Ripper GC’s LIV Golf Victory, Wentworth Drama, and President’s Cup Preview

Jake Hower: 00:00:00

Welcome back to Beyond the Tour. I am Jake with me as always is Luke.

Luke Manning: 00:00:04

Jake, it's a big day in Australian sport, right up there with winning the American's Cup and, retaining the ashes and all of the great Australian sporting achievements. Ripper GC taking out the Live Golf Team Championship. plenty to talk about.

Jake Hower: 00:00:19

How good were they?

Luke Manning: 00:00:21

they narrowly skated through some of the earlier rounds, but it was good to see Smithy getting back to some of his best golf.

Jake Hower: 00:00:31

Yeah, let's jump, straight off the top. last week we saw a cancer. They didn't really touch a lot on him last week, but he finished, I think it was 13 over, pretty much in dead last along with Caleb Surratt. He was looking completely out of sorts. so he comes into this week in not great form at all. he had a buy in the rippers

Luke Manning: 00:00:49

because they

Jake Hower: 00:00:50

Yep.

Luke Manning: 00:00:50

finished

Jake Hower: 00:00:51

Yep. so day two, he hit himself in the, foursomes, and didn't perform very well and, Herbie was great and Leishman was great. And I was a little bit worried.

Luke Manning: 00:01:05

he looked really poor.

Jake Hower: 00:01:07

there was, I was ruling a couple of messages on exit. I didn't sense. the first one was, pre tournament, saying that I think, Herbie is built for this type of, event is match by very much in the mold of, read, there are just some people who thrive in that one on one that competitive environment. I think he's one of them. he proved me prove that but I didn't say it. So I couldn't claim that. The other thing I was going to say was that I thought that Cam was going to absolutely bomb. and he ended up, leading the Rippers to victory on Sunday with, was he finished four under or five under, wasn't it?

Luke Manning: 00:01:39

I thought you were going to say you are about to tweet out before the tournament that the Iron Heads were going to take it out,

Jake Hower: 00:01:45

Oh, wouldn't it? Yes. it really compelling event. The first two days were awesome. that competition and there was some sort of question marks and some commentary, in and around social media and about how the final day would go. they got a really good result in the ends. The. The stroke player, I think in terms of a team event is a little bit hard to follow. I think Cam mentioned it a little bit, not saying it was, hard or not compelling, but he mentioned the fact that he, had to just stop looking at the leaderboard because the swings we're just so huge.

Luke Manning: 00:02:16

I

Jake Hower: 00:02:16

Yep. and we've spoken about that a little bit through the year, haven't we?

Luke Manning: 00:02:20

And the stroke play does provide lots of drama, lots of lead changes. I did Similar to I stopped looking at, the scoreboard until it got much closer to the end because, it really, changed so dramatically throughout the course of the round, and even, with Legion 13 being miles back, and not really in contention. They were two from the lead, coming down the stretch. So it certainly provides for lots of drama. it's hard to keep, track on everything, but, I like it.

Jake Hower: 00:02:55

Yeah, it was certainly, I was trying to think about whether or not I love. Love that straight play finish and probably leads to relatively good results. as a rule, the ironheads probably one indicator there in terms of they didn't perform as well on that final day as I had on previous days. They still finished tied second. it's. hard to follow, very hard to follow that sort of where everything is going. I think with at least the one on one match by you still get the violent swings, but because it's a little bit easier to follow, I think, because you've got matches that you're looking at, you've got say four matches, for example.

Luke Manning: 00:03:32

it, the changes aren't as fast or as dramatic. You can still get, The drama, of course, in your traditional match play, team event that we see at the Ryder Club or, at the President's Cup, which we'll see later this week. but imagine being, the production crew in the control van trying to, Keep a finger on all the pulse and I will say it was noticeable in the coverage that they were playing catch up a lot and I think that's understandable. it would be virtually impossible to show every important shot live, but there were a lot of replays of important shots. and so it, it does, provide a unique challenge for the production crew as well as the watching fan.

Jake Hower: 00:04:16

Yep. Yep. Now the watching fan, that's a, that was one thing that caught my eye as well. It looked relatively bleak in terms of number of fans on site. now just, doing a little bit of prep prior to this episode, I saw some photos, throughout the course of the day and the course of the weekend, where it looked like there are a lot more fans than what we saw on the TV cameras. So I think Bryson, you mentioned. on X that, he was drawing a lot of the crowd and, saw some photos of him today, with big crowds following him. certainly some of the overhead drones and that, the 18th didn't at all feel crowded or full at all, really.

