Blandy’s Major Wins, Aussie Success at Rocket Mortgage, and More!

Jake Hower: 00:00:00

Welcome back to another episode. I'm Jake and with me as always is Luke.

Luke Manning: 00:00:05

Hey Jake, I'm well. Good to have you back on deck after a mini sort of winter break up in far north Queensland. How was It

Jake Hower: 00:00:13

It was very good. I'm happy to be back, but I'm not happy that the weather is so cold now.

Luke Manning: 00:00:18

Yeah, I'm sure it was hard to leave those balmy temperatures up in Port Douglas, was it?

Jake Hower: 00:00:24

It was, it started raining on the last day that we left. So that was because, I wasn't missing too much, but yeah, it was good. But that heat is good this time of year. I'd love to have a property up there to spend a bit more time out there. It's hard to get the kids to convince the kids and myself and the wife tried to again, but we're not pulling them away from their friendship groups. And that's fair enough.

Luke Manning: 00:00:44

sounds like that last day was easing you back into Victorian weather.

Jake Hower: 00:00:50

Yes. Now, a nice busy week. We are recording on a Tuesday morning overnight. We, witnessed Richard Bland when he's second senior major.

Luke Manning: 00:00:58

some more bland ammonium and two on the trot now for Blandy. He's certainly got some rich form happening at the moment in the senior majors.

Jake Hower: 00:01:08

He certainly does. he come back from five, five back, didn't he? So he had a great final rounds and, Fujita it was a little bit shaky coming in, but yeah, when was it? So I think, It was on KO, on our streaming service, about 930, 10 PM last night. I was in bed after watching a show, my wife had gone to sleep. And so I pulled out the phone and I was watching them come down the back, and I think I got to hole 14 or 15 before, the second time my phone hit me in the head because I was falling asleep. So I had to turn off, but it was nice to wake up this morning and see that he got it done in that, playoff.

Luke Manning: 00:01:44

definitely, and you feel a little bit for Fujita having a five shot lead evaporate. He had his chances though, and so we can talk about that in a bit more depth.

Jake Hower: 00:01:54

So the rest of the weekend we had the rocket mortgage classic, which was run by Cam Davis, with Minwoo Lee in a T2 position as well. So it was pretty good weekend for the Aussies. and on the, DP world tour, Marcelle Seam, won in a playoff over Tom McKibben and on the LPGA tour, we had, a mixed team event, wasn't it?

Luke Manning: 00:02:12

Team event, that's right, with, Titical and Yin taking out the honours there.

Jake Hower: 00:02:17

jump across to the Rocket Mortgage Classic. so Cam Davis became the only second or multiple winner of the event itself. did you see much of that event?

Luke Manning: 00:02:27

I saw a bit of it, in the final round, and we'd been talking in previous pods about there not being too much to write home about, with the Aussies form over on the PGA Tours, so it was great to see both him and, Woozie, Minwoo Lee, in action. In contention, woozy had his chances to win there and, was unable to hold on with a sloppy bogey on 18. he had a share of the lead after, a chip in, Dr. Chip Pinski made a couple of appearances in the final round for Min Wu, but great to see Cam Davis get the win. He's been. drifting and a bit lost this season. His form hasn't been great and we saw in the masters, he got a sniff of the lead and really shit the bed pretty quickly after poking his nose up on that leaderboard. So good to see him become the first two time winner of the rocket mortgage. great string to your bow there. And there's a bit of talk around about whether him seeing a hypnotist was the secret to unlocking the win on tour, so far. good to see Cam get the W.

Jake Hower: 00:03:35

Both of those two, very hard to bet on or to follow because they are fairly similar. like they're formed, they're either hot or cold. Both of them really, aren't they? They don't generally perform on a really consistent basis.

Luke Manning: 00:03:47

they can be streaky and with someone of Davis's talent, look at his swing. He's got great distance. His temperament is exemplary. you really would expect him to have had more wins on tour. doubling up here in Detroit, he clearly loves Detroit golf club and a good one for the Aussies.

