PGA fallout: Why more 'robust' driver testing is more complicated than it seems
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Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. We're a few days removed from the PGA Championship, but we are certainly still buzzing from Quail Hollow. Rex, welcome.

You're now not just president of the Golf Runners Association of America, but you're also now an Emmy Award winning reporter as part of NBC Sports' coverage team for the Paris Olympics. Congrats on that. You were on the ground this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial. What's new on the grounds?

I'm glad you got that out of the way. I thought it was going to be the elephant in the room for the entire podcast. Let's pull back the curtain a little bit. I want to give you your flowers. Sorry, I know I tried to stop saying that early. You've already won an Emmy. You're a brilliant storyteller. You were nominated for an Emmy this year. You and your lovely wife went up to New York for last night's Emmy Awards.

You did not win. And that's unfortunate. You're going to win another one. You're way too talented for that. I cannot tell you how much joy it gave me this morning when I woke up.

and saw the email that, yes, I have won an Emmy. I had no idea I was even part of that team. I'm not quite sure the people who were in charge know I was part of that team, but sure, let's lump me in there. I will gladly take it. But you have paraded your Emmy. I can't see it, but I can actually see the bottom of it over your left shoulder. There it is. You've paraded that one around in all of our faces for a long time. So I can tell you I will be doing the same when the time comes because that brought me no small amount of joy.

I hear they're like $1,500 if you don't get one sent to you. So make sure you're saving up your per diem this week to expense it. Yes, we did go to New York City. Just got back about an hour or two ago. This is the first in-person experience I've had at the SportsM as well. And I won this one. It was actually during COVID. Like my wife and I just watched it in bed. It was sad. Everyone was just remote and isolated.

Our boss at the time, Molly Solomon, popped in and it was a whole thing. This was a big deal. I didn't quite realize how big of a deal it was. Really cool to see Titans industry, like superstar athletes, like Strahan was there, Michael Vick was there, some well-known media figures, Adam Schefter, Kyle Brandt. It was really cool to mingle with all those sorts of folks. But I got to say, Rex,

Zero out of 10 experience if you go to the sports Emmys and do not win. So you and I are part of the GWA and we have our own writing contest, right?

And we know the winners of that contest about a month or two in advance. And so you're going to the dinner, you're going to the award ceremony, and it's not a surprise. Everyone knows who won. Everyone knows who's going to be giving a speech. It's all sort of customary that way. This is like sitting around and waiting to hear if a mysterious team of judges is going to subjectively view your thing, which you think is the best, uh,

as the best. And it's not fun. It's not fun if it doesn't go your way. I have a brand new respect for folks who go to the Oscars, go to the Grammys, who have to sit there with the camera trained on them and all to stomach a defeat. But yes, it was very cool. Congrats to all who won. I'm certainly not bitter at all.

Of course. Like I said, there was no the smile on my face from the second I woke up this morning was was beyond joy. And I immediately texted my wife because she gets the inside joke between us. And she was and don't at me. I'm very, very happy that you get nominated for Emmys. You're going to win one more. You've already won one. All of those things. But yes, they brought me so much joy that you were able to do it. I will say I was a little surprised how grumpy you were afterwards because it seems to me how many people were in your category.

There was five nominees. Well, all right. I mean, it's not like you didn't finish second out of two people. Like I would say that it's still pretty cool. Some people say it's just an honor to be nominated. Those of us who won probably don't believe that. But yes, I see where you're coming from. Did you see Nick Saban? He won one. He did with one emerging personality.

And for for his work on college game day is as if as if Nick Saban had not already won enough. Is this what's going to happen now when I call you? It's going to is this or when you call me, what's what's happening here?

You're on mute. I know there's a lot of ambient noise here. Yes, a lot of ambient noise. Emmy Award winning journalist doesn't know how to turn his mute off. There's our super cameraman Dougie for us this morning. We were laughing hysterically on the way to the golf course this morning because of the dynamic of me winning and you going all the way to New York and not winning.