Luke Manning: 00:04:51

I would agree with that. and yes, there were big crowds following Bryson around. Obviously, it was a home game for him, in Dallas, Texas there. So not surprising that the majority of people were out there. to take a look at Bryson both from a hometown perspective, but as we've talked about his YouTube following and, popularity's been skyrocketing. The other thing probably to keep in context was the, temperatures. So they were plus 100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, so well over 35 degrees Celsius. and all of the corporate hospitality was sold out. So I suspect if you weren't out. If you're an American, not out following Bryson, you're enjoying the comfort of the, of the hospitality tents. But, agree. I, there were times where I was looking at the crowd and important matches had quite poor followings. the other thing that stood out to me was, the course condition wasn't, up to what I was expecting. we talked before on this pod. And it looked in the sort of flyover material and the, promotional material that the club and live had put out that it was going to be in just pristine condition. but there were some patches of that course that looked really quite scrappy. And, in particular, I thought the 14th tee box looked like the greenskeeper had scalped it with the real mower. did not look in good shape at all. So I don't know whether they've had some adverse weather conditions or some pests and disease. But, their course did stick out to me as not being, as primo condition as you might expect for the team championship.

Jake Hower: 00:06:25

Yeah, I did note, note that as well. It looked to me, being down on the peninsula. That's that summer linksy style. but you're right. So some of the grassing looked like it had been scalped. That's what it really looked like. And you looked very similar conditions to a lot of the courses I played out here. certainly the other thing I think, which lives seem to not do as much as the PGI tour. Is that I, they don't put as much saturation in their broadcast. So you don't see like the PGA tour there, what you're seeing on the screen. There's so much saturation introduced. So the greens are really green. and the live seems to do that less. it's noticeable. this particular live event, you look at social media and there are some screenshots from Americans, and it just looks like bright green, it's crazy. when the reality is not that at all, it's just, it's crazy how much saturation or I think, and that's probably what everyone likes to see on the screen.

Luke Manning: 00:07:16

you think Augusta have got their thumb on the scale with the saturation conditions for their broadcast?

Jake Hower: 00:07:23

yeah, it's better, it looks a lot more natural, but yeah, that, the course did look like he'd a tough summer.

Luke Manning: 00:07:28

That's right. but all in all, a great event and, certainly, there was some highlights for me early on in the match play when the earlier rounds, One that stood out for me was the CoCrac, GMAC, foursome pairing, coming down the stretch there, and Bri Captain, Brooks is, walking with them, and this is the defining match about whether Smash get booted out, in round one, GMAC put CoCRAC in an absolute awful position, flew the green, basically dead with no chance of getting up and down, and, even with relief, free relief, there was just no chance. given that both CoCRAC and GMAC were, are now in the open zone, I wondered whether as punishment, Brooks here would trade them, for losing that match and seeing an early exit for Smash.

Jake Hower: 00:08:16

I think he was pretty embarrassed having to play that final day.

Luke Manning: 00:08:20

in the Cellar Dweller bracket.

Jake Hower: 00:08:22

Yeah. That's, like he'd come out and smashed, just went crazy round one, or around two, whatever it was when he won six and five. But, to finish eight over, this morning or,

Luke Manning: 00:08:33

what'd he

Jake Hower: 00:08:33

on Sunday.

Luke Manning: 00:08:34

a look at their scores there now. 80, Cocrax 78, and 71 for Gooch and McDowell.

Jake Hower: 00:08:41

That to me is a Brooks just to give up. it would be disrespectful to everybody for him to perform in the bottom, like the lowest rung

Luke Manning: 00:08:50

and then of course, the Ironheads, which we'll get to the Ironheads. Phil's High Flyers, which were the 12th Seeds knocked off Neiman's Torquay, who I actually thought were a reasonable chance of giving it a shake. they'd been there or thereabouts on a number of occasions throughout the season. Phil's High Flyers, with that upset there, but, was, definitely some interesting matches, in the earlier rounds.

Jake Hower: 00:09:15

and it hits different, like it takes a different skill set and say, talking, talk a little bit about Ram getting used to that three. three rounds versus four rounds. There's a different cadence to that. match play is certainly a different style and I think you, you see it with, the people like, Patrick Red, Tommy Fleetwood, guys who step up for it for that particular game. What's gonna be interesting over the next couple of years, if we do get some sort of level of acceptance of live, in the ecosystem Is perhaps seeing some specialist match play players from live being selected for some of the rep teams. So the Ryder cup, the president's cup, someone like a Lucas Herbert who may not off his typical form, appeal to an international side of the president's cup. if he performs like he has in a couple more of these match play events, maybe he becomes someone that, the captain considers as a captain's pick because proven in that model.

