Singapore Swing & Byron Blunders: Brooks Soars, Kohles Stumbles as Majors Grapple with Player Exemptions

Jake Hower: 00:00:00

Welcome to the first episode of beyond the tour.

Jake Hower: 00:00:03

I'm Jake and with me is Luke.

Jake Hower: 00:00:05

How are you?

Jake Hower: 00:00:06

Yeah,

Luke Manning: 00:00:07

Hey Jake, happy to be here for our first first episode.

Luke Manning: 00:00:10

I've got the Rippers cap on celebrating back to back wins for

Luke Manning: 00:00:14

J for Team Ripper and ready to talk all things golf with you.

Jake Hower: 00:00:19

absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:00:20

They are.

Jake Hower: 00:00:20

They've done pretty well over the last couple of weeks.

Jake Hower: 00:00:22

I don't know.

Luke Manning: 00:00:24

Yeah, it's great to see them return to form particularly Leash,

Luke Manning: 00:00:27

showing some some good trajectory.

Jake Hower: 00:00:30

Yeah, now we we caught up.

Jake Hower: 00:00:32

In person at live Adelaide's after getting to know each other a little bit on X

Jake Hower: 00:00:37

and we both actually had the idea of potentially looking at a podcast, which

Jake Hower: 00:00:42

is the conversation we ended up having.

Jake Hower: 00:00:44

And this obviously is what led us to this particular show.

Jake Hower: 00:00:47

Maybe we should give the listener a little bit of that, a little bit of a

Jake Hower: 00:00:51

background of what each of us, has done in golf or why we're here at this point.

Jake Hower: 00:00:55

I'm happy for you to start off.

Luke Manning: 00:00:57

Sounds good.

Luke Manning: 00:00:58

I'm a father of four love to unwind and de stress from work and

Luke Manning: 00:01:04

from family life by playing golf.

Luke Manning: 00:01:05

I started golf in my teenage years was a member at the Brisbane Golf

Luke Manning: 00:01:10

Club for 20 odd years and have been a member at a couple other clubs

Luke Manning: 00:01:13

here in Queensland where I reside.

Luke Manning: 00:01:15

Have loved golf all my life and I think much to the sort of decries

Luke Manning: 00:01:21

or different to the decries and the moans that we hear on social media I

Luke Manning: 00:01:25

think right now is probably the most interesting time for professional golf.

Luke Manning: 00:01:30

The change that we've seen Liv bring about in the professional

Luke Manning: 00:01:34

golf world has been really dynamic.

Luke Manning: 00:01:37

It's exciting to see the amount of money that's been invested into golf.

Luke Manning: 00:01:42

And so it's a really exciting time to be part of the conversation and hence the the

Luke Manning: 00:01:48

idea for maybe you and I to get together start to talk about this in a pod.

Jake Hower: 00:01:54

Yep, absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:01:55

I myself got into golf.

Jake Hower: 00:01:56

I moved from the town of I've been, my background is in the travel

Jake Hower: 00:02:00

industry, so straight out of school, I got into the travel industry and

Jake Hower: 00:02:03

I've owned travel agency since 2009.

Jake Hower: 00:02:06

It was in Melbourne itself and we moved down onto the peninsula

Jake Hower: 00:02:10

with with a young family.

Jake Hower: 00:02:11

So my son at the time was 3, 3, 4 and had a young daughter.

Jake Hower: 00:02:16

So in 2015, we moved on to Moona Lynx.

Jake Hower: 00:02:19

So we, our house was just above the guy, the driving range there.

Jake Hower: 00:02:22

So that's.

Jake Hower: 00:02:23

That got me into golf and the bug hit me pretty hard.

Jake Hower: 00:02:27

So I'd usually get out, put the kids to bed and get out for a

Jake Hower: 00:02:30

routing of four or five holes.

Jake Hower: 00:02:32

I said, go and hit some balls on the range.

Jake Hower: 00:02:34

And I went down a rabbit hole hard.

Jake Hower: 00:02:36

So I, getting the, all the lessons playing golf three or four times a week.

Jake Hower: 00:02:41

I got myself pretty good.

Jake Hower: 00:02:42

Quite low from a handicap perspective over two or three years.

Jake Hower: 00:02:44

So got down to very low single digits.

Jake Hower: 00:02:48

And yeah, ever since then I've been hardcore into golf.

Jake Hower: 00:02:51

The biggest change I've seen probably even in that short period, although

Jake Hower: 00:02:55

it's now pushing up to nine years, but I still love switching on the European

Jake Hower: 00:02:59

tour of an evening and you'd watch some really good quality golf play.

Jake Hower: 00:03:03

And then you'd be able to switch across of a morning time, watch the PJ tour.

Jake Hower: 00:03:08

And I've really noticed over the past sort of five years or COVID sort of years, the

Jake Hower: 00:03:14

quality of tours globally has really been hit by the dominance of the PGA tour.

Jake Hower: 00:03:20

So I've very similar to you, the rise of live, although controversial

Jake Hower: 00:03:25

has been really good in terms of the viewer outside the U S.

Jake Hower: 00:03:30

And I think it's a really exciting time at the moment.

Jake Hower: 00:03:33

There's lots of.

Jake Hower: 00:03:34

Good quality golf being played around the world, which I think is really important.

Jake Hower: 00:03:39

And yeah, I think you get yourself outside of that, the bubble

Jake Hower: 00:03:42

that is social media and it.

