On this episode of the Pull Hook Golf podcast, host Matt Cook discusses the recent PNC Championship, highlighting the impressive win by Bernard and Jason Langer. He also comments on the NBC broadcast team announcement, with Kevin Kisner joining for two tournaments. Cook then recaps the Q School results and shares his thoughts on the PGA Tour and PIF negotiations. He expresses disappointment with the recent trades in live golf and discusses the upcoming season. Cook concludes by wishing everyone happy holidays and a happy new year.
Summary:
*Matt Cook recaps the PNC Championship and highlights the performance of Charlie Woods.
*He discusses the recent announcement of Kevin Kisner joining the NBC broadcast team for two tournaments.
*Matt provides an update on the Q School results and shares his thoughts on the PGA Tour and PIF negotiations.
Key Takeaways:
*Bernard and Jason Langer won the PNC Championship for the third time.
*The NBC broadcast team announced that Kevin Kisner will join for two tournaments.
*Harrison Endycott won the Q School with a score of 15 under.
*There is a disconnect among PGA Tour players regarding negotiations with PIF.
0:00:00 – Introduction and holiday greetings
0:01:17 – Recap of the PNC Championship
0:08:14 – Discussion on the impact of Charlie Woods
0:09:59 – Importance of confidence and showmanship in golf
0:11:02 – Appreciation for Will McGee and family aspect of tournament
0:13:11 – Will McGee’s social media content on importance of short game.
0:15:02 – PNC Championship’s family aspect and joy it brings.
0:17:37 – Importance of self-belief and confidence in golf.
0:19:02 – Kevin Kisner joining NBC broadcast team for two tournaments.
0:22:33 – Apology for not mentioning PGA Tour card change in Q School.
0:23:53 – Q School’s Monday finish and five PGA Tour cards awarded.
0:25:10 – Harrison Endycott’s performance and windy conditions at Q School.
0:26:54 – Notable players who got status on the corn ferry tour
0:28:25 – Matt Cook’s personal experience with Q school
0:30:03 – PGA Tour and PIF update, $3 billion private equity investment
0:31:13 – Tony Finau staying with PGA Tour, negotiations with PIF
0:33:09 – Disconnect among players regarding negotiations with PIF
0:35:58 – Viktor Hovland’s decision to stay with PGA Tour
0:37:45 – Viktor Hovland’s criticism of PGA Tour management
0:38:42 – Viktor Hovland’s comments on PGA Tour management’s arrogance
0:39:16 – PGA Tour’s decisions frustrate players, arrogance and egos involved.
0:41:58 – Doubts that the Pif deal with the PGA Tour will happen.
0:44:00 – Jon Rahm’s move to Live Golf was a money move.
0:45:58 – Lack of trust in RangeGoats’ trades in LIV Golf.
0:52:59 – Matt Cook expresses disappointment with a trade in golf.
0:54:11 – Matt Cook discusses the importance of transparency in sports leagues.
0:55:09 – Matt Cook predicts that players who took the offseason seriously will perform well.
0:57:55 – Matt Cook expresses concern about Cam Smith’s struggle in the offseason.
0:59:40 – Matt Cook speculates on the players joining John Rom’s team.
1:00:14 – Matt Cook suggests that John Rom may not have a competitive first year.
1:01:31 – Matt Cook mentions John Rom’s struggles in a recent game.
1:02:05 – Matt Cook promotes Bushwood Spirits and Swannies Golf.
1:03:21 – Matt Cook expresses hope for Bobby’s return in 2024.
1:04:15 – Matt Cook thanks the listeners and wishes them happy holidays.
You are now listening to Bull hook golf an unfiltered golf podcast taking you inside the ropes with unfiltered stories insights analysis and exclusive interviews so I’d like to welcome everybody to the pole hook golf podcast my name is Matt Cook I’m your host for this evening and man are we going to
Have some fun to night because holidays are here holidays are not around the corner anymore I mean they are here this is the last show before Christmas happy Hanukkah for all the Jewish people out there um I don’t know when Hanukkah is going on but I’m pretty sure it’s going
On sometime soon or it already happened so um normally uh when this time of year comes around to get pretty giddy going to be uh heading back to New York City but on tonight’s show everybody wo we this golf world is crazy lately it’s awesome to be a media right
Now in this golf atmosphere there’s so much going on so we’re going to talk about the PNC Championship we’re going to recap that we’re going to also be talking about the NBC broadcast team and there was an announcement made there recently I’m going to give you my
Comments around that then we’re going to talk about Q Skool good old Q scho we were talking about it last week with Kevin stelman and uh certainly we’re going to be talking about it this week as well and then we’ve got the latest live golf news and maybe we’ve got a
Little piff action in there with the PGA Tour there’s certainly been a lot going on so before we do dive into the overall episode and really start to get into everything I do want to give a shout out and a thank you to our sponsors Swan golf we’re going to start there because
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For tonight but again I am I’m going to be taking some sips here live on air as we get into this episode we’re going to start with the PNC Championship recap and Bernard longer the German with his son Jason longer they win at an very impressive 2500 now if you remember the
Record is by the dailies okay and the dailies were 27 they shot but Bernard and Jason they played Just steady awesome golf throughout the entire tournament they deserve to win and guess what folks that is their third time winning this golf tournament so kudos to Bernard longer and Jason longer for
Winning the PNC Championship now if I must say do they really move the needle for me I mean they are your atypical Germans they are focused they are serious out there even though it’s a father son or father daughter or daughter or son mother uh event out
There this past weekend but uh they were they were locked in man they really did a great job you really thought that the cooers were going to take it after they had a couple shot lead going into the final round but they kind of petered out
In that final round which it happens it happens to the best of us but what got me excited is that I grew up watching David Duvall battle it out in the Masters I always wanted him to win a major championship and I was young and I’m just like man I love David Duval
Good old Double D he’s out there with his son they shoot 23 under it’s great to see David Duvall back on the golf course playing good golf it’s just that swing is so good I absolutely absolutely love it and then the returning Champions the sings Good Old team sing uh they
Finishing third with 22 under but I know that’s not why you want to be going over the PNC Championship recap okay I completely understand it you want to go over this thing because of one name and one name only oh that might not necessarily be the case there might be
Two names but uh certainly Charlie Woods steals the show again and you know what I love lately is that we’ve started actually growing our Twitter account our Twitter X good old X and uh within doing that we’ve started going into some battles with some live golf social media
Accounts I mean there are some I mean talk about just being so one-sided and biased and just full of propaganda man it is absolutely insane to me some of those live golf accounts they I mean I really wish that we’d put more of a positive Spin and even on this show for