Luke Manning: 00:10:07

Yeah, there's certainly potential for that. And as we saw the PGA of America come out and make their announcement, I know you felt that wasn't adding too much to what is already the case, but maybe just the symbolism of coming out and saying that live players are going to be eligible for Ryder Cup selection and for qualification at the PGA championship. it's just another step in the right direction, in my view, and a step away from the divisive sort of politics and childishness that we've seen far too often from the governing bodies. certainly think there's opportunity for specialists, players, match play players to be picked. there's lots of form, for them to have a look at and leverage. Thank you very much.

Jake Hower: 00:10:51

by all reports, it looks like next year we're going to be seeing a lot more of it.

Luke Manning: 00:10:55

Yeah, it's been really good watching.

Jake Hower: 00:10:58

Yeah, absolutely. I always thought that, Liv could. Do it all and maybe have the focus on the individual, with the team on the side, similar to what formula one does. But having seen the past couple of weeks where the focus has been on either the individual or the team, maybe I was wrong with that. maybe we need to see more of a focus on the team. more segregation between the individual and the team events.

Luke Manning: 00:11:19

Or do you just have more team only events?

Jake Hower: 00:11:23

Yeah, definitely. I think it will need to be a little bit strategic if we're still going to have the 14 plus events on live. I think the live guys need some way to get their reps in before the majors. Whether they split that up into a couple of different swings, maybe you start with a team swing in early sort of Feb and then you switch over to lead up events being individual events prior to the majors and then you switch back across to the team side or the other thing I considered is maybe pre majors. You have a number of individual events. And then in that post major slot, which, we're seeing both the PGA tour, use their signature events, but live have also scheduled some post major weeks, in events, maybe they become the match play events. so a little bit easier on the players. so you get their prep in beforehand and then, once they get through that, the pressure of a major, you switch to the team side, maybe, I don't know.

Luke Manning: 00:12:18

Yeah, they've probably got a little bit more flexibility to play with their schedule than the other tours, and they have shown that they are prepared to innovate and make changes, as needed. I guess we'll wait and see what happens with the team side of things, but let's just close out the conversation on Ripper. Jonesy had squandered a decent lead that the Rippers had set up there when he made double on 18. he was saved by Herbert's brilliant finish where he birdied I think four of his last five holes. So this team championship win save Jonesy's live career. does he get another year, as part of, a winning team that not only won twice throughout the year, but obviously took out the season long championship.

Jake Hower: 00:13:02

It's certainly hard to break up a winning formula. and the one thing that was quite surprising to me was in a post match, hearing how confident he sounded about appearing in events next year, Jonesy. Now a lot can change between now and then, but he seemed fairly, confident that he was going to be seeing everybody, in Adelaide and events next year. So whether or not he's been told that, he's on the team, I don't know.

Luke Manning: 00:13:27

If you're Adam Scott, are you starting to have a look at live and say, I might hedge my bets here. I'm in the masters until life, for the rest of my life, I've seen what the PGA have come out with, in terms of the PGA I'll, I'll some cash, move over to live, and, take a punt that, the U. S. Open and the British Open will open up as well.

Jake Hower: 00:13:50

We were pretty much two years down the track again now, and he hasn't been in great form in any of the majors. So maybe that changes his perspective a little bit. He certainly, took sides and he seemed to be fairly happy with taking that side in the end, because he was pretty open about, listening to Liv or just happy to hear what they've got to say. And then he selected his side Yeah, I don't see him flipping, and he doesn't seem to have the frustrations of a Rory Scotty potentially, with the tour.

Luke Manning: 00:14:17

the other thing is, it probably depends on what his extracurricular involvement is.

Jake Hower: 00:14:22

Yeah.

Luke Manning: 00:14:23

active at a board level for the PGA Tour and also, he's a member of this, TGL that they're trying to get off, the ground in only four months time now. it'll be interesting to see. how that all goes. But so yeah, I was just thinking Jonesy was to go, who would replace him? We've previously talked about possibly Ben Campbell coming in. my son pointed out to me though, that he thinks that the Ripper GC logo is actually the, Southern Cross. I suppose that can equally apply to New Zealanders,

Jake Hower: 00:14:56

Yeah.

Luke Manning: 00:14:57

but yeah, I just had been thinking, about Scotty and who might be a likely replacement for Jonesy.

Jake Hower: 00:15:04

Yeah. they all seem fairly set. Cam Davis would probably be the one to me, but he's, just gone out and won on tour again. So he's wrapped up there. Minwoo looks like he's chasing, majors and whatnot and seems fairly happy. they do seem to still have that sort of hold over that sort of, on the majority of collegiate style golfers, they all seem to want to go down that legacy path, which is fair enough as well. So all grind through on the BGA tour system. to me, someone that would suit it would be like a Kyle Villips. but he's just, I have to say he's just wrapped up his tour card having missed the cut in, one of the corn ferry finals. So he's, he's a lock for the PGA tour next year, which is good.

