Rory McIlroy Joins Exclusive Club -Fairways of Life w Matt Adams-Mon April 29

Rory McIlroy collects his 25th PGA Tour win alongside fellow Irishman Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Matt Adams recaps a busy weekend in golf LIV Golf was in Adelaide Australia, Hannah Green won again on the LPGA Tour and much more. Plus, Guy Kinnings talks European Ryder Cup access for LIV golf players, rounds are up nationwide and the PGA Tour equity plan is official!
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#MattAdams #GolfDiscussion #FairwaysOfLife #GolfTalk #LPGATour #LPGA #LIVGolf #PGATourEquity #BobParsons #PXG #SSG #PGATourEnterprises #ZurichClassic

welcome welcome to the most listen to golf in the world the fairways of Life show on air online and around the world with the most candid interviews Unforgettable stories taking you beyond the ropes here’s your host New York Times bestselling author Matt Adams what’s going on life show delighted to have your company today we’re coming to you from our home away from home here uh as I’m up hosting at NBC Sports for Golf Channel this week last week doing the pre- and post game and I’ll be doing pre and post game coming up in this week as well finally the weather here has really broken I think today I believe it’s going to be 85 Degrees 86 degrees in Central Park today so it’s a real warm front coming through and very much looking forward to experiencing some of that weather somehow because whenever I come up here it seems like the weather is really raw has been really cold up until this point there been pockets of nice weather but this is the week when it’s the warmest that it will have been uh for the start of this season so I know everyone’s very pumped about that because look everything that’s going on we’ve talked about this before with baseball and full swing uh up here I’m a Rangers Fan the Rangers eliminated the Caps last night and the hockey playoffs in more so I was immersed as a result because I was hosting the coverage of the zura classic because we were the pregame for it led to it and the fact that Rory marroy and Shane Lowry won the event I I said this to Paige McKenzie in our coverage last night if a book was written on that tournament on that final round and you read it backwards you’d go oh okay Rory maroy and Shane Lowry won that’s pretty much what we were expecting right but how they got to that point was not what everybody was expecting what Chad Remy did yesterday what Martin trainer did yesterday the fact that you could see him right there finishing at 25 under par here’s the part that’s amazing about that when they started the day there were seven shots back tied for 27th right so to get past the cut at this event it’s the top 33 teams in ties coming into the final round they’re tied for 27 seven shots a drift and they end up all the way at the top of the leaderboard here’s the part that is it’s I think fascinating particularly when you figure that they go to a playoff they finished at 3:09 p.m. eastern time so they go into the clubhouse and they just have to wait it out Rory kind of talked about that later on when he was talking to Steve Bowski saying you know what we kind of had the benefit of the fact that we just finished and went right out to the golf course for the playoff and they had been sitting around for a long time and then they had to go out and try to warm up on the Range and all the rest and and get into kind of the groove so when it was all said and done yes in the playoff we saw some golf that frankly wasn’t great I mean when you get right down to it Rory and Shane did exactly what they had to do in what was the alternate shot format in that first playoff hole the forams but they won it with a par out of par five so that alone tells you right there it wasn’t spectacular I mean Shane put a good putt on it for birdie but it wasn’t like it was you’d expect say a tap in for birdie Rory had this kind of odd position where he had to play his third shot from uh but on the other side particularly with Martin trainer In fairness there were a lot of nerves that were you could see it there were a lot of nerves and and it’s kind of understandable I mean when you look at to get to my stats here for Martin trainer that had been the first time he had a runnerup finish on tour in 137 starts trainer won the the 2019 Puerto Rico o by the way Chad winner of the 2022 caral pakana Championship that was his first runnerup finish in 77 starts for him as to what it meant for Rory maroy and Shane Lowry let’s dive into some of the information here for these guys and Rory’s is significant it’s historically significant and I’ll get into that in more details in just a second so he earns his 25th victory on the PGA tour it’s his first title since the 2023 Genesis Scottish open because that’s a co- sanction event and the Victory comes in his 247th start at the age of 34 years 11 months and 24 days if you’re doing the math yeah he turns 35 this coming Saturday in that win that 25th win he ties Tommy armor Johnny Miller and McDonald Smith for 23rd in the alltime PGA tour wins list he has at least one win in each of his last seven PGA Tour events of course he’s a three-time FedEx Cup champion he moves the 15th in the FedEx Cup standings Shane Lowry he earns his third PGA Tour victory in his 174 start at the age of 37 years 26 days and the Victory comes 81 starts since his last win which was the 2019 open at Royal Port Rush he moves to number 12 in FedEx Cup standings he wins his fifth start at the event his previous best was 13th in 2022 his partner then was Ian polter three top 10 finishes and nine starts this season for Shane Lowry and it’s interesting when you hear those stats because you go well then Shane’s been playing pretty well he said yesterday his words not mine still paraphrasing was that Rory carried me I think that’s exact qu Rory kind of fought that a little bit but I think it’s pretty much true that the what what I thought was interesting about Rory Mary and I kind of raised this this Theory during our shows was sometimes when you watch Rory play right there’s a sense of does he have the focus does he have the motivation particularly at the start of events he tends to finish strong and at this event because it was a team event and I kept saying I’m not trying to overplay this because you’re talking about say Ryder cups there there was this strong sense from Rory that he was dialed in that he was really focused throughout at least from the standpoint of covering Shane’s back right I think it was Friday afternoon when he was talking with Amanda and at one point he he said the quote he goes I’m a really good