The Phoenix Open's fine line between party and problem
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. Surprisingly, we do have a lot to get to. We have the greenest show on grass in Phoenix. Live opens up its new season in Saudi Arabia. And Rex's Super Bowl menu will certainly be discussed. But one thing, Rex, that you and I did not get into on the podcast on Sunday night slash Monday morning, which of course appears on linear television, if you've not been watching it, Golf Channel's at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Mondays.

but is very important, was the letter that Charlie Hoffman sent to the PGA Tour membership on Sunday night. That, of course, follows the letter that Justin Thomas had sent two weeks earlier. But this one, Rex, from Charlie Hoffman, was telling players to speed up. He was criticizing the Aeon Swing 5, and he was seemingly pointing a finger at players such as Roy McIlroy for playing the European Tour, for making time for TGL, when he's supposed to be bolstering the PGA Tour. What do you make of this?

I got a chuckle out of the roundtable folks when this got brought up, because I started with the idea that all four of us on the roundtable, it was myself, it was Damon Hack, former golf writer. It was Eamon Lynch, current golf writer, and Joel Beal, current golf writer at Golf Digest. I said, one thing that the four of us can all agree on here is that Charlie Hoffman desperately needs an editor.

He was just all over the board with that letter, as opposed to JT's, which I'm sure went through an editing process. I'm sure there was other people involved in JT's letter where he seems to make his points very clearly, very distinctly. There's no ambiguity at all. Charlie seemed to be all over the map. He didn't seem to know exactly what he wanted to say. I think he just wanted to sit down and write something, which, sure, you had that opportunity. But I kind of picked it apart on three levels. One, it was rambling. It was a little confusing.

Two, when it comes to pace of play, and I understand why it's become a topic again, and certainly when your broadcast partners, First Dottie Pepper at CBS, and then last week with the Golf Channel folks,

Taking pot shots at players because of the slow pace of play. I get why this is front and center. However, if you're Charlie Hoffman, who proudly points out in this letter that he's a two-time member of the policy board, player director on the policy board. He estimated he served at least five times on the player advisory council. He has been part of the process. He could have been part of the solution. Instead, I would argue he's been part of the problem.

No, I'm not saying he's a slow player, but he's been part of that institution that doesn't want to see real change on the PGA Tour. So I'm not really paying attention to much that he has to say when it comes to pace of play because you had your opportunities multiple times.

to sit on that policy board or to sit on the pack and make real change. And instead you choose to pin some sort of confusing letter. I don't get that at all. And then the final half of it is, and you pointed out, he seems to take an unnecessary pot shot, Rory, and maybe some others between TGL and the DP world tour. How many more times do you think Rory and JT and the rest of the star players are really going to play? And this goes back a few weeks ago when he,

Charlie spoke to the media prior to the Farmers Insurance Open, which is held in San Diego, his hometown event. This is something he grew up loving, this event. He pointed out correctly that

San Diego had been spoiled for a long time because Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson always played that event. They were Southern Cal kids. This was important to them. We're at sort of a different stage right now in professional golf. So it seems to me that part of it was just a carryover because he didn't like the feel that they got at Toy Pine, which again, I get that as well. But that's a reality across the tour.

If you're not a signature event now, you're going to be scrambling. You're going to be trying to put together some sort of some sort of field. The one part that I did read that I was curious about and interested in was him pointing out the Aeon 5. Now, you go back to last season, you and I have talked a lot about this. The churn rate was essentially what the tour thought it was going to be.

Which means the same number of players played their way into the top 50 and out of the top 50 that they had historically seen. Despite the fact, I think both of you and I... It's like 38%, yeah. Yeah, you and I were both a little dubious because we were trying to do the math on, well, if you're getting exponentially more points, if you're in the signature events, don't you have to play exponentially worse?

to play your way out. That didn't seem to be the case, but when he points out, and I haven't been able to get to the bottom of exactly why this was that only two players essentially played their way into next week's. Yes, that's right. Next week's signature event, the Genesis invitational via the Aon five. I'm not quite sure how that worked out. That's certainly something that I was curious in. And Charlie Hoffman also keep in mind has his best interest at heart here. He was sixth in,

on the A on swing five. So he was the next man who was left out. The whole thing Rex was confusing because that email was sent at 6 0 3 PM Eastern time on Sunday. What was happening at 6 0 3 PM Eastern time on Sunday, Roy McIlroy had emerged from a very crowded, very good leaderboard to win at one of the cathedrals of golf.

in a performance that you and I raved about on Sunday evening and Monday morning about just what this could signal for 2025. You look at the ratings that that tournament had. It was the best non-major, non-players championship in basically a year on the PGA Tour. Pace of play was not an issue. Yes, there was a single isolated incident with Tom Kim who got called out by the telecast and he pumped an OB on six. But the broadcast actually finished 20 minutes early.

