Schauffele Shines, Scheffler Shackled: Arrest Alters PGA Championship Narrative

Jake Hower: 00:00:00

Welcome back to another episode of beyond the tour. I'm your host, Jake, and with me as always is Luke. How are you, mate? Yeah,

Luke Manning: 00:00:07

Hey Jake, doing really well. Exhausted after a really big weekend of golf with the PGA Championship, but always ready to go and talk golf with you.

Jake Hower: 00:00:16

absolutely. The this is what we live for, isn't it? These four majors where we get to see now that there is a little bit of separation we get to see all the best coming together and they delivered this weekend.

Luke Manning: 00:00:26

Absolutely, and a great field, so lots to talk about.

Jake Hower: 00:00:31

The PGA championship was won by Xander Schofler. He's first win after a number of close calls. he bet out Bryson DeChambeau by a single shot in the end. So having to hole what was the scorecard of birdie, but essentially a par the way they played it this week Victor Hovland returned to form. and the other one really in it at the time was Shane Lowry and Morikawa who both didn't finish super strong on the Sunday. It's There was a lot of action now. So maybe it was, let's take it all the way back to Thursday. Hey,

Luke Manning: 00:01:02

Yeah, lots happening, and Thursday, obviously Xander came out of the blocks really fast and shot a course record 62 and really opened up the tournament in a way that he would have been very happy with and set the tone right from the outset.

Jake Hower: 00:01:18

you certainly did. He obviously went wire to wire, but he was very solid. It was a very, he's done it before. He's plays that tournament. really well. And it was, came down to the Sunday, which he proved everybody wrong or the majority of people wrong because he was able to finish it off in what was a fast finishing tournament.

Luke Manning: 00:01:39

Yeah, able to shake the monkey off the back. The tag as being the best player without a major is no longer. He's certainly shredded that. Was able to withstand the pressure under the gun coming down the stretch and having some really quality golfers playing great golf on that back nine, particularly Bryson and Victor. It shows that Xander has been able to elevate to that level now and very happy to see him as a major champion.

Jake Hower: 00:02:11

Particularly coming off last week with that loss to Scotty, he would have been really disappointed with that just the way he was not able to get we'd touched on it last episode. It was just, didn't seem to be able to find another gear. Into this Sunday, that was probably my biggest concern for him, whether or not he was able to find it because with those conditions you had to go out and shoot a number and that he did, he was very impressive.

Luke Manning: 00:02:33

Exactly right Quail Hollow showed that he got stuck in neutral. When Rory pressed, he wasn't able to go with Rory. This time around it was different, so he proved the doubters wrong. And was able to go that extra gear particularly on the back nine on Sunday.

Jake Hower: 00:02:51

Now the other one that was maybe a little bit of a letdown earlier was our social media superstar, Michael Block.

Luke Manning: 00:02:58

Yeah, Blocky kicking things off with a 5 over par first round, including a quad on his second hole. Put in to the block party, didn't it?

Jake Hower: 00:03:08

Oh, that was so good. I didn't know if I could put up with anything. He's obviously in Colonial this week which is another story, but it was good to see that storyline get completely moved and shoved out of the way early. Oh, that wasn't going to be fun.

Luke Manning: 00:03:25

He dined out for quite a while on his success from last year's PGA Tour, but no longer.

Jake Hower: 00:03:32

Ram was really the talk, of that Thursday he Headed out there with plus four after, was it seven or eight holes or even less probably on social media, he was starting to cop it. I questioned him but he valiantly fought back and ended up, was he one under for the round?

Luke Manning: 00:03:48

I think he was four over through his first five holes. And, as you say, there was a real buzz on social media about Rahm, his drop off here. He looks unhappy. It's all related to Liv. He's very frustrated and he was able to quickly turn that round within the first round there. And as you say, ended up one over, I'm sorry, one under by the end of the first round but wasn't able to continue that on into the second round and unfortunately missed the cut.

Jake Hower: 00:04:20

Yep. Yeah. That's a

Luke Manning: 00:04:21

I

Jake Hower: 00:04:23

really hasn't performed up to expectations.

