Mickelson on LIV & PGA: Joh Rahm signing is a bridge to bring 2 sides together | The Pat McAfee show

Mickelson on LIV & PGA: Joh Rahm signing is a bridge to bring 2 sides together | The Pat McAfee show
Phil Mickelson joins The Pat McAfee Show to discuss:

0:00 Rory McIlroy
2:00 LIV Golf
7:30 Favorite venue you played at last year?
9:55 Is the future strong for LIV?
15:00 Joh Rahm signing is a bridge to bring 2 sides (PGA) together – Mickelson
20:00 LIV is begin selective on who they bring in – Mickelson
#thepatmcafeeshow #espn #golf

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[Applause] pH guys thank you thanks for having me on hey thank you for joining us Phil how’s life pal how’s everything going over there things are great and I really enjoy your show I enjoy what you’re doing and how you are kind of changing the game and bringing a different level

Of energy and a different uh way of presenting things and it’s been fun and interesting to watch and I think that there’s a lot of uh synergies and parallels to what’s been going on in the in the world of golf as well and uh similar to what you’ve been going

Through well they’re going to clip that and obviously cook me for it because of everything but I want to let you know Phil I appreciate you Phil cuz we appreciate the hell out of you we love you Phil and uh let’s go into it now because there’s a situation kind of

Brewing here with Rory mroy which if we go back a couple years you going to his defense and him basically talking good about you guys would not be the case we all knew that he was one of the faces of the PGA was very anti the potential

Changes that are coming and now Rory’s statements are like wow I’m kind of seeing the picture of everything Rory came out and basically said that what Liv has done is expose flaws that have happened in Gulf which I think all of us were saying that we excited about the

Changes that were taking place at the very beginning you were certainly saying that at the very beginning and now he’s kind of come around and then people started attacking him and assuming that you wanted to attack him for saying this because it’s like haha Phil was right

You were wrong you came out we’re like whoa Hey listen this is probably taken a lot of effort to get to this point for Rory Moy we should cele bre this and move forward now with that being said are you proud of the fact that here we

Are a couple years later live isn’t completely gone seems to be growing and making the game better is kind of the vision of it all and how do you see it over the last few years Phil so with with um change there’s going to be disruption and we’re we’re

We’re through most of the disruption but you know when you look at big picture and most people aren’t going to care but this is my life’s work like I love golf I’ve been you know playing my whole life and and cared and dreamt about as a kid

Playing professional golf and so this is uh my passion what I love the most and so I care about where the the game is going and so forth and it’s been concerning the last many years of the uh age of our viewer increasing steadily

From 55 to 60 to now 65 out on tour and the PJ tour when I was there was trying to do everything we could to attract and appeal to a younger crowd and we haven’t been able to do that and so now we’re finding a way to do that

And Liv is starting to uh bring in a younger Audience by presenting the game of golf in a different way and so there are other aspects of about golf that are difficult that we’re trying to solve give you a couple of examples one the

Golf fan is the most loyal fan in all of sports and here’s why when you buy a ticket to an NFL game or a a basketball game baseball game you you buy a seat you you sit down on your seat you get to see 100 % of the action but in golf you

Buy a ticket you walk for miles and you see a fraction of the game and so when you wanted to come out and watch um tiger play and you wanted to watch myself play we were always on opposite end of the spectrum so you’ve got to get

There at 8 in the morning and watch early and then you’ve got to be there till 6: in the afternoon if you want to to watch myself play we’re trying to change that and present it in a different way so that with the shotgun start you can come out and you watch all

The top players play in a short four and a half hour time period that’s that’s one little thing uh the other thing is when you are a player in the NFL or baseball or so forth you’re an employee of that team and that team controls your

Schedule and when we we go play as a fan you know who you’re going to watch uh to play and so in golf you see every week people are committing to the tournament so that fans have an idea of who might be there rather than knowing who’s going

To be there and so that model is starting to change and if you’re a sponsor and you’re investing into the game of golf or into an event you want to know who’s going to be there that’s the attraction that’s the the product that you’re trying to uh to bring and so

You want to know what it is you’re buying and all of these things Liv is trying to change and this allows us to bring golf which is already a global sport to different parts of the world just like NFL is trying to bring football to London and other parts and