They had a lot of fill. If you watch the behind the scenes video with Roy McIlroy, which the PGA Tour put out, I thought that was a very good video. Like Jim Nance apologized to Roy. I said, hey, man, sorry. Like, sorry, I'm late for doing this. And he had to stick around. We had to fill for 20 minutes. And Roy made a joke like, oh, I guess slow play is not as big of an issue as some of the players had seemingly made it. The most confusing part to me, Rex.

Was not about the AN swing five because clearly Charlie Hoffman has his best interest when he's trying to talk about that. It was the seemingly pot shot

at Roy McIlroy. And there's no other way to read this because Rory began his year on the DP World Tour, not at the Century, the first signature event on the PGA Tour schedule. He is a co-founder of TGL. He just played in the second match on Tuesday night. Like he is that guy. He also played in the showdown in December, a sort of non-sanctioned PGA Tour event as well, along with Scotty Scheffler. And Rory has made it very, very clear that

both in his comments ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and again on Tuesday night at TGL, that Rory is interested in himself and himself only. Is he going to continue to play PGA Tour fans? Of course. Is he likely to skip

PGA Tour signature events if they do not fit into a schedule. Yes, it is no longer after three years of civil war, the PGA Tour reinventing himself and players being cut out, players being brought in, a deal being done, a deal not being done. This whole sort of wishy-washy nature of the PGA Tour that Rory is sort of sick and tired of being stuck in the middle and trying to solve all the PGA Tour problems by himself. It is a collective effort, which I think is what Justin Thomas did

two weeks earlier was hinting at that. It's a, it's an imperative of all PGA tour players, not just the stars to provide the context, to provide the insight, to provide the entertainment that can make the PGA tour as an entire entity, more entertaining. And so Rory, I mean, he clearly took offense, uh,

to what charlie hoffman was insinuating because this is not char this is not roy mcelroy's battle to fight anymore he he's he's done the best he can over the past couple years um and and now it's time for someone else to sort of carry that burden no and i agree with that and you're right i didn't realize the timing that is interesting you're coming off probably the best finish i would argue in months on the pga tour where not only you and i but i think across at least traditional golf media everyone sort of applauded not just the finish but the amphitheater that is pebble beach

The fact that it was Rory, the fact that it was pretty close up in town, deep into the back nine conditions. I mean, great, great leaderboard, great venue. Like this is the PGA tour signature model in full. This is exactly what they're supposed to be having on the PGA tour.

And again, I would be curious the point he was trying to make. He seemed to make two points when it came to pace of play, talking about the idea that yes, ready golf, I think is what he referred when it's your turn to hit hit. And I would agree on some level that, yeah, that could probably help. But the other side of it is he talked about the officials and the broadcast partners using real world data to figure out exactly how big the window is. I remember having this conversation a long time ago with some tour officials. They really do a good job actually more times than not.

figuring out when the last putt is going to drop and getting as close to that window, usually 6 p.m. on the East Coast, that they want. Like they've figured out that on this golf course, playing in threesomes and these conditions, this is how long. And they're pretty close, within a minute or two, either way. So I'm not quite sure...

It felt like it was almost a shot, not only at his fellow tour players for being a little on the slow side, and we can all agree with that, but it almost felt like he was putting some blame on the broadcast partners because somehow it's our fault that there's some sort of abysmal pace of play on the PGA Tour. As you pointed out correctly, when it comes to the Aeon 5, you're right. He's got a dog in the fight. You look at how he just missed out on getting into that signature event.

