an appetite among ownership, among potential investors in future TGL franchises. But one of the things that TGL has worked really hard to do in season one is

is familiarize golf fans with the concept and also familiarize golf fans with these teams, with the players on the teams. If all of a sudden then you're expanding to five players, if you're expanding one or two teams, there has to be like a complete reacclimation process of who's on the team, when are those guys going to be playing, who are they going to be playing against? Like you already have a little bit of an issue with the schedule of teams

It's going to be on Monday. It's going to be sometimes on Tuesday. Sometimes it's going to be at seven. Sometimes it's going to be nine. Like TGL should be striving for consistency from season to season. And I think expansion, not just of the rosters, but also the franchises as well, which would then, of course, require more programming windows to fit.

all of the extra teams and matches, I think that could be a future complication as well. I don't see it as a complication because we talked about it. We feel like I think both of us agree the idea that live golf probably missed the boat on leaning into the transaction. That's what we really like as the sports fan. That's what I was looking forward to when it came to live golf. And we talked a little bit about it at the beginning of the year. I think I did a 15 minute rant on the idea that Don Rom went and bought himself a team. Like what he had last year was good and he only made it better. And he's the one

that should, I don't know if they're going to win the team championship, but he should be GM of the year based on what he did. Imagine the same conversation over the next few months. Howie Roseman, John Rahm and Howie Roseman. Yes. Right there. Side by side. Imagine the conversation over the next few months about, it was interesting. I had a player text me last night as I was watching the finale asking, do you think I can reach out to tiger? Because clearly Jupiter links needs an upgrade. They were a really bad team this year and probably,

No small reason is because of Tiger Woods. He did not play a lot. He didn't play his best golf, but I, there is going to be movement among the ranks and you and I both sat on the Sims desk on Sunday night. And we probably talked as much football as we did golf because it's all about the transaction now. And I think people enjoy that. Now I don't,

I don't want to completely heap praise on this first season because there's plenty of room for improvement. I think starting with those personalities, which we just talked about, I think the most exciting thing I heard Cam Young say all season long was get left talking to a tee shot. That

That was the most exciting thing I saw. And we saw no, the most emotion we saw out of him was last night when the chip to essentially extend the match, that final match for the championship just went just by the hole. Brilliant chip, great touch, wonderful player. But as we both predicted, not exactly the most interesting cat.

So that has to factor in this as well. If you want to have that player on your team to win the championship, which you probably do, he either has to be a little bit more forthcoming and a little bit part of the show. He needs to get the, get

the joke a little bit better, or maybe you replace him with someone who does. I don't see that as a problem. I see that as an opportunity to improve the teams and improve the league. I'm talking about if you have more teams and you potentially have more matches, then you are going to have more programming windows. So for fans who already just want, look, let's just have this at nine o'clock on ESPN. You seem to make that a bad thing. That's not a bad thing. My guess is ESPN would love more of a programming window. And to go back to your previous comment, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

Apologize to Doug Ferguson. He hates it when we do this. But you also said starting the season in December. I tend to agree with you. If we can end it around the Cognizant Classic, I think that would be good. I'm not 100% sure that's what ESPN wants from a programming window.

It could be. It's certainly going to be a discussion among them moving forward. Again, if they can line it up against comparable windows, outrate what ESPN would typically have, I think that would be something that they would certainly be interested in. You mentioned, we're not to pick on him, like a Cameron Young type. Matt Fitzpatrick wasn't necessarily the most outgoing as well. You got to keep in mind as well, these teams were formulated a couple years ago, and they were a way to sort of acquiesce.

players who are, you know, maybe looking at live golf. This is a way to get involved with something else with the PGA tour. It could be investors in this. You can get equity in this. You can, you know, obviously sign contracts. So there are contracts, multi-year contracts in terms of players. That's something to work out as well. And, and like,

You keep mentioning the personalities. I actually think the players deserve a lot of credit here because this does not work without them. You can have incredible technology as they do. You can have very forward-thinking executives like TGL does. But there was a moment, I think it was like the third or fourth match, Rex, where...