Golf in general and just bringing everything together and you know that’s why I pra myself I’m trying to be as neutral as humanly possible I’m Switzerland out here I love live golf I love the PGA Tour I love everything if it’s golf related and going to be good
For the game and going to grow the game of golf especially for people that necessarily aren’t you know the biggest golf fans but because they live golf now all of a sudden they’re interested in it that’s great to me so when all of a sudden I see these accounts just
hun Charlie Woods I’m like hang on a second like all of a sudden there’s all this debate around and I’m getting asked by people around me they’re asking me hey what what do you think about Charlie Woods and I’m like what do you
Mean well do you think you know is it is it bad is it good I’m like what are you talking about Charlie Woods is awesome for the game of golf I mean Tiger Woods everybody he was the one that moved the needle in golf folks he’s the one that
Brought it from Arie and Jack to what it is today really there hasn’t been a golfer since you could throw in Rory Moy you can throw in John ROM you could throw in some of these other players that have come along that have played absolutely phenomenal Scotty sheffler
But really the guy who moves the needle is Tiger Woods and for this tournament to have tiger and Charlie and just the manorisms and everything that Charlie’s doing out there it’s pretty sweet to watch and to see and I just really feel like this is great for the game of Golf
And if you don’t like Charlie Woods chipping in or you don’t like him driving par fours then you don’t like the game of golf at all like that’s just that might be a blanket statement but you don’t like golf you don’t deserve to be in golf at that point so even if you
Absolutely are so one-sided with live golf and I totally understand there’s some people that just you know got a bad taste because of the PGA Tour taking the stance that they did in the beginning and everything and just absolutely love live golf and feel like they’re jaded um
Because of the PGA Tour and everybody’s against them and everything but you can’t hate on a junior golfer as Charlie Woods is with so much hype around this kid and for him to go out there and do what he’s doing now is he the best Junior golfer in the world right now no
But that’s okay like I don’t think the media is building him up as the top Junior golfer in the world you have to understand the perspective here that around Charlie Woods you have an environment of Tiger Woods being involved you get the excitement of seeing Tiger’s son and on top of that
He’s playing good golf which is awesome to see and again it reminds me so much of watching tiger in the early days and everything just the manorisms especially with the chip in you know giving the Fizz pump and everything it was absolutely phenomenal I absolutely loved it so Charlie Woods keep doing what
You’re doing a man don’t let the media uh get you too hype because the quote that I always say is expectations are the killers of Dreams because when all of a sudden there’s way too much hype that no no human being can possibly live up to then you’re always going to end up
Failing so get rid of the expectations oh and then the other thing was too I got asked it’s like oh do you think he’s too cocky out there no you got to have an ego out there on the golf course you got to have that Swagger and I also
Think that that’s good Showmanship as well to have a little bit of that arrogance out there that thinking hey I’m the absolute best player out here even if you’re not it’s like that’s the way that you should carry yourself in golf tournaments especially if you’re trying to win because you have to
Believe in yourself in order to get to the point to where you believe in the fact that you can win a golf tournament so and and at the level that he’s going to be playing at because certainly can’t wait for him to go to college can’t wait
To follow his college career can’t wait for him to and the biggest thing is and I think the broadcast did a really good job Peter Jacobson did a great job of this during the broadcast is talking about if Charlie really wants to do this if Charlie really loves the game of golf
And wants to play at that level and then he followed it up with you know everything coming from tiger and so forth is that he absolutely loves putting in the work and doing the work in order to get to that level and that’s what you have to appreciate out of
Charlie Woods and the PNC championship and what that brings but there is another name that for me I just absolutely love this kid too good old will McGee man anuka saurin Dam’s son he is he’s just a breath of fresh air the kid is phenomenal I absolutely love
Watching him play the Lefty he gets up there his short game is so good and he’s Fearless absolutely Fearless out there you could tell just the pride coming from anuka anuka is normally a pretty serious focused individual as well and has had just an absolutely awesome Hall
Of Fame career but you’re seeing the pride that she has in her son of doing what he’s doing he’s a fan favorite the people love him out there at the PNC Championship he really came onto the map last year and this year just continued
On so you got to love that you know as golf fans this is the time of year where golf can get a little silly but this is a tournament that warms my heart to see the family aspect being such a big part of this golf tournament I hope PNC never
Changes this Championship I hope they always sponsor it and keep this going because this is an absolute godsent for all of us to be able to witness and watch these relationships within this family um within all of these families that are taking place I mean you got
Nelly Corda out there with her dad Justin Thomas with his dad I mean it’s a really really cool golf tournament to watch and then I also love the fact that with Will McGee he’s starting to get on social media a little bit so I always kind of get a little bit hesitant when
Kids at Young are getting into social media and everything and I know the parents are running the account or at least the dad is but they had him going around I thought this was a great piece of content for social media he’s going around to all of the past major
Champions and asking them what is the most important aspect of a golf game in order to play at the highest level and so forth and it’s awesome because it cuts to John Daly then to Justin Thomas and so on and so forth and everybody saying pretty much the same thing that
It comes down to short game that your short game go focus on your short game practice your short game Non-Stop because when you’re always going to have days to where you don’t have your golf swing you’re always going to have days to where you’re going to miss Fairways
You’re going to miss greens and the biggest thing is when you’re around the greens that you can get up and down and really that’s the biggest Focus for anybody out there that’s trying to get better just go practice you’re going to hear a lot about this next week as we
Wrap up the team series on this podcast so there’s not going to be a live stream next week but there will be a podcast episode that we recorded y yesterday um with my instructor Mike kah and it is I mean we’ll see how long the interview