Jake Hower: 00:03:45

It seems to be quite healthy, the golf ecosystem.

Luke Manning: 00:03:49

Yeah, I don't think golf has been more popular.

Luke Manning: 00:03:51

It's it's hard to get a tea time.

Luke Manning: 00:03:54

Tea sheets are full at so many different clubs golf courses

Luke Manning: 00:03:58

that didn't have waiting lists.

Luke Manning: 00:04:00

Now they've got years worth of waiting lists.

Luke Manning: 00:04:03

And so I think combination of COVID and also just the general excited excitement

Luke Manning: 00:04:10

of that of professional golf at the moment is driving a really strong demand.

Luke Manning: 00:04:16

But just back to your story a couple of things that jumped out at me.

Luke Manning: 00:04:20

Firstly, how quickly you got to a low single figures quite impressive.

Luke Manning: 00:04:24

And and secondly on the Mornington Peninsula, they're just sport

Luke Manning: 00:04:28

for choice in terms of quality golf courses down there.

Jake Hower: 00:04:33

Oh, incredible.

Jake Hower: 00:04:34

That's as I said, it was completely coincidental but I've fallen

Jake Hower: 00:04:37

into, in my opinion, what is the best golf in all of Australia in

Jake Hower: 00:04:41

terms of a grouping of courses.

Jake Hower: 00:04:43

There are better courses, obviously up on the sand belts, down in Tasmania.

Jake Hower: 00:04:46

That in terms of accessible golf in a small sort of region I think

Jake Hower: 00:04:51

this is the best in Australia and it probably rivals some of the

Jake Hower: 00:04:55

best in the world really as well.

Luke Manning: 00:04:58

Have you got a favorite

Jake Hower: 00:04:58

I really love the layout of St.

Jake Hower: 00:05:00

Andrew's beach.

Jake Hower: 00:05:00

It's a course that I play probably every three or four months.

Jake Hower: 00:05:04

I'm not sure if it's a course that I would enjoy.

Jake Hower: 00:05:07

Playing every week because it is quite difficult in places.

Jake Hower: 00:05:12

The, in terms of layout, probably the dunes that's, although it's

Jake Hower: 00:05:16

not as conditioned as well as the national courses St Andrew's beach,

Jake Hower: 00:05:20

the layout there is very versatile.

Jake Hower: 00:05:23

So I was a member there for four or five years and depending on pin

Jake Hower: 00:05:27

positions wind direction, you're playing a very different course day to day.

Jake Hower: 00:05:31

And Yeah, I think that's probably my favorite layout down here.

Jake Hower: 00:05:35

I'm now a member of Portsy, which is quickly improving

Jake Hower: 00:05:38

in terms of the conditioning.

Jake Hower: 00:05:39

It's a great little club to be a member of.

Luke Manning: 00:05:42

Yeah, Dunes is a wonderful golf course, particularly

Luke Manning: 00:05:44

public access golf course.

Luke Manning: 00:05:45

And yes, I can attest to the difficulty of St.

Luke Manning: 00:05:49

Andrew's Beach.

Luke Manning: 00:05:50

That dope design beat me up badly last year, back in September on a boys trip.

Jake Hower: 00:05:55

Yeah, it's really, it's a fun little course, isn't it?

Luke Manning: 00:05:57

some, struggling memories there.

Luke Manning: 00:05:58

Yeah.

Jake Hower: 00:06:02

Format for this pod lucky.

Jake Hower: 00:06:03

How are we going to tackle this?

Luke Manning: 00:06:05

Yeah, so I think we'll we'll have a quick rundown of some of the key

Luke Manning: 00:06:09

results on the PGA Tour, Live Tour, etc.

Luke Manning: 00:06:13

Talk about some of the things that stood out for each of us in the

Luke Manning: 00:06:16

particular events of the week.

Luke Manning: 00:06:18

And then also we like to call out other bits of news that grabbed

Luke Manning: 00:06:22

our interest throughout the week.

Luke Manning: 00:06:24

I think that's a good format for us to kick off with.

Jake Hower: 00:06:27

Absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:06:27

So we'll head straight across, I think, to the biggest event for

Jake Hower: 00:06:30

the week, which was live Singapore.

Jake Hower: 00:06:32

So we had the team competition, the rippers.

Jake Hower: 00:06:35

Rippers winning that, which was their second week on the run.

Jake Hower: 00:06:38

They bet the fireballs and the cliques and on the the individual

Jake Hower: 00:06:42

side of the competition, Brooks was the runaway winner, really.

Jake Hower: 00:06:46

He looked in complete control and looks to be rounding into ominous

Jake Hower: 00:06:50

form coming into PGA championship.

Luke Manning: 00:06:53

Yeah, I tweeted earlier over the weekend that we're two

Luke Manning: 00:06:57

weeks out from a major championship and Brooke says here, hold my beer.

Luke Manning: 00:07:02

And he's and truly starting to peak at the right time.

Luke Manning: 00:07:06

I was interested to read some of the comments that he'd made in press

Luke Manning: 00:07:10

conferences around how he thinks he's got the ability mentally.

Luke Manning: 00:07:15

To go to places that other golfers can't get to, and that really struck

Luke Manning: 00:07:21

a chord with me around how Tiger Woods was in those majors, where he was just

Luke Manning: 00:07:25

really able to compartmentalize anything else that was going on around him

Luke Manning: 00:07:30

and focus solely on the task at hand.

