Exclusive Interview with Jerry Foltz: The Voice of LIV Golf on the Future of Golf

Welcome to 54 Golf! In this special episode, we sit down with the voice of the LIV Golf League, Jerry Foltz. As a former professional golfer and renowned host on the Golf Channel, Jerry shares his unique insights into the current state of golf during this PGA-LIV era.

We discuss how the LIV Golf League is attracting new, younger fans and the exciting plans for building their own courses and growing their fanbases.

Join us as we preview the second half of the LIV Golf season and make our predictions on players and teams. Plus, Jerry shares some unforgettable golf stories you won’t want to miss!

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⏲️ Timestamps:
00:00 Jerry Foltz’s Career Highlights
00:40 Jerry Foltz Joins the Show
02:03 Making the Move to LIV Golf
04:15 How LIV Has Changed
08:00 Talking Team Golf
12:00 LIV Event Fan Experience
14:00 PGA Tour vs LIV a War for Fans?
21:20 What’s Jerry Foltz’s Golf Bag?
25:00 Second Half LIV Golf Predictions
27:59 Developing Young Talent at LIV
32:37 Richard Bland Improving at 51 Years Old!
35:18 Jerry Interviews Us!!??!!

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– Latest Golf Updates on the PGA-LIV Merger: https://youtu.be/D8uqmiKMcuM?si=RzYckAPbfWPovevs

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uh you might know him from quest for the card as the game show host or you you may know him from his uh feature uh his starring role in a feature film called seven days in Utopia or maybe you saw him in his romcom um do you remember the name of that one Swing Away uh swing away yeah I didn’t make the edit on either one just my voice made it um but of course we’re a golf show so our guest was a tremend Junior and high school golfer in the state of Nevada where he is in the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame got ducted in 2015 with some of the greats Charlie Hoffman Tommy armor Butch Harmon and Ryan Moore and he’s now the voice of Liv GF Jerry folz thanks for joining us here on 54 go it’s a it’s h first of all that was one hell of a oversell right there I appreciate it thanks for the intro um it’s I’m I’m uh I’m excited about joining you guys I uh I became early fan because not so much because you were Pro live but because like I told you in my direct message to you facts matter to me and you guys do the research to get things right before presenting your your own personal opinions on it so that uh and I look forward to your platform growing you know you’re our first real guest on the show so we we knocked out of the park we knocked out of the park with guest number one you guys could you you could aim a whole lot higher yeah pretty B so to picky back off of that that beautiful intro that Aaron gave you um you did some on course reporting right over the over the years for Nationwide tour LPGA PGA Tour coverage um play byplay for Nationwide tour coverage as he said a host of uh quest for the card uh Pines on Show’s uh Golf Channel golf Central Academy live morning drive then in June 2022 you decided to make the move over to live and leave the Golf Channel so I guess what I want to know is how does the environment and workplace uh at Liv golf differ from that of the PGA Tour coverage uh over on the Golf Channel and what Drew you over to live uh well it reminds me a lot of what the Golf Channel was in the early days like a mom and pop now granted this is an extremely well-backed mom and pop operation with some pretty sizable budgets for our TV production but it’s one family it’s the same group of people at each and every event in terms of the TV production the staff behind the scenes obviously the players and caddies uh and it’s got that kind of everybody cares about each other and everybody has each other’s back kind of feel now I I will never throw Golf Channel in the bus they were great to me for a long long time but they grew and they grew and then comcat kept buying little slices of them until finally comcat bought them completely out bought Joe Gibbs completely out and then eventually uh Comcast buys NBC Universal as part of their Mega conglomerate based up not far from where you guys are um and then you know you get a bunch of motherships looking down at every little thing and you kind of you lose a little bit of that identity at least each employee does at some point um so I think what what the best part of it the difference in work environment is that right there and I fortunately and one of the main reasons one of the three main reasons I joined is the guy they hired to be their producer in my opinion is by far the best in the business and the best there ever will be uh Keith hland he’s also the guy that hired me at Golf Channel in my first show in 1995 um so it’s a pleasure to be working back with him I also Al ended up being the best man at his wedding to Sarah and uh he’s been one of my closest friends for a number of years so that that part helped a lot obviously it’s a better job I’m not not going to lie to you and say it wasn’t about the money a little bit but I certainly don’t make whatever he thinks I make it’s a it’s a little bit better job a lot less work it’s a lot more actual responsibility in my job which I I enjoy it gives me a purpose so to speak um but also it was my son say he was a fan of the league a fan of the business model uh explained it to me my 25-year-old son at the time and you