Luke Manning: 00:04:26

think that's right. It's certainly below his expectations and below what we'd love to see from Rahm as fans. Is that due to Liv, though, and him being unhappy on Liv? For me, I think that is a bridge too far. Players go through form slumps all the time. You just need to look at Viktor Hovland, who, six months ago, he was arguably the number one player in the world. totally striping it and looked unbeatable and only a matter of weeks ago was completely out of sorts and in the depths of a slump. Elite players are able to work things out. And just like Hovland did this weekend, I expect Rahm will do the same in time. I don't think it's live related. Others will disagree. I know Solly from NLU is out there very much publicly saying he looks a shadow of himself and that it's got to be live related. He's not fulfilled as a golfer. with the format, et cetera. I think there's a difference between having some gripes about the format of live tournaments or some things that need change versus it being the reason for you not producing your best in major championships.

Jake Hower: 00:05:46

Yeah, I absolutely agree. And if you look back on paper, his form looks pretty good. He's obviously started the season out on live with seven top 10 top 10s from seven attempts. He was a runner up at the open last year and of other events. He's finishing really high. He had that sort of really good run through the Euro tour to round out the year last year. But the reality is after the masters, he hasn't had his best at any time really for an entire tournament. So I think the data is probably hiding a little bit, an underlying problem there. And for me, the most concerning thing with that is the length of time. We are now going up to a, we're past 12 months since he last won. Yeah. And that's for Rahm looking back through his Historically is. An extended slump, so I think very justified that he's getting the scrutiny he is. Trying to tie that to the relationship with live, I think is, a bridge too far it may have something to do with, or maybe a contributing factor, but it's certainly not the only factor.

Luke Manning: 00:06:50

And possibly the person that should be under more scrutiny is DJ. I think DJ's performances have looked far more lacklustre than what Rahms has and really would like to see a bit more proof of life from DJ in these big moments.

Jake Hower: 00:07:07

Yeah. And it's funny, isn't it? Because my perspective on DJ is that he's to the end of his career. So he does really, to me, he looks like he's calling it in. It looks like golf isn't his number one priority anymore. Which is, Who's to say that's an issue, but he seems to pop up every now and then, but it doesn't look like someone who's putting in the effort required to be a top 10 player in the world.

Luke Manning: 00:07:33

Which is a great shame because it feeds into that narrative of, oh they got paid, this is Exhibition Golf, they don't care, etc. Which is not something I believe, I think these guys really do, for the most part, care about the results on the live tour and how they perform in majors. I'm sure DJ still has some competitive desire underneath it all, but has that changed as a result of getting 150 million US? I guess he's really the only one that could say that, but the results at this point don't look too good for DJ.

Jake Hower: 00:08:10

The other one what did you think of Brooks?

Luke Manning: 00:08:13

I think Brooks got derailed by. The mud ball in the second round on his 10th hole, out of bounds. He followed that up with bogeys, I think, on 16 and 17 after that. And that was, in the end fatal to his chances. He looked good for through round one and that front nine of round two, and was really positioning himself for a third or for a fourth, I think PGA championship. Look, these things can happen, can't they? They can turn pretty quickly. I did expect him to probably fight back a bit more than what he did after that Double on 10, but. The guys, the three guys at the front, they were playing incredible golf and they just kept the foot to the floor.

Jake Hower: 00:09:02

Yeah, it looked like to me, it's a flaw in his thinking. He seems to like it, obviously he loves it really tough. And he seems to, it's not, almost resign himself to the fact that he's not going to be up near the top because the conditions aren't tough. Now I think that's probably a little bit of a flaw in his thinking. It's you couldn't imagine Tiger of ever thinking that in any point, which is why he was so dominant. Not only in majors, but across every tournament in his entire career. And it looks a lot like what Scotty is becoming as well. He doesn't ever take the foot off the pedal. And like it or not, Brooks is probably not either of those golfers. Still, in my opinion, probably the best major championship golfer of this particular generation, but it would be good to see him dominant Outside of tough conditions.

Luke Manning: 00:09:52

Yeah, you want to see the best players be adaptable and bring their best game, no matter the conditions. And as you say, Scotty has shown that to be the case. It'd be great to see Brooks contend in, in all of the different conditions that are on offer.

Jake Hower: 00:10:10

The other one, a bit disappointing again for the second major is Neiman. He just didn't turn up, did he?