And so, yes, he created this. This is what comes up when I call him. But I think I want this to be the norm. So anyone who has me in their context, this would be the way I would like to be done. He did a really good job of melding the really bad picture that seems to be taken in some sort of studio. And I look surprised and afraid for some reason all at the same time. Yes, that's the way I want to be listed in everyone's phone. I mean...

I'm already dreading the 2026 Live from the Masters hit with Steve Sands. He's already going to be talking about GWA president, Emmy award-winning reporter. I'm sure you have other honorifics and monikers that we can throw in there as well. To be clear, I've said this line a lot, so I'm going to lean into it. It feels very much like a participation award. I was in Paris. I was on the announcing team. I did interviews. It was a really, really difficult two weeks. It's probably the toughest two weeks ever.

every four years for me just because of everything that goes into it. However, I would argue that all of us and many, many people at NBC and Golf Channel got Emmys last night for this. For the Olympic coverage, I would suggest we all take our Emmys and just give them to Mike Tirico because he's sort of the engine that makes everything work. Mike Tirico, one of the all-time GOATs. Congratulations to all involved. Rex, let's move on to the week.

at Colonial. You're there reporting. You just finished a live-to-tape interview with Blocky, Davis Riley, Scotty Scheffler is on your agenda for later on Wednesday. What's been sort of the buzz on the ground over the last couple days after the PGA Championship? I don't know.

I mean, we're still talking about Scotty. I mean, as we should talk to a swing coach yesterday, Randy Smith, Scotty did not come out to colonial yesterday when I asked Randy, well, what's he going to do? And Randy's quote to me was he's going to quote, put a dent in a couch, which I can only assume means that he was going to get some rest of some sort. There was a party and it was so good. I had to drop that last night on live from, I mean, on golf today. Uh,

I will say it is interesting. He is out here today playing the program. He teed off. It is cool that he's still playing. I think a lot of players might decide to take this week off, not just because he won last week, but there's also the Memorial next week. And that's a signature event. It's a big event going into the U S open, which is also going to be a big event. So again, more flowers, more kudos to Scotty Shuffler. I think it continues to show his colors time and time again, one of the,

The interview I did this morning with Davis Riley, I was looking forward to more so than the Scottie Scheffler interview. Not that I think Scottie is ever bad to interview, but I wanted to hear from Davis's point of view because you and I addressed it on Sunday night's pod. We've been talking about it the last few days. What must it feel like in the modern era to look up at the leaderboard at a major championship and to see Scottie Scheffler doing those Scottie Scheffler things? You did a really good story on NBCSports.com slash golf, just sort of comparing the idea that

history now is his only competitor. Like sure, there's going to be plenty of competitors out there. Rory being the primary one, John Rahm in this case, Bryce Adishambo, we can keep going down the list, but where he's going and the territory and sort of the heights he's drifting towards is only history. And when you say history, that means Tiger Woods. And we're going to do some listener questions later. And it is kind of interesting because, uh,

I hate comparing anyone to Tiger Woods. I've always found it patently unfair to both Tiger Woods and the person I'm doing the comparing. But I think that's the only comp here.

I mean, historically speaking, statistically speaking, he is he is the only company we think about the the great players that we've seen over the past decade, decade and a half. Right. Kind of since Tiger hit the hydrant, fell off, got injured. Like we're talking Rory. Dustin Johnson had a spell. Jordan Spieth had a spell. Brooks Koepka had a spell. Justin Thomas had a spell.

John Rahm had a spell. Rory obviously had a spell as well. And now you're entering...

Year four, I think of the Scotty Scheffler era and what he has been able to compile essentially since spring 2022 is unmatched, at least as it relates to this generation of players. And it's not even just the number of PGA Tour victories and how he's been able to now accumulate 15 victories.