Jake Hower: 00:04:08

I followed, Cam Davis around at the Sandbelt Classics. I follow him around, Peninsula Kingswood. One thing I overheard him saying, because with that particular event, you can get in, you can, there's no ropes, so you can follow and watch them from behind. He's allergic to grass. he said he was allergic. He said in particular, um, sandbelt grasses. So it was there, I think he had to borrow some, antihistamines from one of his competitive players there, but I thought that was pretty interesting. I don't know if that's something that has been discussed before, but yeah, he's allergic to grass as a golfer.

Luke Manning: 00:04:41

talk about an occupational hazard, and maybe his move to the PGA Tour over in the US is a bit better than staying on Australian courses, but I'm sure it's more the money that's drawn him over there than the

Jake Hower: 00:04:52

going to say yes, I think you're right there now, Minhui, good result T2 or would he be disappointed in the fact that he bogeyed that last?

Luke Manning: 00:04:59

Definitely disappointed, and you could see that. with the final hole bogey and also in his post round, interview. But I think he will be still pleased that he had a chance of winning and that he was at the pointy end of the leaderboard. Also good form going into the Scottish Open, which he's won before along with the Open Championship. So trending in the right direction and let's hope he can find that consistency that we want to see from him because if he's able to drive that consistency, I think a top 10 player in the world. Certainly on his day, he can beat anyone.

Jake Hower: 00:05:37

I think, someone they can follow a little bit is someone like a Lucas Herbert who has Also had that sort of streakiness to his game. He seems to be like, it's a bit of a slow grind for him. He hasn't been amazing all year on Lyft, but he seems to be finding a bit more consistency. So hopefully those guys follow, Cam Davis is a little bit more surprising given he's been on tour for a lot longer than even both of those two. But, yeah, Minwoo is super exciting. if he can find that consistency.

Luke Manning: 00:06:03

it's an interesting comparison you draw there with Herbie, and maybe there are, some more similarities similar attributes to the two there, but definitely excited to see, Min Wu. in the next few weeks driving for that consistency should see some pretty good results, I'd imagine.

Jake Hower: 00:06:21

Aaron Rye was another, good finisher. So he was also T2. what stands out for viewers watching him really is the fact that he wears the two gloves. for me, he's been, I guess outside of the States, we get to see a little bit more of these type of players because we watched a little bit of the, DP world tour. an interesting thing I think with him is that he's sponsored by me, my golf, which, the YouTube first, golf coaches. So that. I think that's quite interesting to us that we're starting to see YouTubers sponsor professional golfers.

Luke Manning: 00:06:49

It is an interesting development that, I just can't have Aaron Rye. I can't get on board. it's the two gloves, it's the slow play, it's the iron covers, all of it. I'm just out.

Jake Hower: 00:07:01

What about the driver off the deck?

Luke Manning: 00:07:02

Yes, I did like that. So credit where credit's due. the driver off the deck, I think to reach the 14th, the part five 14th in two was ballsy. And I did love that, but I can leave the rest of it.

Jake Hower: 00:07:15

I love it. I love the driver off the deck. I use it everywhere down here. We've got firm fairways and generally. my miss is generally right, but with the driver, or you could, with the three, what I should say, you can sometimes snap it both ways. The driver, it's either straight or it's, just leaking off to the right or it's, tops and it runs a mile anyway, with these firm fairways we have down here.

Luke Manning: 00:07:36

You got it. You got all the shots.

Jake Hower: 00:07:38

Cam Young now, is he ever going to win?

Luke Manning: 00:07:40

I'm shocked that he hasn't. I think he's probably more shocked than anyone else. it is crazy to think that he's not had a win on the PGA tour. He's been so close to winning majors, but he hasn't been able to get it done in a regular tour event. he gets this sniff of victory, but he just Doesn't seem to be able to close it out. at Rocket Mortgage, he faded in that final round. And you'd have to think that the self doubt is certainly strong. he must be questioning when am I going to win one of these things?