Luke Manning: 00:07:33

Incredible win from Brooks.

Luke Manning: 00:07:35

As you say, he never really looked threatened.

Luke Manning: 00:07:38

And that golf course, Sentosa, it makes you hit the shots

Luke Manning: 00:07:41

as you come down the stretch.

Luke Manning: 00:07:43

Some of those tee shots are extremely demanding.

Luke Manning: 00:07:46

He just never looked fazed.

Luke Manning: 00:07:48

He makes the putts he needs to make.

Luke Manning: 00:07:50

And a great win from Brooks edging out Cam and Leash who had really good finishes

Luke Manning: 00:07:56

particularly Cam over the weekend.

Luke Manning: 00:07:59

Great scores probably could have been different if he'd

Luke Manning: 00:08:01

had a better score on Friday.

Luke Manning: 00:08:03

But really great event to watch.

Jake Hower: 00:08:05

On cam for a second, he has come into the last couple

Jake Hower: 00:08:08

of seasons, looking like he's really enjoyed the off season.

Jake Hower: 00:08:12

And if we go back to his 2022 season, when he come into that season, he was

Jake Hower: 00:08:18

looking as fit as I've ever seen him.

Jake Hower: 00:08:20

And he really hasn't since then.

Jake Hower: 00:08:23

But what was interesting this week when he was speaking at one particular point

Jake Hower: 00:08:28

to Sue Ann, he was talking about the fact that he's Finding that he's working

Jake Hower: 00:08:34

at everything in terms of his game, but he seems to be on a diet as well,

Jake Hower: 00:08:38

which is good because the optimized Cam Smith is pretty hard to beat.

Jake Hower: 00:08:44

And I'm glad that he's paying more attention to those

Jake Hower: 00:08:47

aspects of his of his game.

Luke Manning: 00:08:49

That's right.

Luke Manning: 00:08:50

And I think the team aspect has something to do with that as well.

Luke Manning: 00:08:53

I know there's been lots of criticism of the team aspect of live and people

Luke Manning: 00:08:58

saying I just don't really care.

Luke Manning: 00:09:00

But the change.

Luke Manning: 00:09:01

This year to make sure that the fourth score counts on Sunday I think has given

Luke Manning: 00:09:06

the players a lot more to play for.

Luke Manning: 00:09:09

And also the criticism from the AWGR side of things that the team event is a

Luke Manning: 00:09:15

blocker to them obtaining ranking points.

Luke Manning: 00:09:19

I just see that there's an increased level of commitment to the team side of things.

Luke Manning: 00:09:24

And I think that's filtering through into cams individual play as well,

Luke Manning: 00:09:27

wanting to lead from the front.

Luke Manning: 00:09:29

I

Jake Hower: 00:09:32

that fourth score counting, I've been thinking about that a

Jake Hower: 00:09:35

little bit and I wouldn't mind seeing.

Jake Hower: 00:09:37

All scores count on all days and maybe adding one or two players to each roster

Jake Hower: 00:09:42

so that each week, the teams maybe have to choose who their best squad is.

Jake Hower: 00:09:47

But having all four scores counting every week, I think fixes up some of those

Jake Hower: 00:09:52

issues that the OWGR potentially has with it because you can't benefit your teammate

Jake Hower: 00:09:57

by perhaps not scoring as well as you possibly could because your score matters.

Luke Manning: 00:10:03

was thinking the same thing, having all four scores count

Luke Manning: 00:10:06

really puts the, or holds the feet to the fire of these players, ensuring

Luke Manning: 00:10:12

that there's no free passes on any day.

Luke Manning: 00:10:14

Hadn't really considered adding an extra player or two, that's an interesting idea.

Luke Manning: 00:10:20

Might be difficult to make work in practice.

Luke Manning: 00:10:22

I guess you're pulling professional golfers offline.

Luke Manning: 00:10:25

They may or may not get a game.

Luke Manning: 00:10:28

And what other opportunities are they foregoing to do that?

Luke Manning: 00:10:32

But but I guess a big signing bonus might save a lot, solve a lot of those problems.

Jake Hower: 00:10:37

Yep.

Jake Hower: 00:10:37

It's maybe also, it's maybe expanding on what some of the reserves

Jake Hower: 00:10:41

are doing, like Wade Ormsby.

Jake Hower: 00:10:43

So obviously each little event, he,

Jake Hower: 00:10:44

him and his caddy are paid to come along and he sits there in reserve.

Jake Hower: 00:10:48

Now, if you've got an extra person on each roster, potentially.

Jake Hower: 00:10:51

Maybe you don't need to do that in, in, in particular, if you get

Jake Hower: 00:10:54

selected, then you're, you get brought up to the leave league.

Jake Hower: 00:10:58

If you're not selected, you're playing your normal scheduler, I think.

Jake Hower: 00:11:01

And maybe you're starting to feel those positions with more

Jake Hower: 00:11:04

developmental style players.

Jake Hower: 00:11:06

So the younger players who are maybe already on the Asian tour or playing

Jake Hower: 00:11:09

on the corn ferry tour potentially.

Jake Hower: 00:11:11

I don't know it's certainly an aspect that you can start considering because.

Jake Hower: 00:11:15

Injuries is one thing form is a big thing as well.