might have heard this me say this before but he was the one who said uh dad you don’t have that many years left I don’t want you you don’t want to spend them not having the balls to take a chance for once in your life so I took a chance it was scary as hell so yeah so you you talked about the mom and pop side of live and how um it’s obviously backed by much more than Mom and Pop it’s backed by you know um a whole lot of money but over the past three years it’s obviously evolved a little more from the mom and pop that it was in year one where there wasn’t as much of a straightforward plan as it appeared to the fans didn’t really have teams didn’t really have an identity yet um the format wasn’t really I wouldn’t say wasn’t popular but it it hadn’t um hit its its base of people who would be interested in team golf while individual golf tournament was playing on things like that how has the league itself obviously adding another team and and changing up how many players on the course and things like that but how has the league itself evolved behind the scenes to try to get some traction with bands of G uh it’s become a lot more sophisticated there’s a big organization behind it more than 300 employees now I believe work for live um they put together that first tournament in London 2022 in five weeks which is astonishing to get the infrastructure in place to get the TV equipment when nobody was going to do business with us because we were live um it was absolutely amazing and by the way live doesn’t turn two years old till the day after our next event Houston that’ll be the anniversary the second anniversary of our first golf shot hit um they’ve become much more sophisticated now now remember um yaser is the governor of the professional investment fund part of the Sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is that that professional at PF is one extremely sophisticated investment entity there are so many checks and balances that go on within that organization from my understanding um that it wasn’t a decision that was made lightly the timing of it was you know what let’s just do it because you know at at the time obviously you know nobody was returning calls from Pon ofra and it became I we’re going to do this somebody’s going to do it let’s just do it so we did it and uh and it’s worked out pretty well we’ve crossed every hurdle in the in the process in terms of gaining traction with the fans um in a in a small sense that’s it it you can only do so much you put the best product you can on the air and there for the people in person to see nobody who watches doesn’t like the coverage nobody who go nobody who goes to an event doesn’t love being there and doesn’t want to come back the next day and every event they can possibly get to it is quite a cool experience it’s way different than traditional golf but it’s quite a cool experience so they um you can’t set aside the vital that came out of an anti- live campaign that was spearheaded obviously um out of P VRA uh that that’s going to take a while for some fans to get over but there’s a lot that have already crossed over and say you know what it ain’t that bad it’s kind of cool and I really like the guys they have playing I want to watch them um our numbers through any metric any industry standard metric are on the rise each and every week uh the same can’t be said unfortunately for traditional golf um so it it we’ve done everything we can other than just doing what we do best which is holding these tournaments staging these events and uh and like Greg you’ve probably heard me say this like Greg always tells me take the high road you know because there’s not a lot of traffic up there and not many people are taking it right now so just let our product speak for itself I think all of us at this show fall into that that category of transitioning over and just enjoying what Liv puts out we’re all golf fans first but we’ve been to we went to Bedminster to watch uh last year and it was just the most incredible experience it’s completely different than anything else that’s been out there before team sports have been around forever but to put it into a golf perspective it’s amazing we really just non-stop fun and it’s it’s it’s incredible and I hope more people do end up uh you know I’m not even saying you know transferring over to watching only live but just more more eyes on it because it’s amazing yeah well that’ll that’ll happen in time obviously there’s a lot of roadblocks laid in our way by the powers that be by The Establishment if you will I hate using that word but there are a lot of roadblocks put out there to not do business with us and those are starting to crumble quickly because because ultimately the the sponsors the advertisers the fans the the you you can’t hide that that metric that database you can’t hide that demographic from uh the overall policy changes that have taken place within the PGA Tour and they know that and it’s it’s just going to continue to happen yeah um one of the things obviously the biggest thing the biggest difference between Liv Golf and um the PGA tour is one of the best things about golf before you become a professional that’s being part of a team in the NCAA being part of a team on on high school being part of your club team if you if you’re a member at a club um th this is golf I mean it’s it’s foundational in the sport of golf pre professional and now Liv is taking that that scene to