Jake Hower: 00:08:13

he's just falling into that bucket, maybe not as elite as someone like a Pat Cantler.

Luke Manning: 00:08:18

I think he's certainly got the game to be maybe better than Kent Ley. he really has the shots. it's just a matter of putting it all together at the right time. I do think it's going to come. He's too good a talent not to get one, but it's amazing that he just hasn't got one so far. And another, punch to the gut for Cam Young this week.

Jake Hower: 00:08:39

certainly was, but yeah, continuing to be impressive. he's in a really purple patch at the moment.

Luke Manning: 00:08:45

we concerned, about Bhatia not closing it out? This week and obviously last week at the Travellers, is it something to be concerned about do you think?

Jake Hower: 00:08:55

personally, not, he's so young. he's got the two wins already and he's putting himself into position. yeah. he's really, it's probably just an experience gathering in terms of that, it's going to affect him, but it looks, it's just, I think I'm just building on it and he'll looks like he's learning,

Luke Manning: 00:09:11

I'm with you on that. I don't think there's anything to be concerned about, with Akshay. In fact, I think there's lots to be excited about the form that he's shown so far this year you can't win them all, unless you're Scotty. and so I don't think there's anything, concerning in any of that and expecting to continue a good trajectory.

Jake Hower: 00:09:29

he was able to front the media as well after that devastating loss.

Luke Manning: 00:09:34

He was, and I noted that, in the Shank Show newsletter this week saying maybe Rory could take, some cues and some notes from the young Akshay.

Jake Hower: 00:09:44

Two and a half minutes in front of the media and away he goes. Roy didn't give that, there looked to be on X this morning. There's a few people, journalists in particular, that seem to be delivering barbs without actually mentioning McElroy, Dan Rappaport. do you think that's gutless by those guys?

Luke Manning: 00:10:02

If you say it, if you're thinking it, say it.

Jake Hower: 00:10:04

think so.

Luke Manning: 00:10:05

you wonder whether they've got some relationships there that they need to protect. They might not get the interview or they might not get the inside scoop if they, burn too hard or too overtly. But, in some respects, it's almost worse, isn't it? By giving the subtext but not actually calling it out directly.

Jake Hower: 00:10:23

I think it's great to see that he fronted the media and it is, I think this is a problem with the PGA tour or majors in particular, because players aren't contracted, they don't have to sit, get up in front of the media, which is where someone like McElroy was able to get away with it. But, that's an advantage I think of the live model, the contracted player model. And I'd hope to see that. I'd love to see, as we're moving into a sort of reforming the PGA to and reshaping it, that they can introduce contracts because the amount of money these guys are earning and the fact that it is an entertainment product, they should be fronting the media.

Luke Manning: 00:10:57

even if you don't like it being turned an entertainment product, you have to accept that fan engagement, is a way forward to drive more demand and then drive the commercial terms that the investors and sponsors, and governing bodies all want to see. I think having them on stage, particularly in those. it's great drama, it's great theatre, and it drives engagement.

Jake Hower: 00:11:23

let's jump across to the DP World Tour quickly. wasn't much going on there except really maybe on the 18th. How close those grandstands were.

Luke Manning: 00:11:34

backboarding scandal, I'm sure that, the, NLU will have been, Rightly outraged, but it is ridiculous to see a grandstand literally one foot off the back of the green and then players who just blaze it into those grandstands getting free relief. It really brings the TIO rule back into question again. but also organizers, what are you thinking putting those grandstands so close? Maybe there's some challenges or restrictions that the course, geographically had to be able to put those, but it just looked totally ridiculous.

Jake Hower: 00:12:19

It did. He dropped onto the green, like he was able to take a drop onto the fringe, but essentially he had the putter in hand. So it was essentially a putt, I think the way these guys need to, if they're going to be putting in stands like this, I can understand that in certain situations they need to, it's hard for them to it's not ideal because of the backboarding, For these drops, at least they need to implement or employ the RNA starts, type of model, don't they? Where you've got a drop zone and the drop zone is not somewhere you want to go by choice.

