Tour, Trump and Tiger: Golf and politics mix with deal on the line
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when the WM Phoenix opened for his first career victory on the PGA Tour. Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger all in the hunt as well. Scotty Scheffler was too before a back nine fade. Rex, what caught your attention at TPC Scottsdale? I mean, how dominant Thomas was. I mean, that was a very dominant performance from start to finish, pretty much. You kept waiting for him to maybe stumble a little bit coming down the stretch. And you've watched him since his college days, so you've seen him. And he had so much talent coming out.

of college out at Illinois. You thought that he was going to be a world beater, but it's taken him a while to get here. And I was taken just by the idea of not only how he won, but who he won against. I think there are style points when it comes to this. We talked about it last week, winning at Pebble Beach for Rory McIlroy.

against that field was special. It does make it special. This was a little bit different at TPC Scottsdale, but winning against that field, when you look at who was right in his rearview mirror, we're going to talk about Jordan Spieth, who was right there. Daniel Berger, who is making just an inspired comeback. I feel bad that we actually did the Ben Hogan award vote for the GWA maybe a little bit too early because you look at everything he's been through. Uh,

Scotty Scheffler really until probably until midway through the second round, our third round was right there in the mix as well. It was an impressive performance for someone who had a lot of expectations coming out of college. I think this is probably what everyone anticipated. I was probably taking the most though. If you break it down statistically, he, his iron play was so much better this week than it normally is. I mean, statistically it's the worst part of his game and it was probably the best part of his game this week. Yeah. And this was just,

It was such a great coming out party for a crowd and at a tournament where most of the folks in attendance probably didn't know who he was, right? Like you watched Thomas Dietry play golf for the first time last week in Phoenix. You saw one of the most aesthetically pleasing swings imaginable, like Adam Scott meets Ernie Els meets Fred Couples.

And this is a player who he's 32 years old, very much in the prime of his career athletically, but had really not achieved the heights that to your point that we thought he was going to reach. We thought he was basically going to follow the Thomas Peters train and become a prolific winner on the DP World Tour, make his way on the PGA Tour and become a household name. That way that hasn't.

manifested itself either. Now Thomas Peters is on live golf. I thought Data Golf did a great job, Rex, of outlining what was at stake for Thomas Peters heading into Sunday's final round and what he had done in the previous positions. The 20 rounds that Thomas Peters had been inside the top five

entering Sunday. His average score in those rounds was 70.8 and only twice in those scenarios. So two out of 20 times did he actually improve his position on Sunday. Most of the time he was faltering, coming back to the pack, losing position, losing money, losing FedEx cup points, losing race to Dubai points, whatever tournament he was playing on the DP world tour or the PG tour. This was such a stout test.

on a championship golf course at TPC Scottsdale with this leaderboard, with the big names that were chasing him, with, again, a crowd that if they hadn't heard of him, most likely did not want him to win. You know, this was a Belgian player who was going up against Skyshuffle, world number one, and Jordan Spieth, one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour. To do what he did,

getting his jefferson trimmed to two shots on the back nine then reeling off four straight birdies shooting 65 winning by seven i thought it was it's going to be hard to top just how impressive this performance was in a regular pj tour event i think that's i think that i think that's my biggest takeaway here what's what thomas dietrich did on sunday at tbc scottsdale will go down as the what most one of the most impressive performances we'll see on the pj tour this year uh i

I think that's you being a prisoner of the moment, which you have a tendency to doing quite often. He'd never won. He had not won in nine years. His only win came on the Challenge Tour. He won by like a dozen shots. I was surprised by that. When I was reading his transcript, I believe it was Saturday after his round, after his third round. And he talked about, well, the only time I've won as a pro is on the Challenge Tour, as you pointed out almost a decade ago.

That blows me away because he does have all the tools, despite his ball striking, his iron play, which can be a little wonky. And I did want to point out, he finished second for the week strokes game approach for the season. He's 136. So you see how he sort of made up. Are you saying this is an anomaly, Rex? Is that what you're saying?

No, no, I'm not saying that. I'm being a little bit more cautious than you and our colleague Trevor Emelman, who Trevor immediately went to the idea that, okay, this makes him a contender at major championships. Well, I kind of have to say that. I mean, he did contend at the PGA Championship last year. He finished fourth.

Sure, but I still need to kind of see that. I think we get ahead of our skis sometimes in moments like this. Impressive victory, as I pointed out, against an unbelievable field, more so than golf course. I'm not with you either on the golf course. A championship quality test. TPC Scottsdale is a lot of things. It's never going to host a major championship.

that that's not what they want. It's a little bit different test. It's a, it's a fun TPC. Don't get me wrong. I think you and I both took some pot shots at some TPCs last week in the podcast. And I would say Scottsdale is one of the better ones, but I don't know how demanding of a test it is. I will go to, but to your point, when that lead started to get trimmed,

And you could tell it would have been really easy for him to get outside of his environment. It would have been really easy for him to get ahead of himself on what was playing as a surprisingly hard hole, the 16th hole, which is usually nothing more than an eight iron for these players. It actually played as the second hardest hole on Sunday, which is a little shocking to me. Probably hit the round. I mean, probably hit the shot of the day. It was 180 yards. Probably. He probably hit the shot of the day. He hit it to less than a foot.

I mean, it was an amazing shot. Don't get me wrong. Like that's the part that impresses me the most. It's one thing to pull that shot off in front of that crowd. And we're going to touch on Jordan Spieth here in a minute. But I thought he made some great comments today after his round talking about how the crowd on that hole makes it play so much more difficult. If you just put that hole in the middle of a field on the PGA Tour, the scoring average is probably about two and a half strokes.