teammate and I thought that was telling and I thought that was revealing killing at the event so these guys they have been friends by their account for 25 or more years you just heard me say that one’s on the verge of turning 35 and one is 37 and they’ve been friends for that long so they’ve grew up together quite literally they played under a common Banner in Ireland called the golfing Union of Ireland then and even though Rory is from Northern Ireland and Shane obviously from the Republic so they played together they’ve been together in 2009 when Shane Lowry won the Irish open as an amateur who was the first one charging out on the green to congratulate him it was Rory mroy and so this has been consistent throughout the theme so one of the first things obviously they’re going to be asked by the media is with each other as your partner how does it feel to do what you just did yeah absolutely amazing I think um yeah to win to win any PGA event is very cool but to do it with one of your closest friends and um you know we’ we’ve known each other for a long long to uh probably like over 20 years so to think about where we where we met where we’ve come from to be on this stage and do this together um really really cool Journey that that we’ve been a part of and um yeah just awesome to be able to do it alongside this mon yeah I mean it’s uh it’s amazing uh F you know I we both felt like we needed to commit here and maybe have a very strong week because we you know we wanted to get our summer going you know got a lot of big dog coming off sale it’ be nice to get that J book with f book that we bought on and so it’s nice um you know it’s it’s great to get away it was great fun all week you know everything about it uh was just brilliant I enjoyed every minute of it like having this man by my side is just uh yeah I mean he seen the drive here up the 18 or the 72nd M like you know when you’ve got doing that it’s pretty easy to play golf there for me so well I made a look hard of times but um no it was it was it was amazing like we we went out there we had lot of fun and we won the tournament it’s you could last for a better week is you because it wasn’t going to be in qu all I was hoping to get an invite for um uh Memorial I was only getting invite there and travelers I didn’t really know what was going to happen so I knew I need to make some fed scope points and this gets me in those and it’s a you know means I can plan my schedule out and you know with with family stuff my wife and kids go back to Ireland in the summer it means I don’t really have to stay over here and you know gr it out too long I can I can do what I I feel like and what I want to do do it’s it’s freed me up a lot this summer so hopefully we can both pick on now yeah got three Majors left you know hopefully you can get get one each maybe two and one be nice yeah that’s that’s that’s the plan for the rest of the summer so as you could probably tell with the video we were playing in the background sound that was a concert that was going on in the background and I guess they had some kind of trouble with the audio feed so that’s why John Burk who put that together so was using different angles and doing the best he could to minimize that background sound but we wanted to maximize the words coming from the players so you could appreciate it now you could see they were replete with the bead and you’ve probably seen on social media it’s exploded because Rory was singing Journeys don’t stop believe in and honestly he was really good it was it was a little bit hard to hear him isolated with the way the crowd was singing with him and having so much fun so in this piece they talk about the crowd and the support I mean they were out to dinner the night before the final round right and as they were leaving the restaurant everybody stood up and gave gave them a standing ovation this is where his first time at this event and in the area and it was a really big weekend down in New Orleans because the Jazz Fest was going on I think it was last night or Saturday night the Rolling Stones performed it was just it was there was a lot going on in and around the city so in this cut which again was before they sang on stage Rory maroy and Shane Lowry spoke to the support that they received yeah it’s amazing uh you know the the the fs and the the atmosphere all week has been incredible you know people have come out in their thousands to support us and um you know it’s not it’s not a on me that you know how how cool that is uh every time I get the plan from the thousands of people the the little boy in me just thinks it’s so so cool and so exciting so uh really grateful for everyone to come out and and show up and and uh let us play in an atmosphere like that and yeah I mean you know especially in front of all those people you know coming behind those last few yeah you start to feel it you start to you know it it felt like a big time atmosphere in a big time tournament and uh you know the crow really really made the week get yeah I think you know getting the support out there definitely helps I think more than anything else you know having this guy to lean on that was what fueled me and what um I think it you know being able to rely on each other a little I think that’s really really helped us um you know over the last 10 or 11 goals yesterday and then over the last 12 yeah absolutely you know golf the reason that Sheen and I both started to play golf is because we thought it was fun at some stage in our life and I think um sort of re-injecting a little bit of that fun back into it like a week like this week you know it can always help yeah I think so but I also think to to play the sort of we that we did from the done the stretch when there was a little bit of pressure I think that’ll stand to us also but yeah I mean I I’ve always felt like I played my best golf when I’m enjoying myself and um hard to not enjoy yourself when you’re outs there walking the fairways machine all right so you just heard what Rory said there which which I think underscores that theory where he said re-injecting a little bit of fun back into it dot dot dot and that’s really what I was referring to there as to what they did and how they did it consider this when they started the round yesterday they were one over after three holes and it looked very much like it was going to go completely sideways in the other direction at that point we had Patrick Fishburn you had Zack Blair at the top of the leaderboard we were getting an indication of what Chad and Martin were doing it hadn’t fully congealed yet but we were looking at it going you know what this was going to be an event