the professional level how are the individual teams going to be able to establish because just like in other professional sports local fan bases or fan bases that are attracted to let’s say the Majestics or let’s say Crushers how are th the individual teams operating in a space where they need to find their own fan bases to sell their merchandise to to have their players get sponsorships to you know to do things for on a team not so much a league basis because we know the league is powered and backed by very powerful and very sophisticated means but the teams it in itself how are they going to LEAP to the Forefront and it’s not going to be about live anymore all of a sudden it’s going to be about hey did you see who the Majestic signed or hey did you see that The Crushers um you know came from behind on Sunday again it’s evolving to that way quicker than I thought it was going to I mean some of the teams have already hired these high-priced and high profile uh general managers the four8 has come to mind first Chris I can’t remember his last name I’m drawing a blank on it but he’s got a resume that reads like uh who’s who of the golf industry um I know Bryson has taken kind of the the mantle himself but he’s hired some really good people behind the scenes same with Bubba Watson and the range goats uh obviously the regional identities were the first to come you got the South African team a country that’s crazy about them all four legitimate stars in that country same of course with the Rippers in Australia um and the country absolutely loves them obviously our Premier event the first two years has been there um so you know if Bryson if Bryson and the and the Future model is to have just that to have home teams to have a a home base for these teams whether they’re all their players come from Dallas like where Bryson lives now or not and have their own courses eventually and have their own training facilities and have their own foundations to grow the game and teach kids and and where where people go to study you know like the old biter Academy for tennis down in Bradenton and then the lead better Academy for golf each one will be something similar to that um and that’s going to take a lot of time but therein lies the value in that franchise model if you will that club model um a couple of teams are getting there a lot quicker than others but it that will definitely take time uh but I I can’t believe how much progress has been made in less than two years to be quite honest yeah it’s actually when we didn’t notice how much the team thing caught on until we went to an event and you could see yeah you can’t see that from the you can’t see that from the internet you can’t see that even from the coverage when you’re at the event and you see see people lined up to get Stinger GC hats or guys walking around with you know a a cleaks t-shirt on and trying to find Richard Bland or something like that you know on the practice screen you don’t see that aspect of it on the broadcast as much as you do when you’re there in person for sure you know I lean back on a little exchange on social media that I wasn’t part of but I witnessed um some people going back and forth about it civy which is shocking on the Twitter um and they were guys my age maybe a little younger and a couple of them just really didn’t have the taste for live because it’s so different than what they’re used to they didn’t like watching it but one of them who was about my a little younger than me said I understand that from you guys because you come from a generation where you’re used to one way the whole way and this is g to this is all foreign to you you might not like it it may not be for you might not whatever he said but to me it’s about my seven and niney old daughters and the only way I can get them to watch golf on TV is to have Liv golf on and I get to spend five hours every weekend with them both days because they want to watch live and it was last year at the Open Championship when when Dad was watching it and the daughters came in and they wanted to know Daddy where are the range goats how are they doing that to me tells you everything you need to know about the team aspect and bringing in a fan that would have never ever ever been a fan of golf and and they get curious about the league they get curious about the their teams and what I used to think were really hokey names and and curiosity is the the seed by which participation grows and anybody who thinks that live is isn’t in its own way helping grow the game is completely delusional because you see it you guys saw it at bedont you see it at every single event kids that have never been to a golf tournament before they got their favorite team or their favorite player or what have you some kind of merchandise uh that they have that that they weren’t going to let Dad leave without buying for them and uh and they become fans they become fans of the game but they become fans of live and fans of those teams and those Stars those fans we are hoping jump onto the teams like you said and we’re hoping to get the six and the seveny olds to grow up with live in their heads right and get out get them out in the golf course which is already happening get them wearing the range goat stuff and get them excited about live but but right now there is this dichotomy between the like you briefly mentioned the old school golf fan who’s very traditional very much Let’s Play Holes one