To be honest with you. And on this day, with the tees back, with the pin back, I think that's pretty much about as long as that hole can possibly play. To hit that shot with a title, your first title on the PGA Tour on the line, beyond impressive. So no, I'm not questioning this at all.

Yeah, I think like this was probably a little bit of hyperbole on my part. Like when we sit down and do our year-end podcast on December 31st, are we going to say, yes, Thomas Dietrich, that was one of the most impressive performances. But I think if you actually looked at the context,

and the totality of his career. Like it was a wildly impressive performance. What he has accomplished, what he hasn't accomplished, what to your point, statistically, he has struggled with in the past. The leaderboard, the golf course, which is certainly one of the best TPCs, I would argue it's one of the best tournament venues on the entire PGA Tour schedule with a lot of the risk and reward. Anything can happen. The volatility on the back nine, particularly those last four holes to sort of withstand all of

that and to come out with a 65, four straight birdies, a seven-shot margin of victory to put this tournament on ice over the past 30 minutes. You mentioned the shot on 16. Did he benefit from Daniel Berger going long just ahead of him? Certainly.

That was a juice nine iron from Daniel Berger hit over the green, ended up making a bogey. Thomas Peters takes a little bit off, hits it to a foot ball game. You still have to execute the shots. And for Thomas Peters to do so, having not been in that environment where heavy had been in that environment faltering in the past, I was wildly impressed with that. I think the person who is watching this over the past month on the PGA tour,

Who has to be most impressed or happiest or most optimistic? It has to be Luke Donald, Sepp Straka, winner at Amex, the Hogard twins, Roy McIlroy, Shane Lowry dueling out of Pebble Beach, and now Thomas Dietry. There was a time not that long ago, Rex, where we were wondering how is the European Ryder Cup team going to be fielding its squad? All of a sudden now you have a bevy of potential options, not even including Adrian Maronk who won on live this past week.

I'm going to gas bag for a minute and let you come up with your top five list of TPCs because I feel like Scottsdale being on top of that list is a little misplaced. So I'm going to give you a chance to back off that one. No, I would put TPC Sawgrass and TPC Scottsdale one and two. I don't even think it's particularly close.

Uh, River Highlands. I think it's one, two, and three, but it sounds like we're splitting hairs at this point. But I think you're kind of glossing over Sawgrass and River Highlands, who I think are very, very good golf courses. TPC are not, regardless of what they do. And I would say Sawgrass is probably, I would argue, is a championship venue when you're talking about, could they host a major there? Absolutely. The championship venue.

The championship, sure. And the other half of this is I could not wait. I knew you were going to get there and you were going to get there breathlessly, as you always do when it comes to young Europeans about, oh, they're going to win the Ryder Cup this year for Europe. And you're right. Thomas Dietry may end up winning the Ryder Cup. I think it's probably going to be Sepp Straka based on what he does. But yes.

I begged last week for us to have this conversation. And again, this week about the idea, I think there's one American winner on the PGA tour so far of this season. If I'm not mistaken, we've played six events. We're six events in or based on what you said, we're only two events into the season because you didn't feel like it started until Pebble Beach. But there's only one American winner. So you're you're right. No, this is this is five in a row for an international player or a non-American player.

Yeah, and you're right. If I'm Luke Donald, I'm sitting at home on my couch in South Florida with a big smile on my face the way this is stacking up. And it's a long way between now and September and Beth Page and the Ryder Cup this year. But you look at all those players who seem to be in really good form as opposed to the Americans, and I'm with you. I believe we had this conversation two years ago when Liv Goff was first –

the fracture in golf first sort of presented itself where you had to make a decision. I think Henrik Stenson was going to be captain and they removed him as captain and Luke took over. And I remember my argument at the time being that I feel like this divide, whatever live golf is going to become, it's going to impact the European team more so than the U S team. Cause I felt like the U S team, they're just going to reload and you're coming off whistling straights at that point. And it felt like that American team was stacked and there was no reason to look back.

Now, in the wake of what happened in Rome at the last Ryder Cup, in the wake of what's going on right now in golf, it seems to me that Europe just needed to refresh, that all those players that they thought they probably needed for that team to have any chance of success, and this goes back to sort of the warhorses that they have. It's Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood and Paul Casey and Graham McDowell and keep going down that list of Ryder Cup stars. They just got replaced pretty easily, actually, it feels like. Yeah, you feared Luke Dowell. You just want to have options.

And for the first time in a long time, it seems like the options are not just 12 deep or 15 deep. You can probably go 18 or 20 and make realistic cases. It doesn't even include Sergio Garcia, who by all accounts has paid his fines and wants to be a part of that European Ryder Cup team in 2025. One of those players, Rex, who I think Keegan Bradley might now be counting on

to be at Bethpage Black, is Jordan Spieth. And I'm not sure we would have said that necessarily after his debut last week at Pebble Beach, a very encouraging performance, his finishes of the top three at TPC Scottsdale, said afterward that he was, quote, way ahead of schedule from wrist surgery. Keep in mind, Phoenix was just his second start since that wrist surgery in late August. What stood out to you most about Jordan Spieth's performance in Scottsdale? And are you all aboard the Jordan bandwagon once again?

Second event back. Didn't play particularly well in his first event back. Played much, much better this time around. So I'm probably going to take this one a little bit slower than you obviously will as well, because there it is. The exclamation point. The exclamation point. Yes. Baby, yes. That's got you written all over it. I know you did the lower third very well. I...