Jake Hower: 00:11:18

You don't really want to be playing players that are just in really terrible

Jake Hower: 00:11:23

form because that impacts the team.

Jake Hower: 00:11:25

It impacts the competition as well.

Jake Hower: 00:11:27

Really.

Luke Manning: 00:11:28

Yeah, agree.

Luke Manning: 00:11:29

And maybe the Asian tour is is an option for that.

Luke Manning: 00:11:32

They're probably not going to have as much conflict with Asian tour events.

Luke Manning: 00:11:36

So that may be one way of filling those extra, one or

Luke Manning: 00:11:40

two spots in the team rosters.

Luke Manning: 00:11:42

As you point out, there's already players like Wade Ormsby, Ben Campbell et cetera,

Luke Manning: 00:11:47

that are at these live events as reserves.

Luke Manning: 00:11:50

Sounds like a possible option.

Jake Hower: 00:11:52

Anything else from Liv before we move on to the PGA tour?

Luke Manning: 00:11:55

probably just a question mark around Singapore as a venue.

Luke Manning: 00:11:59

It's a pretty tough spot to fill coming off the back of Adelaide and

Luke Manning: 00:12:03

trying to, keep the momentum from such an event that popped really well.

Luke Manning: 00:12:08

So I think there was a noticeable difference in terms of the vibe

Luke Manning: 00:12:12

between Adelaide and Singapore, and this is the great challenge I think

Luke Manning: 00:12:17

for leave is to be able to recreate the Adelaide, Adelaide style event

Luke Manning: 00:12:22

in more locations around the world.

Luke Manning: 00:12:24

And if they're able to crack that nut, then I think they've got

Luke Manning: 00:12:28

enormous potential and a huge future.

Luke Manning: 00:12:31

So we know that they're stopping in Singapore because the tourism board in

Luke Manning: 00:12:36

Singapore is tipping in a lot of money.

Luke Manning: 00:12:39

There's there's plenty of critics of the actual course itself.

Luke Manning: 00:12:42

I think it's a very tough test of their golf.

Luke Manning: 00:12:46

And I think Brooks even said it's, it's definitely championship golf

Luke Manning: 00:12:50

that needs to be played, which is no surprise why he was the winner this week.

Luke Manning: 00:12:55

But I do think there are question marks around Singapore as a venue.

Luke Manning: 00:12:57

I love Singapore.

Luke Manning: 00:12:59

It would just be great to see more pop coming out of that

Luke Manning: 00:13:02

particular event, I think.

Luke Manning: 00:13:04

More so probably from the crowd.

Jake Hower: 00:13:07

Yeah, I think, yeah obviously the weekend or Sunday looked a little

Jake Hower: 00:13:10

bit busier Adelaide being a pinnacle.

Jake Hower: 00:13:12

It's hard to replicate.

Jake Hower: 00:13:13

I think it's going to be around the world.

Jake Hower: 00:13:15

Maybe we'll see a little bit in Valderrama.

Jake Hower: 00:13:17

Maybe even London or the UK may even have a bit of a crowd going on there.

Jake Hower: 00:13:21

But yeah, I've been thinking about how they replicate Adelaide.

Jake Hower: 00:13:26

Really?

Jake Hower: 00:13:26

I think it's probably a slow burn more than anything.

Jake Hower: 00:13:29

If they continue to focus on worldwide venues and maybe not

Jake Hower: 00:13:33

adding venues, multiple venues in, in, in the same country.

Jake Hower: 00:13:37

And make it more of like a live Adelaide, more of that sort

Jake Hower: 00:13:40

of aspirational type of event.

Jake Hower: 00:13:42

So the must attend events.

Jake Hower: 00:13:43

So if you can sell out Adelaide and not add another event in Brisbane or something

Jake Hower: 00:13:49

like that, just make Adelaide it, make everyone want to attend that event.

Jake Hower: 00:13:53

Maybe we'll see, you'll start to see the spill over and you'll

Jake Hower: 00:13:55

start to see others think okay, maybe we need to attend Singapore.

Jake Hower: 00:13:59

And then you, maybe that builds up slowly over time.

Jake Hower: 00:14:02

And then you get that sort of Taylor Swift effect where.

Jake Hower: 00:14:05

Everybody's looking to get a ticket and every, each event become

Jake Hower: 00:14:09

like must see or must attend.

Luke Manning: 00:14:12

Yeah, and I think you've seen that a bit in Formula One where there

Luke Manning: 00:14:16

were some stops on the Formula One circuit that were pretty ho hum and every city and

Luke Manning: 00:14:22

every country is really lifting its game.

Luke Manning: 00:14:25

You've got some incredible Formula One events now right around the

Luke Manning: 00:14:29

world, no matter what the city.

Luke Manning: 00:14:31

Yeah it's definitely the key challenge for live to solve.

Luke Manning: 00:14:34

There's lots of untapped demand out there globally.

Luke Manning: 00:14:38

And so I think it is around live selecting the right markets and really going hard.

Luke Manning: 00:14:45

Like what you said, Spain is probably one where we do see it pop.

Luke Manning: 00:14:49

I think New Zealand would be a fantastic location.

Luke Manning: 00:14:53

They've got incredible golf courses.

Luke Manning: 00:14:55

I think you'd find the fans and the crowds there would be very

Luke Manning: 00:14:58

similar to Australian crowds.

Luke Manning: 00:15:00

So it's interesting to see where they go next.