Since the Phoenix Open back in February 2022, it's the major championships. It's the statistical dominance. And it's suggesting now, Rex, at the age of 28, that Scottie Scheffler can go down if he continues on this trajectory as one of the best players ever.

of all time. And I know we had a very long career grand slam discussion as relates to Roy McIlroy and who could potentially be next. Xander Shoffley was bandied about. John Rahm was bandied about. I mean, conceivably you could see in the next three months,

that Scottie Scheffler could knock off both Oakmont and Royal Portrush. There is nothing in his skillset and his repertoire that leads you to believe that this train is going to slow down. You look at his driving, you look at his iron play, look at his scrambling and putting like all of the pieces are there. He's already had a couple of brushes with us opens and open championship titles over the past couple of years. Like we're looking at a historically great player and,

In real time, it's funny because Scotty Scheffler is really the only one who doesn't want to get wrapped up in that discussion. And he doesn't, and I expect him to get asked about it today. And you and I sort of went round and round, and it seemed wildly early to even –

start to make these points about, yes, he could do it this year. He could do what it took Roy McIlroy a decade to pull off and complete the career grand slam. I don't find it to be very, very likely to be honest with you, not because he doesn't have the skillset to win at either one of those venues. I think Oakmont will be interesting because it is such a ball striker golf course. And he seems to Scotty seems to have gotten back to that form that we saw last year where he's putting up those historic strokes, gain numbers.

Port Rush is going to be a little bit different because you and I both know that you can be playing as well as humanly possible and just get a bad bounce or end up on the wrong side of the draw or so many things can go wrong that are out of your hands that you have no control over. We ran into this last week.

And Scottie hates that. And he hates that. He likes predictability. Yes, the mud ball on 16, I'm not going to say it sent him sideways. I actually made the argument that the way he did not let that get to him is a testament to how good of an athlete mentally and physically he is.

because it would have been really, really easy to give up two shots to the field in a major championship on Thursday and let that bug you the rest of the round. And if you do that, that's probably going to lead to even more things that get away from you, bogeys and whatnot going down the road. And you're probably going to play yourself out of the championship. He clearly didn't do that.

But you're right. When he talked about it afterwards, he hates it, loathes the idea that the thing I'm really good at, which is controlling this golf ball and having it do exactly what I want it to do, it's out of my hands with a piece of mud on it. And you run into the same thing at the Open Championship. That's going to be the biggest hurdle. Sky Shuffler by far the betting favorite this week. I think it was like plus 250. Daniel Berger was next in line at about 2200 at Colonial. Sky Shuffler tries to win the Dallas Double.

So he won the CJ Cup by Ron Nelson, now trying to go for the Charles Schwab challenge. One of the other sort of lingering storylines, I thought, after the PGA Championship was what the PGA Tour, what the governing bodies can do about driver testing.

And the revelation from both Xander Shoffley and Scotty Scheffler suggesting that more can be done, more robust testing as it relates to the drivers instead of the major championship, like at the PGA. Only about a third of the field was testing. If you're going to be doing it, the thinking goes, just test everyone. That way, everyone's on a level playing field. That way, it's not sort of this scarlet letter thing.

That is sort of hung on players whose, whose drivers are deemed nonconforming. How much has that been a talking point on the ranges this week at colonial? I do think it's important because I did spend most of the day Tuesday and sometime this morning talking to, uh,

all the people on the range. That's equipment reps, reps, that's players. That's everyone who's involved in the game when it comes to this particular subject, because I didn't want us to come off sounding like idiots. And one thing that I did learn the idea, and I certainly agree with where Xander and Scotty are coming from, that that seems like a really arbitrary number that we're going to test a third of the field. Like,

Like, why don't you just test everyone? The problem with that is logistically, it's really not possible. This isn't about just testing 156 drivers. It's about trying to coordinate with 156 players. And as you and I have experienced throughout the majority of our career, trying to coordinate with one PGA Tour player can be an absolute nightmare. Trying to get 156 of them because this isn't a process that you do.

in 30 seconds. It's, it's, it takes about five minutes from what I've been told. You, you have to go in, you have to fill out some forms, you have to put the driver into this vice and then you do the test and it's tested all over the club face. It's just not the sweet spot. It's just not where we would never hit it, but where they hit most of their shots is all over the club face.