Luke Manning: 00:10:17

No and certainly Neiman had me. drinking from the Kool Aid earlier in the year. He had those those two wins on live. He'd won the Australian Open last year and really looked In incredible form and I thought going into Augusta, he was going to be a massive chance of a great result there. Here he is again, not producing his best golf. You can see that he's visibly frustrated on course as well. T39 is not where he wants to be and it's not where we'd like to see him.

Jake Hower: 00:10:55

I really have nothing to add. I expected him to perform at the masters again here, just with that course fit. That we discussed last episode, but it just didn't show up and whether or not that's a concern, I'm unsure.

Luke Manning: 00:11:09

It's hard to know what's producing it. Is it just not familiar with the the tournaments? I think he's had that enough majors now where that's not probably an excuse that he can rely upon. But for whatever reason, he seems to struggle in the majors. I guess Max Homer had a similar issue as well. He seems to have found a bit more get up and go in the majors of late. So maybe it's still a maturity thing. He is only 25, so he's got plenty of years ahead of him, but certainly would like to see him at the pointy end of these leaderboards.

Jake Hower: 00:11:50

Now our Aussies we had a Minru in a T26, Jason Day and Lucas Herbert down at Smithy was a 63, so he had a very poor Sunday, Scotty and Cam Davis both missed the cut.

Luke Manning: 00:12:03

Not much to write home about with the Aussies, unfortunately. Herbie seemed to have got himself in contention there through round two and three. But poor, poor Sunday round and he's dropped right back. Minwoo had a much better Sunday round and ended up being the top Aussie. Similar to Jason Day, more solid in that final round than Herbie and Cam. There's a big question mark over where Scotty's at, I think, Adam Scott. He just makes too many bogeys in my view. And when the younger guys are really putting their foot to the floor and the race is on, he just doesn't seem to have the horsepower anymore to go with them. Pretty bearish on the future ahead for Scotty and whether he can be a legitimate force in.

Jake Hower: 00:12:56

It's the last five years and in an even. The last two years, two to three years in particular, it has really highlighted how distance and how having that firepower makes a difference. Week, Colin was not someone that I'd selected to perform quite well, just with the way it looked like he was going to fit into the course profile. Proved me wrong a little bit there. I think that was probably a little bit coming down looking at data at 10 years old the 2014 event essentially is what we're at data from. And game is completely different now. That's what it was then combined with the conditioning that the switch to Zoysia. I think it was a more rounded group of of golfers who were in the mix a little bit, but Looking at Colin on the Sunday the Saturday and the Sunday, even some of his drives, which seem to, he seemed to get a lot out of it. And then you see Xander come down and put it sort of 40, 40 yards in front of him. Yeah, that, that firepower that Colin hasn't found, that Scotty hasn't really improved looking like it matters now.

Luke Manning: 00:13:58

It's never historically been an issue for him because he has been one of the longer drivers. The top guys are just hitting the ball so far now. As you say, he's not gone with them. He's probably 30 yards, maybe shy of where the really top guys are. For me he really struggles getting up and down or, in, in that scrambling area. When he's driving the ball well and he's hitting greens in regulation, I think his putting has improved significantly that, that he can, but he can't put that together for 18 holes over four rounds, 72 holes. It is just too many bogeys on the card, giving away too many cheap shots. And it pains me to say that he's been my absolute favourite golfer for over a decade. But I think the writing might be on the wall for Scotty, unfortunately.

Jake Hower: 00:14:55

He's relied on sponsors, invitations into the signature events this year. But yeah, he hasn't looked like he's been in the form required to, to be in that top rung at the moment, has he?

Luke Manning: 00:15:05

No, that's right. And in terms of Cam, I just didn't think this course was a good course fit for him. In my view, he needs openish fairways where there's not a lot of hazards around. This had a lot of thick rough, a lot of hazards, trees, et cetera, off the tee that could get him into trouble. And where he can really separate himself, I think is around challenging greens and creativity about how to play. And this just didn't seem to be that type of course.

Jake Hower: 00:15:41

that it didn't, and putter wasn't really hot which is interesting considering how flats and benign the greens were. But yeah, for some reason he just couldn't get it running on the greens.