through 18 let’s play 72 holes and that’s a golf tournament and the live f talk in my back swing right no music no shorts there’s very much that that fan does is there any goal or dream that that that fan can be convinced to be a live fan um I don’t know you know that that Fan’s a first of all it’s a shrinking audience number number one number two it’s an audience that the advertisers do not pay to reach do not care if they reach um so is as the as the aging uh old style golf fan continues to age and the live fans continue to be you know younger and starting to grow up through life and loving the game and getting introduced to the game through either a live event live on TV or going to a top golf or something the demographic the fan base for golf not only grows but it also continues to change um there’s always going to be people who want to watch the PGA Tour and the way it’s played because that’s what Dad did and that’s what Granddad and Grandma did Grandma did that’s what I’ve done my entire life um it it’s not that that’s not going to change quickly but if they you know if they want to see the guys who either won or nearly won a number of major since live came into existence um you’re not going to see them play in the RBC Canadian open where if you know a phone call would have been answered Dustin Johnson a few other guys who were loyal to RBC for their whole careers would probably be there playing but they’re not and that’s you know the fans lose out on that now gr the Canadian fans are rabbit they couldn’t care less who is there as long as the Canadians are there but you’re not going to see those guys otherwise and not only are they some of the great good collection of the greatest players in the game they’re also a really really not unanimous collection not like whole collection but a pretty good sampling of the most powerful Personalities in the professional game and and therein lies uh the secret behind the business model with live golf and attracting these players through the means that they had to to attract them to play um once they’re there there’s there you know all this talk of he wants to come back rah’s not happy Brooks is going to come back there’s not a chance in hell those guys are going to leave live when their contracts expire they’re just gonna want a new one it’s it’s so much more fun for them to compete and then not only compete the stresses the demands on their time are less because of the way it’s organized because of the because of the time frame in which it operates but also being a part of a team is is the coolest part for sure and then there’s so the the the real ugly side of this not ugly but the real sad side of this is that um a PGA Tour tribal opinion and uh maybe some folks on the Liv side as well being very opinionated against the PGA Tour and of course you know both sides are kind of mashing at each other at all times and then you have a real tragic event with the passing of of Grace and Murray over this weekend and it kind of starts to put things in perspective Ive I don’t know if you got a chance to uh listen to Rory M Roy today before the um before the RBC and he was mentioning that you know this is golf this is just golf this isn’t this as much as uh the internet would like you to believe that this is life or death this is Golf and um I think that if we can get people to Rally around the fact that this is just golf and enjoying the game again that we can get rid of this narrative that’s out there that says golf is in a bad place right now golf is not in a bad place right now I think golf is in a better place than it’s ever been because you have options if you’re really into wearing shorts and playing Fun Golf and seeing all the shots on television and you don’t mind the music a little bit of music in the background and you want to have a good time at the event then you’re going to go to a li event if you want to go you know stand behind the rope and follow your your favorite PGA Pro who you’ve been following your whole life you can still go do that too and to have those options I think instead of choosing a side I think if we could just remember that these guys are just golfers and let’s let them golf I think lot it brings up a lot of thoughts to my mind first and foremost you know Lexi stepping away yesterday announcing her retirement at the end of the year is another thing golf’s just golf I want to I want to live I want a life she’s never known anything else and she was five years old I just want a life right um so yeah Rory I didn’t see Rory’s comments yet but I will later uh he’s absolutely right let’s not treat this like it is life and death it isn’t um I I don’t like the narrative that live has hurt golf live hasn’t hurt golf one bit live has helped golf not only the professionals are making more money than they ever did but there’s more people watching golf collectively Around the World Around the Globe introducing a game that teaches you life skills like no other sport in the world to people who otherwise wouldn’t have been introduced to it uh what it has hurt is the PJ tour and their business model um I’m not sure it it’s 100% our fault I think the PJ tour should share a lot of blame in that because it didn’t need to go down the way it did but that’s what the you know the ca the the the hand we dealt now and we and we continue to you know jump over hurdles and and and no pun intended on the Scotty Sheffer case blow through