Luke Manning: 00:12:47

I think that's right. A drop zone that's got some, penal nature to it is what we should be seeing. Not being able to drop it, on the green or thereabouts. there has to be some penalty for an errant shot and when you're flying it into the grandstand on the full, is deserving of a penalty.

Jake Hower: 00:13:06

But certainly is anything else from the Italian open?

Luke Manning: 00:13:09

not for me. a good win by Marcel Siem and probably, good form for him going into his, home ground tournament this coming week.

Jake Hower: 00:13:17

he's good to watch Marcel because he's so animated.

Luke Manning: 00:13:20

he's an entertainer, that's for sure.

Jake Hower: 00:13:21

I can't believe putting this much focus on the U S senior open. the fact we're doing that is probably related to the live PGA tour competition really, for me, watching live and, being able to root for those players is the reason I turned on the senior open. Like I watched it purely to see how bland he went.

Luke Manning: 00:13:40

isn't that a lesson for the organisers and owners of these majors, that people, who would not have been tuning in are tuning in because there's a rivalry now between PGA Tour and Live, and their supporter bases. it's visceral at times, that and leaning into it and having more of these players be able to participate is a good recipe in my view.

Jake Hower: 00:14:06

From an Aussie perspective, Richard Green finished third, so he's in great form as well because he finished second at the PGA, I believe, as well.

Luke Manning: 00:14:13

He did and so he'll be really pleased, with that result. The other Aussies were further down, in terms of Hemsby and Appleby, Greg Chalmers, et cetera. Richard Green continuing his good form and that's great to see.

Jake Hower: 00:14:28

He has that body shape or the physical attributes of someone who can play for a long time. very similar to Stryker, that tall, relatively lean, he's got a bit of muscle on him still, So you'd expect that he's probably going to be relatively, if not dominant, he's going to be competitive for quite some time still on that tour.

Luke Manning: 00:14:46

And that's probably half the battle, in that seniors category is if you can maintain your fitness and remain injury free, that's a really significant advantage. And if you've kept the weight off and kept relatively active outside of golf, it's probably standing you in good stead.

Jake Hower: 00:15:05

the U S open, the senior open is going to some pretty good venues, over the next few years. we've seen this a little bit with the women's side of the game as well. they're able to play courses a little bit smaller, like shorter in length. maybe some of the older sort of classical style courses. So that for me is the one interesting aspect, moving forward. We're being able to see some of the best courses in the world, just because that we don't really get to say any more with the professional sort of game, the distance they're hitting it and whatnot at the moment.

Luke Manning: 00:15:35

think the USGA has been doing a really good job in its course rotations, and the US Senior Open is off to some great venues, and equally, the US Open has got, an absolute bottler, set of courses. locked in for the next 25 years. it's great for golf fans and great for the players too, to be able to get to these awesome venues.

Jake Hower: 00:15:59

live in a Blandi we spoke about it a couple of weeks ago. I think it's probably a good time to discuss it again. Should he be playing the senior open, which is coming up against, the live UK event.

Luke Manning: 00:16:14

I feel like last time we said it was a good thing for Liv to lean into and I think his win on the weekend only emphasizes that point even more. I saw Andrew Kirby on X saying that. if someone wins at Troon, that'll be four, majors in a row. and then, if there was Carnoustie as well, it's a great run for live players, but I don't think anything's changed in my view. What about you?

Jake Hower: 00:16:43

I went through a stage after we initially discussed it where I think I heard him say somewhere potentially that he was focusing on keeping his, spot on. Liv. I thought it was on the flushing at a podcast with him recently. So I went back this morning to see if I could get that snippet. he didn't actually say that, so I think He's fairly confident that he's going to be able to keep his, position on leave or reach that top 24 to lock up his guaranteed start next year. I think it's a win, win situation for everybody involved. he should be playing, it's going to produce a lot more, promo for Lyf, and, Releasing him. for the RNA as well, you've got someone going for three majors on a trot. So I think it's beneficial for their coverage as well.