Luke Manning: 00:15:52

Some days it's just not your day, or some weeks it's not your week. And I think Colin certainly would attest to that on Sunday when his putter just went stone cold and left him in the lurch, really. That was the key for him. He just couldn't make any birdies.

Jake Hower: 00:16:09

Yeah, I think that's in his game, that seems to that is his weakness. I don't know if it's something that he's going to be able to fix because it is, he seems to be that sort of really that hot cold type of

Luke Manning: 00:16:20

Streaky.

Jake Hower: 00:16:21

Yep, it's either on or it's not. And the same thing happened at the Masters as well. so I don't know, I think we're just gonna see, we're just gonna see Colin, when his putter is hot, he's going to contend, because the rest of his game, outside of that distance issue, but he, he's hitting fairways, and his iron plays elite, and he's really good around the greens as well.

Luke Manning: 00:16:40

That's for sure. Now last week when we were doing our preview pod we did a few predictions, so we should revisit and see how

Jake Hower: 00:16:49

I was trying to leave these out.

Luke Manning: 00:16:51

Yeah, I think we've got to be held accountable here. Liv players in the top 10 and we did over under 2. 5. We ended up with one and I think we took the overs.

Jake Hower: 00:17:04

Yeah.

Luke Manning: 00:17:05

So Bryson, the only one that that made the top 10, Burmester T12, the next best finisher. As I said before, Herbie. was sniffing around. So it could have been an actually surprising to see Burmester finish outside the top 10 cause he looked in really good form through the third round there. But yes the unders had it this week.

Jake Hower: 00:17:30

They certainly did. And that's a couple of tournaments in a row, or a couple of majors in a row, that live guys haven't performed. Probably to the level you'd expect, but it's just chance.

Luke Manning: 00:17:41

I think it's not that they haven't been in contention. They've obviously had their chances to win the tournament. Bryson was a chance of winning the Masters. Brooks won a major last year. So they've had their chances to, to win in terms of multiple strong finishes. Certainly this wasn't one of them, unfortunately. We looked at the cut, miscut. We had Tiger cut or miscut. I think you took him for the cut.

Jake Hower: 00:18:07

I did take him to make the cut.

Luke Manning: 00:18:10

What did you think of Tiger's play?

Jake Hower: 00:18:12

A rusty, looked really rusty. Surprise. He only played the two rounds, but I thought really the lead up and looking at his master's form and all of that, I thought that, The only thing holding him up really was probably his body, but it looks like it's a little bit deeper than that. If he can't, if he can't play one or two or three more tournaments a year yeah, I think he's got bigger problems than just his body.

Luke Manning: 00:18:35

My take on it is he certainly can play a competitive round of golf. He could go out and shoot five under in the right conditions, but what comes after that? What happens in round two, round three, round four? And this is where I do think the body really is. is playing or taking a significant toll on his competitiveness. don't think anymore that he has the ability to walk 72 holes and play at that level of competition required. And he's not got the reps. So I remember seeing a clip from Tiger himself talking about how he would have a thousand contacts with a golf ball every day. I just can't imagine that he's doing that at the moment because the body just wouldn't let him do it. And so you are going to lose your sharpness and particularly in those tough moments where you're battling to make the cut or you're under the gun under pressure to post a score, that's where it's going to leave you in the lurch.

Jake Hower: 00:19:38

We're getting very close, aren't we, to, to him potentially calling it. I don't, he probably won't because he's a competitor. But his performances since coming back from the crash, he's, they're not good for any golfer on the PGA tour on any tour, really. You wouldn't, none of them would be happy with the way they've been performing, romantically, I'd love to see him win again or get in the mix and I don't know he's talented enough where he could, but as you say, like the body just, it really is this time it's looking like it's not something that's going to be able to be fixed.

Luke Manning: 00:20:11

No, I mean he's made a fool of me previously. I didn't think he'd ever win again. Then he won a tour championship. I certainly didn't think he'd win a major again. And then he won another masters. So I think it's hard to get to bet against Tiger, but this time I reckon things might be different. And then we had Spieth who, I can't remember what you said, did you say miss cut or cut?

Jake Hower: 00:20:35

I would just say he was making the cut mess.