Again, you were on the policy board when all of these things came up and came into being. So you were part of the process that created that. And the idea that Rory or any other player is going to add an event, let's say Torrey Pines, because it's important to Charlie Hoffman, that's ridiculous. I mean, we pointed out at the end of last season, Scotty Scheffler was really burnt out.

through Eastlake. And I think part of what we saw, certainly the hand injury comes into play, but I'm sure he was more than happy to sit around Dallas, his hometown, for another month before he got started because he knows by the time you get to June and July and you get to the Open Championship, there aren't any real breaks. So you might as well start taking them now. And I think, I don't know anyone who would blame Rory for that. I think if nothing else, Charlie Hoffman's letter underscores the fact that there's two tours now.

It's for the tour's halves and the tours have more. There's always been two tours. There's always been two tours. But now I think it's been highlighted and if you're looking at the PG tour as the ultimate meritocracy, there's one tour that is being rewarded more handsomely than the other. And for the Charlie Hoffman types who have been

but not great players for 20 years. I think it's easy to see how they would be particularly endangered. Charlie Hoffman is in the field this week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. I think a former winner of that tournament as well. That's sort of the biggest show this week on the PGA Tour, Rex. The big story last year, besides the weather that really...

had tournament officials scrambling was the behavior of the fans, the field this week, not quite as good, but still pretty, pretty good for a full field event. All things considered, including the world. Number one, Scotty Scheffler. What are you expecting to see this week?

Either from the players, the level of discourse surrounding the fan behavior, and do you think we'll have a situation where, as arrests and incidents continue to skyrocket, that either plateaus or finally starts to recede a little bit?

I'll be curious how far they're willing to take the no tolerance policy because it's one thing. If you throw, you go. You will go. Yes, I do like the sign. It's a new motto on 16th. Yes, it's good alliteration, if nothing else. I'll be curious to see how they're able to do that because this isn't Augusta where if you do step out of line, there's 20 guards, Pinkertons, to step in and escort that person off property here at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

those Pinkertons are outnumbered a hundred to one. So it would be difficult to try to pick someone out of the stands on 16, who just happened to throw their beer mug, especially if you have thousands and thousands of beer mugs coming down after a hole in one, like we saw from tiger woods all those years ago. I'm glad it doesn't seem as if officials have taken too bold of a step. We,

We talked about this, the idea that you're going to ruin something that's truly different and special on the PGA Tour. Players that don't like it aren't going to go. They haven't played and they won't play. And what happened last year is not going to change their mind. And you and I both love PGA.

Billy Horschel. And he is a friend of the pod and we appreciate that. He's been on it and I have a lot of respect for Billy. But the fact he's back playing this week after being so vocal and saying that they lost control last year and they've taken it too far. Well, which is it? Did they take it too far? Because it doesn't seem to bother you. And for the players who do decide, to your point, I think you brought up on Monday's podcast that Scotty Scheffler, of all people, should be the ultimate litmus test here. I mean, here

I mean, here's a guy that is not going to show up in the 16 grandstands chugging beers. That's not his MO. He's not that type of person. And yet he loves the golf course. He likes the community. And I think deep down inside, he would tell you that, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the scene. I keep going back.

And I've made this argument at the Ryder Cup, and certainly this applies as well. When we get to Bethpage later this fall, there's going to be things said in the stands and probably things thrown from the crowd at the players, specifically the European players, that are way over the top and do not align with what we traditionally would expect at a golf tournament. And players...

Players, teams will complain about it and it will probably become an issue. And you folks like you and I will talk about it for months and months. My counter to that is always that's mainstream sports.

If you really want to be a mainstream sport, which golf always seems to say it wants it, up until the point that you run into something like what happened last year at TPC Scottsdale or what's going to happen this year at Bethpage. Sports can be ugly, man. Like you and I both have been to sporting events, University of Georgia. I'm sure you went to plenty of other games in the SEC that just was not a pleasant experience as a visiting fan, certainly a visiting team coming in. That's mainstream sports. So either you want it or you don't.