where it was either going to be a historic breakthrough for a couple of players one of them who only in Fishburn only had 11 starts on the PGA tour or it was going to be a return to the winner circle for a couple of players that haven’t been there for a while not so much with Chad but definitely in terms of Martin ultimately that wasn’t the way that it played out and the way that it played out is this cut from Shane and from Rory talking about what happened in the final round yeah that was huge um obviously wasn’t ideal if we already hting the bunker off the te but I’m like far bunkers for me are not like they a strong part of my game and I’m pretty confident about them so I knew once I had a decent li like I knew once to see the ball bounce and then what didn’t BL that I knew I was going to have a swing and a shot at it and yeah 140 to the pin 11 just say w a lovely shot and just left of it probably not really where I was a and pulled a little bit but um two cor gone all that but that kind of free this up a little bit the last couple ho but then I hit a PTI on 17 but like you know wind was kind of slightly out I left on 17 today and I just couldn’t get myself to start to go to the water you know because there’s all sort of all sorts of trouble over there gat and everything and you know we knew you know in my head I thought if I miss the green right Rory’s good chipper we get it up and down I we bir the last to win that’s what I was thinking uh we didn’t obviously get it up and down but last the playoff and then we were forunate to go and win in the playoff fun yeah the thought was um you know that that green or that ball has been good us over the weekend we made a part there yesterday and then you know made another one toight uh I looked at it quite a bit um it broke a lot yeah it broke broke a good couple of feet um I don’t know what the cangle was on TV but you know there was a lot of break in it and it was one of those where was like speed was more important than line I just had to give the speed right and sort of match it up and um yeah that was that was a huge part and that really you know obviously sh said we we went you know and 17 but you know that you know that that was a huge cut and give us that little bit of a cushion that we could you know get away with piing a boogie on on 17 which is probably playing the toughest a little bit of the den yeah I mean I think that was to our advantage today um you know I you know feel for Martin and Chad a little bit you know they they played as unbelievable run to golf They 63 in those conditions out there in forams is is super impressive so yeah to be sitting on not really knowing you know they might be in a playoff they might not be um and then so you know I’m sure they had Al had time to warm up and everything but it’s still it’s a it’s different than us just coming straight back you know off the golf course you know and i’ straight back into it so I think because that we probably had a little bit of an advantage on on the playoff walk uh I don’t think they need to try I think we’re coming back we be here I’ll be here anyway I’ll be here waiting for I think i’ i’ like I’ve gone through a little bit over the last couple of months few weeks few tournaments where I’ve struggled on the greens a little bit I changed my Colter this week feels really good but I’m just not trusting it as well as I would like um I missed a couple of short PLS to kind of gets me down little bit Rory’s there back me up this week and he was a great teammate and you know he made me believe in myself and yeah it’s it was good to have him there to do that so yeah I think as well it takes the pressure off you know I hit a for T sh off 16 per exle today and then knowing the chain cre went and H A cre second shot and sort of you know not make it two shot all know we’re there trying our hard as we know we’re not trying to by shots and we don’t say sorry and we’re you know we can all and do our best and see I’m starting to think that maybe that’s the way post Victory press conferences should be done because I don’t know about you guys but didn’t you feel like you were just sitting at a table with them at a pub someplace discussing what had just taken place we’re going to continue discussing what has just taken place from a historical perspective when we come back plus we have more scheduled in today’s show a conversation from the head of the DP World Tour saying that players that have left for live can find a pathway to play for the European Ridder Cup team we’ll get into the details of what all that means if you need to get into the details of your golf game go to the PGA TOUR Superstore they are the number one golf retailer from coast to coast and it’s for good reason they have nearly 70 big beautiful stores uh throughout the nation and yeah if you’re looking for it for your golf game surely you can find it inside of their stores but I think inside their stores their most important asset are there people where you can shop with the pros people vested in the best interest of your game check it out today at your happy place every January PGA TOUR Superstore Pros meet every manufacturer learn about the latest equipment log thousands of hours of training and together hit over 100,000 balls all so they can get you the perfect fit in Ireland golf is more than just a again come and experience our world famous Lynx courses and our world famous Parkland courses all set alongside world famous scenery and visit our world famous historic sites and while you’re here enjoy our world famous Hospitality fill your heart with Ireland at ireland.com SLG golf Ben Hogan golf equipment is back established in 1953 we serve golfers who demand Excellence of their equipment designed by The Game’s best Engineers forged in the world’s best foundaries and built to order in the USA don’t settle for off the rack disappointment elevate your game with custom clubs at direct to Consumer pricing exclusively at Ben hogan.com that’s Ben Hogan golf.com the Gen 6 iron is a culmination of everything that we have learned as a team the absolute best golf club I’ve ever hit it’s something special say hello to the New pxg Gen 6 iron the longest most accurate irons we’ve ever made they go higher and farther than any iron that I have hit to date and they’re so easy to hit super excited for the consumer to try these they’re going to love them pxg nobody makes golf clubs the way we do period baseball nah football done it I theyy come on to go after PGA tour playing on the PGA tour is not easy but you know what is easy getting the 524 series from Tour Edge getting linebackers at home runs you to be easy out here you’re