Luke Manning: 00:15:03

Norman was obviously posting on social media that he was in Japan watching the

Luke Manning: 00:15:08

final round of Singapore from I think Tokyo airport or something like that.

Luke Manning: 00:15:12

So he's obviously cooking up something in Asia further.

Luke Manning: 00:15:16

So it'll be very interesting to see how it pans out.

Jake Hower: 00:15:18

Yep.

Jake Hower: 00:15:19

Absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:15:19

Let's let's jump across the PGA tour.

Jake Hower: 00:15:21

The CJ cup Byron Nelson held at TPC Craig ranch, which which

Jake Hower: 00:15:26

looked a bit like a ranch.

Jake Hower: 00:15:27

It wasn't in the best condition the best condition that was run by Taylor Pendrith.

Jake Hower: 00:15:32

After Ben Coles had a little yippy chip off, off, on the 18th and

Jake Hower: 00:15:38

essentially gave away his lead.

Jake Hower: 00:15:40

I don't, I wouldn't call it a choke, but it did certainly look like

Jake Hower: 00:15:43

it was a very yippy sort of chip.

Jake Hower: 00:15:45

He went straight under that ball and ended up bogeying a

Jake Hower: 00:15:47

hole that not many others did.

Luke Manning: 00:15:49

Yeah, in fact, he was the only one to bogey it on Sunday.

Luke Manning: 00:15:52

A very tough way for you to lose an event going into the 18th

Luke Manning: 00:15:58

with a one shot, one shot lead.

Luke Manning: 00:16:00

Yeah.

Luke Manning: 00:16:01

Lots of commentary on the course that I've heard in other podcasts

Luke Manning: 00:16:04

and seen on social media highly critical of Craig Ranch as a venue.

Luke Manning: 00:16:09

I didn't see much of the golf, but what I did see of it, it looked

Luke Manning: 00:16:13

pretty bland in terms of the course.

Luke Manning: 00:16:15

The 18th hole's probably the best case in point.

Luke Manning: 00:16:18

It just looked like an open field with with not much doing at all.

Luke Manning: 00:16:22

Tough scene for Ben Coles, decelerated on that chip for his third.

Luke Manning: 00:16:26

chunked it, gave himself an impossible stance for his fourth, and of course

Luke Manning: 00:16:31

couldn't get up and down to save his par.

Luke Manning: 00:16:33

So probably not the way Pendreth would have scripted his maiden

Luke Manning: 00:16:36

victory on the PGA Tour, but you take the win no matter how you get it.

Luke Manning: 00:16:41

And I think that probably all but secures him a spot.

Luke Manning: 00:16:45

In the in the international team

Luke Manning: 00:16:47

for the President's Cup,

Luke Manning: 00:16:48

if he wasn't already written in, that's right.

Luke Manning: 00:16:51

On to to Canada with hopefully some form for the internationals for Penderith.

Jake Hower: 00:16:55

These events that the fields are not incredible really, are they?

Jake Hower: 00:16:58

It's almost like a corn ferry to a plus sort of field level.

Jake Hower: 00:17:03

I feel like the PGA tour needs to further separate and differentiate between

Jake Hower: 00:17:08

their signature events and their standard events because it really is two, two,

Jake Hower: 00:17:13

two separate is really at the moment.

Luke Manning: 00:17:15

Andy Johnson on Shotgun Star.

Luke Manning: 00:17:17

It was just incredulous that this field has the same branding as, as a field

Luke Manning: 00:17:23

that we're going to see at Quail Hollow the coming week for the first time.

Luke Manning: 00:17:26

for the Wells Fargo.

Luke Manning: 00:17:27

And I guess there's a bit of merit in that take.

Luke Manning: 00:17:30

Should there be an A grade and a B grade style event?

Luke Manning: 00:17:33

Then I guess you start to blur the lines between the Korn

Luke Manning: 00:17:36

Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour.

Luke Manning: 00:17:38

It's just a very different, difficult nut to crack for the PGA Tour, how they get

Luke Manning: 00:17:43

this right, how they get the best players playing against each other more regularly.

Luke Manning: 00:17:49

Obviously the signature events are the best attempt they've made so far.

Luke Manning: 00:17:53

But probably what it's doing is drawing a sharper contrast between the weeks that,

Luke Manning: 00:17:59

that we've just seen and the one that we're going to see in the coming weeks.

Luke Manning: 00:18:03

I'm not sure what the overall answer is.

Luke Manning: 00:18:05

But I don't think it was coincidental that the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the

Luke Manning: 00:18:10

Year last year almost won this week.

Jake Hower: 00:18:14

That's interesting because He hasn't been in great form.

Jake Hower: 00:18:17

I looked at his form, so I called out Ben Coles and compared him

Jake Hower: 00:18:21

to Taylor Gooch in terms of U.

Jake Hower: 00:18:24

S.

Jake Hower: 00:18:24

Open exemption category.

Jake Hower: 00:18:25

So Ben Coles obviously was the Corn Ferry Tour money leader

Jake Hower: 00:18:28

or the points leader last year.

Jake Hower: 00:18:30

So he gets an invite to the U.

Jake Hower: 00:18:31

S.

Jake Hower: 00:18:32

Open.

Jake Hower: 00:18:32

And I thought that.