Even as a visiting journalist, I remember being in LSU Stadium, Death Valley, and having a Jack Daniels bottle whiz by my head on the sideline during what was yet another Georgia victory. I think you make a lot of good points there, Rex. Like Zach Johnson, who was chided last year by fans as the losing Ryder Cup captain, did not sign up.

for this year's Phoenix Open. And yet you have Scotty Scheffler who craves normalcy, who craves routine, who craves calm and peace inside the ropes, has lost to a total of eight golfers over the past four years, two-time winner, and is once again in the field. I'm hoping that the Phoenix Open, and I'm optimistic that the Phoenix Open and the tournament organizers will thread that needle because the eyes of the community, the eyes of the PGA Tour are going to be on them. This potentially, when you look at the future of the PGA Tour, could be the model.

when I was in the meeting last week with the group of PG tour executives, they said that one of the main focuses of their fan survey, which was sent out to 50,000 fans was improving the onsite experience. And there's at least the potential that maybe it's not quite as debaucherous as this one, but the Phoenix open could be the norm and not the exception with a focus on this a, a St. Chris,

asynchronous experience. Is that right? I don't know. Whatever the word is, the asynchronous experience

Keep going. Yeah, power through it. You can do it. Keep going. Whatever the word is, it's when something's also happening in addition to something else. Asyncrisis? I don't know. I'm going to have to look that up after the podcast. The point, Rex, is that it's really hard to follow 72 holes of tournament competition, right? It's even hard to follow 18 holes.

There are very few fans who are going to be turning up at the Phoenix Open this week and say, I'm going to follow Scotty Scheffler from hole one to hole 18 and make it a five-hour endeavor. You're going to veer off. You're going to get tired. You're going to need a drink. You're going to need some food. You're going to need to rest. You're going to need to make some phone calls. You're going to have to check emails, whatever the case may be. And so the PGA Tour model is to set up

these little villages where you can still be immersed in the action. You can still pay attention, but you don't necessarily have to be plotting your way around the golf course over and over again. And so I think if the PG, if the Phoenix open and the tournament organizers can strike a balance this week and it's fun, it's lively, it may be approaches the edge, but does not go to it. I think the PGA tour is going to look at this and saying, Hey,

We have the potential to duplicate this a la Formula One at every signature event that they have in the PGA Tour in the future. And so I'm hoping, I'm hoping, I'm optimistic that there will not be incidents like we've seen in the past. Player-wise, obviously, this could be a Scotty Scheffler victory. We saw him tie for ninth last week. Pebble Beach seemingly had zero of the rust.

after what was nearly a two-month layoff because of the hand injury. But he still loved the field and stroke-scan approach, which distance control, greens and regulation, that's sort of the last thing to come back. He should be able to drive the ball better on TPC Scottsdale, not as penal of a golf course off the tee in terms of finding very small landing areas and gets that claw-putting grip heated up. Tom Kim,

Seems to be closing in on a victory. Hideki always plays well. Any other players that you're most interested in watching this week at the Phoenix Open, Rex?

No, it's going to be Scottie because to your point, he didn't seem to lose much on the fastball coming off that break, coming off the injury, coming off whatever it is he did to his hand. So that's the one. Can he pick up where he left off? Certainly it's going to be fun if he does. Imagine a scenario where the very next week at Torrey Pines, again for the Genesis Invitational, where you have Rory and Scottie coming off victories, going head-to-head at this classic golf course. Again, go back to Sunday at Pebble Beach. This is the best-case scenario for the PGA Tour, and they have taken it on the chin quite

quite a bit the last few months, let's just say. So if you can come up, you can conjure a scenario where the game's best players are playing their best at these signature classic venues, that's going to be good. Asynchronous. The word I was looking for is asynchronous.

Where two things are happening at the exact same time. That's what the PGA Tour said. I'm glad you're absolutely on the podcast for that. Asynchronous. I'm also, Rex, we did not mention him yet. Luke Clanton, the star player for Florida State, just a junior, could lock up a PGA Tour card with a made cut this week. He's playing once again on a sponsor exemption at TPC Scottsdale.