I'm encouraged by everything he did well this week. The one stat that I went to immediately second in scrambling, 10 of 11 when it came to scrambling for the week. And that's quintessential Jordan. He's going to put himself into bad positions with a healthy wrist or with an injured wrist. It doesn't matter. That's what he did. That's why he was so entertaining. We're starting to see those flashes of him hitting a putter through the desert to find a way to make a score on a hole and not put himself out of the tournament. He called it a...

week where he made progress and I think that's the most encouraging thing when you also keep in mind he's played a new putter this week a new driver this week and a new wrist and I think his line was I'm trying to figure out how to juggle all three of those things and so it was kind of a quintessential Jordan week much more encouraged though after this week than what happened at

at Pebble Beach. And I think probably what happened to Pebble Beach, we talked about the weather last week. I think he ended up on the bad side of some of that weather as well. This was probably much more indicative of what we anticipated. And I do like the idea that he is slow playing this as much as he possibly can.

where he talks about this being a progress and he doesn't expect this to happen overnight. And he knows how long and difficult this battle has been to come back from this wrist injury. I'm bummed. You're bummed. We were supposed to have a special guest on tonight. And I really wanted to talk to Aaron O about this as someone who has been through this wrist injury, because my guess, if Aaron O could have figured out how to make the technology work, because he's an old person now, he couldn't figure it out. But if he could have figured it out, he probably would have said how encouraged he was.

as someone who has been through a similar injury, someone who has climbed, tried to climb out of that and knows how difficult it is and impossible. I actually kind of footnoted something earlier in the week about the idea that Jordan talked about, I think it was during round one at Pebble,

where he hit a bunker shot and it just hurt his wrist and it kind of impacted him for the entire round. That's not a recipe for success. That's what he's been dealing with the last three or four years. The idea that that tendon could pop out at any given moment. You can't play professional golf, not against the best players in the world when that's hanging over your head. So it is encouraging to see him have a week like this.

Oh, it certainly is. And I think it even goes back to the final round in Pebble where he shot a bogey-free 67. He said that it jammed up, was to use his word, when he hit it out of the bunker in the opening round when he was playing at Spyglass. And he sort of got into the old habit, sort of playing away from pain. And he finally just said, look,

I need to just put my head down. I need to grind through this. I'm not going to re injure myself. This is just some of the scar tissue that I'm fighting through. I need to, to, to sort of go back to what I've been working on over these past couple of months. He did it in that 67. And then you saw the way that he played in Phoenix, making just two bogeys. It was very un Jordan Spieth. Like, yes, he had some, some Spiethian pars, the sort of magic that we've come from accustomed to, but it was the hallmark iron play.

That we've seen when Jordan Spieth is playing his best, it goes back to sublime ball striking and iron play. That's why he was so good in 2015. That's why he was so good in 2017. That's why when he started to have a comeback post-COVID and some of the other issues that he had with the slump, it was the iron play that came back as well. Jordan Spieth is not a patient person.

by any stretch of the imagination. And for him to say that I knew that this, I'm still a couple of months away, that I still need to have warmer temperatures to get through some of the scar tissue and some of the pain and some of the discomfort I'm feeling. I think the biggest thing, Rex, was what...

Phoenix did for him sort of monetarily or FedEx Cup points wise. He called it a quote weight off his shoulders and the fact that he can now play with house money. Having a top finish just sort of eases the burden that he's going to feel for the rest of the season. We touched on it last week.

on the show. This is a player who is actually only exempt on the PGA tour through the end of this season. All the other exemptions that he's had in his career would be up after this season. So it's imperative, obviously, to finish inside the top 100. Going to be imperative as well to finish inside the top 50 to make sure he is in a different position

than he is right now with access to the signature events. There was a lot of hand-wringing. The fact that Jordan Spieth got a sponsor exemption into this week's Genesis Invitational. And Pebble. And Pebble. And I'm sure future signature events down the line

As well, Jordan Spieth showed the goods in Phoenix, even when he didn't necessarily strike it his best. I think Saturday was a good indication that he still shot a bogey for E67, making just two bogeys all week. Very, very impressive. I think one thing to keep in mind, though, Rex, he's always had, Jordan Spieth has, has had success at TPC Scott. So this is his sixth top 10 finish in nine career appearances. Can he duplicate it at other golf courses where he hasn't traditionally had success? I think that is sort of the next step for him.

How about Scotty Scheffler, who at one point was charging up the leaderboard, looked like he was going to give Thomas Dietry a run for his money, instead comes absolutely unraveled on the back nine, shoots 41, finishes in a tie for 25th. This on the heels of a T9 last week at Pebble Beach. Where are you on Scotty as the Masters is now just two months away?

Unraveled? Who's doing these lower thirds? Fred, dial it down. We don't need to do unraveled. Unraveled? Melts down? However you want to phrase it. You're going to use collapse as well? Is that another one? When is the last time Sky Shuffler shot a back 941? When's the last time Sky Shuffler hit only seven greens in regulation? Seven greens in regulation.

That one, that's the part. 41, probably not since he was a teenager, but you're right. It's the seven greens. It's actually his ball striking stats, period. Like he didn't putt particularly well. I don't think anybody gets pretty concerned, very concerned when it comes to Scottie not putting well, but strokes gain off the tee 22nd in the field. Strokes gain tee degree 36th. Here's the one that gets me. Strokes gain approach 30th. When was the last time he was 30th in approach play?

Like that just does not happen. We talked about this last week and I have flipped. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to be the prisoner of the moment now. I'm going to go ahead and take it. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and take it. Last week, I was much more concerned about Jordan because I pointed out statistically in the way he played that there was just nothing there that led me to believe that, okay, he's close to turning this around. And he has said it probably better than anyone else. It's going to be a process.