Jake Hower: 00:18:34

Call was going to backfire on me when he nearly won this particular event,

Jake Hower: 00:18:37

but outside of this event, he hasn't been in great form on the PGA tour.

Jake Hower: 00:18:42

So it come from a little bit from nowhere, which I don't know whether

Jake Hower: 00:18:45

that highlights the field strength or just the fact that he's played well this

Jake Hower: 00:18:49

particular week, but one thing I'd love to see is maybe a little bit more sort

Jake Hower: 00:18:53

of fluidity in the movement between the Fer Tour and this rung of the PGA tour.

Jake Hower: 00:18:58

Maybe if you can have all the points the two tours have their point

Jake Hower: 00:19:03

system intertwined so that the best players on the Korn Ferry tour get

Jake Hower: 00:19:07

access to the PGA tour and we see.

Jake Hower: 00:19:11

The better players float between the two and all attempting to get

Jake Hower: 00:19:15

up into that signature series.

Luke Manning: 00:19:17

Yeah, and I think that's how it would work in an ideal sense.

Luke Manning: 00:19:21

The challenge is that we've got things like sponsors exemptions

Luke Manning: 00:19:25

and, money list, career exemptions, et cetera that get in the way.

Luke Manning: 00:19:30

And so actually solving for that becomes really difficult.

Luke Manning: 00:19:34

So there's, there's lots of criticism about LIV, that it's

Luke Manning: 00:19:37

relegation is not, not fair dinkum.

Luke Manning: 00:19:40

It's not it's not real.

Luke Manning: 00:19:42

And I do think Liv's got plenty of work to do in and around

Luke Manning: 00:19:45

the relegation side of things.

Luke Manning: 00:19:47

I think expanding the numbers of promotions and relegations

Luke Manning: 00:19:51

would be a good thing.

Luke Manning: 00:19:52

I also think one of the scourges that Liv has is.

Luke Manning: 00:19:55

It's the captains not being able to be relegated.

Luke Manning: 00:19:59

They need to do something with that because, teams like the Majestics where

Luke Manning: 00:20:03

you've got three playing captains, therefore three of them are exempt from

Luke Manning: 00:20:06

relegation just doesn't make sense at all.

Luke Manning: 00:20:09

But.

Luke Manning: 00:20:10

The PGA Tour equally at that bottom end there hasn't really got it right in terms

Luke Manning: 00:20:15

of the up and downs moving between KFT and the PGA Tour and giving an opportunity to

Luke Manning: 00:20:22

young emerging talent at the expense of some of the older mainstays on the tour.

Jake Hower: 00:20:29

Yeah, absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:20:30

I think probably that's the highlight.

Jake Hower: 00:20:31

No, that's most recently highlighted.

Jake Hower: 00:20:33

It's probably Zella Torres when he was stuck down in a corn

Jake Hower: 00:20:36

ferry tour through COVID through that extra year, essentially.

Jake Hower: 00:20:39

Which was, he was

Jake Hower: 00:20:40

clear that he was one of the best golfers in the world at the time,

Jake Hower: 00:20:43

but yeah, he just couldn't move up just because of the rules.

Jake Hower: 00:20:46

And, the, Yeah, it's just it's a big and convoluted sort of system, isn't it?

Jake Hower: 00:20:50

The PJ tour as we're finding out more and more as, as we get

Jake Hower: 00:20:53

into this war between the tours.

Luke Manning: 00:20:56

That's right.

Luke Manning: 00:20:56

And then just in terms of, field strength and whatnot.

Luke Manning: 00:21:00

Surprising to see Spieth miss the cut.

Luke Manning: 00:21:02

More surprising to me that he couldn't make the cut given the quality or

Luke Manning: 00:21:06

lack thereof in this particular field.

Luke Manning: 00:21:09

Does raise some questions around whether we'll ever see the Spieth of old again.

Luke Manning: 00:21:15

I'd love to see it but it's just been missing for such a

Luke Manning: 00:21:18

long time now you wonder whether we're going to see it again.

Jake Hower: 00:21:22

Yeah.

Jake Hower: 00:21:22

We really haven't seen it since tooth that was at 2018 really was, is it?

Luke Manning: 00:21:27

That's right.

Jake Hower: 00:21:28

Yes.

Jake Hower: 00:21:29

It's yeah.

Jake Hower: 00:21:30

It's, yeah it's something, he's probably one of my favorite golfers just because

Jake Hower: 00:21:34

of his he's, and how animated he is on the golf course how talented he

Jake Hower: 00:21:39

actually was in his recoveries and he would just, he was never out of a

Jake Hower: 00:21:43

hole, but he's far from that right now.

Luke Manning: 00:21:46

Agree and like such an exciting player when he's at his peak.

Luke Manning: 00:21:51

So I think all golf fans are rooting for Jordan to get back to his best.

Jake Hower: 00:21:56

Yep.

Jake Hower: 00:21:57

Absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:21:57

So we had a few Aussies in the field as well.

Jake Hower: 00:21:59

Minu and Adam Scott.

Jake Hower: 00:22:01

They finished 24th and 30th.

Jake Hower: 00:22:03

Ads was down at in 41st.

Jake Hower: 00:22:06

Harrison ate, who has not really had a lot of opportunity.

Jake Hower: 00:22:09

This year was finished in 50 52nd and Jade Day in 59th.

Jake Hower: 00:22:13

So they all made the cut.

Jake Hower: 00:22:14

I think of the Aussies in the field.