that's one issue that logistically that would create a challenge that right now it's the USGA that's leading this testing. The USGA tested last week at the PGA Championship, the USGA test at PGA Tour events. The other thing that I need, it's important to point out, and this is going to take much more reporting and I'm sure we're going to get there as well as the rest of the golf media. The testing itself is very inexact and I'll

And I'll go back to 2019 when Xander Schauffele's driver failed and his manufacturer took it back to their facility and tested it. And the problem was it didn't fail when they tested it. And the line is, you cannot have a gray line when it comes to something this important. You can't have it fail on this particular machine and not fail on that machine. It has, this has to be completely black and white. That's number one. The other issue is, and I was surprised how many people had this opinion when I asked them about it.

some players and equipment reps don't like to have drivers tested because they feel like it's essentially just a metal arm that slams into the club face and how much that rebounds, it gives you an idea. And so to sort of unpack it, you have essentially three zones, red zone, yellow zone, green zone. If it's in the green zone, that's fine. Every driver,

on the PGA tour is either in the yellow zone or it's not in play. Like they want it to be absolutely as close to the line as possible because you don't, hotter is better. Hotter is better. Obviously red zone is red zone. That's, that would be deemed nonconforming, but the actual act of this little metal arm slamming into the club face, according to many people, it has some sort of,

breakage effect on the driver. One equipment manufacturer said every driver they've had tested doesn't work when they get it back for whatever reason. Something has to do with the metal. Something has to do with the way it clans into it. And the reasoning is, as I pointed out, here's my phone, but if this is the club face, you and I, we never hit that part of the club. That's the sweet spot. That's where we all want to hit it.

He pointed out that they're testing here and here and here and here and all over the club face places. PGA tour players firstly never hit the golf ball. You and I hit it there all the time, but there is something about that process that

that upsets the apple cart. That's not the technical term to it, but it has some sort of impact on how the structure of the club face is created. And it has some sort of impact on the performance. So there are a lot of problems with the simple Testament of, I would tend to agree Xander and Scotty were onto something, but it's much more complicated than that. That is a terrific reporting, great context for a very intricate subject. I mean,

I think if it's important to the players and it needs to be important, the governing bodies, the equipment manufacturers to make sure, I think, especially in this age of legalized sports betting, that everyone is competing on a level playing field. And so it might be inconvenient for,

It might be when the players are registering for the tournament. You also have to go to a set area to go get tested for five minutes. There's probably ways to do it. There's like a Daryl survey, too, isn't there, Rex? Like in terms of equipment and sort of jotting down who's using what throughout the course of the week. So there probably are ways to do it. But I think that what happened at the PGA Championship reportedly –

According to Sirius XM and Roy McIlroy's driver and Sky Scheffler's driver being tested and deemed nonconforming. I think it should be. And I think it shined an important light on this subject. And I think I just think it's it's an area that probably needs to be explored further to make sure there is equity across all the playing field. Again, I think that's terrific reporting. I'm sure you'll be doing plenty more of this on Golf Central.

Throughout the rest of the week. I wanted to get into a couple odds and ends, Rex. A couple news and notes that we've had over the past couple days since the PGA Championship. And it's Sergio Garcia was in a U.S. Open qualifier in Texas. Failed to get through. Actually bogeyed his last hole to miss out on a playoff. Ending a run of 25 years in a row in the U.S. Open. You surprised by this? Does he deserve a special invitation? What was sort of your reaction to Sergio missing out?

I'm not surprised because golf will golf. We know that. And it doesn't matter if you're Sergio Garcia or Scotty Scheffler or you or I, things are going to crop up and things are going to go bad at the wrong moment. And that's pretty much what happened there. What if he deserves a special invitation? That's a better conversation because certainly he's,

had it not been for Liv, then of course he would have gotten that invitation. And so now we have this divide and I would think the USGA wouldn't be inclined to give him a special invitation. He's not a past champion, but certainly when you have 25 years of experience in that championship, this goes back to what we always seem to harp on when it comes to the live players in the major championships. They all have an avenue to a special invitation avenue. We saw it last week at the PGA championship. We saw it at the masters. I'm sure we will see it.

at the U.S. Open. In my mind, it continues to be the better way. And I'm sure all of the ruling bodies, governing bodies are going to be reluctant to do this is simply create a pathway because that takes the politics and the second guessing and the hand wringing out of it. If you just say whatever number it is, the top five who aren't otherwise exempt off the live golf points list.