Like we don't need to be doing this on a week in week out basis, but that's what we're going to do. I did not have any concerns last week for Scottie. This one concerned me just not statistically based on what he normally does. Well, had he putted poorly and driven the ball poorly, I could have written that one off.

about just rust, hasn't been competing in a while, still maybe recovering a little bit from injuring his hand during the holidays. All those I can dismiss. The idea that he's 30th and strokes gain approach, again, I'll challenge anyone to tell me the last time he finished a tour event

30th in strokes gain approach. That just doesn't happen. And the other half of it is we saw it. Like there was moments on the golf course when I'm not going to say unraveled. That seems extreme, but the emotions got to him and it doesn't happen very often with Scotty good or bad. He doesn't seem to get frustrated.

flustered one way or the other. And he clearly got flustered this time around on a golf course that you pointed out that he has had success on. So he probably had some sort of expectations coming into this week and it just wasn't there, not necessarily for the first two, two and a half rounds, but certainly as he finished up the weekend and that's got to be aggravating to him.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, you're calling this the end of the Scotty era. Is that what you're saying? I feel like I'm being aggregated on that one. It's like, it's, it's obvious, right? So he's not, he's not playing his best at the moment, making some uncharacteristic mistakes, uh,

Flub pitches He had a couple approach shots in the water You mentioned the frustration bowling over on the weekend When he like chopped his bag Which was a good move, knocked it over That's sort of the Sky that we've seen Picked it right back up That's just the kind of guy that Sky Schaeffler is But like

It's still February 10th. Like I'm not even a little bit concerned as it relates to Scotty Scheffler. It is going to be interesting this week at Torrey Pines has a spotty record there, two miscuts and finished outside the top 10 and his other previous start in 2022.

Not necessarily a golf course. I'm not sure there is a golf course that isn't well suited for him, but at least in the limited track record that we've seen Scottie Scheffler at Torrey Pines has not been great. I would imagine if Scottie had his druthers and his way that he would have a week off to sort of

sort of take stock of where he is with his game. Instead, he's going to be playing for the third week in a row. Frustration's high. Swing is not exactly where he wants it. Expectations should probably be tempered just a little bit for Scottie Sheffield this week at another signature event. All right, back by popular demand, it is the world-famous Lovett or Lavitt segment. The PGA Tour Rex announced that Commissioner Jay Monahan and Player Director Adam Scott

met with President Trump last week at the White House and are now, quote, closer to a deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Are you loving or laughing the idea that we're finally on the brink of a resolution to Gulf Civil War? You have to love it, right?

like you have to separate yourself from there are going to be those who watch this podcast who aren't going to love it just because they never want there to be a deal between the two sides. But I think you have to love the idea that we're getting closer and closer to some sort of resolution to what's broken professional golf and make no mistake about it. It is absolutely broken. And it's important to point out that the tour needed to do this meeting and this was them going to DC and them asking for the help. They had to have the help. And what this boils down to by all accounts is,

the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund have come to financial terms of what this would look like. And they've actually, my understanding is, come to numerous versions of this. So they put that in front of the Department of Justice. And I will give the tour credit on this front and the PIF.

that, okay, they didn't want to wait through the process again. They didn't want to just give them one option. And the Department of Justice didn't say, nope, that's not going to work. They have given them A, B, C, or D. Like you tell us which one of these versions is going to work and we'll go with it. And...

I think this is important to point out that the tour decided to use whatever political muscle they have, which probably isn't much, but we all know that President Trump is very much a golf guy. He owns golf courses. He's wanted to be involved in golf in a long time. If anyone can move this along, it's going to be Trump. And again, there's going to be people that don't like this conversation. But again, if the end goal is to have some sort of agreement between the two sides that gets us closer to reunifying the game or unifying the game.

and doing away with this separation that's not good for anyone at all. I think this is a step in the right direction. Yeah, you certainly have to love it. In a sense, this was expected, I think, ever since Trump got into the office.

was elected into office last November. He is more deal friendly. He would be more amenable to a deal between the PGA tour and the Saudi public investment fund. We all know that president Trump would relish the role of quote unquote, fixing golf of making a deal when he's got relationships with all of the interested parties. What, what,

is important to remember though, is that this is just the first part of what is probably a more complicated and even potentially a more political issue. And that is fixing the game at large. You know, that can't be hacked out of reintegrating the players through the department of justice. That's is going to come from the policy board of the PGA tour. Strategic sports group is going to have a say, uh,

Obviously, live golf and the players who may or may not want to cross back over are all going to have a say in this as well. I think it's interesting, too, Rex, if this deal gets finalized, and it certainly seems to be trending in that direction after this meeting and Tiger Woods playing golf with President Trump on Sunday in South Florida, the clock is then going to be ticking.

Because fans aren't going to wait forever for PGA Tour players and decision makers who might be jealous or vengeful or bitter or spiteful for how this whole thing has played out over these past couple of years to make PGA Tour events stronger. Because once the financial component

is finalized and the deal that's going to be infusing money into PGA Tour Enterprises is finalized, then the really tricky part comes and fans aren't going to be as patient for that because it would clearly behoove the PGA Tour to bring some of those players back into the fold and any sort of lengthy delay to figure that out is not going to go over well.

And I think it's important to point out now that when it comes to whatever that next step is, and you're absolutely right, this was by all accounts, the financial terms were supposed to be the easy part of this, where they come up with some sort of formula. And right now it's just a waiting game. The Department of Justice is going to ultimately decide if this is going to go and this is not going to go. And I think you're right.