By controlling their schedule they’re able to do that because you you have the Jacksonville Jaguar play the Buffalo Bills in London and you know who’s going to play and golf we haven’t had that ability to do that which is why our attempt to bring world golf championships throughout the world have

Been uh unsuccessful globally but okay in the US and so if I’m a fan I want to see the best players play against each other and as a top player throughout my career I want to play against the best players more often and our schedules would never match up outside of the

Majors they they were uh I would play what was good for me and it was never really directed now Liv is creating 14 events where you know who’s going to play and who’s going to be there and uh the tour is start starting to do that as well now with

Elevated events which is great like if you’re a fan of the PGA Tour you know that these top guys from the tour are going to play there and I think in the big picture when all of this disruption and change irons out and settles through we’re going to have a product that’s

Going to be better for the fans because you’ll know who’s going to be there and you’ll have a product that’s easier to to buy if you’re a sponsor because you know who’s going to be there and we’ll be able to move Mo this product throughout the world and capitalize uh

On markets that we’ve never been able to touch before and hopefully grow the the market for all of golf whether you’re a manufacturer clothing or or a an investor or a sponsor who wants to use golf to bring clients together uh in different countries you’ll be able to do

That because you’ll have the best players playing there with on that note I think that’s what I liked about you guys being on YouTube at the beginning because obviously we have benefited from from YouTube being a global I mean our audience literally Australia Japan here like YouTube has

That reach and then when you move to CW I think at the be now CW has a lot more Sports CW is investing in sports you guys were one of the first ones I think for a lot of people it was kind of hard to find at first are you guys worried

About the potential is it a if you build it they will come or are you guys keeping an eye on ratings and attendance and everything at this stage or are you guys super patient with that ire thing so it was a great start for us just to

Have a network to get on and CW has invested a lot in in our product and live sports and so we were kind of the start and as a startup which is what live is you have to start somewhere and so it was a good starting point in the

End we also had a lot of challenges that we had to overcome with uh pressure from outside sources from other networks to to not get involved with us but as we start working together as a whole and we start putting the entity of professional golf at the Forefront then we’re able to

Uh create more Partnerships rather than combative relationships and I think that’s kind of where we’re headed which is ultimately where I’m going with this is a better TV uh product for live and more uh corporate involvement from live going forward Darius has a question for

You Phil yeah Phil I was lucky enough to get a chance to watch you and uh DJ actually down in uh Dural um this past uh in this past off season uh what was your favorite venue that you played at last year so Dural was spectacular and I I think

It’s uh you know an exceptional golf course and we were going to be starting the year at MOBA in Mexico the first week of February which is the week off of the NFL so hopefully you guys will check it out I love that myoba course and then uh we have an old historical

Site that we’re going to be playing in Las Vegas country club the following week the week of the Super Bowl in Las Vegas it’s a course I played 30 years ago when I first came out on tour uh in the Las Vegas classic so we get I get to

Return there in a live debut if you will and by bringing golf the week of the Super Bowl to the Super Bowl site and having it finished the day before the Super Bowl we’re hopeful to introduce the game and get some excitement for the game from people that we might not be

Able to cross over and attract without uh without the use of football in this case do they test for marijuana over there at Liv they do drug testing yeah I don’t know if that’s one of the drugs they they test for but they uh they do drug testing on

Us if I get good why why do you ask that well I smoke copious amounts of marijuana whenever I’m in uh when I’m in legal states obvious obviously we never do that in Indiana where we call home but anytime we get to travel for anything obviously I do and I play Bingo

For Super Bowl obviously but I will probably continue to do that for uh a majority of my life I don’t think it’s right for every everybody but for me it has certainly made my brain life happiness everything better but I’m working at gol Phil Phil I’m up there

Listen Phil I’m up in this golf simulator I’m I’m on the back we got we got a simulator up there right behind where watt Wednesday says right there that’s golf simulator I’m up there working I’m on this two courses we have two holes out here in the back I’m

Trying to get good at golf I just didn’t know if you know if I get good enough cuz you can golf till your 70 oh right you can golf till your 70 you could be great at golf till your 70 I didn’t know if live was going to be a poti