Luke Manning: 00:17:28

lots of publicity around it. And my sort of sense on it is that. Much will come down to what Blandy wants to do. people might say that's a naive view and that there's contracts and they'll be enforced, et cetera. but I really get the sense that Liv and, particularly Norman have this player first approach and they really treat the players like, a big family. And Maybe if Blandy's really hellbent on playing the Senior Open Championship, Norman will permit it, but time will tell. I think it's a win situation and let's hope we see it.

Jake Hower: 00:18:05

I think just on that, just to, in terms of setting a precedent, this is quite easy. Just do what Tiger does. So all you have to do is, create that slot for, a senior, dual major, we know on a trot, it gets a release to play the third major.

Luke Manning: 00:18:23

just carve out a niche exemption that no one else will satisfy or qualify for and away you go.

Jake Hower: 00:18:28

80 tour wins and gets you into the signature events.

Luke Manning: 00:18:31

For life.

Jake Hower: 00:18:32

oh my god, it's just so crazy. why can't they just come out and say Tiger, we've got an exemption for Tiger and Tiger alone?

Luke Manning: 00:18:38

everyone's calling it a tiger exemption, so they might as well have lent into it as well.

Jake Hower: 00:18:43

Oh god, some of the funny things we see. All right, events this week, we have got the John Deere classic, at TPC Deere Run. it's an 8 million purse. Cam Davis is back there with Jason Day. Daniel Berger, Jordan Spieth and Sepp Stracker is the defending champion. Did I see also that Pat Canclay pulled out this morning or yesterday?

Luke Manning: 00:19:03

I didn't catch that. But, we are in a bit of a sleepy stretch of the PGA tour and, players resting up ahead of the travel over to, UK for the open and whatnot. I was surprised to see the strength of field, to be honest, at. TPC Adirun and I think we should still have a decent event with those names, Davis Day, Berger, Spieth, et cetera. let's hope, I wasn't expecting too much out of the Rocket Mortgage to be honest and it ended up being a decent event. So let's hope for a repeat of that.

Jake Hower: 00:19:36

and the DP world tour, I've got the BMW international open, at the Munich golf club, 2. 5 million dollar purse. We've got, Ryan Fox, Marcel Sims back there, Rasmus Hogarth, Matteo Manassero, Luke Donald, and then we've got the three live players, Thomas Peters, Pat Reid, and Martin Comer.

Luke Manning: 00:19:53

maybe we'll see, some decent rivalry coming down the stretch if some of the LiV players can make a fist of it. QIME has obviously been in much better form so far this year, Peters and Reid on their days, they can be right up there as well. we'll see how Marcel Siem goes, at the event coming off the win and be there in front of a home crowd in Germany.

Jake Hower: 00:20:17

these guys play in that may Give us a little bit of hope for Blandy getting the exemption into the open event.

Luke Manning: 00:20:23

Yeah,

Jake Hower: 00:20:23

earlier in the week I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole. I was, trying to show you some episodes from an old golf podcast. I had, back in 2015 and 16. I thought I'd lost it all. I thought I deleted everything. So I showed you at least. Some of the guests we had on there. then I went down a real rabbit hole and I worked out where I had them saved. So we're going to be, remastering those a little bit and popping them on this particular feed, but, looking at some of the episodes we had on there, it's, pretty good. So we had people like, Peter Finch. At the time had about 30, 000, YouTube subscribers is now up to half a million or thereabouts. someone like Jamie Sedlowski, who was come off, a long drive championship in that, in and around that area as well. so I think in all there's 23 episodes, mostly focused on. Game improvement. And so I think that'll be interesting. It's worthwhile, even though they're eight years old, there's some pretty good content in there still.

Luke Manning: 00:21:18

looking forward to, being able to release some of this content on the channel and on the pod. I think there was some really great stuff that you were able to uncover. pretty successful treasure hunt for you during the week. And I'm glad you'd taken some time off to celebrate your 40th, which gave you a little bit of spare time to get into it.