I think the president stepping in will tip the scales in the direction that there will be some sort of financial agreement, probably in the first quarter of this year is what we're all hearing on this front. By far, the more difficult, complicated, emotional, personal, whatever it is you want to call it, part of this process will be finding a way to mess the game back together. There is an option that you don't actually mess it back together, that the two tours, Live Golf and the PGA Tour, continue on parallel paths.

and that there's no more poaching, that maybe you have players that go to one side and come back to the other. But that is an option. And I think there's an element on the PGA Tour that want to see that option. I don't think it's a realistic option because you're right. We don't get the PGA Tour does not get back the players that they want. They don't get Bryson back or Brooks or Jon Rahm or any of the players that really move the needle like the tour desperately needs.

right now. The other half of this is it's going to come down to emotions. And there's a lot of players, certainly on both sides who have very, very strong emotions about this, that they feel like if you went to live golf and you followed whatever it is, your heart was telling you, then why should you pay a fine or service suspension? Like you felt like you were doing what was best for golf in your career. On the other side, there's players who stayed loyal to the PGA tour that feel like that those who left should have to pay a very steep penalty.

for going away because they got paid they got their money why should we just welcome them back this is where the emotions come in it's going to be important for the commission to understand this and you're probably going to want to mark this down as a as a time code because it's going to have to be mish monahan's job to be a benevolent dictator when it comes to this and by that i mean you're never going to come to a consensus there's never going to be everyone who agrees with this not even i'm not even talking about the membership i'm not talking about the player advisory council

I'm talking about the player directors on the policy board and who's ever making the decisions over on the live golf side. You're not going to be able to find a consensus in that little tiny confined room, let alone across the membership. So it's going to be up to Jay, the commissioner, to decide exactly what the best path forward and just make everyone understand this is what we're doing.

Like it or not, this is the way it's going to work. And I'm not always in favor of that because I don't feel like that's the way a membership organization like the PGA Tour should be run. But it's the only path forward I can see. Yeah, I think you make a lot of great points there. And there has been so much talk of reunifying the sport or healing the fractures in the game. That can't just be done financially.

That can't just be done by infusing $1.5 billion into PGA Tour enterprises and making the PGA Tour this behemoth that can go chase after other entities. It is reintegrating the players who left crossing paths that way. It is restrengthening the PGA Tour after it has been weakened over the past couple of years. That needs to be priority number one for the PGA Tour after, again, the financial component.

gets finalized. That's a great segue then Rex to our second topic on love or love it. And that is live golf, which kicked off its new season in Saudi Arabia. Adrian Marank went individually, John Rahm's Legion 13 team blew away the field under the lights. I know you tuned in to FS2, FS1. Are you loving or laughing the idea that night golf worked for live golf and its season opener? No,

Nothing in the middle between Lovett or Lovett. There's no room. There's no gray there. It's a grunt. Because I made it clear my thoughts on golf under the lights. It was an unnecessary gimmick. And after watching a little bit of it, I still feel the same way. You didn't have to do

And I don't feel like it was not necessary. I did not enjoy it. It did not seem to motivate me. The one thing that really did motivate me and that really made me want to tune in and watch that final round was the idea of what you just pointed out. Legion 13 won by 11 strokes. And this is the first time in the history of the game, a game that goes back eons.

Way back when they thought the world was flat, they were playing golf. And this is the first time this has ever happened. Someone has bought a team to be dominant. For those of us who love the transaction, I love this because Jon Rahm bought himself a really good team that won by 11 shots. And you look at what they've done. They've won five times in their last 15 starts on Live Tour. The team has. And you add McKibben, Tom, to that mix. It only made them better. And with the new rules that Live has this year with four players categorized

having to count their scores as opposed to three of the best out of the four, it puts so much pressure on that fourth guy to perform week in and week out. And now you look at what Rahm has done. I can't gloss over this. I'm fascinated by this. I'm interested in it. I'm interested in the transaction of it because John went out and did what a really good GM would do. Well, that's in the Super Bowl. And the really good GMs get Saquon Barkley to come on to the Eagles to be a really good team. John Rahm got Tom McKibbit.

to come on to a really good team and be dominant. If they don't win, I don't want to put a number on it. If they don't win more times than not as a team this year, I would be stunned. Celtics, Dodgers, Chiefs, Legion 13.

These are all the dynasties that we can come to expect. I'm exactly with you. He's clearly a good salesman because Jon Rahm needed some convincing to join Live Golf as well. And once he did, he made it a point that my team is going to be the best team. He went out and got Terrell Hatton, who at the time was a top 15 player in the world. He went out and got Tom McKibben, who just earned his PGA Tour card, Roy McIlroy's protege. He went out and got Caleb Surratt, who at least during his college career had at a time

spent time as the number one ranked amateur in the world. Like he has formed a super team. And now that every team score is counting to your point, but yeah, like they're going to be absolutely dominant. I actually loved,

Night golf. And I may have been one of the only people who are watching it, but I think unlike the showdown where you had the two players, the PG tour and two players from live golf in December on the lights at shadow Creek, like the players actually had enough time to acclimate with a lot of the practice rounds and getting over, uh, getting to Saudi Arabia early that it wasn't a huge deal.

Did not sort of track the ball flight off tee shots. Distance control really wasn't that big of an issue. They were still reading the putts fine. I mean, scoring was great. It was still, you know, deep into the mid-teens under par for 54 holes. And so, you know, it may not have translated to big ratings for the first event. And keep in mind, they're playing from, what, 10 a.m. Eastern time until about 3 p.m.

3 p.m. on the East Coast. Like we're still eager for alternative formats, alternative looks, alternative telecast. This was it. Do I want to see it every single week on Live Golf? No. But when you're in different time zones like this, I think it was a good option. I think it was cool. I enjoyed watching it, even if it was one of the few.

Third topic for love it or laugh it. USJ announced it was creating an exemption category for the top live performer among the top three in the standings who is not already eligible. Are you loving or laughing, Rex? This is actually a big deal in the world of golf. We needed to change the name of the segment to live it or laugh it because I feel like everything's been...