Ends up being but uh we sat down for two and a half hours going back and forth and that’s one of the things that uh ultimately came up is like you have to go out there and you have to learn from failing and especially with short game
You have to know why certain shots happen the way that they did and short game is a major major factor so love that content coming out of will McGee and anuka and the dad there so absolutely awesome and again one of the big reasons why I mean the PNC
Championship I’ll I’ll State this the major championships clearly take rank over everything else right uh in terms of what I love to watch as a golf fan and as a golf fanatic so with that said then you get the PLAYERS Championship you get some of these other big
Tournaments I love the Waste Management Open cuz it happens in my back backyard here in Scottdale Arizona but then you got the PNC Championship the PNC championship for me right now is at that level to where I’m just like man I love watching the PNC Championship it’s like
I need three days just to sit down on the couch and watch this golf tournament because it brings out so much joy and I love the family aspect to it everybody gets brought together I mean you had Steve Stricker’s entire family out there you got tiger bringing out some Sam his
Daughter um who I believe just turned 16 she’s out there caddying for Tiger she’s chopping it up with Sam with Charlie just a great scenario from the woods and I mean again if you don’t like this golf tournament I don’t think you should really like golf at all I know that’s a
Broad statement but this tournament is absolutely awesome and I’m not being a homer on it because I got no attachment to it whatsoever I mean it is just one that has come up and you know it took some years in order for this tournament to become what it is it wasn’t always
Just this way to where it was like oh this is a great time of year make sure to watch the PNC Championship really it came onto the map when Charlie and tiger played that’s what put it on the map that’s why you can’t hate Charlie Woods
For doing what he’s doing and having a little bit of confidence and a little bit of arrogance behind him again I absolutely love that I think you need an ego out on the golf course and Charlie Woods certainly has that Charisma that spunk remember when tiger came out and
He sat down with Curtis Strange in an interview and he was very very confident that he was going to come out and he was just going to start winning and start dominating and Curtis Strange was like yeah you’ll see you you’ll see and it’s one of the most famous interviews
Because what did Tiger do tiger came out and proved no I’m G to win golf tournaments coming right out of the gates and I am going to dominate on this tour and he obviously did for a very long time but you got to have that self-belief that confidence that
Arrogance that ego behind you in order to play at that kind of level and have that self-belief and that’s something that I know tiger is instilling in Charlie because he talks about how he tosses te’s at him tosses ball just like his dad did tries to get into his head
And he he even had a quote to where he said listen if I can no longer get into Charlie’s head then nobody can get into Charlie’s head while he’s out there playing golf so that’s pretty cool to to see it come full circle from what tiger
Learned from his dad being able to share that with Charlie and again that’s what put this all on the map and now we see all these great families coming together it’s just again such a cool thing even the cooers I mean gosh Cameron coocher looks just like his dad and uh not
Similar swings but there’s some similarities within those two swings to where you just see those Tendencies and everything that goes on um so again pretty cool scenario there absolutely love the PNC Championship moving into our next segment which is around the NBC broadcast team there’s another shakeup there’s another announcement and this
One’s actually kind of cool and I didn’t even think about it when I was talking about a couple weeks ago the NBC broadcast team and I kind of wanted to see somebody that uh you know was younger that could bring the modern era to the game of golf um and certainly I
Think NBC did it with this one let me take a sip of this uh Bushwood real quick and I’ll tell you all about it so I know a lot of people if you’re on social media you probably have seen the announcement already so I’m not breaking any kind of news here but Kevin
Kizner Kevin kizner is going to join the booth for two tournaments once again I think this is a little bit of kind of feeling him out seeing how good he’s going to be seeing if he can be that next big um you know media personality because we’ve seen players in the booth
And it works out a lot of times sometimes it doesn’t but with Kevin kizner you know he’s got that spunk he’s got that Charisma to him he’s got some good one liners he’s got some comedy to him so I’m interested to see how this plays out I mean they kept replaying I
Saw it a lot this week um around this conversation with Kevin kizner is his interview uh at one of the tournaments I forget exactly which one it was where you go where the interiew where the media was asking him you think you can win every golf tournament you
Play in right and he’s like no he’s like I can’t compete at Beth Page he’s like I can’t compete at a couple of these courses he and and the guy goes well why do you play in him then and he goes because they pay a lot of money for 20th
Place and so thing like that that kind of response that quick Instinct I think that’s going to be pretty cool to see and I hope he’s successful because I think he can be a home run in that role as a broadc broadcast analyst now that
Being said he’s 38 years old still has a ton of game but this past year we kind of saw his game not really there like it’s been like he’s a pretty consistent player but it really wasn’t quite there could he have been losing a little bit of
Interest I don’t know I haven’t talked to Kevin about it I don’t know his agent I don’t know uh people he’s affiliated with so I don’t really know um I’m sure that uh you know bar stool if you guys are listening go ahead and uh reach out
To your boy kiss because Kevin kizner he’s been on the uh bar stool uh podcast and uh certainly he is somebody that we’re going to enjoy listening to I feel like so he’s going to do the um Sentry of Champions and then he’s going to do the Waste Management Open and we’ll see
If he gets a big offer after that to uh fulfill the entire season and really kind of retire at that point but we saw it with um Peter Jacobson as well I believe uh to where he was actually he went into the booth at 38 years old and
Then from there after a few years in the booth went back and uh played again um on the professional ranks so we shall see what it is all cut out to do for Mr kizner but I’m excited about it I like people that have opinions and I like
People that have Charisma and can bring some comedy into it I mean he’s the one that said this ain’t no hobby it ain’t no hobby so Kevin kizner shout out to you I hope you do absolutely awesome in those first two events of the year with the century Tournament of Champions and