Luke Manning: 00:15:41

he going to

Jake Hower: 00:15:42

He's a lock.

Luke Manning: 00:15:43

Yeah.

Jake Hower: 00:15:44

Yeah, a hundred percent. So he's going to finish, probably in the twenties. so the 20 of the 30 that are going to get in there, I think they'll go to the qualifying event where he could potentially improve his position. I think they give out five cards in the, the tour school or whatever. So I think that would probably go there and potentially improve that, but you're right. It didn't seem like a lot of these guys like a Ben Eccles. I think he got his card last year. In fact, he won the qualifying event, I think. And he didn't get many starts at all throughout early part of the season. So it wasn't really until, it would have been March or April before he started getting a lot of starts.

Luke Manning: 00:16:18

Yeah. Okay. and then I guess the other things that, struck my eye, in the live team championship, four aces came from nowhere. Haven't shown much for a while in my view, but DJ and read, aimed up and looked good. Perez and HV3 was certainly up and down and they were the sort of anchor on the four aces boat, but, they were still in it till the final hole, albeit two behind, but, DJ's tee shot there on 18 into the water, pretty much sunk them, but, it was good to see signs of life from DJ and Reid. and then of course the Cinderella story with. almost taking it out from being the last seeds. some incredible putting I saw from Kazuma was just freakish the way he was draining putts left, right and center. I thought Danny Lee performed really strongly and Kevin now was winding back the clock. so my, some unexpected performances, I think that the team's championship brought out.

Jake Hower: 00:17:19

it did. so you got, the four aces and the ironheads, finishing T2, in the team championship and they finished 10th and 13th collectively. So there's maybe there's a case to be made potentially that, they shouldn't get the chance to finish that high, given their season long standing. They were good storylines. great storylines over the weekends golf is one of those things where, a weekend can change completely. like Cam Smith is a perfect example, probably even from the Saturday to the Sunday, it completely changed things. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if that format changes ever so slightly. I would like to see a little bit less of those huge fluctuations that maybe limit the number of teams who can, win, maybe bracket pre event potentially.

Luke Manning: 00:18:05

That's not a bad idea. Legion 13 finished, five shots back from Ripper. is John Rahm worth five shots?

Jake Hower: 00:18:13

Yeah, I was thinking about that. Catlin performed really well. Hatton played, they would have been, if not, threatening, they would have been, right at the top, you would imagine.

Luke Manning: 00:18:25

Yeah, it was unfortunate for him to have to withdraw, with flu like symptoms. let's see whether he makes a, return to health ahead of the Spanish open this coming week. let's hope he does, so yeah, it was interesting just having a look at, the players that performed worse, in Ironheads and Legion 13, the two Vincent brothers, 72 and 73 respectively. they've really struggled this season and hence in the relegation zone. and just a drag there on particularly Legion 13 without Rahm as well.

Jake Hower: 00:18:57

Yep. Absolutely. I guess probably the biggest losers, of the event was certainly the Crushers, obviously Smash, probably the Unlucky Ones, the Stingers and the Fireballs. They both had very strong teams. And I guess proven through the final day where both of those teams outperformed, T one teams.

Luke Manning: 00:19:14

comfortably.

Jake Hower: 00:19:15

Yeah,

Luke Manning: 00:19:16

and the Stingers would be looking back on what, could have been really, because they were up in all three of their matches against the four aces and they managed to lose it from there. and I think Final match did come down to Brandon Grace and he's really been struggling this season. just an unfortunate sort of fall from grace, pardon the pun for the stingers.

Jake Hower: 00:19:39

yes. But did I, he ended up seven under for on the final day. So I think he was, second on the individual leaderboard,

Luke Manning: 00:19:46

Yeah.

Jake Hower: 00:19:47

how's that one event too late,

Luke Manning: 00:19:48

what you're saying, it can change so significantly.

Jake Hower: 00:19:51

but let's move off that and talking about, one event too late. Over at Wentworth on the DP world tour, Billy Horschel won in a playoff over Rory McIlroy one event too late because he probably, now sitting at, 17th in the world in the OWGR should be a member of the American team for this week's president's cup.

Luke Manning: 00:20:11

should be, but it seems like he might be more chance of getting picked in a Euro team than getting picked in American team. he loves the UK And, it seems the crowds like him as well. Billy picking up his second win PGA championship, more heartbreak for Rory, another bridesmaid prize for him, this time beaten in a three way playoff with, Tristan Lawrence.