going to need all the easy you can get introducing the 524 series from Tour Edge the easiest clubs you’ll ever hit even the best players in the world can use a little easy I like the sound to that look out PGA Tour pound for pound nothing comes close Bo golf provides the ultimate world class golf destination with 10 Championship caliber courses spanning three Resorts centered in Michigan’s Northern lower Peninsula the courses are the products of some of the games Masters including Robert Trent Jones Senor Arthur Hills and Donald Ross from the all-inclusive vacation package is Elite instruction with the boing Golf Academy tournaments and so much more boing golf truly offers an unrivaled Michigan golf vacation experience just log on to boing golf.com [Music] [Music] yeah well I think um in regulation we we knew what we needed to do you know with from you know the Boogie on 17 we knew we needed to to make a birie at the last to get a playoff at at worst I guess we didn’t know what the guys were doing behind so to to play the 18th the way we did in regulation which you know was great to get a four there um and you know we were you we were a little frh or a little sharper I guess going into the playoff Martin and Chad had the weer on for for ours to to to play this playoff hole and and we were coming right off you know right off the back of our R so feel a little bad for them but at the same time we we played a great run to golf you know this Al alternate TR format is is really tough and to to play the last 11 or 12 holes the way we did when we knew we needed to to get to a um to get to a score that was um to get to a score that was what was posted you know we knew we had there was a Target set and the fact that we got there I thought was was super impressive little bit of slow start out of the Gates Again what were the challenges trying to build momentum knowing there was work to be done in the tougher format uh yeah we a slow start but like we played uh number seven number eight very well all week uh you know we knew 10 was going to be a Chance 11 obviously so we knew we had chances coming up you know we we knew uh if we just kept doing our thing you know the way Rory drove the GOL golf ball this week it’s like it’s an absolute pleasure to play from his second shots uh and you know we knew we were going to give ourselves chances and I think we played the last you know I had a poorti on 17 but you know I was just trying to head up the right side of Green the wing got hold of it and we made a bad bogy there but you know we we knew we could bur the last get into the playoff and you know we knew when we get the playoff we could win it so uh yeah Rory said to me going down to the playoff he said when was the last time you were in a playoff I was like 2009 so uh that was nice it was nice to get a win and you know to do alongside a great friend is just yeah it’s very special you’ve won all around the world what do you take the most pride in first time here doing it with a great friend uh I think I you know we kept each other positive the the entire way this week uh even when things weren’t going our way for a little bit we um you know we we we kept our heads held high and you know there was a couple of struggles early on in the rounds especially at the weekend there and to to get through those and and get some momentum going um yeah you know we play so much golf at home and we’re so comfortable in each other’s company and um to be able to to do it out here when it matters and and produce similar golf uh is is really cool interview with Steve Browski courtesy of Golf Channel so when you look at Rory maroy with what he’s accomplishment accomplishing and you heard me mention the fact that the company that he’s now keeping which goes back to of two of those three are as absolutely Golden Age Legends and then you have Johnny Miller a multiple time major Champion that he’s in the company of he’s the 26th player with 25 or more wins on the PGA tour he’s the 23rd player with 25 or more wins and multiple majors and here’s the thing where it starts to become really rarified air and Andrew I like that graphic you have up there let’s leave that on the screen for a moment so we can all kind of let that simmer Rory is 12th all time with 25 five or more tour wins in four or more Majors 12 all time that’s what I was talking about in terms of the significance of where he is in the game of golf and as you can see from that graphic that Andrew has up on your screen and for those of you who listening to us on the radio side I’ll I’ll go through some of it uh he he moves to 15th and FedEx Cup standings as I mentioned in segment one which is important at this time of year because we’re now well past the halfway point of the Season he’s tied for 2 third on the at alltime wins list to reiterate he is of course the three-time FedEx Cup champion in 1619 and 22 he’s won 17 times on the DP World Tour to augment what we’re just talking about now some of them are co-sanctioned wins In fairness two-time race to Dubai Champion that’s the equivalency of the FedEx Cup champion on the PGA tour if you please he’s a stime European Rider Cup team member and he’s currently ranked number two in the world very impressive indeed now he was talking about they both did Chad Remy and Martin trainer uh Chad is 31 years old and trainer is 33 years old and the significance of what they did in that final round and shooting that 63 an alternate shot it’s hard to do that in alternate shot a Chad’s was coming into the week 233rd in the official world golf rankings and Martin was 387th in the official world golf rankings uh Martin trainer in particular was coming into his sixth event of the year he’s playing out of a past champions category and he had missed the cut in half of those events coming in as I mentioned he did had of a win in 2019 at the Puerto Rico open Martin’s an interesting guy he’s been on the show with us before loves to cook uh he’s a dual citizen uh his father is American his mother is French and I believe if memory serves me it was in 22 where as a dual citizen he officially took up his French U citizenship as primary for Chad as a mentioned he’s a winner as well 22 caralis Pana Championship born in Mississippi went to Mississippi State the the sneaky stat about Chad was that he’s sixth in Strokes gain putting this year so I’m always curious when you have a chance for a really significant win and you come up just short what are your thoughts do you do you lament in measure against what you failed to do or do you look at it with the perspective of going you know what at the beginning of the week if you had offered us this we would