I thought we started to see a dip. The ratings started to decline. There was low energy. The competition wasn't very good. There was questions about the accuracy of the launch monitors. And I think TGL taps into something that's very important because there's a lot of discourse and dialogue about whether this is supposed to be a serious competition or a silly competition. But we forget that these guys are professional athletes.

some of the most competitive people on the world, like on the, on the planet. And if you put them in any situation where it's me versus you or us versus them, they want to perform and they want to win. And so that's why I think you saw after sort of that dip early in the first month of the season, you saw more players taking their time, going to SoFi center, practicing, getting acclimated to the football,

full swing technology that you have with the launch monitors, the chipping, which was sort of touch and go over the first couple matches as well. Like you saw players get invested in the process. And so without their involvement, the players involvement without their initiative to want to do that, this thing is dead. And so I think you actually had a fitting, a fitting Victor in Atlanta drive because you had Justin Thomas, who I would argue is probably the best showman ever.

in the entire competition. You had Billy Horschel, who was the most animated player in the entire competition, as we saw in both game one and game two. And, Rex, you had Patrick Cantlay, who to me had the best understanding of

of analytics, hammer strategy, and how to play simulator golf. He's a very smart dude, as we have documented on this podcast over the past couple years with his involvement, the PGA Tour Policy Board. He's very opinionated. He knows what he's doing, what he's going to seek answers. It's clear that he did everything

his homework. He did his research and you put all of those three together. To me, it's not a, it's not a huge surprise that they were the most successful team this year. No, I would agree with you. And I think Lucas Glover on that team was a good addition as well, because he was playing really good golf. And so even when he sort of, I don't want to call him the alternate, but when he had to step in for one of those other three players, he played well. And I think that's what landed them in the position to win the championship. I would have liked Lucas,

to have seen, because we had an opportunity last night, Marty went up to Patrick and tried to talk to him about what goes into this decision to throw this hammer now versus maybe not throw the hammer. And Pat had an opportunity to show the world what a big brain he has. And he really didn't do it. That's sort of Pat's MO. He's not going to give you a lot. I thought that was a little unfortunate. But no, I think you're right. Going forward, I love the idea, and this was a concept we talked about yesterday. What if there's a team of just young players?

Next year, Luke Planton is going to be on the PGA Tour. You would know better than me who else could be paired with him. I think that could be a lot of fun if you want to start a franchise and do it that way. So there's a lot of different opportunities here. And I think what they proved this year was essentially proof of concept. Yeah, proof of concept. And keep in mind, I think this is an important point as well. Like, Scottie Sheffield, the world number one, does not participate in TGL. Jordan Spieth, one of the biggest stars in the PGA Tour, does not compete.

in TGL. We had Tony Finau on golf today, on Tuesday, lives on the West, lives on the West coast, made a one week cameo, but says he's not really interested at this time, especially with his growing family to want to do that commute back and forth. Maybe if there's expansion, maybe if there becomes a West coast venue to sort of ease the burden, you know, those are conversations that you can have down the line. Mike McCarley did,

confirmed with the Palm Beach Post on Tuesday that there are conversations about adding additional sites. But again, that's years down the road. So you had those three players who were not involved, and there's countless others that you could have, Luke Lenton and the like. Roy McIlroy's team, Tiger Woods' team, they did not make the SoFi Cup playoffs. And so to have a successful launch of a season in which you were two biggest stars, the two co-founders of the league did not play particularly well and did not make the playoffs,

I think is something to applaud as well. And I think it's also worth pointing out, and I'm not a hundred percent sure of this, but my guess is if either Tiger or Rory were in the SoFi center last night, we would have seen them during the telecast. I was a little surprised they weren't there either Monday or Tuesday night. They're invested in this. They're co-founders of this. They live minutes away and I don't know what their schedules are. They may have both been out of town. Clearly Tiger is still recovering from the Achilles injury, but I was surprised that neither one of them were there. Maybe.

Maybe Tiger was sidling up with his new girlfriend. Who knows? Rory McIlroy, of course, was on site on Tuesday in Houston getting ready for the Texas Children's Houston Open. We saw him during our golf today coverage. Speaking of Rory, what are you most looking forward to seeing this week, Rex, in H-Town? Skies in the field.

Rory's in the field, pretty strong field, not quite as strong as next week's Valero Texas open, which has seven of the top 13 players in the world. This is our last chance to see Scotty and Roy before they head to Augusta. And Rory is, is fascinating to me because this is just all part of whatever puzzle he's trying to put together. That ends up with him wearing a green jacket on Sunday of the masters. And I'm always leery of sort of dismissing the Houston open or next week in San Antonio or any event as a tune up for the masters or any other major. But if we're being honest, uh,

it's good for Houston open that Rory is there. And he is using this as a tune-up for the masters. That's no disrespect. This is just what's important to him at this point in his career. We touched on this on Tuesday on golf today, that the victory at TPC sawgrass had a lot of good things to it. And I think none more so than sort of the mental toughness that he showed, not just coming down the stretch on Sunday, but certainly showing up Monday morning and doing what he did in that playoff to win. And my argument pretty easily, pretty handedly.