Jake Hower: 00:22:16

They're all able to make the cuts, but not really impacting the score

Jake Hower: 00:22:20

scoreboard like you'd like to see them.

Luke Manning: 00:22:23

No, nothing much doing with the Aussie boys this week.

Luke Manning: 00:22:26

I think Min Mu flirted with getting inside the top ten.

Luke Manning: 00:22:29

He might have even got equal T10 at one stage but never really was able to push.

Luke Manning: 00:22:35

So hopefully they can equip themselves well at Quail Hollow this coming week and

Luke Manning: 00:22:42

then also into the PGA the following week.

Jake Hower: 00:22:45

Absolutely.

Jake Hower: 00:22:46

Now looking at some of the other news, probably overnight, there was announced

Jake Hower: 00:22:50

that Taylor Gooch and David Pooj both got invitations for the PGA Championship.

Jake Hower: 00:22:55

Thoughts on that?

Luke Manning: 00:22:56

You could have knocked me off my chair when I opened up X

Luke Manning: 00:22:59

this morning and saw that Taylor Gooch had been given given an exemption or a

Luke Manning: 00:23:04

special invite to the PGA Championship.

Luke Manning: 00:23:07

Lots of back and forth on, on social media, particularly following

Luke Manning: 00:23:12

Tiger's exemption to Pinehurst, the US Open later in the year.

Luke Manning: 00:23:17

About whether Taylor Gooch was deserving as well.

Luke Manning: 00:23:20

I think you're comparing apples with oranges there.

Luke Manning: 00:23:23

Tiger will get exemptions wherever he wants them and arguably that is right

Luke Manning: 00:23:28

given his record and status in the game.

Luke Manning: 00:23:31

Gooch is nowhere near that.

Luke Manning: 00:23:32

So I don't think comparing the two is a sensible comparison.

Luke Manning: 00:23:37

But I am Glad to see the PGA sort of maybe take a little bit of the higher road here.

Luke Manning: 00:23:43

Give Pooj and Gooch the special invite similar to what

Luke Manning: 00:23:47

the Masters did with Neiman.

Luke Manning: 00:23:49

Because I think all of us as golf fans want to see the

Luke Manning: 00:23:53

majors above the fray, above the

Luke Manning: 00:23:55

And just really focused on getting the best players together.

Luke Manning: 00:23:59

in those four occasions each year.

Luke Manning: 00:24:02

That's what the fans want.

Luke Manning: 00:24:04

That's what sponsors will want.

Luke Manning: 00:24:05

That's what broadcasters will want.

Luke Manning: 00:24:07

And so digging your head in the sand and not dealing with the live issue for me,

Luke Manning: 00:24:13

I don't think that's the right approach.

Luke Manning: 00:24:15

Live doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Luke Manning: 00:24:18

Despite what many have told me on social media.

Luke Manning: 00:24:22

But I think creating some sort of Alternate path to qualification

Luke Manning: 00:24:27

outside of OWGR points is a sensible way for the majors to go.

Jake Hower: 00:24:31

Pooj has done incredibly well to get to the position in even the OWGR

Jake Hower: 00:24:36

that he has, because he's essentially played Asian tour events, and he's just

Jake Hower: 00:24:41

about cracked the top 100, which is incredible, given he's not even playing

Jake Hower: 00:24:45

a full schedule on the Asian tour.

Jake Hower: 00:24:47

And extrapolating onto that, it.

Jake Hower: 00:24:50

He hasn't performed probably up to his potential on on live itself.

Jake Hower: 00:24:55

He's had a few reasonable, reasonably high finishes, but he certainly hasn't to

Jake Hower: 00:25:01

me achieved that same level that he has on the Asian tour that he has on live.

Jake Hower: 00:25:05

And, Yeah, so

Jake Hower: 00:25:07

when you're comparing a Pooj invitation or even a Neiman invitation to Taylor

Jake Hower: 00:25:12

Gooch, who's won three times it makes sense that he gets an exemption.

Jake Hower: 00:25:18

Very surprising to see it actually happen.

Jake Hower: 00:25:20

Because there isn't much of a case, he hasn't really played any other tour

Jake Hower: 00:25:24

at all in the last couple of years.

Jake Hower: 00:25:26

So the invitation is either off.

Jake Hower: 00:25:29

His 2022 PGA tour form, or it's off his live form which hopefully

Jake Hower: 00:25:35

will open the floodgates.

Jake Hower: 00:25:36

Potentially,

Luke Manning: 00:25:38

Yeah, I think it probably does put a bit more pressure on the U.

Luke Manning: 00:25:41

S.

Luke Manning: 00:25:42

Open and the Open Championship to give some consideration to what

Luke Manning: 00:25:48

they're doing around some of these live players that, that probably

Luke Manning: 00:25:53

won't qualify through other means.

Luke Manning: 00:25:54

So I think that's a good thing and promoting or provoking the

Luke Manning: 00:25:59

conversation so that we can land in a sensible spot on this is what

Luke Manning: 00:26:04

I think golf fans want to see.

Jake Hower: 00:26:07

I could see it, maybe what's potentially going to happen now

Jake Hower: 00:26:10

is that maybe we do actually see live get some sort of inclusion in the OWGR.

Jake Hower: 00:26:17

The fact that the majors hold positions on the OWGR board might be a way for them to

Jake Hower: 00:26:24

not lose face, but get exemptions for all these players back into the major tours.