Luke Manning: 00:20:39

So T43, JT I think you said would miss the cut, he had a strong, yeah, he had a strong showing in front of his home crowd there. flirted with rocketing up the leaderboard early in round four. He had that hole out from the bunker, I think, and had a lot of crowd support there, but not able to do any better than T8,

Jake Hower: 00:21:01

Yes, and we already discussed Blocky, who was a very thankful missed cut.

Luke Manning: 00:21:06

unanimous MC.

Jake Hower: 00:21:09

Now Scotty Scheffler, round two, woke up I woke up here at about four or 5am and look at the social. In fact, it was from you, wasn't it? It was the afternoon. It was not waking up. It was going to bed and you shoot me across a little chat message with a link to the ex profile of Scotty being being arrested. That was incredible. Wasn't it?

Luke Manning: 00:21:31

One of the most, or if not the most, shocking golf scandal to break since Tiger's scandals. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Particularly the fact that it was Sheffler who was being taken away in handcuffs to be detained in jail. Just very surreal circumstances. Circumstances that Still, I think, remain relatively vague. We, we know that there was a fatal accident, unfortunately involving one of the volunteers of the tournament. And Scotty was looking to navigate his car around the cordoned off area of that accident. It's been explained as a communication breakdown between. The officer involved and Scotty who was trying to maneuver his car around that Scotty didn't follow some instructions, we're led to believe and that may have resulted in the officer being injured or hurt via Scotty's vehicle as I say circumstances still remain relatively vague. Scotty, I think, did an excellent job in the press conference, talking about what he could talk about and then, and also not getting into the specifics or anything that might prejudice him in future legal proceedings. I thought he was total class by opening the press conference by saying, first and foremost, I just want to pass on my thoughts and condolences to the family of the person that had passed away, the volunteer that had passed away. And understandably said I can't talk about any of the specifics of the actual incident itself, but then went on to give quite detailed information and answers around what happened in the aftermath in terms of his arresting, arresting officer and the shock and the response of his body to being arrested. Talking about, how he was shaking, asked one of the officers to sit with him to try and compose himself, et cetera. Really raw and very real responses from Scotty and great to see, I think.

Jake Hower: 00:23:40

It was certainly an mix up. And he was also talking about the fact that he started warming up in the cell, doing his stretches in the

Luke Manning: 00:23:49

Stretches.

Jake Hower: 00:23:51

he came to the course and with the, with a limited sort of prep went out and shot, it was five under, wasn't it, for the rounds.

Luke Manning: 00:23:59

566 for the round. Just incredible.

Jake Hower: 00:24:02

Yeah. He had to be just running on pure adrenaline. It has to be that like, there's no other, as you spoke about how shaking for an hour or so and yeah, just thinking post rounds, having shot the five under, he went back out and kept busy back onto the range and hitting more balls. I think that's probably the best thing he could have done because once he got some time to sit down and think about what happened, what occurred, like it would have been tough to get through that.

Luke Manning: 00:24:29

and you wonder whether it was, The performance drop off was delayed into the third round his, as you say, maybe running on adrenaline, body still in shock, not really processed at all yet. Autopilot, the Scotty Scheffler we know, just the muscle memory kept him going through round two. Incredible mental strength, nonetheless, to be able to still go out and shoot five under after all that had happened. Remarkable that he made his tee time to start with having been arrested and detained. But then we saw I wouldn't say the wheels come off, but he wasn't able to maintain that level of performance into the third round. The poor old caddy the substitute caddy copped a lot of heat on social media for not being able to fill the shoes of Ted Scott. Pretty big shoes. I'm not sure that's necessarily the cause of Scotty's drop off in round three. I think it's probably more a case of, it was just. delayed impact on his performance from the day before.

Jake Hower: 00:25:31

they certainly made some very uncharacteristic mental mistakes in that third round, which seemed to be really the cause of a lot of the issues. And yeah, maybe the caddy has a little bit of an impact on that in terms of, club selection and a few other things that that happened through the round. But yeah, you think primarily it's got to be, it's got to be the hangover really.