Jake Hower: 00:20:36

Hey, it was great. The event was so awesome. I had the sporting weekend for me. It was a lot of late nights. I was watching he's 13, so he's getting into the soccer, so I've decided to get into the soccer as well. I'm following the spurs and, so that was a midnight kickoff. So I switched across from Wentworth and had the formula one on, the qualifying there and switching on, the Wentworth. So last night I was falling asleep as Rory was coming down the back nine on 17 and 18. He had that awesome, Eagle on 17 and then, just dozing through the playoff. so I rewatched it again just before this and he didn't do too much wrong this week, Rory. but God, he could, he just, he's so consistent.

Luke Manning: 00:21:18

Hugely consistent and to his, defense and credit, the losses that he's had, someone's had to really play extraordinary golf. And I know, it's easy to go back and talk about a few short missed putts at Pinehurst, but you still got to remember Bryson made that incredible bunker shot that's probably got up and down one out of 100 times. and so he has been beaten by some extraordinary play. and Billy obviously played well. I don't know how long that putt was. He sank to actually take it out. But, it was interesting that Lawrence cleared the way, didn't he? For the other two to fight it out, never really showed in the playoff.

Jake Hower: 00:21:59

No, he certainly didn't. he picked up McElroy Birded, that first playoff hole.

Luke Manning: 00:22:04

But he's certainly someone to keep a close eye on though, Lawrence, isn't he, he showed at the Open this year that he's got what it takes to get his name up on the leaderboard at the big events. the leaderboard here was another strong leaderboard. could easily have been one of the signature events leaderboards on the PGA Tour. it was a good tournament. A shame for Rory and I guess we're happy to see Billy Boy get the W. Or are we?

Jake Hower: 00:22:32

yeah. no, I like it. he seems to be good. he was a bit of a mouthpiece and then he become a little bit, more flexible, but he's, I don't know. He seems to be appealing to a lot of different fan bases now. A lot of different fan groups,

Luke Manning: 00:22:46

he was certainly respectful in his post win interview, where, he largely said he's happy to get the W, but he does really feel for Rory missing out again. yeah, I thought that was gracious for him to say.

Jake Hower: 00:22:57

the 18th, I don't know why they're still playing that as a part five. they're all hitting their second into the green, it'd be a bit more compelling if they're playing as a tough path by four.

Luke Manning: 00:23:07

Yeah, I saw Rory hitting iron in. I don't know what sort of iron he was hitting. but you see this a lot with the par fives now, don't you? Like they're really, for these guys, with the technology and the distances that they're hitting it, they really are only, par fours. And I'm with you. Let's just knock the par down to what it really is for these guys. If it's five for the members, so be it. But, let's change it up for these guys.

Jake Hower: 00:23:33

So that's a two weeks in a row where the DP world tour has had pretty great events. play Royal County down and went with the back it up. I think it sort of highlights a given a little bit of space that golf around the world can shine a little bit. whether or not this message starts to sinking with the PGA tour, I'm unsure. it is now is a good time. There's enough time left in a year to, let some of golf around the world take center stage and in all honesty, I think with The PGA tour's new structure with the fall season, it probably will allow it to shine a little bit more.

Luke Manning: 00:24:06

I hope so. this is the reason why we are supporters of live is because it gives an opportunity for golf, professional golf to take the stage in markets outside the U S. And this is a, example of that. So you're right. where the PGA tour takes a breather provides some space for golf to flourish elsewhere. It absolutely does. The crowds were sensational there. and, we've seen similar where, once it gets to Australia, the crowds will follow so long as the players are there.

Jake Hower: 00:24:39

over on the LPGA tour at the Queen City Championship, Lydia Ko wins again.

Luke Manning: 00:24:44

what a dominant year she's having. She's just got the golden touch at the moment, blistering 63 the final round there to win by five. and not as though it was a, lackluster field either. The leaderboard was pretty stacked with Korda, Sasso, Titicool, Rio, but yeah, Coe just too good storm time for the win.

Jake Hower: 00:25:07

They've had a pretty good season, the, LPGA tour, with, Nelly, probably didn't get enough coverage. cause well, she was at six wins in a row. Was it

Luke Manning: 00:25:15

right.

Jake Hower: 00:25:16

five or six wins in a row? Yeah.

Luke Manning: 00:25:18

It is unheard of. the other thing that stood out to me about this particular LPGA season is just how regularly, the tour is getting the top names together at events. and you kind of contrast that to, the PGA tour where they're, outside of the signature events, you're barely getting any decent names. so they do seem to turn up each week.

Jake Hower: 00:25:38

I think it's a money thing. it's a bit more of a grind for all of them. so I think that's got one of the big reasons they get that pull. Cause you see it on other circuits as well. Maybe not so much the DP world tour, but certainly on the corn ferry, you don't see, players missing too many events. The Asian tour is again, quite similar. it's more of a job. So they're having to turn up when there's money around to earn it.