About live it. I love it for obvious reasons that this was always going to fall on the shoulders of the major championships. And I'm glad the USGA and Mike Juan, the chief executive decided to take a leadership position on this and just decide that we want our major championships to have the world's best players. And those bets, some of those best players play on live golf. There's no glossing around that anymore. Again, data golf being the primary example here. There's no glossing around that anymore.

There's plenty of really, really good players. If they were good players before they left the PGA tour to join live golf, they're still probably really good players. And this takes away some of that angst, some of that anxiety, some of that animosity that has come up between the two sides. If you look at,

how a player like Joaquin Neiman had to sit around and wait for exemptions. And he did get exemptions last year into the PGA Championship and the Masters, but it didn't make sense. Just create a pathway, whatever that pathway is, whether it's going to be top two off their points list, if it's going to be their number one player at that point in the season, whatever the case may be, create some sort of pathway so at least you can assure that the best player from Liv will have an opportunity not just to play in the U.S. Open. I would like to see the other three majors follow suit. I love it.

With an asterisk. Do you live it?

Yes, I'm living it and I'm loving it. It's significant in the sense that this is the first time that a major championship has gone out of its way to invite live players. It certainly represents a thawing of the relationship, potentially because now there's a new CEO. It's got O'Neill with live golf. And like, this is a no brainer show of goodwill by the governing bodies and Mike won. It's like an easy win. It's a layup and they threw it down and hammered it home. However, I say this with an asterisk or asterisk,

or sort of with a caveat that this might be rendered a moot point.

If a player in the top three is already eligible by some other way, then you're essentially just clearing pathways to final qualifying. And so this is a minimal spot. It's a spot that may not eventually be used if the top three players are already exempt. They're not going down to number four on that list. And so it still shows Rex that there's not a full acceptance that the results on live golf are as meaningful as the other competitive tours.

But I do love the idea that this is at least a start. And I would certainly anticipate the Open Championship and the RNA falling at least similar suit. I know the Telegraph and our friend James Corrigan reported that that's likely to happen over the coming weeks with sort of an exemption category for live golf as well.

Do we expect it to be 10 spots? No. Five spots? Even that's probably too many. One to three feels right in this situation. I think the USGA, at least as the first organization, sort of nailed it in that respect.

All right, final topic. It will not be live related. That is Tiger Woods gave himself a tournament exemption into his own tournament at the Genesis Invitational using the Tiger Woods clause and the new PGA Tour bylaws. It is the first start Rex for Tiger Woods since the Open Championship in July. Back to an old stomping ground at Torrey Pines. Are you loving or laughing him making the cut in his debut in 2025?

This came up in a radio interview I did on Saturday, and it's important, and I think you sort of glossed over it a little bit. Tiger Woods is exempt into any event outside of the majors that he wants to play, to be clear. And the PGA Tour is card-wrestling.

Yeah, it's a Tiger Woods exemption. So from now until the end of time, he can play anywhere and everywhere he wants. So to be clear, it's not as though he's taking a spot. That was the whole idea behind this particular exemption. He's not taking a spot from someone else who would probably wanted it in the field. This one is curious to me because I talking with people inside the camp, they're,

There was the feeling that he had moved along enough in his rehab and his game was at a point where he felt confident that he was going to play the Genesis, even at Torrey Pines, which is going to be, I would argue, a little bit more of a difficult test for him, at least physically, than Riviera would have been.

After his mother passed away, tragically, last week, there was worry that he would probably understandably not play with the emotions of the moment, knowing what his mother meant to him. I honestly was a little surprised that he decided to go ahead and play. I think this is probably an indication of where he is with his game right now and where he feels like his body is. And we talk about it a lot. The idea that if you separate the tragedy of losing your mother from

And if you want to be competitive with the idea of being, I want to be competitive that week in April, the one that matters the most, that I need to get more reps in, and this just makes sense. And again, I don't anticipate him playing.

anywhere else between now and the masters. It just has not become the norm. We always talked about Bay Hill or the player's championship. I would be legitimately surprised if he shows up at either one of those tournaments. So this one seems like he almost had to play, give it a shot. And he also has an incredible history here. He's won eight times, including a U S open. So it's not as though he's showing up at a place that he doesn't know what to expect. So I, I I'm,

It is a love it or laugh it section. I'm going to lean in again to love it, but there is a caveat there. I'm going to go with laugh it. And I do so painfully to your point. I like, I'm surprised that tiger is playing this week. I'll particularly after the tragedy, just take you some time to mourn. I don't think anyone would have been surprised had he chose to done. So it's, it's not a hard cut to make.

Right. It's just 72 players in the field. It's low 50 and ties. Plus you have the 10 shot rule, which is what they're doing for these player hosted invitational. So like you've, you've really got to play poorly to miss the cut. I do worry that he could do that. You know, this was a, a,

player in Tiger Woods who just a couple of weeks ago after he played the TGL match to like his game is not quite yet sharp enough to compete against the world. Bless players. So you're going up against the top field possible on the PG tournament signature event. Plus you're then going to a, one of the most difficult, uh,

tournament venues on the entire pg tour schedule which is probably going to be even more amped up than what we just saw a couple weeks ago at the farmers insurance open would not be surprised as either rough thicker the greens faster the fairways running out more however you want to set it up to really test the world's best it is not conducive of a setup for a player who's going to be very rusty has not had a scorecard in his hand since last july i will say he will lav it

They missed the cut. But obviously, as a golf fan, it's just great to see Tiger Woods make his tournament debut in 2025. All right, Rex, just a couple more topics to get to. And I want to touch on Luke Clanton, who I thought in what was a riveting Friday night theater, missed the cut by one at the WM Phoenix Open, remains just one point shy of earning his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerator Program. Is it just a matter of time before this kid gets and lands on tour?