Then the Waste Management Open for the NBC broadcast team all right moving on and I’ve got an apology to make so again I’m going to take a little sip here of the Bushwood spirits and uh the one that I’m drinking tonight is the front nine the Black Label front nine this is tasty
It’s got a little bit of sweetness to it it’s just it’s a delicious whiskey I mean I’m a big whiskey guy but Bushwood I’ve been a fan of since day one and uh we’ve had a pretty good relationship with them sponsoring some episodes and everything so once again thank you guys
All right so Q School results and I’ll start with an apology so I was talking with strs last week and if you caught it in that interview it was pretty pretty late into the interview um we both had had pretty much a full glass of Bushwood Spirits at
That point and uh we were talking about the fact that I didn’t realize that the PGA Tour made the change with being able to go to Q school and actually get a PGA Tour card again so this is the first time that they’re doing this since 2012
So it’s been a decade so I missed that one I apologize it’s not going to happen again it might happen again I’m human I make mistakes but uh we were talking about the fact that it is a little bit weird that you can’t go and go to Q
School and earn your PGA Tour card that used to be the coolest thing about Q school and so there there were five slots that were getting PGA Tour cards well well first of all it didn’t happen on the Sunday that it was supposed to because there was some Terrible Weather
Absolutely terrible weather down at TPC Saw Grass and Saw Grass Country Club just not a good situation there so they canceled it out on Sunday they said nope too much rain too much wind the conditions are awful we’re going to push this too a Monday finish so a lot of you
I know on Monday you’re like man it’s the holidays this is probably the last week I’m working um for a couple of days and then you know we’re right at the holidays and the end of the year for the new year so a lot of people just kind of
Packed it in on Monday and watched the Q school I was listening to a guy talk about it with his trainer in the gym today and I’m just like yeah man like Q school I it’s becoming bigger and bigger and it’s cool that the Golf Channel covered it and gave full coverage Shane
Bacon did a good job on there and certainly with five PGA Tour cards going out it was a lot of pressure and you saw it from a lot of guys and by the way Monday was not just a dream day because it was on the cooler side but it was
Also very windy so while it was dry and it was sunny out that wind played a major factor so for the guys that tend to struggle a little bit in the wind guess what they struggled and there were some higher SC out there but kudos to Harrison indicot
Because he went out and Grant it they played um once again Saw Grass Country Club which is right there at TBC Saw Grass and they played the D Valley course they played it at about 6,800 yards so it didn’t play super long however it played longer because the
Ball wasn’t rolling out because it was still wet um you had a lot of wind and so Harrison Andy goes out and wins it at 15 under 4 four shot victory for him so he’s heading back to the PGA Tour um that’s going to be good to see him back
Out there I know he’s with ping and uh yeah a lot of good guys coming from uh the Ping Camp as a manufacturer so looking forward to seeing a lot of Harrison indicot out there this year uh in second was Trace Crow at 11 under
Then we had Bay halil Jr at nine under and then two tied at for fourth which was Pera and Hayden Springer who finished at eight under and then the top 40 end up getting status on the corn fairy tour so you’ve got some notables out there like Doc Redmond I actually
Met with his caddy when I was up at the Shriners um back in Vegas a couple months ago with Bobby and uh we had a good little chat know he’s a listener of the podcast and so shout out to you Zach um but doc Redmond he’s going to have
Corn fairy status we’ve got Fred Bondi so the NCAA National Champion from North Carolina he turned Pro and it was interesting to hear Shane bacon kind of talk about him that he was kind of a disappointment this year but he made multiple PGA Tour Cuts he played really
Well in PGA Tour events he just didn’t end up getting full status and so he’s going to be on the corn fairy tour which I think is going to do him really well um and I look forward to a lot out of Fred Beyond and we’re going to see him
On the PGA tour throughout the year as well I know there’s going to be some sponsor exemptions there’s going to be some ability for him to qualify for some events so look forward to seeing Fred beyonde and then a special one that Bobby and I absolutely love um Spencer
LaVine now Bobby knows him really really well um myself I played my big claim to fame was Spencer lvas I played in a Monday qualifier with him way back in the day going back gosh 20 years ago now um to when we played together in that
Monday qualifier for the BC open uh back in Endicott New York and uh he ends up getting his corn Fairy status he was right there in terms of being able to get his PGA Tour card back but uh struggled a little bit throughout the day there were quite a few squares on
His scorecard and if you know what a square on a scorecard is that’s a bogey or Worse um and then there were some circles out there too for him so I wouldn’t say that uh he didn’t play well but it was a tough day out there Kyle
West Morland he’s another one that we’ve talked about on this podcast that we expect big things from in the future he’s going to be on the corn faery tour we’ve got Kevin TW Bob tw’s son Russell Knox is going to be out there and then Eric Compton um notable from uh the
Heart replacement and everything that took place with good old Eric Compton so good to see that he’s going to have some status on the corn Ferry tour and that wraps up a bit of our analysis around the Q School results I never went to Q school I played on the mini tours and
Kind of stuck to that we had Blake parks on the podcast who was a teammate of mine at Grand Canyon University on the golf team and he ended up getting his uh status on there years ago and uh certainly it was something that I was
Like man you know maybe at some point I should do that who knows you know what there’s still time left uh but not not making any promises there that I’ll ever compete in Q school but you never know you never know in this life so that
Being said pretty cool to see Q school getting the hype and kind of the attention that it deserves and getting some TV time as well especially on a Monday when nobody wants to work all right so as we move beyond that gosh I’m going to need another sip here I I feel
Like in between segments it’s just the Bushwood Spirits is calling my name I still have way too much of it left drank way too much of it last night by the way um and we also did that interview in a drive box so Drive box is going to be
Sponsoring that episode as well uh it was a really cool setup and uh can’t wait for everybody to listen into that one but again going to take a little Swig here God that’s good and if anybody has any questions by the way feel free to throw them in the comments absolutely
Feel free I’ve got millions. Co up here I’ve got um YouTube it’s also streaming live on as well uh even if you just want to say hi go ahead and put something into those comments but uh yeah I will I’ll see them because I’ve got everything up here now that being said