They get an invite to the major championships because now you're stuck in the idea of some people are going to like the idea of Sergio getting an invitation. And some people aren't. And the USGA is going to get stuck in the middle. Whereas if we finally just normalized all of this and tried to take a step forward, we wouldn't have to have these conversations. So Sergio Garcia is number four on the live point standings. John Rahm already exempt.

Bryson is Shambo already exempt. I'm pretty sure walking Neiman who's number one on the point standings currently has already locked up.

that special exemption that he would have into the U S open by that very narrow pathway that the U S J's put out sausage figures up. Please do go ahead. No, no, I had to pause in the middle of a, of a live podcast to make sure that John Bush from the PGA tour could take a picture of me. You got that Johnny you're off to a great start to this week, by the way, you're doing great work. Do you want to, do you want to ask the PGA tour comms department, how Sergio Garcia number four in the live golf standings could potentially earn his way into the U S open. Okay. No, no,

I digress. I do think he probably has a compelling case to be made. Again, not a past champion, had not come particularly close other than Beth Page in 2002. I think as it relates to Sergio Garcia, the player, I mean, remember, he had sort of like a renaissance.

over his past year and a half, two years. It has been a particularly rough go of late. It's been terrible on Liv. Even though he made the cut at the PGA Championship, he sort of poo-pooed his chances going forward. Talked about how terrible his golf has been. The Ryder Cup is certainly on his radar and European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald's radar as well. But I kind of put him in the Brooks Koepka camp.

where you're only valuable if you're playing good golf at this stage. Because if you're not playing major championships particularly well and competing against the best player in the world that way, if you're not playing more than just a handful of tournaments in the DP World Tour and not playing particularly well in that format either, you have to either dominate the live circuit

or show something at some point in the season so that Luke Donald, when he's justifying the pick, can't just go, you look at Sergio Garcia, he's been a great player in the Ryder Cup for the past two decades. That's not going to stand up. You have to earn the respect and the trust of the team. The team of 12 is not going to want a player who is out of form and is simply relying on his two decades of experience. I still think there's plenty to play for for Sergio Garcia. It will be interesting to see if the USGA

makes any amendments that way. Another news and note Rex that came out is there is a new TGL team coming out in 2027 called the motor city golf club. It's out of Detroit with some of the owners, uh,

out of that area. Who are you putting on that squad in two years time? There was some sort of tie on a lot of these teams, but I think that's probably faded. Like if you're on the LA team, they probably wanted you to at least be from California, Morikawa, for example, or whatever the case may be. Certainly the Jupiter team, no one has ties to Jupiter. Everyone just seems to live there. This one is going to be a little bit tough. So I'm not even going to try to play the cute game of putting someone that's from Detroit because there's no one there. I think it's,

pretty clear cut the players who you want to join the lead at this point, right? So it would be Scottie Scheffler. It would be a Jordan Spieth. It would be a lot of guys that live in Dallas. And Dallas is rumored to have put in a bid as well. It seems likely that if TGL is going to be going from seven to 18, that Dallas seems to be most likely to have one of their squads as well.