I love the theater of this, watching him try to make that putt on 18, knowing what was on the line. I do appreciate it. It feels a little manufactured, if I'm being honest with you, because it seems like it's inevitable he's going to get there. It's not as though he's not going to get starts. It's not as though he doesn't still have opportunities to earn that final point. So I'm still very confident he's going to get there. I feel like at this stage, he's probably going to start pressing a little bit more than he needs to, but it was certainly entertaining.

Yeah, it certainly was entertaining. I like the shift that we've seen over the past couple months with this Friday focus on the cut line and Luke Clanton and earning his PGA Tour card was just a storyline that was tailor-made for that. And I'm with you. It's not like if Luke Clanton made the cut, all of a sudden there's going to be this card ceremony on the 18th green and he's all of a sudden going to start playing in PGA Tour events. He's still ready to complete his junior season at Auburn after the NCAA Championships.

Then he could turn pro. Then he could accept his PGA Tour membership. It wouldn't quite come automatically. I'm with you. It is just a matter of time. I think he's going to be playing at the Valspar Championship next month. This kid looks like an absolute star. Competitive swagger. He's got a big game. Absolutely launches it. He's got a ton of speed. He's got a fun personality. All in on Luke Clanton, as I think are most golf fans. All right. One player who will not be teeing it up this week.

at the Genesis Invitational is Xander Shoffley, who is still out with the rib issue, will not play at Torrey Pines in his old hometown of San Diego. Where are you, Rex, on the panic meter as it relates to Xander Shoffley?

I'm going to clean this up for you just so you don't get the text from Trey Jones. And you said Luke Clanton is from Auburn. He's very much from Florida state. Sorry. Just to be clear on that one. Yes, that's right. Sorry to Trey. Don't, don't apologize to Luke. Apologize to Trey Jones. Appreciate that. My level would be high if I had to put a number on it, seven out of 10, maybe on Xander, simply because what we saw out of him before he actually made the announcement that there was an injury that he was dealing with was not very good golf. And then he starts missing events that you fully expected him to play in that

the farmer's insurance open in toy pines where he's from being the primary one. Now we're back at toy pines and he's missing again. Yes. I think anytime a player starts missing, starts missing big events because of an injury like that, I think you need to be concerned. But the other half of this is,

There's a lot of big golf to be played this year. And my guess is, in the back of Xander's mind, he's thinking to himself that I really want to be ready for the Masters. I really want to be ready for the Players' Championship and all the majors beyond that. So if you have to miss a little bit on the West Coast, I certainly understand that. So yeah, six, seven out of ten, somewhere around there, six and a half. Jackson Quaven from Auburn, very good player. Also most likely earned his PG Tour card from PG Tour. Good save.

a university accelerated program as well. Where was I back to Xander Shoffley? I I'm with you. I think probably somewhere like six, seven, eight is probably realistic. It's not so much the injury and we're not going into your PJ tour trainer talk with traumatic injury. And what was it like routine injury or something? I think the biggest issue as it relates to Xander Shoffley and his readiness for the masters that he played the century didn't play particularly well at Kapalua. He's running out of potential tournament starts for,

where he can sort of test his game, make sure he is competitively sharp. If he's not going to be playing this week at Torrey Pines, he's not going to be teeing it up in Mexico. He most likely is not going to be teeing it up at PGA National, which I think has been proven over time is not a great test and sort of preview for the Masters. So then you're looking at Bay Hill players, and if he follows his 2024 tournament schedule, he could tee it up at Valspar, Innisbrook as well. So he's going to be making maybe –

four tournament starts before the masters yes you can sort of hit the ground running once you get to the masters through the rest of the major championship season but i think i picked xander shoffley to win the masters i don't feel quite as good about that pick at this stage as i potentially did on january 1 not knowing about the rib issue

All right, Rex, you touched on it in the previous segment, but an RIP to Katita Woods, Tiger Woods' mom who died unexpectedly at the age of 80. What do you think will be her enduring legacy in the game? So much of the focus as it relates to the Tiger Woods story has always been about Earl. What about Tita?

I think it's always fascinating when you're right. Earl was in the spotlight. He wanted to be in the spotlight. He spent a lot of time talking to the media when Tiger first turned pro. And there was a lot about Earl that you could equate to Tiger Woods being a Green Beret, being in the Marine, I mean, being in the Army. All of those things, the discipline that he bestowed upon his son. But the interesting thing is, if you talk to anyone who was in those circles early days, and I think Butch Harmon has probably explained this,

to be better than anyone. It was Tita who was the disciplinarian. It was Tita who drove him to be the absolute best. I mean, of course, Earl took him to the golf course and introduced him to the game and tried to instill in him all of those disciplines that he learned being a special forces member in the army.

But it was Tita that was always there. She was the quote unquote Tiger mom. And I mean that as a full compliment, as in she wanted Tiger to be the absolute best. And the only way to do that is to push him on a constant basis. I don't think Tiger gets to where he is today with 82 PGA Tour victories and 15 major title titles without Tita. Now, he might have gotten here without Earl, but I don't think it happens without Tita.

I think the legacy that was, I think that was very well said, is always being there. I think that's a great thing, obviously, for a parent. She was there at the junior events. She was there at the 97 Masters.