We are moving into one of my favorite topics lately which is the PGA Tour and piff update okay I’ve been uh talking with a lot of people that uh are around the entire inner workings here and I’m starting to get some Headway around all of this um with kind of understanding where
Everything is at right now and one of the first ones that uh if you have been following us on Twitter lately um you would know that we’ve been talking about Tony fow a bit with his um discussions that went on he was very close by the
Way folks so it’s like he had a very big price because he knew that it was going to be a bit of a hit still he saw what happened with John ROM he saw the reactions and everything and I don’t know necessarily if that is what um
Scared him a little bit but also the PGA Tour came out very quickly after John ROM’s announcement and mentioned and talked about the sports strategic group that they’re bringing together as a private Equity Source that’s going to bring in $3 billion dollar into the PGA Tour so that is a great situation for
The PGA Tour that’s a great situation for the players that have stayed and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be strangle held or pigeon held pigeon held pigeon hold I don’t know exactly what that saying is um obviously but they’re not being pinned into a corner there’s another
Saying for you but they’re not being pinned into a corner anymore in these negotiations with piff because they have now that additional investment coming in so they’re not as desperate as they were or at least they don’t look as weak anymore to piff and one of the things
That I have been hearing is that everything going on in the negotiations first of all it’s not just Patrick Klay he’s representing the Tour player side and doing a lot of the talking U but they’re all collaborating together as far as him Jordan Speed Tiger Woods and
So forth uh but there is a bit of a disconnect okay because those players that stayed on the PGA tour want their cut they want their money that they missed out on by not going to live Gulf and they’re adamant about this now on the other side of things you’ve got some
Guys that are like hey we’ve got we can’t just take care of us we got to take care of the entire tour because there’s I mean look at how many guys are out there it’s not just the top players in the world that matter and there’s a
Disconnect there and I have heard that it is very segregated in terms of the differing opinions around this and it has led to some very sharp comments AR that has been going on now Tony feno he did announce that he is going to be playing on the PGA tour in
2024 everybody’s going to leave the door open okay to live golf it would be stupidity not to because who knows when they’re going to go hey you’re going to be the first player that gets a trillion dollars1 trillion and piff the Magic Dragon could do something like that I mean John
ROM got $600 million million $600 million that is more than what baseball players are making right now and golf is not nearly as big or as large of a a revenue generator in the professional ranks as Major League Baseball is so this is absolutely nuts to see these
Type of contracts going out they’re not looking to recoup their money like they know this is a sunk cost right now hopefully down the road you know they’re looking at it for different reasons that I’m not going to get into but the PG GA
Tour is a bit of a mess um certainly the $3 billion coming in from private Equity kind of gave some hope to some of the additional players like Tony feno to where he’s like okay I’m G to get taken care of I’m one of the top guys I’m
Going to win multiple times on tour on a yearly basis continuing my game’s in great shape let me go ahead and we’re just going to make sure that I’m staying staying play and that’s going to keep his reputation intact I think with how much he is kind of a family guy you
Know I won’t go further than that but as a big family guy and as somebody that and by the way the live golf accounts on Twitter were going nuts they were and then all of a sudden the justification because they were saying Tony phenow signing with Liv golf he’s going to be
Joining John ROM’s team we got all these players that are battling for spots because they’re doing negotiations this and that and so on and so forth and granted there was a really high probability that Tony F now could have gone to live golf but they never ended
Up meeting his number and certainly uh the negotiations didn’t pan out so Tony feno once again is staying with the PGA Tour then it was Victor hovin Victor hovland’s getting these huge offers from Liv Gulf and all the justification as soon as Victor came out and said I’m not
Joining live but what was awesome about Victor hoveland and that’s why this is an unfiltered golf podcast because we tell it how it is you got to be authentic you got to be you and that’s what I loved about the Kevin stelman interview last week if you haven’t heard
That interview go back and listen to it because he was really honest about everything and it was cool to see because you know somebody like Kevin stman could be pretty polished and being politically correct in responses and everything and there were some that even surprised me that I’m just like wow that
Was awesome to hear that from somebody like him who’s been on the tour for such a long period of time but then you get such a nice guy right let’s remember who Victor hoveland is does Victor hoveland come out and talk bad about anybody no
He doesn’t he is always Mr Smiles I have joked about it um during the FedEx Cup to where he went from being this kid who was just ripping bong rips it looked like granted I’m not saying he did I’m just saying that he always had a smile
On his face was always happy gol Lucky out there on the golf course and then really turned into a bit of a a robot to where he was just dead serious throughout the entire FedEx Cup and ends up winning it right well sure enough Victor hovin uh really showed his
Authenticity uh this past weekend where he was interviewed about not going to live Golf and he said this this is quoted the management has not done a good job they almost see the players as labor and not as part of the members after all we are the PGA Tour without
The players there is nothing he continued when you then get to see what happens behind closed doors how the management actually makes decisions which are not in the player’s best interest but best for themselves and what they think is best they are not professional golfers at all they are businessmen who
Say that no it should look like this and that there is a great deal of arrogance behind it Victor hovin once again that came from Victor hovin okay and I at in the beginning of vol of this when the whole Liv golf PGA Tour um came
Well when live golf came about and the PGA Tour was starting to make moves and everything and I started looking at it all I was very critical of the PGA Tour I was very critical of J Monahan which by the way everybody tells me Jay Monahan is an awesome guy okay so that’s
From the players that’s from Agents that’s from caddies everybody thinks he’s a great dude that just is super personable guys like him okay so it’s not like that to where he’s this shitty ruler commissioner that is just you know somebody that everybody hates that’s not the case but the business dealings and