Opportunity now speaking of live being a potential opportunity at the beginning all anybody said was they just want to take down a PGA they have enough money just to take down a PGA they don’t want to be a sustainable business like and while you were giving off your answer

About being able to travel this right you talked about clothing manufacturers and Brands and everything like that running it as a business which is what you would assume everybody is going to attempt to do especially if they’re investing money with the ROM Edition and we assume there’s going to be more like

There’s been a lot of money invested in this is there a thought that this will inevitably become like profitable and sustainable or is it just like we actually have a NeverEnding supply of money like that is an actual that’s an actual weapon that you guys certainly

Have in this entire thing is there a thought about that will that disrupt things is the future very strong uh even if it doesn’t become profitable until maybe 10 decade or so uh that’s that’s uh that’s let me explain a little bit more of the business model because please

When we when we have the ability to control the product meaning uh Liv knows what they are selling and you know what you’re buying as a sponsor we are now integrating golf on a global scale and we’re going to different countries and utilizing tourism budgets to get us

There so the reason we’re going to Hong Kong is they are paying an exorbitant amount of money to bring professional golf at the highest level there and they’re using the tourism budget to do that we were not supposed to go back to Singapore this year and then the tourism

Board at Singapore gets involved and I’m talking tens of millions not just a million or two so when we started out at Livia we had to pay for sites because it was controversial and there were threats against us not to be involved with us and so forth but now these countries are

Using tourism dollars to get us to go there because of the impact we’re having on their on their economy and so uh it’s co it’s as much to cover the entire purse so to not see this opportunity is uh shortsighted we we this is an area of of uh monetary opportunity that we’ve

Never had in golf because we’ve never controlled the product and be able to sell something tangible there’s too much uncertainty so will it be profitable I think it’s going be profitable a lot sooner than than you think especially as we start working together all professional golf uh and we stop having

These uh kind of threats and trying to suppress our product and our TV opportunities and our sponsors when we start working together as we are starting to and I think John ROM signing is really being used as a bridge to bring these sides together realizing that live isn’t going away that this is

Going to be a staple and that if we compete we’re going to be competing against uh each other for television uh dollars and sponsorship dollars and so forth rather than working together and to to do create the best product for the fans and as well as sponsors and the

Best opportunities for the players so we’re starting work together John ROM’s been a huge impetus in this and this is going to open up markets just like I mentioned tourism dollars not to mention uh Global uh companies that are outside the US on a on a that are very large

That want to get involved uh and use golf as a way to Bringing clients together and promote their brand so there there’s incredible opportunities it will be profitable very quickly and building equity in a brand uh and bringing a team aspect although it’s difficult to see right now because golf

Has been an individual sport for hundreds of years or not hundreds but you know many many years at least 100 plus thousand it’s hard to see this transition and this change and and and the benefits of this but in the big picture again what I also see is like a

Team let’s say is an opportunity to help young players that don’t have access to the same type of support system that’s necessary to be successful and by that I mean this there’s a lot of great young players that don’t have access to the proper physical training or the proper

Instruction or the proper facilities needed to be their best and as a team owner let’s say with High Flyers years down the road five 10 years I’ll have a high Flyers Golf Course facility that I’ll have world class Fitness training world class Physical Therapy world class

Instruction and I will be able to bring in many young players and give them access to this training and what will I benefit from it as a as as an owner of the team I’ll have first Rider refusal so when they go out and they become a

Great player and they want to they’re winning majors and winning tournaments I’ll have the first R refusal to sign him to my team but I’ll be able to bring dozens of young players in and Academy this is the European Academy model you know bring bring them in provide

Everything for them to become the best that they possibly can in the sport that’s huge I had not heard that about the the Liv golf is that is that far away from now it’s all part of the big picture it’s all part of the plan like I

Say it’s a it’s evolving and so we want to create opportunities for young players to get involved in this and as we start building this team aspect each team will be able to provide those opportunities and benefit from them hopefully long term by again having the the first Rider refusal to maintain these

Players that’s really good idea I had not heard that and you’re not a lawyer and obviously we’re not expecting you to know everything that’s happening but you’re one of the founders seemingly of live and the way you’ve just described the business side of it feels like you have a great handle of everything