She was there for the scandal apology. She was there for the 2019 masters. She was there for the return at the masters after his near death crash in California. She was even there Rex, just a couple of weeks ago at TGL, this new venture that he's launching and sort of this post playing career. Like that's what you want. That's what you expect out of a mother. But I think her unwavering love, her unwavering support, her,

really showed through despite being, by all accounts, sort of the stone cold assassin and sort of this tough driving force for Tiger Woods, the competitor. I think the fact that she always supported him, always loved him, even through what has been a very complicated professional legacy, I think is something that will stand out the most. All right, Tiger will be there in Torrey Pines. Most importantly, you will be there in Torrey Pines about to board a flight and

and head out of Orlando to get to San Diego. What are you most looking forward to seeing this week, Rex? The signature event, the Genesis Invitational. You touched on it earlier, how the golf course might be different. Are they going to set it up? There's only been a pretty small window, so I don't think there's a lot they can do when it comes to the golf course. But I do think you're right. They probably let the rough grow a little bit. We talked about this a few weeks ago, the idea that

as if you're going to pick a schedule maybe that particular date for the farmer's insurance isn't best for toy pines to play at its absolute best well now we're a couple weeks down the road and you'd like to think it's dry it's a little bit drier it's a little bit firmer it's a little bit faster it's still not as good as it's still not as good as it would be in june or july let's be let's

Absolutely not. I mean, having been there for U.S. Open way back in 2008, that's when it's at its absolute best, which is sort of the point of that conversation. The other half of it is, and I want to see how Scottie Scheffler is going to play. We're both being prisoners of the moment when it comes to Scottie and Jordan and all of these players. But you look at the leaderboard coming out of Phoenix on Sunday.

And the idea that you have so many of the game's top players who are playing really, really well, Justin Thomas being at the top of my mind, because he's done everything except for win. And he holds out for Eagle on the last hole in Phoenix and ignites the crowd. But this was not a one-off. He's doing special things on the golf course. I fully expect, I don't, I don't know if we can expect another Rory situation like we ended up with at Pebble Beach, but I expect this to be another special finish where you end up with the

the top players playing on the classic venue and primetime on the East coast. I'm not going to be surprised if the tour gets what they want out of this event, which is exactly that. Yeah. It always seemingly produces a great leaderboard. We saw that even at the 2021 US open, one of the players who factored that week, but does not yet have a victory at Torrey Pines is Rory McIlroy.

First time we've seen him, of course, since Pebble Beach. That was a new look Rory, a patient Rory, a Rory who said that he was even taking and borrowing from sort of the Scotty Scheffler playbook, where even though he is making mistakes and even though he is not playing flawless golf, he at least gives off the appearance of

that he's playing perfect golf, that he's playing mistake-free golf because he's missing the golf ball in the right spots and has so many bogey-free rounds. Roy said that goes against sort of his very being. The essence of who he is as a competitive golfer is to sort of taking and reigning it back. But I want to see if that was just sort of a one-off that we saw at Pebble Beach where you can play a sort of more plotting style of golf

at Pebble Beach, which is going to be different than other PGA Tour venues. He's certainly not going to get away with it at Torrey Pines, which is probably going to be, what, 7,700 yards? Going to have to take out Driver. He's going to have to rip it. He's going to have to hit it straight. I'm curious to see if he still takes his medicine, plays that position-oriented golf,

if he's more patient or if he sort of reverts to his old tendencies and just sort of is freewheeling and aggressive. That's what I want to see this week out of Rory McIlroy and Torrey Pines. I think it's going to be a very fascinating watch. Rex, you actually had some pretty big plans for this past week and the big game. Can you please set up what actually happened this weekend at home in Longwood?

See, this is a tough day for you because you're in Connecticut. You're co-hosting golf today. So you have to fly up on Sundays. And for those of you who don't recognize, it's the same hotel he always stays in. He likes to get the exact same room every single time. However, this Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday is a big Sunday for you, as it is for me, just because you want to grill. You want to do what we love to do the most. You want to be on the back porch. I want to be smoking something. So I actually had a very elaborate menu yesterday.

I was going to do wings. I was going to do some skewers with it, the way I do bacon and jalapenos. Like I had a lot of things on the grill, but I woke up after we had friends over on Friday and I kind of did, I smoked some wings. I was warming up the grill and,

getting it ready for the big day and i woke up to utter carnage and we live in the woods as i pointed out visit from the bear last night voice this over that's the little smoker pit barrel again but then and a new twist he had ramsacked that he decided to break through the screen yeah my entire porch smells like bear musk now just pressure washed

Beautiful pool though. Nice and clean. And I assume he only wants that because it's like a meat-sicle of some sort. And then, the bigger tragedy, the blast dome. Which I can only assume he wanted to get to that. And that's like the grease trap which had left him. Yeah.

I've seen this video like at least a dozen times now, and it still makes me laugh. This was a blatant ploy by you, Rex, to clearly get a grill sponsor.

You want pit barrel smokers to replace the one that clearly got damaged. You want Blackstone to step in and replace your griddle that clearly got damaged. I see what you're doing here, and I wholeheartedly support it. The pit barrel lid is bent, and I tried to use it afterwards. And so I'm losing smoke, which is what you don't want to do. So yes, there was damage done. The Blackstone, it's fine. That thing is a solid piece of metal. But that was a rampage. He was so angry. Like he didn't even do this because he was hungry. He just did this because he was angry.

The best part is that you and your wife, both at home, you have three grown boys. You have, I think, what, seven dogs? How did no one hear the bear?

rummaging and ramsacking your your backyard throwing stuff around breaking through the screen i was able to fix the screen by the way thanks for asking uh i was able to fix the screen i was able to get everything cleaned up and again the only damage i ended up throwing away the little pit barrel because clearly he has had it with that one that's why he's throwing it around the yard but now i'm worried that he's going to decide that okay i'm going to do this on a regular basis

Grill companies, if you're watching this, please help out Rex. And hey, don't forget about his lovely co-host as well. The co-host who also has nine grills of his own. That's going to do it for this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lev. As mentioned, we'll be back on Wednesday for a full tournament preview of the Genesis Invitational. Rex will be somewhere on the Pacific giving you live reports of Rory, Scotty, and the gang. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks for the support. Talk to you guys in a

in a couple of days.

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