have taken it here they are after the round I mean obviously you know a little disappointed but overall I think it’s important to see the big picture and we had a really good week and you know that’s all that’s all we can hope for really yeah I mean obviously disappointed we didn’t come out with the to win but like I told somebody earlier like there’s a lot of really good things to take from this week and and that’s what I’m going to do I mean solo second finish in the end still pretty good I mean just playing it like a normal hole you know uh doing the best we can obviously golf is hard and sometimes it doesn’t go your way and so you know we did the best we could and had a chance and that’s all you can ask for really yeah I mean I honest couldn’t say it any better myself just tried to approach the hole like it was any other hole and you know obviously it just didn’t quite go the way the way we had planned I mean it’s been great we did well here last year and we improved upon that this year so I think we’re going to definitely be back next year and try again yeah no doubt you have to admit that the the week at large all of it was kind of a feel-good and hearing those two guys respond to the media the way that they just did after coming up just short in the playoff was very very cool now Ryan Bram and Mark hubard had a chance to get into that playoff and it it was so close with the putt that brim had from just off the putting surface at 18 uh but it would have been a massive massive week for them too and fairness obviously for anybody uh from that regard but again I think that measure that I just gave you in terms of how you respond in the moment following I was very encouraged by these two players too it was fun A little bit of both uh uh super pumped uh for a great week that was a lot of fun this event’s awesome and uh man it was fun watching him play today he played so good um obviously we’re bummed to fall one short but you know like we’ve both said to each other multiple times we would have taken this at the beginning of the week so yeah we our our main goal is to give our a chance and uh you know that rarely happens in golf when you say hey we want to give ourselves a chance and we found her you know Mark hit a great drive on 18 and I found myself with a three-wood into the green and I’m like this is it this is the chance we were looking for and and uh you know hit a great shot and and Mark hit a great chip that just kind of held up then it hit a great Putt and it didn’t go in so you just got to move on and and and really take a lot from it because I think this could be a confidence booster for both of us it means a ton but I’m sure glad he was on my team to chip this week so yeah I mean it means a ton but it also doesn’t like it’s not going to change our friendship at all um we whether we shot 100 every day or you know found ourselves in this playoff like our friendship wasn’t going to change and our families you know are still going to hang out we’re all going to party tonight so um you know it was an awesome awesome week and it’s we’re very lucky that we get to do it together it’s a it’s a great event um but as far as just us I mean we’re going to be all right no matter what yeah it’s a big confidence boost for me because you know when you get paired with Rory maroy there’s a lot going on and uh you know I think it’s a I we can draw each draw a lot from that and uh you know just know that uh you’re going to feel pressure again hopefully in your career and that’s a good thing yeah I played with him two days uh in the RBC Canadian open I guess last year when Nick Taylor won and I played about as good as I’ve ever played in golf uh with him for two days and man it’s it’s definitely I draw on that weekend a lot and watching him play the way he did today under that pressure not only playing with Rory not only having a chance to win but with a not playing that well and Alternate shot like he just dominated he was like he was possessed or something so I know he’s going to build a lot of confidence from this and uh and I am too pretty cool right all right so when we come back I still want to go over with you what happened on the LPGA what happened with Liv and speaking of Liv I want to get to those comments from guy Kennings who’s the new chief executive of the DP World Tour saying oh no no no uh even though they went to live they can still be a part of the European Rider Cup team and I think this goes back to the fact that Rory mroy said when John Ram went to live he was the first one that said we’ve got to find a way for John ROM to be on the European Ridder Cup team well apparently there is a way and guys telling us that it’s always been there as a Fairways of Life show continues right after this every January PGA TOUR Superstore Pros meet every manufacturer learn about the latest equipment log thousands of hours of training and together hit over 100,000 balls all so they can get you the perfect fit in Ireland golf is more than just a game come and experience our world famous Lynx courses and our world famous Parkland courses all set alongside world famous scenery and visit our world famous historic sites and while you’re here enjoy our world famous Hospitality fill your heart with Ireland at ireland.com golf Ben Hogan golf equipment is back established in 1953 we serve golfers who demand Excellence of their equipment designed by The Game’s best Engineers forged in the world’s best foundaries and built to order in the USA don’t settle for off off the rack disappointment elevate your game with custom clubs at direct consumer pricing exclusively at Ben Hogan golf.com that’s Ben Hogan golf.com the Gen 6 iron is a culmination of everything that we have learned as a team the absolute best golf club I’ve ever hit it’s something special say hello to the New pxg Gen 6 iron the longest most accurate irons we’ve ever made they go higher and farther than any iron that I have hit to date and they’re so easy to hit super excited for the consumer to try these they’re going to love them pxg nobody makes golf clubs the way we do period baseball nah football done it I think I’m going to gra a PGA tour playing on the PJ tour is not easy but you know what is easy getting the 524 series from Tour Edge getting linebackers and home runs us to be easy out here you’re going to need all the easy you can get introducing the 52 four series from Tour Edge the easiest clubs you’ll ever hit even the best players in the world can use a little easy I like the sound of that Lookout PGA Tour pound-for-pound nothing comes close Bo golf provides the Ultimate worldclass Golf destination with 10 Championship caliber courses