Happening over there I was told Liv and PGA were together right remember old buddy was old buddy that went on a vacation for two weeks immediately J Monahan Jay Monahan he uh remember he was meeting in uh restaurants in Italy I think or Milan or something and then out of nowhere boom

And then it was like blindsided almost everybody and then as it continue to go on it’s not what is is that still ongoing what’s happening there because you said John ROM is a great bridge to bring both sides together we’re hearing Rory speak positive it feels like

There’ll be a lot more agreeance from the members of the PGA to kind of combin forces now more so than a year back or whatever is that still ongoing what what do we not understand about that process there so I don’t have a lot of answers

For you on where they are in the merger I’m not involved in those uh discussions per se I just know the vision of what yaser has for the game of golf and is working hard to bring that Vision together and to bring professional golf and present it differently uh to the

Public to help grow the game and to help grow it on a global scale and grow the interest to younger players and try to attract the demographic that we have not been able to attract so far but with John ROM signing on what it’s done is create a bridge and an opportunity for

Us to come together because the realization is live isn’t going away like that’s what the talk is like it’s ridiculous and so uh now people are realizing okay it’s not going away and we want to work together and if we’re the majors and we want to have the best

Field and and keep on the tradition of these great events we’re going to have to have the best players in the world and we’re going to have to create a qualifying system for these players to get there and if you’re the PJ tour and you realize that your your most

Important asset is the quality of field and the players and you are going to keep losing players if you don’t work together this is a bridge that now is opening the those conversations to start working together and I thought I thought that that it was a very big move on

Rory’s part to say a couple of things things that he said one was that we don’t want to go forward in the Ryder Cup without John Ram like that’s a big step it’s a a total turn from these guys made their bed and and lie with it it’s

A coming together like he opened the door for us to start working together I feel as well as uh the recent comments about how there’s a place uh in golf for live and uh for team events and so forth and the way look there’s always going to

Be a need for traditional Golf and there’s always a desire for it like these tournaments have been around for a long long time great history a great reverence but that’s also led to an increasing age demographic in our fan base and we’ve got to be able to to also

Attract the younger players and there’s a place for live as well and there’s a place for a fun edgier louder uh presentation in in golf and that’s what we’re trying to do and they both should be working together for the greater good and I think that uh that’s where we’re

Headed and John ROM’s signing is that bridge because it’s the realization that we need to work together going forward for the long-term success of the game we love Romo bombo absolutely love him I assume everybody on both tours does as well Connor has a question about that

Yeah Phil because Rah has joined you feel as though or actually have you actually kind of got more people reaching out to you like okay now that ROM’s there maybe this is something I consider like our golfers now because of ROM probably going to cross that bridge

If they were thinking about it in the past and then also do is John John’s getting his own team is he going to have the whole facility like yourself and is that something that was talked about with John and do you know what maybe his

Team would be is there any sneak peek we can have perhaps so I don’t want to speak for John on his behalf but I know that all teams big picture are trying to have that type of model where we have these facilities that can support our own teams the best way and provide

Opportunities for great young players who need that type of support system in a financial model that sustains it rather than just taking donations and creating a Institute of sport that uh continues to drain funds each year there’ll be a model here where these golf courses will sell memberships and

Those members will have access to those facilities as well and it will be a profitable Venture that we can sustain and continue to bring more young players in as far as uh John’s team I know that they are talking to a couple of players and but I don’t want I mean that’s their

That that’s their thing I’d rather let them discuss that I know that I’ve had a lot of calls from players that realize that what they have been being told now for the last year and a half isn’t really accurate and it has opened their eyes to this is another option that if

I’m available or or presented with the opportunity to play it’s not gonna it’s not going away I’m not going to be undermining my career I’m going to be creating a a a different opportunity so there aren’t a lot of spots and so Liv is being very selective on on who they

Bring in because they want to create value for the product and continue to strengthen it so some of the players that have called me they there hasn’t been an opportunity for them to come but um that will continue to change over time as we end up adding a few teams

Creating a few more players and uh becoming a stronger product we think about some of the guys that were allegedly offered a couple hundred million and then they turned down or whatever and then now you know there’s not enough spots left it’s a wild wild

For all of them tone has a question for you yeah Phil 2025 when the Ryder come Ryder Cup comes back to America at Beth Page if you are not playing do you have any interest in being the Ryder Cup captain at that time or could you just