How this is all gone about I mean at one point on this podcast I talked about I read the actual um from the PGA Tour what their mission is and it’s all about the players and I’m like this is not what’s going on right now this is
Not for the players and I talked about that with the stance that they took against Liv golf with suspending players and this and that like they were not doing it for the players okay so they were outside of their mission statement they were outside of all of this and I
Have to agree with Victor hoveland that there is a lot of arrogance there’s a lot of egos that are in there that are trying to make these decisions and I think the majority of the PGA Tour is fed up with the decisions that are being made by a select few and that’s very
Frustrating for a lot of these guys and even somebody who is one of the top players on the PGA tour like Victor hoveland now has he been a top player for several years you could argue no like he did come out of college one right away I mean he’s been a winner on
Tour but this year was really his breakout year with how he performed especially in majors and next year we’re expecting huge things from Victor hoveland I mean I’m I’m absolutely pumped to see him playing that well but that’s where as golf fans we got to kind
Of pump the brakes a little bit and go man this whole piff thing didn’t go well you know this could have gone in a very different direction this could have been from day one and I know there’s a lot of lot of voices out there that talk about
This that from day one they made the mistake well I was spouting about it from day one okay as soon as they put that Line in the Sand they had the players meeting at Riviera at the Genesis Invitational two years ago I was talking about it so there’s a lot that
Has gone on and again I’m interested to see if this deal and actually I’m just GNA come out and say it I don’t think this deal goes down with piff I think this deadline gets it’s not going to happen okay we’ve got the holidays we’ve got New Year’s Eve like it’s not
Happening the entire piff deal and I don’t think it’s happening I think this private Equity gave the PGA Tour some leverage and some additional time to basically go okay peace treaty is off go ahead you already poached John ROM so it was already off to begin with and you
Can continue to go down that path now if you go back and I keep saying if you go back in this podcast if you keep going back to this podcast we’ve been talking about it well I did talk about what I assumed was actually going to take place that this entire negotiation and
Framework could be just so that live wasn’t continuing to poach players that it also gave them leverage and conversation ations with private Equity now come full forward to this day and time and now all of a sudden we see okay they’re going to get $3 billion from
Private equity and this deal with piff is nowhere close to being done now do they want the Saudis involved and that’s an answer that or a question that I hear a lot even from players okay that it’s like hey could this be a good thing there’s some players that are very much
So like hey we’ve already sold our souls and getting into negotiations and into this framework agreement so let’s make sure that we get the money and I think that’s the last thing that is going on right now that it’s like okay are they just going to take the money and hope
That you know because what happens in a couple years and next thing you know Liv golf has stolen some more players because they’re offering close to a trillion dollars I can’t even believe that’re were talking about a trillion dollars in a golf contract absolutely insane um the other part that I do want
To mention is that John ROM and this is coming from Camp that is very close to John to where he really felt and I posted this on Twitter um around really the big three reasons why John Rah went to live golf and the biggest one to me is that he
Believes and by the way this is something that I have heard from people from Club manufacturers about their players that have gone to live Gulf okay and when I say this it is something that is a belief with a lot of players that eventually these
Two tours so to speak one one a league one a tour obviously are going to merge so why not take the money now the money got so good and it became so much that why not just take the money now and that’s essentially what happened okay so John rum
And the other thing that I love propaganda wise and this is on both sides by the way for this one is that he is you know there’s a conspiracy but it was him who created it saying that I can’t do any Media or press until you know the start of the season
And everybody ran wild with that you got the live golf side that is trying to say no we’re we’re not like we’re not prohibiting him from being able to go out and speak to the media then you got you know the people on the other side I
Feel like this has gotten become almost politics which is ridiculous for the game of golf can we just quit it guys and literally just start to promote the game of golf again and get back to that um so that is one of the interesting things but again I’ve heard it from
People that have gone to live H previously um and in the beginning of all of this that they really like agents have been telling them too and granted agents are compensated uh very heavily from these contracts that they’re getting from live golf so obviously they’re going to be prolive in a lot of
Ways um and that’s another thing that players really have to kind of figure out for themselves too is my agent that’s working on on this deal really in it for me or is he in it so that he gets a lot of additional cash um as we move into next
Year that’s enough with the PGA Tour on piff for now my stance on it I don’t think it’s going to happen before the new year and it’ll be interesting to see if those those negotiations continue to go on I think piif wants them to continue to go on because I think piff’s
Main agenda was always to be able to be a part of the PGA tour in terms of cash investment and being able to be a part of that and I think that only helps live golf if they are if not we’re going to see this divide and we also did throw
Out a survey um and a lot of you feel like that either the two entities are going to remain separate forever or that it’s going to happen within the next year to two years that everything’s going to merge and everybody’s going to be back playing in everything so we
Shall see and then also John ROM has the ability to play in the majors with after winning the Masters this year where his official world golf rankings are right now he’s going to be making it into all the majors for a couple years so it’s
Pretty safe bet but he does not by the way and I’m not going to I’m trying not to speak for John but the format didn’t change to where all of a sudden he woke up and was like oh man I want to play leave golf this is what I want to do now
It was a money move he knows it everybody knows it and that’s what’s disappointing about some of that press conference stuff like they force-fed him a lot of lines that took place and I’m not just saying that it’s very obvious like uh so as we kind of move into our final