Luke Manning: 00:25:51

They talked on the coverage about the club choice on the drivable par 4, I think it might have been the fourth. Where he ended up taking double. He put driver back left into the hazard and then there was a boundary fence I think in the hazard as well, which prevented him from having a swing and the coverage I think said look would Ted Scott have talked him out of Hitting driver and instead got him to hit three wood and stay away from all that I guess we'll never know, it's hypothetical but possibly. But Scotty would have been confident in his choice of caddy. They're long time friends. This fellow came with golf and caddying experience. He'd played collegiate golf and he'd caddied on the PGA Tour before. So not not a total newbie to caddying in a big event.

Jake Hower: 00:26:46

Are you are you willing to make a a prediction on what happens with the, with his charges?

Luke Manning: 00:26:52

Not really. I don't know enough about it. But it wouldn't surprise me if what his lawyer has said is true, that this was just a big misunderstanding. There was an honest mistake made. There was no intent to cause any harm, etc. So you might have a situation where criminal proceedings are dropped. There certainly would be avenues for civil proceedings against Scotty on behalf of the injured officer, depending on the circumstances. One thing I do think. Scotty's squeaky clean. I don't think he would have been trying to do anything untoward, and it's probably just a terrible accident.

Jake Hower: 00:27:35

I think sense will prevail. He gets off completely clean, I'm unsure, maybe he just gets a little tap across the knuckles or has to pay a fine or something, which is, I don't know, to me makes sense because you also don't want to let it be seen for to completely get away with it if there was some wrongdoing, even if it was accidental so yeah,

Luke Manning: 00:27:54

That's true.

Jake Hower: 00:27:56

to

Luke Manning: 00:27:56

The other thing is we don't know how badly the officer was injured. And that may well have a bearing on how hard the prosecution looks to proceed with any charges that, that have been laid.

Jake Hower: 00:28:12

Did you see the mug shots on the t shirts of the fans

Luke Manning: 00:28:16

I was amazed at how quickly those t shirts, those free Scotty t shirts, got out on course. They were that day. It wasn't the next day, it was that day they had free Scotty t shirts with the mugshot on them at Valhalla. Really amazing.

Jake Hower: 00:28:33

at what point? So you've got to be, what was it just after 6am, which would hit Twitter really, wasn't it? So you've, get to the course. Scotty's teed off at about 11. Was it in the end? 11 a. m. Yep. And he's on course for four or five hours, five hours really. But so the turnaround time between thinking, let's go get some Scotty shirts printed and getting out on course. And in a position to, to, to cop the high five from Scotty. It's pretty fast, isn't it?

Luke Manning: 00:29:00

Crazy. And the memes doing the rounds on Twitter and Instagram were incredible as well. There were just so many so many great memes out there. The one that stood out for me was the Shooter McGavin tweet where he had a, He had four four mugshot of Tiger the mugshot of the Shooter McGavin actor when he got arrested, a mugshot of John Daly, and a mugshot of Scotty. And if ever you've seen The Odd Man Out, that would be Scotty Scheffler amongst those three. Oh,

Jake Hower: 00:29:38

a good one, I saw it in the Shank Show newsletter this morning, you included there. That was, the other one I really loved was the comparison between Scotty and his orange jumpsuit and Ricky Fowler on a Sunday, in his Sunday orange. It

Luke Manning: 00:29:49

that's gold. So good.

Jake Hower: 00:29:51

I can't believe that Nike didn't get get any orange scripting into his Sunday outfit.

Luke Manning: 00:29:57

They really should have. They missed the opportunity there, didn't they? Where was the marketing and apparel manager when you needed them?

Jake Hower: 00:30:06

What did you think of the course? It's copped a lot of heat for for how easy it was playing. It was, did I see a stat somewhere or it was played somewhere like 200 or 200, it 200 and number of shots easier than any other major. Yeah. Controversial obviously produced a really good leaderboard and action on the final day. But what were your thoughts on the course?