spanning three Resorts centered in Michigan’s Northern lower Peninsula the courses are the products of some of the gamees Masters including Robert Trent Jones Senor Arthur Hills and Donald Ross from the all-inclusive vac packages Elite instruction with the bo Golf Academy tournaments and so much more Bo golf truly offers an unrivaled Michigan golf vacation experience just log on to Bo golf.com stride by zero friction the first of its kind personal cabin walk in comfort and style with strides remote and follow me technology The Stride handles almost any terrain and its 54 hole range will last all day the lightweight design and removable front wheels makes it simple to handle plus it easily fits golf carts order yours and save visit zerof fr.com strive or scan the QR code to order yours today stride your personal cavy [Music] it wasn’t as eventful as the last couple days um I was I was nervous um and I’ve never been able to win H go like having a lead into the last hole like that so um yeah it was nice um to be able to get it done earlier in the in the round I think with my ball flight it kind of helped that I would able to land the ball a bit um better and be able to spin it a little bit more um it was kind of unpredictable on I think Friday afternoon um not as much as yesterday but um it definitely helps that I also can hit a fade and try and put even more spin on it but yeah I just really love it here obviously um but it does feel somewhat like home in a sense that I have so many people that come and watch me there’s a lot of Aussies that come as well and um cheer me on um yeah I’m not sure where we’re playing next year I haven’t actually heard but um I I joked and said yeah I I wish that they had had to let me know um and approved um but I did look at the fly over on YouTube and I think it’s going to look fantastic so I’m really excited for 2026 and I hope that all the members are really excited for us to come back cuz we certainly enjoy coming here I think so yeah um I feel like obviously KPMG was a bit of a whirlwind of a week no one really expected me to win and I certainly didn’t either but I felt like Portland was just it solidified it um the end of 2019 and then obviously we had Co um so it was kind of hard to go back to defending events and in 2022 I had my most consistent season um yet and even though I’ve had three wins in the last 12 months um I still didn’t play the weekend last week in Houston um missed a cut earlier in PV so I feel like when my game is going good it’s going good um I still got to tweak some things when I’m not playing so well but um it definitely gives me some confidence um not only just playing here at Wilshire but the win in Singapore just making sure I stay patient and being able to win tournaments on the back nine yeah that’s really cool I actually didn’t know that stat so um yeah I feel like I’m in really great um it’s I mean it’s a great honor to be you know have my name up there along with them and um hopefully I keep pushing and try and get into double digits yeah um no it’s definitely been on my mind um obviously we still have maybe six or seven weeks until the final team is announced so there’s still a lot that can happen between now and then but I think now that I’ve had two wins in the season hopefully that jumps me close to the top 10 of the world um and solidifies my spot but you never know like Grace unfortunately she didn’t have the weekend that she wanted but I know she’s capable of playing really golf really good golf um Gabby Ruffles Steph kiraku Caris Davidson they’re all obviously striving to be the best that they can be so I don’t want to just assume that I’m in the team I’m still fighting for the second spot and whatever I do between now and KPMG I’m just going to try and play my best golf and yeah hope to make that team yeah um I think that’s kind of the the one that I want the most um you know not having the best start at in Houston last week at the Chevron Championship but U I’m really excited to go to the venues um I haven’t played Lancaster I haven’t played um Seattle I haven’t played what is it called San Andrews no I mean I have played San Andrews but there’s uh a couple of tournaments that I haven’t played before which hopefully will be a good thing um but yeah I’m really excited and I hope that I can play more consistent I don’t think I made I played very well in the majors last year but I did in 2022 so I hope that I’m up there in contention and yeah trying to get another trophy uh I guess with golf and life it’s always making sure that you enjoy yourself um you know there are some tough times when you play golf you’re not always in this position that I am right now with a trophy right next to me but making sure you’re enjoying yourself um not being too hard on yourself um having fun that makes a big difference especially if you’re just slowly getting into golf or starting golf um if you’re you know not sure what to practice short game is always important it’s always the final thing that gets you into the the whole um whether you’re hitting the ball good or ball bad if you can rely on your short game um it really can save you some shots and um just go yeah go play with play as much golf as possible um don’t beat balls on the Range all day you know golf you’re not Hitting off a perfect surface every time um sometimes even if you hit it perfectly on the Range um when you get out there you might not really love the t-shot whatever it may be you might not hit it perfect so going out and playing as much as possible if you can is also a nice thing to do Hannah with some advice for junior golfers prior to that she was talking about the prospect of making the Olympic team representing Australia and then playing in the KPMG women’s PGA Championship speaking of the Aussies Liv was in Australia and it was an Australian team that ended up winning the team competition in in the week that was and also in the individual competition was a breakthrough a victory for Brendan steel okay when we come back I do want to get to you can see the individual uh scores right there for Liv I do want to get to the comments from guy Kennings because it’s causing a lot of people to be curious about the prospect of cjn Ram or tayl Hatton or these various players that have played for and been a part of the European Ridder Cup team is there a pathway back and he says yeah there’s a pathway back but it’s always been there we’ll have that for you right after after this I got ball fit in 2000 went on a little [Music] [Applause] run and bridgstone fit me again and I went on another [Music] [Applause] one I just got fit again for the new tour BX the ball fit’s been