Luke Manning: 00:26:00

And then the Aussies, Grace Kim was our best placed at T19, Minji and Kiriakou at T27, Ruffles at 45. and then I think it was a miscut for Naveed and Choi had a 61st finish. I like to see the Aussie girls, up in the top 10 a bit more often.

Jake Hower: 00:26:19

All right. Now this week we have the president's cup, at Royal Montreal in Canada. so the three Aussies playing, Adam Scott, Minru Lee, Jason Day. that one is tough for the Aussies for our viewing schedule. Cause that's another sort of 2 a. m. ish sort of start.

Luke Manning: 00:26:34

Not great, viewing schedule, although if you can deal with a 4am wake up, you won't miss too much and you can still get a fair bit, of decent viewing in, look, this is going to be a route for the American team, isn't it? They'll run roughshod over the internationals, you would think, only hope will be a raucous Canadian crowd getting behind the international team and trying to really whip them up into a frenzy. I'm a bit nervous about what the results might be.

Jake Hower: 00:27:02

I have a feeling it will end up very similar to what the Solheim cup does. They'll just come out, the Americans will come out and essentially close it out and day one or two, you'll see a bit of a fight back, in the singles and it might be a sort of three or four point differential. so the end result might not look as one sided as the actual events going to be. be

Luke Manning: 00:27:20

result, isn't it?

Jake Hower: 00:27:21

Yeah.

Luke Manning: 00:27:22

there's never really any contest there.

Jake Hower: 00:27:25

Yep. Now the, other events, of notes this week is a Spanish open on a DP world. of note, because we'll see if John Rahm is going to be fit enough to play being the flu, you'd probably anticipate that he is, maybe he's not going to be at peak sort of John Rahm performance, but, he's joined by, quite a few other sort of names in that particular event, Tommy Fleetwood's playing, Shane Lowry, Hatton. Pat Reid, David Pooj will be there. Aaron Rye, who also had a decent week at Wentworth this week.

Luke Manning: 00:27:53

your boy Roy, he's had a really good season, hasn't he?

Jake Hower: 00:27:57

He has.

Luke Manning: 00:27:58

and playing, slow playing everybody to death.

Jake Hower: 00:28:01

He would have been in his element. It went well. I thought that drizzly rain the last couple of days.

Luke Manning: 00:28:07

That sums up his golf game.

Jake Hower: 00:28:09

Oh goodness. relatively small pair. So it's three and three, 3. 25 million. I don't think it's really about money. but it would be.

Luke Manning: 00:28:17

same money that the ladies are going to be playing for, in Arkansas. So not a huge purse by any stretch of the imagination.

Jake Hower: 00:28:24

Yeah, that's Madrid or in Madrid. So it'd be interesting to see what crowds are. We're talking a few months ago about, Andalusia, the live event there. now we'll compare it to the Spanish open here, in Madrid, we're in and around that sort of, I think it's second most populous city in Spain. So we'll see how the crowds turn out for that event.

Luke Manning: 00:28:44

Yeah, I would expect they're going to be pretty good, particularly, if Rahm plays, they're going to get behind. Their, town hero and really support that, you've got some other spandids in the field and the likes of Pooj, et cetera. I think we've only got Jason Scrivner in the entry list so far. I haven't seen what's happened in Micaluzzi. He hasn't been floating around any of these of late that I've seen. Scrivener looks to be the sole intro at the moment. and that probably kicks off on Thursday night, I suspect.

Jake Hower: 00:29:13

Yep. And then on the LPGA tour, we've got the Walmart Arkansas championship. so that's in Arkansas, it's 3 million purse. notables in the field. We've got Lily Vu, Celine Boutier, Corpus, Hataoka, Sasso, Lauren Coghlan, the Aussies, Kiriakou, Ruffles, Navid and Robin Choi.

Luke Manning: 00:29:32

Yeah, probably a bit of a, sleeper event, this one in Arkansas. I don't know. despite the decent notables there, I don't know how much of it. I'll get to watch, particularly in view of the President's Cup being on.

Jake Hower: 00:29:44

what else popular was touched on a little bit around, talk of more match play on the live circuit next year. I guess we're probably seeing the first sort of rumors of, live guys jumping ship or being pushed out. Jay pro golf critic spoke about potentially someone being offered, guaranteed events and money to come back to the PGA tour next year.

Luke Manning: 00:30:07

Yeah, we spoke last week that the end of the LIV season, marks the start of speculation season. I wasn't expecting it to be speculation in this form though. it was more sort of speculation about who might be joining LIV and who they'd be chasing. But, rumor that, Yeah, I guess reading between the lines is a fairly big name player from live, being offered a pathway back to the PGA tour. starts the mind racing about who that might be. have you got any thoughts?