Luke Manning: 00:30:28

Yeah, I'm torn on this because I don't like the thought or the concept of major championships being won at 20 odd under. I don't even really PGA Tour events being won at that level because it probably means that par has become irrelevant and that the course is probably not being played the way it was designed or intended. So you've got that argument on the one hand, but on the other hand, you have a look at the quality of the leaderboard and the excitement of the finish. And it's hard to be too critical of the setup or the tournament organizers, because they got a collection of the world's very best golfers duking it out down the stretch on the final day. So I'm really torn around those things. I would much prefer to see conditions firmer and faster, no doubt. Dart board golf is not what you want to see during major championships and there was a hole there early on the front nine, it might have been the second where Zander pulled his tee shot left near a hazard. There was water on the left very close to where his ball landed and it stuck like Velcro now on a number of other courses that would have been in the hazard. Then he was able to gouge his second shot up close to the green, but still he scrambled a par. It wasn't a great second shot either. But he was able to scramble together a par when really he, he was out of position twice on the one hole, but not penalised. Something's up. Something amiss, is amiss there. The other thing that did stand out to me was the bunkers, particularly the fairway bunkers, weren't very penal at all. So there was very little downside to going into a fairway trap. We saw Xander even pull a fairway wood in the final round out of a fairway trap. If you take that into a links course in, in Scotland or Ireland or a sandbelt course here in Melbourne in Australia, You're not getting out of those with a, without a lofted club and you're playing that extra shot and that's really the way that it should be, I think, in major championships.

Jake Hower: 00:32:46

This is very, to me, it felt like a PGA tour event that we see week in and week out. And, we're talking majors as a majority. You don't want to be seeing the same sort of golf. You want to be seeing golf that sort of is able to. Separate the best, and that usually leads to leaderboards, which aren't as compact and as maybe is not as entertaining as what this particular one was my biggest issue was probably not so much the score to par. Because the reality is these guys play a golf course that we do anymore. As I said, at the start of the show, the par five was essentially a really hard par four for these guys. So score to par isn't a big issue for me. What's an issue for me is that wherever you looked on the golf course, there was really no trouble. There was no realistic sort of bogey hole anywhere. You had to, as you just indicated with Xander, you had to really the OB with Brooks really poor shots, but there was just, there's just no realistic chance coming down at that back nine of any of those guys getting themselves into trouble. And I think that was a concern for me. Yeah, I don't know. I just feel like xander in particular, but even Bryson tends to make some poor decisions when he's under a bit more pressure as we saw at the Masters and for a major championship. That's what I wanna say. I wanna see not just their skills on course, but their mental toughness as well, and this course didn't present that to them.

Luke Manning: 00:34:10

Yeah, and consequences for lapses in concentration or decision making and wasn't that level of consequence here on this tournament that should be found in a major championship.

Jake Hower: 00:34:25

Where do we go from here? Do we move off that? Do you have anything else you want to round out that conversation with on the PGA championship?

Luke Manning: 00:34:32

No, so I guess just looking forward to Pinehurst, it'll be interesting to see how the setup will be there for for the U. S. Open. I think we'll see a bit more of that penalty for poor shots irons that don't hit the spots on the greens. Will run away off into collection areas rather than being caught by long, thick, rough, etc. So that should be something to look forward to with the US Open in a matter of weeks.

Jake Hower: 00:35:03

I think this is for mine, probably Cam Smith's best chance at a US Open. It's a course that he's very familiar with and plays quite well.

Luke Manning: 00:35:11

I would agree with that and he's more likely to win one here than he would be at say, Oakmont. Come on Smithy.

Jake Hower: 00:35:18

Now Seth Wall's comments he's was at the pre championship interview. He on the PGA tour and the PIF needing to, to urgently make a deal. What did you think of that?

Luke Manning: 00:35:31

I guess I thought, what lens is he applying here? And is it a US centric lens or is it a more global view? If you apply a US centric lens, I think it's very urgent that the PGA Tour strikes a deal. He made some comments that golf is a niche sport. And as a result of it being a niche sport, it's not big enough to support two competing tours. There, there's a short memory on some of these things because the European tour used to have a very flourishing tour with a lot of superstars on it not so long back. It's just been a case of money has talked and I guess this time it's the Saudis money that's doing the large amount of talking. So I contrast Seth's comments with what Phil Mickelson came out and said, where it You know, all this talk about golf being pro golf being broken. He sought to correct the record in his view and say it already was broken. And it was too U. S. centric. It wasn't capitalizing on the global opportunity and It was too restrictive in terms of what players could do with media rights, etc. And prohibiting things like what Bryson's doing with his YouTube channel now, etc. Really depends on your perspective, whether you think Phil's comments are good comments or not. I, similar to you, come to it from a perspective of wanting to see golf from a global perspective rather than a US centric perspective. There is no doubt that the US will always be a very big piece of the pie. It's a big market, but it doesn't have to be the dominant or the monopolistic market.