Jake Hower: 00:21:39

I know. Now look at a few of the other things, from the week in golf. We had news there that, Chambers Bay, was it the council or the area council or whatever it was, had said they're open to discussions from live. That would be exciting.

Luke Manning: 00:21:57

It would be exciting and we've discussed previously, some of the areas where LIV can make some improvements and certainly course selection is one of those. if they are able to get Chambers Bay on their schedule for next year, I think that would be a massive coup for them.

Jake Hower: 00:22:13

think that to me, we spoke about, the, competing events coming up against the PGA tour signature events. in and around those majors as well. This would be to me the perfect event leading into the U S open or the week before the U S open, being on the West coast, it puts them into a different time zone. So it allows them to get out of, PGA tours way a little bit and not directly compete courses. It is sensational. it's a real challenge for those guys. And, it's different as well. So it allows them to play a different style. Of course, we don't even see that on live at the moment. there really isn't a course like that really. so it'd be great to see them playing.

Luke Manning: 00:22:50

No, it would definitely be a very different event for Liv, where you're not seeing the standard round one, the leaders are at six or seven under, and then you finish up circa 20 under, or maybe a bit less over the three rounds, but you're not going to see that at Chambers Bay and that would be just a really good slice of variety to throw into the Liv schedule.

Jake Hower: 00:23:16

I went back and watched the 2015 US Open final round. after hearing that news, my God, that was such a good event. There was so much action coming down that back nine.

Luke Manning: 00:23:26

There was, and I watched a little bit of it, it must have been on the, dedicated Foxtel channel in the lead up to the US Open just gone, and I did watch some of it as well. And one of the things that it reminded me of was just how much of a ball adjacent day was in his peak and the swing and the, just the ball striking from him was incredible. He was probably, unlucky not to win that one. and also obviously the DJ, choke was another key moment there, but it just really did remind me of how awesome Jason Day was in full flight back in the day.

Jake Hower: 00:24:05

That was really probably the start of his run, that dominant period. So he'd come out and, finished, I think it was second or third in the open, which was, I think we had, J Day and Spieth, I think were paired together and they both had a chance to, match Zach Johnson on the 18th. They hit up to the front of the court. the green on the old course there, and both had putts or a chip to try and force a playoff. so that was Spieth's third major on a run he was going for. They're very much like Richard Blantz,

Luke Manning: 00:24:32

while we're on the topic of J Day, I see reports that he's looking at, coming back to Australia at the end of the year. I was shocked to read that his kids have never seen Australia, which was pretty Just mind boggling to me. But he wants to take them back to his roots, back to Bow Desert, which is not far from where I am in Brisbane here. It's about 45 minutes out of Brisbane. And, he played a lot of his golf at Corralbin and also the hills. look, I hope we see Jason back. And if we do see him back, I really hope that he plays, the Australian PGA and the Australian Open, if there is to be one.

Jake Hower: 00:25:10

if there is to be one. I was very surprised with that, that as well, because, uh, his son, his oldest is pretty young. Close to 13 or 14 or

Luke Manning: 00:25:17

that's right

Jake Hower: 00:25:18

crazy. It's crazy. And Ozzy doesn't, yeah, I dunno, I can understand his wife is over there, but just not to come back really with the family,

Luke Manning: 00:25:25

do you think he feels any sense of obligation having been picked for Australia at the Olympics to maybe make a token return?

Jake Hower: 00:25:34

no, if he felt any sense of obligation, we've been back way before now,

Luke Manning: 00:25:40

Yeah, I just wondered whether maybe being in an Olympic year, it may have, changed his thought process.

Jake Hower: 00:25:45

it's crazy.

Luke Manning: 00:25:46

I remember back to one of the other Olympics where he withdrew, because there was Zika virus, I think it was Brazil. there was Zika virus, and so that was his excuse for withdrawing, but now representing honour.