roadblocks and um and in order to accomplish the goal for our league our our backers for who have made a financial commitment to earn a return on an investment and uh and for the fans and the players um I don’t think golf’s ever been in a better place and and the the people that you talk about you know we all follow a whole bunch of the same people on the social media that’s a very very tiny segment of the audience that’s watching even the lowest level golf tournament on on a streaming Outlet that’s a very tiny sampling of that audience just uh very vocal and sometimes I have fun with it sometimes I’m just like I gota I I got to hang this up but I’ve also made some really good friends through Twitter um uh yeah I mean people I like to I like to joke there’s a buddy of mine who lives over in uh in Bradenton who’s live golf Enthusiast and and I reached out to him because at early in 2022 he was one of the only accounts that didn’t just start you that that week or that month or whatever and I’m like who are you and why are you a fan of Live And and he we began to explain I went over and played golf with him Bob daninsky is his name and now he’s a friend and we joke we met online it’s like it’s that’s wild yeah but it’s uh I I just don’t pay as much I don’t get as hurt by the vital that I see online um I do pay attention to the people who at least rational about hearing both sides of the story like you guys uh but it’s such a small percentage of the actual golf audience for sure um well it’s just golf and so when when we talk about golf every single week we talk about you know no one wants to hear about me I’m a 10 handicapped Jay’s a two and you know no one wants to hear about us but what’s cheich he’s got to be at least a 10 35 love that we’re gonna we’re gonna cut that out you saw that swing all right so so give us the rundown what’s in Jerry folz bag right now uh golf clubs yeah oh hang on they’re right there what you got in there oh I got a I got a crank driver hang on oh of course of course I mean why wouldn’t he have a Bryson I don’t see a is so damn good it’s ridiculous first of all karen my girlfriend stuffles got me this putter it’s the only putter I’ve never broken although I’ve wanted to it’s a I don’t even know I think it’s an odyssey uh crank driver Three Wood Karen’s Callaway fivewood and and uh I don’t know what the other one is and then Bridgestone Irons my son works for Bridgestone and Bridgestone wedges oh nice yeah yeah my son uh was one of the engineers or the engineer with Bridgestone working in Atlanta making golf balls and then recently um accepted and tooken yes a job of his life he’s now the they call it a managerial position but he’s the sales rep uh for the central Florida area and he’s killing it and he’s just one of those really likable people so he takes after his mother um he he loves golf more than any of us that’s awesome how often do you get to play do you go out like ever like when you go to Houston are you gonna go out and play the course or it’s all business no we in my old life my previous career we had plenty of free time to go play but essentially from Wednesday morning on most of our time has spoken for when we’re on site um and we have longer broadcasts and we have lots of meetings and we have a very sophisticated group of researchers behind us behind the league in general that provides us with so much information whether it be about the players in the league and the analytics but also about who’s watching and why and who’s showing up at events and what do they like about it and we I mean we just it’s so much more sophisticated than anybody would think in anything I have ever seen in my life um and all of the research even you know you can make data say whatever you want but all the research that goes on behind the scenes uh is what keeps keeps everybody moving forward because every every indicator is we’re doing things really right uh at present and there’s no reason to change course seven career hole in ones is that an accurate statement for you first of all it’s holes in one I’m a stickler for grammar holes in one holes in one yes um I have actually 13 holes in one seven in competition Jesus I’m old that happens when you’re old and you play golf your whole life Wow off the tree hit a donkey beautiful the last one I made I yank it was a sandwich I yanked it landed wait way up left of the hill and roll down in and that was the last one I made uh the second one before that I was playing with Tom Abbott from Channel and a couple of friends down in Naples and I really really thinned the nine iron and somehow the stick got in the way and it fell in most of the others were good shots um but that’s I mean that’s just pure luck that is absolutely pure luck you talked to I mean was it falo who didn’t make his first toll in one till he was in his 30s or something it’s crazy absolutely amazing yeah um amazing golf being played on live by obviously jao Neeman winning tournaments um The Crushers have established themselves as one of the best teams in you know in the league for sure carrying over from last year um we’re at the halfway point and on our show we give our predictions I’m not going to put you on the spot because I know you guys give predictions um on the live site but just looking forward to the second half of the season now that we’re we made the turn here is there a player who you expect to outperform their first half performance maybe