Let's move on to the live opener, which is beginning in Saudi Arabia. No Phil Mickelson, who is nursing a minor shoulder injury. Ollie Schneider Jans, who won last week on the Asian tour is taking his spot on the high flyers. But what are you interested in seeing as another live golf season hits the launch button Rex? Let me try to make this better because I apparently I didn't do it very well last time around. And I got, I got a lot of hate from the live folks on this one. And to be clear, I,

I am as interested as anyone what Liv is able to do now that they have the deal with Fox. And I was just going over Fox's schedule and how this is going to land much better than what had happened with the CW these last few years. You have a platform now that you can do an apples or close to an apples to apples comparison to that week's PGA Tour event. And I think I saw a couple of websites that have done this where they sort of speculated the idea that there are going to be weeks this year on the PGA Tour that you get better ratings than

for the live event versus the PGA Tour event. That's a conversation for another day, but that fascinates me. It depends on the tournament. It depends on the time of year, and it depends on the field, let's be quite frank. I still will go back to the idea, though,

Playing under the light is an unnecessary gimmick this particular week. They're in Riyadh. They want that. I think it's the 10 a.m. East Coast time. So 3 p.m. window is what they're trying to find on the East Coast for those three competition days. But you don't have to do it. Number one, it's probably not best for the competition. I know we have done it. But it's fun. It's entertaining. It's different. Yeah.

Yeah, why not? The match wasn't entertaining. The match in December was not entertaining. And both Brooks and Bryson, who would be playing under the lights in Saudi Arabia this week, talked about, yeah, you struggle with depth perception. Oh, it's certainly an added wrinkle competitively. But I think Liv should be applauded for trying something different, leaning into the entertainment aspect. But you don't need to. But I don't think anyone's looking at what happens at Riyadh Golf Club this week and projecting ahead if...

If if if Paul Casey wins this week is all of a sudden like should Augusta give him an exemption? Is he now suddenly a contender for major championships this week? No. So so lean into the competitive or excuse me, lean into the entertainment aspect because we're still so far removed from major championship season and the real dedicated, interesting, important golf. Why not just lean into the funsies?

I don't even have a problem with that. We just had a long conversation about if you could replicate what they do at TPC Scottsdale, maybe last year being the outlier, not quite as outlandish.

land as last year, but something close to that. Imagine if you could just parachute that in for all of the signature events. Yeah, that would be great. And I do applaud the idea that live golf doesn't seem to have a problem at all. Taking chances, trying to stretch boundaries, go off a lot. I get all of that. This has more to do with just viewing habits, I think. And again, this comes off of last year's Olympics and what NBC Sports and Peacock learned.

after years and years of deciding that if the Olympics were in China, that we're going to hold everything on tape delay until whatever time on the East Coast. Try to get somewhere close to

whatever the window is, whether that's prime time or something a little bit earlier, whatever the case may be. And then last year, they just decided, nope, we're not going to do that. We're going to run everything live on Peacock. You could have watched whatever it is you wanted to watch at any time of day or night from the Paris Olympics last year. But my wife would tell me she would wake up at 3 a.m. and watch whatever the case may be, the swimming, whatever it is that was going on. I think that's the evolution of viewing habits in this age of how you consume the product. So my

My argument, my counter to this is it's not necessary because the people that want to watch it, they will wake up at whatever time it is you want them to wake up and just run it then. But I think Liv also has proof over these past couple of years that people won't wake up in the middle of night to watch it. And so, yes, we don't want to see golf under the lights every single week. I think they get monotonous. I think it would –

potentially render the competition meaningless or at least a little bit gimmicky. But for this one-off, particularly in the season opener, when the fan experience on site in Saudi Arabia is not going to be great, it's not like they're going to be teaming with fans. I'm fine with doing it for the first one. I think it's interesting –

I think it's an interesting wrinkle. I think it's a reason to tune in. I certainly will be. I think a couple of the other things Rex that are most interested in seeing is, is live kicks off other season. You mentioned the Fox deal. We now at least we'll get a, a better or a closer apples to apples comparison of how it does actually stack up against the PJ tour and what that could mean for the future of golf and sort of, uh,

either reintegrating these players coming together, having team golf, however you want to look at it. I think that it would certainly be at least an interesting data point. Six new players, uh,

have entered live golf this year, four of them under the age of 25, including Tom McKibben, Roy McIlroy's protege, who has turned a lot of heads in his young career. I'm looking forward to seeing him for John Rom's team. And I think an interesting one, at least competitively, is a format change that live golf announced on Wednesday, where they're going to be counting all four scores for all three days of the competition.

previously that had just been the case in the final round. So you certainly may see some, a greater disparity. There'll be less hiding, more reason to have depth on your team, which if you're looking at John Rahm's team, Caleb Surratt, Terrell Hatton, John Rahm, Tom McKibben, I mean, that should be a no brainer that Legion 13 is going to win this thing. What player Rex, I think are you most interested in keeping tabs on this year?