Be you know be a player coach as well I’ve had 12 13 opportunities to be a part of the Ryder Cup uh 12 as a player one as a Vice Captain and I’ve loved every minute of it and cherished those moments and those life experiences

I don’t feel I’m the right guy to be involved with the team because I’m a very divisive uh character right now if you will and uh I understand that that the players on the PJ tour there’s a lot of hostilities towards me and I don’t

Feel I’d be the best leader for them uh going forward I think that as a rer c Cup captain you have to be kind of a unifier and have these relationships uh solidified and somebody that um you know you you want to follow and right now uh

I’ve been very divisive and I and I’m okay with that I knew that was going to be the case I knew the next couple of year that it was going to take a couple of years and that uh I was going to take a lot of hits and and a lot of

Divisiveness but I believe that it is in the best interest of the game of golf to present it a different way to a younger crowd and to try to stop a problem that is coming up quickly which is the age demographic of our fans I also believe

That it’s going to be a better thing for the professional itself to um to some of the the the things behind the scenes I don’t need to get into the details of of the pay structure and the the the rights of the players and so forth I think

Those are going to be solved and going forward and this is a product that brings a different element with team and so forth that I I really believe in and so I knew I was going to take some hits going forward I’m okay with that and as

A divisive individual I don’t think I’m the best unifier going forward uh for the Ryder Cup and that’s that’s fine because I’ve had so many great memories with it it’s it’s time for other people to to be able to create their own memories opportunities and life experiences that the ryer cup provides

Yeah I think the ryer cup obviously for the fans is huge which leads to this from Tai yeah Phil just curious um like when you look you’ve obviously got your feet wet now with a bunch of these these Live Events uh when you look at it and

Like you talk to the other players out there you mentioned the shotgun start earlier and then also like the the 54 whole format the team format all that kind of stuff is everyone pretty happy with how things are going or like are there any other maybe changes that you

Guys would like to pull from like uh a PGA tournament format to to kind of just continue to evolve what live is like where does everyone kind of stand on the ACT ual tournaments themselves right now have you seen a single live player not smiling I mean we are smiling all

The time uh the energy output each week is so much different and all of the things that have been frustrating in a player experience has been uh improved exponentially on live but it’s in In fairness we only have 48 players relative to 156 and it’s much harder to

Accommodate three times as many players who have three time you know triple the families triple the the coaches triple the the fitness uh instruction the physical therapy all these so it’s much easier to accommodate and Target and make the experience for these 48 players who are are playing uh much better so In

Fairness like it’s been a lot easier to fix those things and that’s why we’re all enjoying it and why we’re smiling so much is that all of the the details that have been frustrating from a player standpoint which nobody cares about but and shouldn’t but the things that we’ve

Been going through uh they have been able to be fixed you know the what tournaments are weing playing when are we playing what is our schedule when’s our flight is it Friday night is it Sunday night where am I heading from there uh all of these details that have

Led to challenges for scheduling in family functions and birthday parties and all the little things that are are yeah being a human yes it just has made uh the experience for the player uh incredibly better but that’s not something that’s going to translate let’s say to The Fan Experience or or

The things that matter when we are professional golfers to present a product and are in the entertainment industry but from a player’s perspective behind the scenes uh it’s it’s incredible couple brainstorm and things here you know and I appreciate you talking about being a human because I

Think that’s what that full swing thing yeah displayed the most about how you guys the PGA Tour and it was am it was amazing to me to find out that they’re independent contractors not guaranteed a single thing but you have to play for our tour but we’re not going to

Guarantee you anything but you got to guarantee us that I think we learned about that through the liveing like guys losing money each week for traveling if they didn’t make the cut they had a couple bad days but they were being shown for 12 hours a day while they were

Golfing it was like the just the I don’t want to say immorality but seemingly bad business that was kind of taking place and then we watch that full swing and these guys are you got a proam on Wednesday you got to practice on Tuesday

But you got to be in that City for the proam then Thursday Friday hope you make the cut Saturday hope you get Sunday well then you got Monday off good for you then you got practice somewhere think got proam in the next city it’s like it was a NeverEnding that was wild

To kind of watch behind the scenes and learn about so thanks for committing your whole life for us to Watch