like a John Rah now all of a sudden you know he’s more comfortable to live maybe he starts to win more or you know perhaps a team like the the Fireballs kind of uh you know come together as you go overseas a couple times and and and take a run at at the team championship yeah there’s one player who’s definitely gonna outperform a start and I’ve been I’ve been on his I’ve been pumping his tires and been leading his bandwagon since the beginning since he joined Liv which was about the third event uh Patrick Reed he’s not off to the best start he’s he’s just too damn good and he’s too committed uh he’s GNA have a much better second half tqu by have to say they’re the team that has underperformed believe it or not because they haven’t won but I the last check I haven’t checked since Singapore but they were second in the standings without a win it’s hard to say John ROM hasn’t performed well because he hasn’t finished out of the top 10 granted there’s only 54 players but he hasn’t finished out of the top 10 he just hasn’t won and when you look at the analytics and we have some like I told you some really great stuff and I’m I got a half hour till I’m on the call with the guys scattered all about the world doing this stuff for us um he has really struggled the last few holes the last five six maybe seven holes of every event when he’s in contention and that is so unram likee so you know he’s gonna get over that uh he I think I don’t think anybody feels more pressure to win self-imposed pressure to win than John ROM he just wants he wants to quiet all those people because like Lexi said in her in her press conference yesterday we’re humans words hurt um John ROM is is a is a tough big imposing guy but he’s also a teddy bear of a human being in my interaction with him and and you know nobody likes reading that stuff and hearing that stuff even if it is a tiny fraction of an audience that primarily adors the guy um so I think he would really like to you know he would like to just stick up the middle finger and say yeah here you go yeah all right so Liv’s got all these like very popular names of golfers we mentioned Rah Brooks Bryson we mention these guys on every single show and a lot of times we hear feedback is about when is Liv going to develop their own Talent when is Liv going to bring some stars to the Forefront and develop them as live golfers they’re not just guys that they quote poached from the PGA Tour and um I’ve fallen in love with Caleb Sarat already uh I think he’s going to be have a tremendous career he’s so young I mean the kid is just so young and raw and learning underneath uh John ROM and P Hatton to a point you know um is only going to propel him going forward and I know I’ve seen plenty of social media videos where he’s around other guys on the on the Range like Patrick Reed and just kind of listening and absorbing everything is there is there a group of young guys in the league right now that you would say are the next group of Brooks Bryson ROM well I mean if you’re looking in the league you got to look at wo first he’s really young and and and I think he has the ability I think he has the all-around game to contend and win major championships and now that the at least the PJ of America was the first adult in the room and made some rational decisions and it proved out pretty good for them uh because their their ratings were tremendous um in a in a time of shrinking ratings for regular golf uh I think Caleb serat has the potential to be an absolute Superstar former number one ranked amateur in the world um I know I was talking to one of the agents who doesn’t have any players on Liv but he has a lot of players uh on the PJ tour has helped run events in the past and he was telling me because he deals with a lot of the young kids who want you know want to play professional golf and they know that in order to do so it’s wise to learn the business um he says so many of them are inquiring about how in the world do I get a chance to play live and that’s what you know Caleb areat and his coach Brennan Webb at uh at Tennessee jumped at the chance for him to do it because look at his environment look where he’s learning eventually yes all of the all of the access to Majors will be taken care of um that I I I believe with all my heart I think all of the majors have made Notions that yes we we want the best field we can get um so I don’t think that’s going to be a major stumbling block to it at all and eventually there will be a deal between pif and the PGA tour of some sort some either it’s a peaceful coexistence or it’s a it’s a some sort of uh shared interests um but there will be a deal uh so I I I we only have 54 spots right now so to think that we can attract a whole crop of people to see who the best are is another thing and the PJ tour has responded with PJ tour University a tremendous program in order to get somebody like lud big Oar to play PGA Tour fantastic so um I I I I don’t know how many I know that if you get the right ones if they’re interested and you have a spot for them and you’re able to sign them then uh then there you go but as these teams mature and take on their own identity they’re going to be the ones out there recruiting these guys and those guys might be able to cut themselves a pretty good Financial deal before joining the league at that point um so that’s all that’s all part of I think the long-term plan uh but we and and we have some guys