Segment damn that Bushwood is good latest live golf news you know it’s my favorite topic to talk about live golf it is the it just keeps daing awesome stuff all the time and here’s the thing I’m no longer a range goats fan and I’m going to tell you why because on Twitter
When all of that went down with the trade for Taylor G to Matthew wolf it really soured me on the fact that these guys are taking this team aspect seriously that this is a competitive Golf League that these teams matter you know it has been for forse
Fed to all these guys that that’s what you got to say and then I’m a big believer in it’s not your words it’s your actions that are going to tell me I’m not going to believe you just based off of what you tell me and that certainly took place in this situation
Especially to where when Taylor gu got traded and then all of a sudden Harold Verner II gets sent off to the Four Aces which by the way in the first year we saw this take place to where Taylor gu wasn’t getting along with Dustin Johnson
With Pat Perez and um oh gosh who else was on Patrick Reed wasn’t really getting along with those guys didn’t really want to travel with those guys so what what happened in Liv golf before now all of a sudden there’s going to be trades there’s going to be free agency
There’s going to be the qualifiers remember go back a season prior and what happened Taylor G gets moved over to the range goats and and Peter Uline ends up going to the Four Aces this is a popularity contest and that is what I’m being told by everybody
So I know these live Gulf Twitter accounts absolutely hate this because they say no this is a good trade Matthew wolf is great he’s going to play amazing he might okay but that’s not why you ended up seeing this trade take place this was as I like to refer to an inside
Job this was the live golf league flexing their muscles because you would never give up one of your top players like you could get Matthew wolf for the worst player on the team which I guess that technically was Bubba Watson so he’s the captain so that’s not going to
Happen um so that’s flawed right there but that being said Brooks would have given uh Matthew wolf for nothing like he just wanted him off his damn team so became very much so a popularity contest when it came to that and that’s what we saw with the Matthew wolf Taylor go
Trade it’s disappointing man it really is and then to ship off Harold Varner II third for Peter Uline like that’s not a serious trait either and everybody that I talked to that knows golf all thinks the exact same thing so this isn’t a wild crazy thought to have it’s The
Fringe people that are like On The Fringe that are like no Matthew wolf is best golfer in the world it’s like his results aren’t there data’s not there and why would you ever give up somebody who was your top player who won multiple times last season and won the entire
Individual Rank and then sure enough the range goats confirmed it for me so I ended up retweeting one of their tweets and uh or re quoting one of their tweets and sure enough I go so range goats are confirming that they believe that Taylor gu is I think I said something along the
Lines of washed up or has peaked and Matthew wolf is the better Talent something along those lines go back look at the tweet and sure enough the range goats responded and they liked the post so right there you’re just like okay I get it now like Bubba Watson we’ve heard
I mean there’s millions of stories um about Bubba and like if Bubba doesn’t get along with you or I mean Bubba rubs a lot of people the wrong way um and I’m not saying that Bubba’s a bad guy at all but here’s the thing Taylor gu he just was like yeah we’re not
Getting along boom see you and who are the two buddies Taylor gu and Harold Varner II so those two guys are buds they get moved to separate teams that is not just a trade that is an inside job right there which it’s disappointing okay that’s where I’m
Coming from as a sports fan I want to see competitiveness I want to see a trade that goes on and then of course by the way when I posted that video that I did yeah I I meant it to be that I was a bit over the top with that video and it
Was mainly because like I from kind of the start when the range goats came about in their logo I’m like ah I guess I’m going to be a range goats fan and when that happens and you see your two best players on the team get traded away
For players that are not as good as them it’s like damn so when that all took place h i i i I’m at a loss for words with that entire trade to be honest with you and I’m kind of tired of it but um no when that actually took place like
And I in Twitter I tagged some of the live golf uh Enthusiast accounts and so forth and I wanted to see like hey do they have like any in Insider information about this and everything and of course they all start throwing out propaganda oh it’s all money based
You don’t understand contracts you don’t understand this you don’t understand that what’s going on here oh my God my live golf and my little puppy it just got stepped on no I’m not stepping on your damn puppy okay that’s not what is happening here I just wanted to find out
Hey guys like is there something going on or like is this just a straight up trade and everybody knew that it was a bad trade all the live golf account because they were defending that it was a money thing that was going on and I’m like no they’re not reporting anything
About money and if it was in the background by the way about contracts and all this and that well then they need to come out and be transparent about it who wants to be a fan of a sports League that’s just going to keep everything on the inside nobody nobody
Wants to freaking see that and I’m sorry like I don’t want to be a fan of something to where everything things on the inside I used to have this problem with the PGA Tour when they wouldn’t announce any suspensions or anything like that like I’ve always had an issue
With that so don’t think that this is just a live golf thing no I hate that the PGA Tour tries to keep things hush hush and everything so I like it when this stuff is transparent and when we can actually talk about it and have a really good smart conversation around it
Uh but that’s my soapbox about the Taylor gu trade because I didn’t get to talk about it last week cuz I was on with strs now now the cool thing about live golf right now is that and we’re not seeing it across the entire league
Okay so don’t get me Twisted when I talk about the fact that it is live golfers right now are taking the off season seriously it’s not every single one of them but guys like Louis usasan Dean burmester you know we’re seeing cam Smith play in events we’re seeing Mark
Leechman playing in events we’re seeing a lot of these live golfers Wy Neeman playing in events I think this year is going to be really good for a lot of these individuals that are playing absolutely playing some really good golf right now heading in I think a
Lot of guys made that mistake in the first off season to where they’re like oh I’m just going to take all this time off I’ve made all this money now and of course on the PGA tour side and the fans around the PGA Tour that was always the
Big gripe right that you cannot have a league to where you get all this money and guys are still going to be competitive and want to work hard that’s not the case I and I brought up baseball as an example because I’ve been in Major League Baseball locker rooms and I’ve