helping me will it help [Music] you Bo golf provides the Ultimate worldclass Golf destination with 10 Championship caliber courses spanning three Resorts centered in Michigan’s Northern lower Peninsula the courses are the products of some of the games Masters including Robert Trent Jones Senor Arthur Hills and Donald Ross from the all-inclusive vacation package is Elite instruction with the bo Golf Academy tournaments and so much more Bo golf truly offers an unrivaled Michigan golf vacation experience just log on to Bo golf.com I think when you’re training for other sports or you’re what why most people go to the gym is so that they can like have muscles and you know be strong and be healthy and a lot of the reason why they struggle to play golf is their body doesn’t move properly for them to be able to hit a golf ball and when you’re training for golf it’s a little bit different because you’re focused more on flexibility and mobility and being uh strong in motion when you’re able to kind of have a warm-up and have a workout routine and kind of gradually build up to where you’re training your body to move properly yeah you’re going to get a lot of big dividends on the golf course every January PGA TOUR Superstore Pros meet every manufacturer learn about the latest equipment log thousands of hours of training and together get over 100,000 balls all so they can get you the perfect fit what if we started a company and the company was under no time constraints no Financial constraints the one constraint is their Club had to be exceptional performers and much better than any other alternative I was told time and again it’ll never work it worked like a house of fire and I’ll tell you what I think our customers love it bxg nobody makes golf clubs the way we do period stride by zero friction the first of its kind personal c walk in comfort and style with strides remote and follow me technology The Stride handles almost any terrain and its 54 hole range will last all day the lightweight design and removable front wheels makes it simple to handle plus it easily fits golf carts pick up your stride today at a local PGA TOUR Superstore near you or at zerof fr.com back/ Stride stride your personal caddy [Music] so guy Kennings is the newly minted head of the DP World Tour and he met with a very small group of journalists he was talking about a number of different things he was talking about where the game is right now this is that thought that we have talked about a lot uh through through this forum where the game is absolutely booming on what I call the 99.99% part of the game that people actually fund the whole rest of the game game’s booming on that side but at its top competitive tiers it’s searching to find itself so we talked about that kind of dichotomy but more importantly to start here because I’ve been promising it to you through throughout the course of the show he spoke about the prospect of how players who have left the PGA Tour and left with rabid ear in in the air the DP World Tour to go to live can be a part of the European Ridder Cup team which is administered through the DP World Tour let his words uh explain it to you here and I’m quoting if you look at what the qualification eligibility criteria was for 2023 then I think there’s been a slight misconception because the reality is under the current rules if a player is European and is a member of the DP World toward abides by the rules as they currently are so if you don’t get a release there are sanctions and if you accept those sanctions and take those penalties and work with that there is no reason why players who’ve taken Live membership but maintain membership with the DP World Tour could not a qualify or B be available for selection to be honest I think some people had said oh you’re going to have to change the rules and then came back and said actually I don’t think you do it’s not a loophole because that’s the rules we’ve always had and those are the rules that we’re going to continue to apply rules are for all of the membership and it’s important for people to know how those apply and they apply to every member so here is Guy kenning saying there is a pathway the pathway has always been there and it’s not a loophole what’s interested to me about that is many of the players according to my sources many of the players who were and I guess you have to say are DP World Tour players have paid for the this the penalties or fines or sanctions they’ve done what they need needed to do to maintain the status my understanding is uh and and I will double check this but my understanding is all of them except for Sergio Garcia are in that category predominantly so that there is a pathway for the likes of John Rah to be able to play for the European Ryder Cup team right I I think it’s interesting that guy noted in particular that this isn’t a loophole that this is always exist and if that’s the case if it’s always existed I guess my first question there would be well how come we didn’t know about this before uh but maybe agendas are are changing as we move forward uh certainly from the perspective of the European Ryder Cup team I’m sure they’re delighted at the prospect of having some of those players back if they want them as to the other subject that we were talking about which is where the game is at right now and what needs to be done and now you’re talking about Liv golf you’re talking about the new entity with the PGA Tour PGA Tour Enterprises and the investment from the SSG Etc here’s what guy Kennings the CEO of the DP World Tour had to say about that he said you know this is the irony of what we’re facing right now golf is in such a really healthy state in so many metrics golf couldn’t be stronger you know participation levels interest whatever but until we get the solution of what is the future of the game it’s going to look like it’s kind of you have to that faint sense of it’s the elephant in the room in every conversation you could possibly have so from my perspective all I want to do is make sure we are as quickly as possible getting the right people around a table to talk about what can a future look like I don’t expect them to go in knowing all the answers there’s lots of things that have to get worked at what does the product look like probably from 2026 and Beyond what’s the pathway what does it mean for things but until you get into that room with the right people with the right intent and try to find a solution you’re never going to work out a deal and at the end of the day this is what is needed right now as quickly as we can I was talking to the guys from this strategic Sports Group and I said listen we’ve got to get