The one thing that was missing is probably the one thing that he'll need at Augusta. If he's finally going to break through that green ceiling, let's call it. And that's, he needs to drive the ball better, which is weird because we normally wouldn't be saying that about Rory McIlroy. If he's in full flight, which he is right now, the victory at TPC Sawgrass this time around was completely,

completely different than when he won there in 2019. In 2019, he did it with his driver. He overpowered the field and that golf course led the field strokes game to the green, not a huge surprise, led the field and driving the distance, not a surprise. That wasn't the case at all at the players championship two weeks ago. He actually struggled the first two days with his driver. So I think anything he can do this week, and it's probably a better fit. Fairways are a little bit more wide open. There's not a lot of rough. They tried to make it as

as close to an Augusta National type test as possible. So my guess is he spends the next few days just trying to dial in the driver. Of course he wants to win the Houston Open. You always do. As you pointed out, these guys are competitors, first and foremost. They want to win everything they do, whether that's CGL or the Houston Open. But that is what's going to be important, and that's what you need to keep an eye on.

Yeah, I would agree completely with that. Memorial park, um, bomber's paradise as it has been described to us, uh, by JJ spawn and Tony Fino. You mentioned the drive with Roy, like, yeah, it was a little bit guidey, um,

He was sort of playing this holdoff cut to make sure that he was staying in the fairway. You look at it from a strokes game perspective, like Roy McIlroy is the preeminent driver of the golf ball and has been on the PGA Tour for more than a decade. He was 20th off the tee at Bay Hill where he had that sort of equipment switch that he was trying out, at least for the first three days, did not work out particularly well. 17th off the tee.

at TPC Sawgrass. He's going to have to let it go at Memorial Park with more distance, a par 70, wider fairways, shorter rough, big undulating greens. I'm curious to see if he has it sort of under better control than he had at TPC Sawgrass. He was fighting what he said was a left miss where the ball is just sort of tailing left. That was going to get him in plenty of trouble at TPC Sawgrass with all the sand, with all the water, with all the trees, with all the pine straw.

And so it'll be Roy full bore and full go. Looking forward to seeing that as it relates to Sky Shuffler. I want to see,

A level of sharpness that he has not shown in his comeback from the hand issue. And I think we probably underestimated just how much that affected him. Scotty met with reporters last week ahead of the Masters for the past champions chat, essentially. And he said there was a rebuilding of his hand strength.

There was also time in the gym, time on the range as well, sort of rebuilding those reps. This guy is a creature of habit. He has a routine. That routine was rudely interrupted for about four or five weeks. He actually had an issue before the hand issue where he had the flu and was knocked out for a week as well. So he was battling five or six weeks of relative inactivity for a guy who likes to play a lot of golf in the offseason. And so proximity to the hole,

For Scottie, he's going to be very important this week as he sorts to get his irons and his distance control dialed in. That has not been particularly strong. His wedge play inside 100 yards has not been particularly strong in the PG Tour this year either. And putting.

It's been a bugaboo. He changed his putting grip. He's had good weeks. He's had poor weeks. Can he make the 10 to 20 footers, which if you look at his stats this season on the PGA Tour, he has not been able to converse. Those are just a couple things to watch as it relates to the Houston open field. Rex, is there anything you want to get off your chest about what this week has been like?

uh, co-hosting, uh, you and I, for the first time on the golf today to desk. I know the media reporters around the country are, are sniffing around. They're working their sources. They might be, you know, coming up with something in front office sports or New York post. Is there anything you want to get ahead of, uh,

ahead of time before something potentially goes to publication. No. Do you have something you want to get off your chest? Is that the way you wanted me to turn this on you? It was a great week. You and I co-hosted at least two days. We're going to see if it actually works out today. We'll see what they talk about. I don't think we broke a lot of China. I think you and I had our moments where we actually did okay, and we had some moments where maybe not so much, specifically reading off the prompter. So much harder than it looks like. Reading seems to be so easy, but when you're trying to read it off the prompter, it's so much more difficult.

It is more difficult. I found a key, and this is very inside baseball, to have larger font. It just slows you down naturally. As you listen to this podcast, I'm a very quick talker on TV that does not translate particularly well. Also less chances of screwing up.

when you read slower. So that's been a challenge. You and I have both done the show tease, which is very exciting. You and I have read off the prompter leading to features, done a lot of interviews. It has been a lot of fun. Everyone asks like, Oh, you guys just going to do like the podcast format for television? No, that's not really how it works. There's more commercial breaks. There's more sponsor and partners involved. Uh, there's more interviews. It's a very guest driven show, which I think is a great compliment to what you and I try and do, uh,

Uh, with this podcast that you and I Rex have also had an opportunity because the show is ending at one o'clock to go visit the big city. What has been the highlight for you now that we are officially all caps Metro men? Uh, first and foremost, MTA so easy to use. Uh, we stayed about a 50 minute walk. Uh,

Great app. Easy to use. Going into the city, I found, is infinitely easier because it's pretty much a direct shot from Stanford, Connecticut, where we are right now. There's only one stop when you take, I guess that's called the Express. And so what is it, 45 minutes, 50 minutes, maybe top? About 55 minutes from Stanford to like Grand Central Terminal, which is not bad at all considering...