Jake Hower: 00:30:39

I don't think it'll be that big of a player. I think there's still enough money for, so maybe I really don't know who it would be. I don't think it'd be a Hudson Swofford. The PJ2 would be stupid to offer him anything.

Luke Manning: 00:30:49

Tour would only want a named player to go back. I did note in his tweet something along the lines of, Oh, this person has too much integrity to go back on their word. that might spark a DOJ concern as well. just be very interesting to, see behind the scenes who that might be. Brooks, I've got to say, I thought when that, when Kokrak and McDowell lost that match, camera panned to Brooks on the green. And I thought he was going to be like, just, steaming, absolutely seething with rage, and he looked happy as Larry. And then when I saw that tweet, I thought maybe he's happy as Larry because he's out of there and he couldn't care less than he goes out and shoots

Jake Hower: 00:31:34

yeah. I was thinking about whether or not it would be Brooks. I don't think it would be, I think he's got it pretty good. And if he, they re app for another big contract for him, I think the fact that he's a team owner. So maybe I think what you. Potentially could get Brooks upset. maybe, if he didn't have a lot of control over the team, over smash, maybe, more of a puppet. And if that was the case, then I could see him getting upset about that potentially, but I don't think he'd be leaving him with money or anything like that. I think, he's pretty happy with the sort of schedule that you probably got on leave. And so I'd be very surprised if it was Brooks, but I think that. The thing we're going to say, we are going to see, some play movement, which I'm excited for because, it gives us something to talk about. and just, there's so many different reasons to, to jump ship. obviously primarily it will be to further advance someone's career, which is generally money, players can get stale playing in a particular environment I think we're going to definitely see some people jump ship from live whether or not that would be a big blow from the PGA tour side, it's certainly going to be put out through the press that it's a big blow, you'd anticipate that live would, be able to match any blow and blow the PGA tour out of the water with anything that they announced.

Luke Manning: 00:32:44

respond with equal and opposite blows.

Jake Hower: 00:32:47

I don't think that's a war you want to get into.

Luke Manning: 00:32:49

No, it's not. and which is it's surprising why, the deal hasn't been, sealed as yet between PGA Tour Enterprises and the PIF, but, we've talked until we're blue in the face about this one, it just seems strange that you wouldn't lock that down and take a major competitor off the board, but, that's not the strategy at the moment, it would seem.

Jake Hower: 00:33:10

No. And we're getting, the bits and pieces are coming out where it seems like it's very close and then it's not close. And then it seems to have swung about, I don't know if we spoke, we didn't, wouldn't have spoken last week about, about The piff and also some of the meeting or some of the sticking points where, around Ram and code giving back some of their, advanced from live before they're going to be able to come and join the PGA. Yeah, it would be very, I'd be very surprised if either party is sitting at the table discussing that sort of crap still, but we then saw, Joel bill come out with, sources from, I'd imagine the PGA tour side, saying that they're not sticking points at all. And, but the narrative around his story was how to fit live into the. and integrate the players back into the PGA to almost lives and afterthoughts, which I thought was equally as surprising because that,

Luke Manning: 00:34:03

down this path, right? We've already been down this path of, oh, Liv's going away, Liv's going away. we've heard it so many times, yet it's still here. the PIF is still putting, money behind it. you'd have to think that the more this drags on, the more the PIF becomes pot committed. there'll be some personal reputations at stake here, particularly Yasser in front of, the king, the Saudi king. And, he, I'm sure he is not going to die, without getting a return on this investment. So if that means, you've got to go nuclear, then I suspect that'll be where it has to go.

Jake Hower: 00:34:40

Dave Portnoy from Barstool was on the All In podcast, earlier in the week. And they touched a little bit on, they're talking about it from the perspective of gambling and whether or not, that's increasing the value of sports leagues and, franchise teams, et cetera. and Dave touched on the fact that not so much gambling, but it was more the PE, the private equity coming into it. And, the fact that the NFL has voted to allow PE to come into, ownership into team ownerships. and Dave was talking about what's unique about sports teams is it's the ultimate toy for billionaires. Like there is not enough teams and there is well and truly much more demand. So the valuations of teams are going to go up at a much higher. valuations may not make sense because they don't need to make sense because someone's willing to buy them and they're the biggest toy you could own potentially for any of these guys. They went on to then talk about, how players could get equity. Maybe get a team ownership. And Dave was talking about, players like LeBron and whatnot, where he doesn't see it really occurring because by the time someone like a Bron has probably, earned his share of a particular team, he's passed it almost. And why would someone give him money when he's passed it? Now, what's unique about Liv. Is that these teams that the captains have got ownership in a brand new. And they've got the ownership, so they're in a very unique position where they're going to be able to probably leverage the value of, using this concept Dave was talking about to sell these teams eventually with a substantial ownership share already

Luke Manning: 00:36:25

Joe Pomp did a really good, pod on Messi how he, chose to take, a lesser, cash contract, for an equity stake in, I think it's FC Miami.