So like one of the players that stood out, and I think you and I talked about it, he was an alternate. He was an add-in late in the season was Tony Finau, who was not a member of the league, but certainly he was involved in the league. And it was fun to watch him play. I mean, we all know Tone's got personality. We all know he has game. So I think he would, I'd probably start the team with that and then sort of work my way backwards. It will be fun, though, because you have a lot of young players.

who are now in a position to maybe make a move into that league. So if I'm TGL, I'm probably starting with a name, a draw, a personality like Tony Finau. But then I would like the idea, and this is normally your lane. I can't believe I'm going down it. But there are plenty of young players that I think could really prove a lot to the world and could really pave a way for them to move up to the next echelon, which would be a superstar player

a personality, someone who tournaments want to have in their events. I mean, look, that 2027 TGL season is not starting for a year and a half. That's an eternity in professional golf. New stars are made seemingly every single week. I will say there is a player, Rex, who has ties to Detroit, and that is who I would make the team captain. Maverick McNeely, Mav's grandfather, was vice chairman of American Motors. Maverick McNeely has to be on

the Motor City Golf Club. That's good. To your point, though, Rex, as it relates to getting some young players into this pipeline, if this is going to be the first expansion team, right, and you have your pick of the litter and you're essentially doing a rookie draft, like Luke Clanton is the guy who absolutely has to be on that squad. I would throw Michael Thore Bjornsson

in sort of that same category. Gordon Sargent, if he could find his game over the next couple of months. I know he's been struggling a bit, didn't even make the Vanderbilt roster for the NCAA championships after winning basically anything and everything over his first couple of seasons at Vanderbilt. Guys who are not on TGL teams currently, like a Daniel Berger, who's come back in form. And Akshay Bhatia is an exciting young player. A Jake Knapp.

has a pretty strong fan following as well. Because when you look at Dallas, and let's say Dallas does become the eighth TGL team, potentially, I think there's...

If if the owner ownership group can convince them to go along because, look, there's been resistance from a Scotty Scheffler and a Jordan Spieth who don't want to take times away from their young families and and go do this every couple of weeks in South Florida. You could have a Spieth. You could have a Scotty. You could have a Zalatorse and a Siwoo Kim.

Like that Dallas team already makes a lot of sense. And so Dallas, or excuse me, Detroit can be sort of a hodgepodge of other players. A Gary Woodland, a veteran player who's a fan favorite as well. I think a lot of those players make a whole lot of sense.

And one of the players I was thinking about, not only because I saw him this morning, he's playing this week on a sponsor exemption. And we've sort of talked about him in the past is blades Brown. And he's still very, very young in our opinion. I think you, you and I were both under the same mindset. He probably should be focusing on the corn fairy tour right now. However,

I do believe that he has enough game. Eventually he gets to the PGA tour and having interviewed him a couple of times, having spent a little bit of time with him. He is certainly a personality that I think that could only help the league. Yep. He would be kind of, he'd be like almost 20 years old.

By the time that team starts such a long runway ahead for blades, Brown can assume that he continue to play well. All right, Rex, let's finish up this podcast with a couple of listener questions that have been hanging over our heads over the past couple of days since the end of the PGA championship. This one from our friend Haboski, who says, where's the, since we're both critical of quail hollow as a major championship venue, if quail such a joke,

Then why was only one player, Scotty Scheffler, double digits under par? What's your rebuttal to that? Never said it was a joke. I'm pretty sure those words never came out of my mouth. Is it a major championship venue? No, I don't believe that. Is a really good PGA Tour venue? I think the Wells Fargo, which is now the truest championship, has always been one of the best events on the PGA Tour long before it became a signature event. And that's largely because of Coyle Hollow and Johnny Harris and his refusal to ever let

good enough, be good. He's always going to try to push the boundaries and make it better. And I think that's why Quail Hollow is so respected. I think I, at least I was critical of it because it just felt like another truest that when you go to a major championship, there needs to be some sort of separation. And I went back to the week before when they played the truest championship at Philly cricket club. And you and I both gushed over the idea that this is so cool that you have this new test. You have this golden era era layout. That's going to

He's sort of challenged the world's best players in the modern era. That is what you look forward to, not going back to something that we see year in and year out. It is not a joke. It's a really good venue for a PGA Tour event. I'm just not quite sure it fits as a major venue. And I also don't believe that winning score is indicative of a great golf course.