who are really good players who are getting to the sunset of their career those spots are going to open up and and how do you fill them you go get the best possible Talent you can for your team just like any other team sport and we’ll see more of that yeah but Caleb Sarat is an exciting exciting player Eugenio chakara I mean straight out of college he comes he wins his first year in Thailand um the guy can beat anybody when he’s when he’s hot now you you you learn I think in some respects you learn I don’t know if you learn more about playing professional golf or if you learn a different way of playing professional golf but you can’t show up to an event miss a cut and think oh that’s okay I’ll practice all weekend and I and I I’ll go play better next next week you have to you bring your aame and your Z game you’re playing like ass you have to go out there and perform for your team every single day there only 42 days but of of of individual competition before you get to the team event as the last event so the pressure is is much more Monumental which is why um I didn’t say the exact words but I thought John ROM or not John ROM uh Richard Bland was the guy to beat at the senior PGA he has a master’s degree for almost two years of TR of fighting for his career against some of the best in the world on real golf courses um and he was he is tougher than I’d put Lexi in the conversation as well about as tough of a human being uh between the ropes as anybody I’ve ever seen I’m glad you I’m glad you mentioned Richard Bland because uh if anyone has utilized their position and live in a live uh world it’s Richard Bland I mean he absolutely I don’t want to say came from nowhere but the average golf fan before this week had no idea who Richard you know really didn’t know who Richard Bland was they may have heard his name before in passing but those of us who have watched him I mean he’s in the top half of the league he has played phenomenal a top half of a league where you know the top 20 players are world class you know world class primes of their career type of guys and he’s just barely outside of those he’s fighting with them every single week like you said and um you know I’m so glad you met deserves recognition exactly he deserves the recognition for what he’s done he’s a great story Eng Golf and it’s a you know I know you won’t say it but it’s a real shame that being invited to the Senior PGA Championship and winning the event and having immediately uh a statement made that he could not collect the prize of being exempt to the champion store it’s a real shame that they made it a a political statement versus celebrating how well this 50 one-year-old has turned his career around and and is playing some of the best golf you know forget about his age playing some of the best golf for anybody playing right now he’s a folk hero I can’t imagine any sponsor of a Champions Tour event who wouldn’t want him in the field he’s an absolute folk hero you heard the crowds out there on Sunday didn’t you Saturday and Sunday they were so they were so into the I love saying it bandemonium it was nuts they were so much more pulling for him than anybody else now chers has a huge following as well because of his presence on social media and his ability to be a little self-deprecating he’s awesome I couldn’t pull against Greg chers if my life depended on it um but yeah I think I think Richard Bland would be an asset to any Champions toour event the fact is that he knew that going in he wasn’t gonna they likely were never going to cross that bridge now and feel like they’re giving up leverage in any negotiation that’s going on um and it really doesn’t matter it’d be a pay cut for him for crying out loud uh that guy has made more in less than two years on live than he made in the previous 18 on the DP World Tour and he has done it by scratching and grinding and fighting and clawing with no guarantees had no contract no guarantees he had to finish in the top 24 to have a job then he had to finish top 24 to have a job next year now rumor is the behind the scenes stuff that’s going on is is uh they’re looking at signing him to an extension even before the end of the season and they should there is a shelf life when you’re 51 years old but uh I I just love seeing the unheralded guy do what he has done and uh and it was the way he played on Sunday was just stupid golf that 4 iron he hit on 15 who the hell hits that shot especially amongst that set of players so good right perfectly yeah all right Jerry we you know we enjoyed having you on and uh we really appreciate the fact that you recognized um that you you know this is a nice place to come and and and talk about the facts of and let the you know let the opinions be on the social media and on the comments and mute those people and and move on and and talk about you know golf in facts well tell me a little bit about what you guys I mean you have this new platform and I’m glad you’re still recording so I hope this makes a podcast tell me a little bit about this is four guys right who came together and just love golf and said let’s record something um and I think people need to hear your story as well because there are other platforms out there that have got a lot of traction and and become full-time jobs by equally ridiculous idea that you guys put together you have regular lives and this is just a hobby for you what uh what do you guys where do you guys see