Seen guys to where they’re the guys that are making the most amount of money were the hardest workers and they had already guaranteed their contracts so it’s like there is definitely going to be some guys that are going to really separate themselves and I think that’s
What we’re going to see we’re going to see that some of these guys that took the off season seriously are going to head into the season playing really really high level Golf and that did not happen last year that did not happen coming out and it was pretty much across
The board we did not see great golf right from the onset from the start with live golf we always say with the PJ tour because guys are grinding now the argument there is well they play in a million goddamn golf tournaments and it never stops sure I get that but you
Don’t have to play in all those golf tournaments there’s just some guys like sun JM that is going to play in every single goddam golf tournament that he possibly can um so there’s that um I was really happy to see Lou usas go back to
Back on the DP World Tour I love Louis golf swing I love his style just the type of person that he is and it’s cool to see him winning um and again same with somebody like Dean bermas where it’s like this guy’s got a real opportunity here and he’s taken it
Really really seriously the one that’s still a little bit disappointing that I hope he gets his freaking game back is cam Smith cam Smith has struggled in this off season getting his game back into shape and everything and uh then you know you got guys like Dustin
Johnson out there who’s on his yacht you got Lee Westwood who’s taking a lot of time off I mean so it’s not across the entire league and I would love to kind of see that uh that kind of come to fruition where you see some of these guys surpass some of
The guys that have been really good for a long time but aren’t taking it nearly as seriously and that’s going to be exciting to see um now the last thing with Liv golf here is John ROM okay who’s going to be on John ROM’s team and
If you followed good old Greg Norman he was saying oh we got a dozen plus guys that are all fighting for contracts to pay on that team so on and so forth and obviously there was a lot of speculation that some big names were going over somebody like Tony Fe now somebody like
Victor hoveland well hate to tell you but I just saw something and it’s worrisome for the live golf fans that uh you know I just saw a name that I haven’t seen before that all of a sudden they’re trying to Hype up like oh this a big deal for this
Spaniard this Spaniard guy to uh come over I’ve never heard of this guy and I don’t even have his name on me off hand so um but they’re trying to say that this guy’s going to get I feel like yeah you’re going to see three guys that are
Not going to be super big names coming onto John ROM’s team I think that’s just where it’s at right now um and we’ll see I mean that’s the biggest thing that I can tell you is that I don’t know who’s going to be going over right now to John
ROM’s team there’s been a lot of lot of contract negotiations and stuff going on especially in the background with agents so I don’t expect because they blew their load on John ROM they paid him $600 million you think all of a sudden they’re going to throw out another 600
Million to a guy like Tony F now probably not I mean that’s just the reality of the situation it was kind of like when they got DJ with the 300 million you weren’t seeing them throwing out a whole bunch of bigger contracts to other guys they started signing a lot of
Smaller Pro guys like they got their big guy in John ROM like they got their catch and now we shall see who they fill it out with uh but I will say this I don’t know if it’s going to be super competitive for a first year for John
ROM because of the players that he ends up having on his team at least from a team aspect John ROM still in very good form however I will say I did hear Mountain Shadow of Skins game he he bogey number nine B Bogi I think it was
Either nine or 10 they were telling me that he bogied um which all of these holes are like 110 uh yards so or 90 so if if John ROM’s struggling with the wedge game and everything and not really playing that well he’s probably taking quite a bit of
Well-deserved time off and he’s probably going to cruise into the season I mean he’s not doing media right now um and again that’s going to be an interesting scenario as we move in to 2024 and this is the last live stream of the Year folks so I just want to wish
Everybody happy holidays I hope everybody has a safe holiday season um don’t drink and drive with the Bushwood Spirits okay so let’s make sure that you are doing it responsibly I am in the studio today so I’m not driving anywhere um and granted this Bushwood Spirits it
Is it give it a shot folks pull hook so go to Bushwood domcom use promo code pull hook get yourself 10% off and then we’ll go from there um but also swan. the promo code there for all of our listeners is p hook golf 25 and
Again when you use the promo code not only do you get 25% off your entire order but you also are supporting the podcast okay so make sure and Swan has some great stuff I was out on the golf course the other day with a couple buddies of mine and all of a sudden
Weather’s starting to get colder out here in Arizona and he pops on a hoodie and I go wow nice swanes and he’s goes absolutely love it I was like you you Ed the promo cop golf 25 he’s like I got it during Black Friday he’s
Like I got it for 50% off I’m like damn that’s a good deal I can’t can’t frown upon that but uh I’ve noticed quite a few guys that I play golf with now are starting to rock swanes which is pretty cool and uh certainly um you know run
PMC I hope Bobby comes back soon I hope that he comes back in 2024 he’s been dealing with a couple things and uh certainly looking forward to seeing him back um but we will continue to press on um in terms of getting good interviews in here as well as some of these
One-on-one live streams that I do I’m going to make sure that you guys are up to speed throughout the entire season everything that goes on you’re going to hear about at least the important stuff okay I mean I’ve been talking for an hour now so uh certainly I don’t want to
Bore you guys with some of the stuff that that really doesn’t matter uh like who finished last at the PGA Tour Q School uh but we will have segments once again coming on we’ve got uh some experts in betting that uh we might break out a new segment in 2024 but uh
Look forward to the new season next year of the pole hook golf podcast and I appreciate all the support and love from everybody um that listens to this podcast it continues to grow and you guys are absolutely killing it listeners and audience members so I greatly appreciate you and once again hope that
Everybody has a happy holiday season thank you rum PMC appreciate that you threw in a little happy holidays so happy holidays everybody and uh once again P hook golf thank you everybody have a happy New Year as well because again next week’s episode has already been recorded
So I will not be talking to all of you until 2024 and I can’t wait see you everybody have a good one thank you for tuning in to season 2 of the P hook golf podcast make sure to hit subscribe and go to www.p hook golf.com for more [Applause] information