Well, the guy you just mentioned, John Rom. And we can go back to last season. I think you and I kind of disagreed on some level. You called him the most disappointing player in 2024, if I recall.

I think that was the category, but I think to put it in context, do I feel like he had a wildly disappointing season? No. This is all relative to what we normally expect from Jon Rahm, and this goes directly to what he did or did not do in the major championships. And my guess is, the anticipation is, that he's going to shrug off whatever it is that sort of slowed him down in the events.

That mattered, not necessarily to me, but to him, the major championships. And then you point to what happened at the Olympics. Clearly, that was going to be a disappointment. But you look at his record on live golf, like you pointed out correctly, like he was dominant on that tour. He had an incredible year.

Based against that level of competition, but he's going to be judged just like all the top players on both sides live and the PGA Tour by what you do in the major championships, because that's the only time you can really get a fair gauge of exactly how well you're playing the major championships. In this particular case, the Olympics last year and the Ryder Cup, I expect him to have a breakout year.

I'm with you on John Rahm. I still maintain he could go down as one of the best players in European golf history. I'm interested to see if Terrell Hatton can continue his play. I think you could make an argument. I'm looking, trying to at least do it quickly, where he falls on Data Golf, which takes into account not just PGA Tour, but Live Golf and DP World Tour as well. Yeah, so I think that's more accurate. Data Golf has Terrell Hatton as the sixth-ranked player

according to the rankings, behind Scottie, behind Rory, behind Xander, behind Kyle Murakawa and John Rahm. That feels right based on Terrell Hatton's body of work over the past six to nine months, a winner even earlier this year on the DP World Tour, going to be a mainstay fixture on that European Ryder Cup team, provided he pays his fines and will be a part of that squad. To me, Rex, I think the biggest question mark that I have

is what's Bryson DeChambeau going to do for an encore? You could make the case that last summer, last April through June, he was the biggest star in all of golf.

He just won a second U.S. Open title, thrilling duel with Rory McIlroy. He's having every fan at Pinehurst touch the trophy. He's going on the social media rounds. He's elevating his profile that way. His YouTube page is blowing up. But we have not really seen him on a worldwide stage since the Open Championship. And that's like a huge bummer. I remember sitting with you last year

At Troon, Bryson Shambo missed the cut and be like, geez, you know, we're not going to see Bryson Shambo on a stage like this in nine months.

until the Masters at Augusta National. It doesn't feel right that his level of stardom and the exposure are not quite equated. And you look at what he did, at least on Live last year. He was, Live's clearly their biggest star, but he was the eighth best on their point standings. He didn't win. He only had a couple of top fives. And so I think for Bryson to maintain this level

He needs to become a dominant player on the circuit in which he's playing 14 times as well.

And so I'm curious to see if he just sort of leans more into the social aspect, if he still has enough form to pop up at the major championships as he did at the Masters, PGA, and US Open as well. To me, Bryson DeChambeau is the most compelling player on live, and I want to see if he can sort of elevate himself in new ways on that circuit as well, not just what he does on YouTube, not just what he could potentially do in the major championships.

It doesn't matter because the program's over, but should Bryce and DeChambeau have gotten some of the PIP money last year? The player impact program? Yes. I think it's safe to say that he would have been at least no worse than number two. Number two? No, I don't. Number two.

Oh, okay. I couldn't even tell you who number two was. Number one, I'm guessing, was Tiger. Number two, no, number two, number one was definitely Tiger. Number two, I'm guessing, was Rory. Correct. I don't know. Yeah, that'd be interesting. I don't still, I don't understand what the metrics were, so that one's tough.