your industry headed I’m curious yeah I think I was the first out of our group of four um being friends for a long time uh chich is my family Aaron’s one of my best friends I’ve known him 20 years now uh Chris just a little bit uh a little bit less than that um I we I’ve been playing a 37 I’ve been playing since I was seven years old so 30 years of golf um I now over the last 10 or 12 a lot more competitive Golf amateur tournaments in my local area I think I I don’t want to say I got them into golf but I I I was the the first one that was really into golf we’ve uh collectively gotten stronger as a golf group over the last uh x amount of years Chris is new to the game um but uh a few uh about two years ago or so when when Liv started ramping up Aaron reached out to us and uh kind of selected us um for for his reasoning Aaron is fantastic at the mic he’s the brains behind the operation for sure um he got me as a more low handicap more into golf world watching forever and ever and ever my grandfather working on golf courses my dad being big into golf it kind of um you know I take a different perspective on it uh he got Chris as a new golfer to to kind of relate to a lot of golfers who are just getting into the game or maybe want to get into the game and the struggles that he continues to have on horse uh and then cheich is just uh we went to B Bedminster he belongs to Trump Hutson Valley uh up here in Stormville Hopewell area and uh he got us a good uh spot there at Bedminster up in the uh with the Trump amenities and we were actually drunk 3:00 a.m. eating dominoes in the parking lot off the truck bed asked him to be a part of it uh he’s brought he’s brought he’s brought so much to the to the uh to the podcast as well so we kind of just wanted to bring real facts about golf also have our own opinions on it from where each of us come from in the golf game um both inside and outside of golf and I think we’ve kind of put something good together we enjoy it it’s fun we do all have day jobs um but this is something we get together each weekend and and uh just shoot the and try get our own opinions out there yeah I think just yeah I think just a piggyback on that like Jay said you know the vision is that Jay is you know an above average golfer and and plays competitively and and has kind of that that mindset uh that’s much different than you know a mid- handicapper like myself who loves to play golf just struggling every day to hit a good shot figure trying to figure out how to play the game um and then add in somebody who’s never really played in Jerome and he’s just you know out there hacking and really I mean you know but he has a diff to provides a totally different perspective yeah he just he he provides a totally different perspective on the game on the professional game because he’s never been a fan of the PGA Tour and all of a sudden we all of a sudden we take him to an event and he’s buying a Crushers hat and he’s got his Crushers thing on he’s following now he knows everything about honor Bon leiri you know he’s out there talking about Paul Casey with you know as he’s selling cars as he’s selling supers he’s talking to some dude about Paul Casey and you’re like where did this come from and you get to watch uh the the the experience of live and becoming a live fan and that was kind of my goal with getting him to come on onto this show um as far as like what what is the the future of 54 golf I think just having a place and I think I the the greatest thing was when you said a place for the facts to just come out and it we we live in a world where does not exist in yeah you know uh at any level of any media Source anywhere is it not is nowhere near in unbiased straight facts just shoot it when you’re wrong you’re wrong when you’re right you’re right if you can support it with a with a fact we want to talk to you and um I think that is something that we will hopefully as we go through this journey we’ll hold that that is the truth that we want to hold uh every single episode so I think that’s that’s where we’re headed I think you guys are going to grow and I think you’re going to grow quickly I hope when you do that you don’t lose track of what got you there um there are others that have you guys are just four normal guys who love golf or one who’s new to it which is I mean that’s the greatest testimonial for live golf we could ever get what you just said about what was his name the guy he goes by Jerome that’s his middle name man of many names Jerome is our podcast name that’s that’s like the greatest testimonial ever for live golf the yeah he that is what makes live special exactly Jerome is the fan that makes live special because he never would have ever gone to a golf event in his life let’s go out there and you know and and whatever um spend all day doing nothing um so that’s really cool but I think I think as long as you guys stay true to yourself I wish you nothing but the best of luck um I I know a lot of other people who do what you do uh and they’re all I don’t know any of them that are bad people at heart um some have let success kind of change the The Narrative of their beliefs um I hope that never happens to you hey sh thank you hey my pleasure absolutely my pleasure Jay share my number with the guys to contact me anytime you want if you need help appr with anything let me know Wonderful all right Jerry get going sounds great take care buddy take care man see you man