Jake Hower: 00:36:39

I think he gets a portion of sales.

Luke Manning: 00:36:42

I thought that was really insightful and this is where I think you've got some of the old thinking from PGA tour days, looking down its nose at some of the newer thinking that, live is trying to implement and, I guess we see that innovation generally wins out in the end.

Jake Hower: 00:37:02

Yes, we're talking a 25 percent stakeholdings for a lot of these guys. And. a billion dollars is probably not touching the sides in terms of sports franchise valuations.

Luke Manning: 00:37:12

not when you're talking, in the American markets. And I guess that's one of the challenges that live does have at the moment is that it's struggling to break through into the American market. but if I can crack that as well as, a global presence, then yeah, you would think what you're saying is absolutely right. A billion dollars be very conservative.

Jake Hower: 00:37:32

it may not make sense, but maybe it doesn't need to.

Luke Manning: 00:37:35

the stock market doesn't make sense. There's plenty of companies on the stock market that are trading at numbers that are well in excess of their, income or earnings. it does show how sentiment. and intangible factors, impact valuations.

Jake Hower: 00:37:51

Let's finish on, Jeff Guan, the young Aussie who played, in Napa on a PJ tour last week, was hit in his eye from an amateur partner, playing in a pro am and ended up being airlifted into Sydney. there's not too many details outside of that. outside of, I think he's undergone or preparing to undergo a couple of different surgeries. but yeah, that's relatively sad news.

Luke Manning: 00:38:14

crossed for Jeff that can all work out in his favor. I saw that, the PGA of Australia and Golf Australia put out, statements on social media, just providing an update on. What had happened to Jeff and asking for his privacy to be respected. So clearly it's a serious situation. a good sort of young talent and hopefully he can a full recovery.

Jake Hower: 00:38:41

All right. I think that's it, Luke.

Luke Manning: 00:38:42

think that's a wrap.

Jake Hower: 00:38:44

Yep. I think that's a wrap. you're off on holidays.

Luke Manning: 00:38:47

Yeah, off to Coffs Harbour for a week, watching my young fella, play a bit of touch football at the National Youth Championships down there. actually, I got him out for his first nine holes at Royal Queensland yesterday afternoon. So that was a great sort of father son afternoon. it was, a special moment.

Jake Hower: 00:39:06

It was, representing the rippers. That's

Luke Manning: 00:39:08

he must've Yeah, he must have felt something in his bones, so he had a ripper's hat on and, they came through with the win for him this morning.

Jake Hower: 00:39:15

How does he, watch the live at all? Or

Luke Manning: 00:39:18

he'll watch bits and pieces of it. both of my boys, say to me that they love playing golf but hate watching it. so I think they're just at that stage where they just want to get a club. And ball in hand and actually give it a go. definitely trying to squeeze golf in amongst the litany of other sports that they have is a challenge. But I really wanna make some time we, we teed off at 4 22, I think it was yesterday afternoon. and I won't say that we got nine holes in because coming down the 18th we played the back nine at rq. So coming down the 18th there was. Virtual darkness. We couldn't see our balls. So we got eight holes in, and, to, to his credit, on the party hole. So the 17th, the short par three that we'll see the PGA championships, in later in November. parted off the stick, had eight foot for birdie and narrowly missed. So not bad for his first time around.

Jake Hower: 00:40:16

it's interesting. Cause it was, talking about, my son getting into the soccer. the consumption of it is really interesting. I want to get in and watch the whole game. he's more than happy. he's a man. He's sort of nine 30, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock day offs or, kickoffs. he's happy just to catch up with the three minute review of the next morning. And that's how he consumes content. that's crazy. The difference, I would usually consume, I want to see it live and whatnot, I think that's changing. the younger generation doesn't need to see live sport.

Luke Manning: 00:40:42

No, as you say, they can consume it at a condensed version and they can watch multiple different sports rather than, sitting on the couch for five hours, watching the final round of whatever tournament it might be. I think also for my boys, it depends on the importance of the tournament. So it's a regular live event or PGA tour event. probably got zero interest. if it's the Masters, or the US Open, be a different kettle of fish, particularly the Masters, because, they've played that course before on Tiger Woods, PlayStation.

Jake Hower: 00:41:17

All right. have a good week and we'll speak again next after the president's cup.

Luke Manning: 00:41:20

good.