It's getting how long it would take if you're actually in your vehicle. Now, where we ran into problems. So we went in on Tuesday and I'm sorry, we went in first on Monday and from the Grand Central Station after taking the MTA, we had to jump on the subway. And our first we didn't we didn't jump on the right subway. I can't I can't dance around this.

Anyway, there's really no easy way for us to admit that we were not only were we wrong, we were way wrong. And in your defense, as we've noted, we've documented numerous times on this podcast, you're colorblind. And so it seems to me the only really way you can tell at a glance which way I think we had to take the six train, which way it's going either uptown or downtown, I guess, to make it easier is one is a red square and the other is a green circle, which to you, I'm guessing just looks like a blurb.

I mean, good God. Red, green? That is like 50% of men are colorblind. And to not have... Oh, it is true. To not have a greater disparity in the colors. Have like a purple and a yellow. Go like full LSU colors. Like why they would be as close...

as close in color as they were, I would need to go like as close as possible to be able to tell, to tell the difference. And from, from a distance, it just, it just wasn't going to happen or slap like a South bound sticker on it, slap a North bound stick at a sticker on the other one. So yes, we got lost or went the wrong way. We went North. We were supposed to go South twice one time. And then we were also on the wrong side of the train. Yeah.

tracks the second time, I believe was the issue. So then we had to pay for a second ticket, walked like 500 feet, got on the other side of the tracks. We eventually did make it to Stanford, but it was also a little bit of a hairy situation. Is there anything you'd like to say? I studied for weeks about where we're going to stay or where we're going to eat in the city. It's very overwhelming. It's kind of like New Orleans. It's kind of like LA where you have a limited

and you want to really capitalize on it with the best restaurants, the best bars. How do you think I did? We first went to Resdora. Italian restaurant. Very nice. There it is. It looked like... What did your mom say that looked like when you sent her that picture? Spatsel and...

um, pierogi. She asked why we got Polish food. Yeah, that's, that wasn't that it was, uh, it was a raviolis and homemade pasta with some sort of delicious meat. Both of them were, I think yours was sausage. I think mine was, uh, maybe, uh, uh, ground pork in the, in the ravioli. Both of them were absolutely delicious. This was a good meal. This was, uh,

a really, really good meal. And I got to give you full flowers. You guys can come at me on that one for doing the research on this and finding it. However, I just told our producer, super producer, Chloe, that the meal we had last night on Tuesday night, and I'm going to leave the pronunciation to you as you Hyundai Galby. Oh my chef's kiss. That was a top five meal for me. My wife's family. There you go. Get an idea. Oh, that's bad video. Let's hope that works out a little bit better on the download.

But that that we're looking at right there, that was beef. That was beef belly. And those are like an assortment of side dishes. There was a great salad, some sort of palate cleanser. There's some sort of like chewy fish thing, which was delicious cake. Not a fish thing. Fish cake is what she called it. Sure. Fish cake. But we had beef belly. We had two different kinds of beef short rib.

We had ribeye, dry-aged ribeye. We had strip steak. It was absolutely delicious. If you're in New York City, if you like Korean food, I would highly recommend going to Yoonhundae Galbi. God, I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I have a feeling I'm not. But that is the best that I can do. Highest recommendation if you're in the city. Cannot wait. I believe I'm next up here like late June.

I've already got a couple other bars and restaurants that I want to check off. And the bar we went to last night, Arthur's Bar, is that where it was called? Albert's. Albert's, thank you. Albert's Bar, very good. Old fashions on draft, which we certainly like to have. Hazy IPAs for you. That's why you're moving a little bit slowly on this Wednesday morning. All right, we have a show to get to if this podcast posts in time. Make sure you check off Golf Today on Golf Channel, noon Eastern time. It will be replaying all afternoon Eastern.

because the Golf Channel can simply not get enough of Rex and Lav. You and I will be back for our regular Sunday night record for Monday Linear Television on Monday. If you guys have any comments, if you guys have any questions we'd love to feature in the show, put them in the YouTube comments section below. We always appreciate you guys chiming in and giving us your thoughts. All right, you guys are the drill. In the meantime, NBCSports.com slash golf for all latest news, notes, and updates. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support.

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