Jake Hower: 00:26:01

Listen, there's probably a higher likelihood that he's had a falling out with Tiger and so he's not going down to the

Luke Manning: 00:26:06

He's not going to the hero.

Jake Hower: 00:26:07

Oh, goodness. We had the presidential debate. Biden and Trump that the most animated we saw Trump was, Biden said he was an eight handicapper or a seven handicapper.

Luke Manning: 00:26:18

have either of these guys got those handicaps? Not a chance, right? This is the whole vanity handicap in full flight, in my view.

Jake Hower: 00:26:28

think, it's hard to look, we've got the global handicapping system. but just the different way we play golf, I think. From my understanding in the States, there's a lot of gimme's and that's just how they play. so you miss those sort of those three, four footers that, or even shorter pots here where the majority of handicap rounds in Australia in particular, under sort of, tournament conditions or competition. your score is based on getting it in the actual hole. And I think a lot of this, would be missed really if they weren't given. So I think there's a, just a built in sort of vanity aspects in the States in particular. yeah, but they're crazy. Some of the Biden's scores were from five, 10 years ago.

Luke Manning: 00:27:12

That's right. And then the fact that he's saying, I'll take you on in a long drive contest any day, or I said, I'll play golf with you so long as you carried your own bag.

Jake Hower: 00:27:20

Trump's wing, it's not pretty, but pretty effective. He looks, he's got a lot of power still for someone who's 78.

Luke Manning: 00:27:26

if you told me he can scratch it around the course, his home course, around about ten, I'd have no problem believing that. But what is he, three or something like that? There's just no way he's playing to three on a consistent basis in my view.

Jake Hower: 00:27:41

two club championships this year.

Luke Manning: 00:27:43

I did hear him say that and not even the senior ones. It was the, the proper ones.

Jake Hower: 00:27:49

I think if you look into it, I think he'll tell you he's won about 27 or something like that.

Luke Manning: 00:27:53

the stories of him being a cheater pretty prolific, aren't they?

Jake Hower: 00:27:58

They certainly are.

Luke Manning: 00:27:58

I'd still back him in a long drive contest over Sleepy Joe.

Jake Hower: 00:28:03

Uh, Mark Darbon, is it Darbon? Is that how

Luke Manning: 00:28:07

I think that's right.

Jake Hower: 00:28:08

There's been appointed the chief executive of the RNA. so he's 45 years old, and he was the CEO of the Premiership Rugby's Northampton Saints.

Luke Manning: 00:28:18

so breaking news just out this morning. no real comment on that either way. I don't know whether that'll be a good appointment or a bad appointment. probably bringing someone in laterally outside of golf. given the current state of affairs is probably not a bad thing, to have some lateral thinking. That's what we've been calling for from these organizations and to break free of the group think and the echo chambers that, we've seen. So hopefully it's a good appointment. he can bring a bit of youth, and a bit of forward thinking to the RNA and maybe really, a refreshed approach to things.

Jake Hower: 00:28:55

Nelly Korda was due to play in a lead event, but was bitten by a dog.

Luke Manning: 00:28:59

announced on Instagram via a statement that she'd been bitten from a dog. She had to pull out of an event at Centurion and that she needed some time to recover, which were then swiftly followed by posts of her, on the beach and doing various other, fun activities. not sure where the dog bite was, but didn't seem visible, In the beach shots.

Jake Hower: 00:29:20

Are you saying this is a bit like, the dog ate the homework situation.

Luke Manning: 00:29:24

I'm not saying anything, but that's a good joke. that'll do us this week. thanks for everybody for listening along and we look forward to being back next week. we'll cover off all things golf.

Jake Hower: 00:29:36

I think it'd be another uneventful week because we've got a month or two coming up afterwards. this is really it after this week.

Luke Manning: 00:29:42

that's right. We've got majors. We've got Liv coming back into the fold. Scottish Open's always a good one. So a good stanza ahead for golf. Lots for us to talk about.

Jake Hower: 00:29:53

We will catch you again next week.