Jake Hower: 00:26:29

Now that the PGA championship has included one, I think you've got to

Jake Hower: 00:26:33

start considering either being left behind by maintaining your existing

Jake Hower: 00:26:37

stance or getting the players in your and if you don't want to do

Jake Hower: 00:26:41

it through special exemptions.

Jake Hower: 00:26:43

Maybe we do actually see the OWGR essentially allow live players to,

Jake Hower: 00:26:48

to get get exemptions into the majors through their world rankings again.

Jake Hower: 00:26:52

So it's going to be interesting over the next 12 months to

Jake Hower: 00:26:55

see if anything changes there.

Luke Manning: 00:26:58

I think the special exemptions is really just a Band Aid fix.

Luke Manning: 00:27:01

It's a short term thing.

Luke Manning: 00:27:03

There needs to be something more permanent put in place.

Luke Manning: 00:27:06

It could, as you suggest, might be done through the AWGR given the

Luke Manning: 00:27:10

influence that these, majors have on the on the governing board.

Luke Manning: 00:27:16

Or there's just a separate qualification category.

Luke Manning: 00:27:19

People have been suggesting the top 10 live players are given are

Luke Manning: 00:27:24

given qualification, automatic qualification, if they're not already

Luke Manning: 00:27:27

qualified through other means.

Luke Manning: 00:27:29

So that's another way that it could be done as well.

Jake Hower: 00:27:32

In other news for the week, we saw the RNA saying that Greg Norman

Jake Hower: 00:27:36

had not been sensed or not appeared on the ticket lists for attending the open.

Jake Hower: 00:27:42

Yeah, what what did you, any comments on that?

Luke Manning: 00:27:46

Look, I hope it's not true.

Luke Manning: 00:27:47

It was a report out of the Telegraph, I think, over in the UK.

Luke Manning: 00:27:52

Reportedly from the director of comms.

Luke Manning: 00:27:54

It would be a terrible thing or a terrible position for the RNA to do

Luke Manning: 00:28:00

that to a two time Open champion and would just reinforce, I think, the

Luke Manning: 00:28:06

perception that some of these major bodies might be engaging in politicking.

Luke Manning: 00:28:11

Hopefully it's all just a storm in a teacup.

Luke Manning: 00:28:13

If Greg wants to go he goes.

Luke Manning: 00:28:15

If he doesn't want to go, he doesn't go.

Luke Manning: 00:28:17

But it'd be very petty, I think, if it was true.

Jake Hower: 00:28:20

It's certainly, these sort of breadcrumbs indicate that

Jake Hower: 00:28:24

things aren't going to change quickly.

Jake Hower: 00:28:25

We're seen to be in for the long haul in terms of this war.

Jake Hower: 00:28:28

It seems like it's going to be death by a thousand cuts and of of

Jake Hower: 00:28:32

the organizations to, to actually.

Jake Hower: 00:28:34

Except live into the ecosystem.

Jake Hower: 00:28:37

It looks like, obviously the PGA tour, but the open the RNA and

Jake Hower: 00:28:41

Augusta seem to be the organizations that are going to fall last.

Luke Manning: 00:28:46

Yeah, the two most conservative of the bodies, you would say.

Luke Manning: 00:28:50

And the wheels of change turn slowly, you can say.

Jake Hower: 00:28:56

Yes, they certainly do.

Jake Hower: 00:28:58

They certainly do.

Jake Hower: 00:28:59

Now, Nicky, I think we I think we call it call that podcast

Jake Hower: 00:29:03

there, our first episode.

Jake Hower: 00:29:04

It's a little bit of a test run for us both.

Jake Hower: 00:29:07

Yeah, so we're going to be aiming to to get a podcast out each week.

Jake Hower: 00:29:12

Probably of a similar length.

Jake Hower: 00:29:13

We'll throw in some segments and make changes on a fly as we get

Jake Hower: 00:29:16

feedback from you, the listener.

Jake Hower: 00:29:18

So we'd love to hear your feedback, whether it's on the socials or you can

Jake Hower: 00:29:21

just visit our website which is bttpod.

Jake Hower: 00:29:24

com.

Jake Hower: 00:29:25

Yeah, we'd love to get your feedback.

Jake Hower: 00:29:27

This is obviously for us has been relatively nerve wracking

Jake Hower: 00:29:30

getting on screen and speaking publicly really is what it is for

Jake Hower: 00:29:35

the first time is not easy to do.

Jake Hower: 00:29:37

So yeah, it's it's good to get something out there though.

Jake Hower: 00:29:40

I must say,

Luke Manning: 00:29:41

Agree totally.

Luke Manning: 00:29:42

And to those that are listening as Jake mentioned, we certainly

Luke Manning: 00:29:46

welcome your feedback.

Luke Manning: 00:29:47

We want to create an engaging forum and an engaging community for those

Luke Manning: 00:29:51

that want to follow along and listen.

Luke Manning: 00:29:53

We'd love to hear from you on how we can make this better going forward and what

Luke Manning: 00:29:57

you'd like to hear from as we start to publish more of these episodes on the pod.

Jake Hower: 00:30:03

thanks, Luke.

Jake Hower: 00:30:03

Until next week, we'll speak to you soon.

Luke Manning: 00:30:06

Sounds good.

Luke Manning: 00:30:06

Thanks Jake.