Like we're talking about creating a proper test for players, something that's architecturally stimulating and different for these guys. Quail hollow by and large was very one dimensional off the tee with players just grabbing driver and hitting it as far as humanly possible setup wise. It was uninteresting as well. The rough was essentially uniform throughout the entire golf course, but mostly in, I think we talked about this on Sunday rec was that there was no true punishment for

for errant shots in a major championship, that feels like a mistake. Like when you think about the masters, there's a very fine line for offline or errant shots, you know, balls that don't clear the false fronts or balls that roll off and don't have the proper amount of spin or balls that kick and go into the Creek. Like it's a very fine line at the masters at the U S open.

at least historically, it has been a pretty clear delineation. You either hit the fairway or you are in five and six inch rough. That's going to require a hack out. And all of a sudden you're then scrambling for par and trying to avoid a really big number at the, at the open championship. It's a fine line as well, trying to thread through the fairway bunkers, which are essentially going to be a one-shot penalty, having a chip out of those.

and you have to have complete control of your golf ball. The PGA Championship is supposed to be a stern, complete test of golf against the strongest and deepest field in golf.

I think the PGA Championship this particular year failed on that first front. I know it had a great winner. I know it had double digits under par, but it was not a complete examination, and it was not very stimulating for either the players or fans, in my opinion. I think Quail Hollow is salvaged and redeemed by the last five holes.

through 18 are a great closing stretch. The rest of the golf course is an interesting, I'm with you. It is the perfect signature event host on the PGA tour. All right. Well,

All right, let's get into this one from the appropriately titled Jerk Bag 714, who said aren't PGA Tour players, he listed Justin Thomas and Tony Finau, struggling since the split with the PGA Tour and Live Golf as well. It's unfair to say that just Live players aren't performing better in the major championships. Yeah.

Jerk bag JT just won a few weeks ago at a signature event. So I'm not quite sure why he got thrown, why he caught that stray. I think JT is playing fine right now. As a matter of fact, he was among a lot of people's favorites going into the championship. But Justin Thomas's major championship record to jerk bags point. Justin Thomas's major championship record since Southern Hills in May 2022 is not good. Just one top 30 finish record.

in the major championships. No. And I think that's entirely fair. Absolutely not. Live players are not the only ones that are struggling either in the majors or otherwise it's only glaring when it's a Brooks or a John Rahm. And I think John Rahm has sort of,

I don't know what happened last week at the PGA Championship has completely absolved Jon Rahm of whatever it is we thought that was wrong with him in the major championships. But I think it was a huge step forward. And that was my column the next day. The idea that he has struggled with this idea that somehow going to live golf impacted his play in the game's biggest events. I'm not quite sure I always bought into that because it never really made a whole lot of sense to me. But what he was able to do last week shows that my argument that I always make.

Top five player when you left, you're still a top five player right now. That's certainly the case with John Rom. Brooks is in an entirely different scenario and you and I spent a lot of time talking about Brooks on Sunday night only because he had that ability to flip a switch at

at the major championships, regardless of how he was playing in regular PGA Tour events. But when he got to majors, something special happened. Outside of those first two majors, when he first joined Live Golf, when he finished first, second, and that's a really good start, he virtually has done nothing since then. And he's missed back-to-back cuts now in the majors for the first time in his career since his first two majors. Many, many moons ago, way back in 2013. So,

It's not as though we're harping on the lib players. We're harping on the lib players who were so prolific in the majors, and now they're struggling. That's why it's newsworthy. Yeah, Brooks is an interesting case, right? Because he was injured and sort of dealing with a bunch of health issues. His at least short-term and long-term future in professional golf were uncertain when he took the bag in summer 2022.

As you mentioned, since 2023 in the U.S. Open, he has been a complete non-factor in his last eight major championships. He's not had better than a 15th place finish. Ron Kloss, I thought, has done a really good job of charting this just using strokes game data.