together we’ve got to pull it all together and we’ve got to find the product that works it’s probably won’t be until 2026 and Beyond there and it’s good for the game something that fans like it works for everyone but at the end of the day it has got to be something that is appealing to them it’s got to work for all parties and everyone is going to have to do things that they don’t necessarily want to do a compromise but that’s what you have to do to strike a deal it won’t happen until we get everyone in a room together all right close quote from guy Kennings it’s an interesting perspective and and it raises this question of what is a divide between the game that is so popular right now and where you have you know the chief executive for one of the major tours in the game saying well we have to decide what the future of the game is going to look like when it’s quite clear to me that the future of the game is in the hands of the people that are at the 99.99% level and they’re off and they’re having a great time it should that and is that concerning to golf leagues sure it should be so it it underscores the reason why they need to get together to work out what the path will be but I think it also illustrates the fact that the game of golf is not the leading tours competitively right it’s it’s a great stage for entertainment but I think in the in the past there’s been this obscurity at least uh not deliberately but a belief that the top of the game is what the best players in the world world do and now I think we’re starting to realize that the game operates and the game exists independent of that as well so the hope is that the leagues can come together and the hope is that we can be entertained like we were this past weekend at the Zur classic I thought it was wildly entertaining which to me also underscores why I like full field events not limited field events Etc with no cut I like the full field events because you have the stories where you have brim and you have hubber and you have Fishburn and you have Blair teams like that very much in the mix right up against you know a marquee Stell team like Rory maroy and Shane Lowry who ultimately were able to close the deal but all of these other teams were in the mix and I thought that was really really fun so I like the comments from guy kenins because I think it’s promising and I think it’s good to hear from one of the chief Executives saying No this is what we need to do this is how we need to get together we need to figure fig this thing out I like the fact that they’re finding a pathway at least on the European side where they’re saying you know what even if you left we think you can benefit our team and there’s a way that we can get this done you you have to pay a price for what you’re doing uh in their formula but nonetheless there’s a a way that they can come back because that price that I was telling you about like he has to serve a suspension was one of the things that guy was saying um speaking specifically in terms of players like say Terell Hatton or John Ram but the suspension they they cons serve would be for an event that they weren’t otherwise planning on being in follow me it’s it’s a European Tour event and okay well even if you wanted to you can’t play in it you’re suspended well you could look at it the other way and saying did they want to but nonetheless you’re suspended so that’s how that goes uh we are getting some some information coming in Dom I’m going to pull you in here quickly because we we received information from the National Golf Foundation which underscores what I was talking about in terms of how strong the game is going and it seems like it is a guy who came from the green grass side each quarter that we’ve got into you think uh well it can’t get any better than where where we’ve been this is this is fantastic uh so far year-to date Don with rounds played are looking pretty good uh very much so uh this this was released by golf data Tech Andrew you can put that up on the screen for everybody we only got about three minutes left in the show here some of this stuff I know we don’t have a lot of time Matt but hopefully you can explain it to the to the folks Matt spent so much time on the on the Greengrass side you can really tell us what goes into rounds going up and down because it’s not super simple I mean there’s weather issues ETC however in March if you’re looking on that screen you can see I know there’s a lot of numbers there but if you look at the top in the middle 21.2% that is how high the rounds are up in March of this year officially and year to date Matt to this point just under 7% rounds are up this year 7% so I know there’s only two we had about two minutes left Matt but if you could as best you can in two minutes explain what are the variables that go in on the green grass side because not it’s not as simple as oh they’re just up because everything’s great I me the weather could be nice there’s lots of different things that go into this right yeah I I I always default back to to Stone Temple Pilots because so much depends on the weather and that’s what it is especially when you’re looking at the first quarter now you’re going to have golf that can be played in the Southern half of the United States is although there’s places in Texas and that can pretty very easily get warm Florida and and a little bit of Georgia but they can get cold too so in the first quarter when you’re looking at numbers the first thing that I like to look at is there strong demand before you get into are there strong numbers because those numbers are very much dependent upon weather patterns and we had weather patterns this year that kept it relatively dry but cool in the South so people were able to get out and play and then you had these few pockets of nice weather through the rest of the country that people were able to charge out and play golf I was telling you up here where I am just outside of New York City right now it’s going to be very warm today and very nice weather in the next few days so I expect that the t- sheets are going to absolutely be packed but what this really comes from is through the pandemic and post the game of Go is at a different place than it’s ever been before that’s that 99.99% level and it’s absolutely fascinating and exciting and fun to see everything that is going on that’s the same emotions that I had about having your company today folks and we look forward to it over the next couple of days the PGA professional National Championship is on Golf Channel today if you get a chance watch that there are positions at the PGA Championship in the offing and more until then bye for now [Music]