That's why they're killing it off. But, I mean, do you actually think that live performance means anything in the grand scale of Bryson DeChambeau? And the reason why I even thought of this, Rex, and why it was sort of a head-scratcher to me was when Bryson DeChambeau played last week in India on the Asian tour. And he was talking about trying to chase down Ali Schneider-Jans and his game wasn't quite there. And he said he was really surprised by that because at home and in practice he'd be hitting it well. He filmed a breaking 50.

for his YouTube channel and was hitting it well. This is always a player who has done things differently, and he hasn't necessarily done a lot of casual golf. He doesn't play money games. He's not necessarily playing a lot of tournament competition. He is essentially ingraining motion and trying to fine-tune his swing on the range, and then he brings that into tournament competition. I'm not sure we've ever seen a player

of his stature, of his caliber, who has taken that philosophy. I think most players are like Scottie Scheffler or like Roy McIlroy, where, yes, they'll do some practice. They'll put in the work. They'll make sure their swing is in good form, but they'll go play money games with their buddies. They'll go tee it up in South Florida with a bunch of guys and sort of test yourself that way, shooting in the mid-60s on penal Florida layouts. Bryson's a whole different animal, and I'm wondering if live to him is just

another way to grow the brand exhibition golf and if it actually portends anything for the major championship season uh well i'll twist this and we just sort of applauded whatever it is roy found in that dark room at the end of last year it seems to me what you described is something not as extreme as bryson dechambeau but just working on motion where should i be at the top of my backswing what do i want my body to do on the downswing not worry about what's actually happening with the ball just trying to figure out where is the most efficient

motion that I can create. And that to me is what you just described. So to a much lesser degree, I think Rory actually went down that similar path, but you're absolutely right. Like he does it so vastly different than anyone else. And I will counter a little bit and say, it was your argument last year for Jon Rahm.

that I think probably pulled me back from the edge of John Rahm's season was a huge disappointment because if you look at what he did on live, you could probably make an argument that, okay, relative to his competition, better or worse than the PGA tour. Rahm was the best player on live last year.

Without a doubt. So here is a player that, whether he does it consciously or not, has decided that, yes, this is going to be the benchmark for me for most of the season. I don't know that Bryson does that because I think – I'm not sure if his mind works that way, but certainly you would think –

What he's been able to do the last few years, everything is going to be geared towards the Masters, getting ready for that. And then the PGA Championship in the U.S. Open, because I think he understands better than anyone after last year that it really doesn't matter what I do on live or conversely on the PGA Tour, that what matters now is what you do in the major championships, regardless of what side you're on.

Particularly when you have a brand as big as Bryson's, who's as interested in growing his profile as Bryson is, him needing to show up in the major championships in the 2025 is absolutely a must. He's just such a fascinating character. We've never seen someone who has quite his skill set, quite his mindset, quite his mentality, his practice regimen,

And how that then translate to professional tournament golf, where you're, you have a scorecard in your hand, just as like we've been saying for the past decade about Brooks Koepka. We've never seen a player who can seemingly flip a switch from playing such indifferent regular season golf to being the most dominant player in the major championships since Tiger Woods. They're, they're fascinating players. Brooks Koepka as well. Here's to see exactly what he has left in the tank in 2025. We should Rex have plenty of material material,

for Monday's show on linear television. Again, 9 a.m. Eastern time on Mondays. Will Tiger Woods play at Torrey Pines, the Genesis Invitational and the relocated venue? We should get the commitment deadline by Friday. Recap of Phoenix, recap of live, recap potentially of the Super Bowl as well. With that in mind, we'll not talk until Sunday night. What is on the grill for Super Bowl week?

Game. I got a big game for the big game and it's going to be both black stone. It's going to be on the pit barrel. I got a lot of things going on. We got friends coming over. I'm going to have to keep it a little bit tame just to make sure that I'm ready for Monday's podcast, but there's going to be hot wings on the pit barrel. And then I kind of got a request from some folks in the neighborhood that they want me to do hibachi on the grill. So I got a lot going on that day. I had a lot of moving parts and the golf.

And the golf was certainly paying attention to the golf. That's why we're going to have a 52 minute show. They'll appear on linear television on Monday. I will not be doing anything. This is sad. This is pathetic. This is depressing. I will be going to Stanford, Connecticut to co-host golf today. Next week, that involves a Sunday travel. And so I'll probably just be getting some Uber eats.

for the big game, probably only watching the second half or so. I do believe the Chiefs will win, however. Best of luck on the Blackstone. Best of luck on the pit barrel. We'll talk to you guys on Sunday night for another edition of the Golf Show podcast with Rex and Lab. You guys are the drill. In the meantime, NBCSports.com slash golf for all the latest news, notes, and updates. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. Have a great rest of your week. We'll talk to you guys on Sunday. Go to Bar Taco. I love that bar. It's right across the street.

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