And what Ron Kloss found is that of the 18 players who signed with live and have played at least three major championships, only three, only three of the 18 have performed better on average than the three-year major period before joining live. Those players are Brooks Koepka who are still sort of,

because of the major championship venues still in there. Excuse me, Bryson, not Brooks, Bryce DeChambeau, Terrell Hatton, Dean Burminster. Those are the three players who signed with live golf and have performed better on average in the major championships. Everyone else,

We've seen big drop-offs from Rahm in what is a pretty small sample size. Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith, etc. And so prior to Rahm at the PGA, almost every serious player, players who I think the casual and mainstream golf fan would care about, the players that Live Golf targeted with big nine-figure deals, those players have regressed in the major championship. Why? You know, Brandl on...

on I think both Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday, uh, at live from the PGA championship.

sort of said that it could be because these players are not used to going the distance and that there's sort of a different row of a cadence and a flow to tournament golf with 54 holes as opposed to 72. Maybe, maybe there's a fall off when you're not competing against the best week in and week out like a Scotty Scheffler's. Maybe there's a fall off when your body is not 100% from all the international travel. Keep in mind that from the Masters to the PGA Championship,

Everyone on live went from Augusta to Mexico city to Korea week off. And then the PJ, that's probably not ideal regardless of how good a physical shape you are in as well. Two jerk bags, uh,

Second point here, Rex, about other tour players, whether it's a JT, which I wouldn't agree with, a Tony Finau, you can throw Matt Fitzpatrick, a Max Homa, Cam Young, Sam Burns, all players who have been pretty quiet over the past couple of years and certainly would have drawn interest from a live golf. Their relative disappearances aren't as noticeable, in my opinion, because the PGA Tour does a really good job of regenerating talent.

Because you have the pipelines from the Korn Ferry Tour. You have the pipelines from college, where if you are an above-average PGA Tour player and you have at least a brief downturn in form, there are going to be a dozen or two players who are capable of filling that void. From a strength of schedule standpoint, from a star-making standpoint, the PGA Tour does a really good job of regenerating those guys, as opposed to on live,

with a closed shop, you're competing against the same 52 players week in and week out. There's really no penalty for poor play or any sort of aggression. So I think that's sort of the big deal there as it relates to PGA Tour and a live divide. All right, final question. This one from Frank Richards, who actually put his name as opposed to Jerk Bag 714. Who else can you compare Scottie to other than Tiger Woods?

I mean, we just had this conversation. Nobody. I think the joke before we started the podcast was unless we can dig up some strokes game numbers when it comes to Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer back in their prime, it's going to be tough because that's how we quantify things like every other sport. The metrics, the statistics have become much more in depth and you're able to use them in a much different way.

you can only compare him to Tiger at this point, just based on his strokes gain approach, strokes gain to green. Certainly you can go head to head and talk about how many events he's won and how many majors and what he's done before he got to 35 years old or whatever the case may be, but it's going to be Tiger because that's the easiest and obvious comparison. I put this in my column on Sunday night slash Monday morning.

But, like, he's a historical figure already. You look at what he's done just over the past month with the eight-shot one at the Nelson and the five-shot one at the PGA. He's just the second player since 1985 to win consecutive events by at least five shots. You look at what he's done in the major championships. All three now for Scottie Scheffler have been won by at least three shots, three or more shots, becoming the first to do that since Sevee.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win 15 times, including three majors before the age of 29. We can stop comparing him to Scotty or to Rory. We can stop comparing him to Xander. We can stop comparing him to JT and Morikawa and Ludwig and John Rahm and Bryson and all these other players. Scotty Scheffler, at least in the current generation, is peerless. So sit back and enjoy the show.

Sky Shuffler, of course, in the field this week at Colonial. You can catch Rex on Golf Central each and every day to the end of the tournament. Also doing live interviews on Thursday and Friday and early coverage on the weekend as well. All right. That is going to do it for this edition of Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lab. You guys know the drill. NBCSports.com slash golf for all latest news, notes, and updates. Rex and I will be back for a full 52-minute edition of the regular pod show on Sunday night.

Hope you have a great start to your Memorial Day weekend. We'll talk to you guys. So good night. Two Emmy winners just cutting it up. Hey, Fidelity. What's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app? Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on U.S. stocks and ETFs. Hmm. That's music to my ears. I can only talk.

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