Jake Hower: 00:37:31

And I think I've coming more to the realization. It's a common theme. Like Seth war runs a PJ of America all the big golf media over there talking about what the other one was talking about how good Bryson was for the game and he needs to come back into the game of golf. And it's all coming from the perspective of an American or American journalist catering to an American audience. So it's to me, I start thinking about how global do they need to be thinking? And maybe that's just an acceptance we have to make. We start thinking about who is the right person to look after global golf.

Luke Manning: 00:38:04

And I'm not sure anyone's got the correct answer at the moment. There's a wrestle for that. Tiger on one side of the fence and his PGA colleagues and Yasser on the other side with his PIF and LIV colleagues. I'm hopeful that the two can co exist, that there'll be sensible crossover opportunities for Liv and PGA Tour players to play a selected number of events on each circuit. And it would be wonderful to see a Ryder Cup style event created between the PGA Tour and Liv. Sporting, you Sport, great sporting rivalries are the backbone of sports. You've you love to see the rivalries develop and leaning into this live and PGA tour rivalry could be just wonderful. It could be a huge commercial opportunity for these directors and CEOs that sit atop of the tree. And it'd be a wonderful outcome for fans. Realistically, whether you're on the. PGA Tour side or on the Live side, whether you're a PGA Tour Only Stan or a Live bot to use the colloquial terms. Who wouldn't want to go and see their best players play against the other's best players? It would be an awesome event. Much better than the President's Cup is going to be.

Jake Hower: 00:39:27

Oh, absolutely. You've got something to really root for. Obviously the Ryder cup works cause it's that one economic region versus another the president's cups is it's very hard to root for the international team because it's the makeup of it is there's no sort of, there's no commonality really. And just still not seeing the best players in the world perform. So like this one makes a lot more sense to me, having that sort of that two is rivalry and From year to year, that's going to change with player defections and player movement. And to me, that whole thing around teams and around competitiveness there's a whole ecosystem around it. So it's around putting your own team together, being strong, recruiting, trades. Yeah, I think there is much more interest and more interest around that style of model.

Luke Manning: 00:40:14

Agree and The in national team in the President's Cup, they come from such disparate parts of the world. It's hard to generate the cohesion and the the gelling that you need to be a formidable team. Many of the guys from Live play together in teams. So if you look at the South Americans that would be part, at least some of them would be part of a Live team. They play together every week as in a team environment. Now it's not. foursomes or four ball but it's more than just taking a bunch of individual players that have played on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, the Asian Tour, and then cobbling together for, three or four days for the President's Cup.

Jake Hower: 00:41:00

What do you make of the the policy board director resigning?

Luke Manning: 00:41:03

Probably not much more than we already know that. Whatever's going on behind closed doors from a PGA Tour board perspective, it's not great that a number of these independent directors that have been on the board aren't feeling empowered or aren't feeling that they are in a position where they can influence or make a positive contribution to the outcome. And so that leaves a vacuum and what, to fill that vacuum is speculation around why are they leaving? What's causing them to leave? And I think Tiger and Cantlay and Spieth and the approach that they're taking seems to be the main reason that people are drawing a link between these resignations and what's going on behind those closed doors.

Jake Hower: 00:41:52

I think it was Tron Carter from NLU was saying he's, he was piecing it all together, but his sources were telling him that this is possibly leading to Jay to getting Jay out as well. As the end goal before they even start looking at the discussion with Liv with with Piff.

Luke Manning: 00:42:07

Been shocked that Jay is still in the seat, but he's created such a shit show that possibly people are saying You created it. You fix it. And once you've fixed it, then we'll replace you. Trying to find a good CEO to leave another organisation and walk into this sort of firestorm, I don't think would be an easy sell. It's not a great employee value proposition to take into the executive leadership market and say, hey, come and join us. We've stitched up this deal that we don't know if it's actually going to be a deal. We're under threat from a competitor that seemingly has unlimited funds and we are at great risk of losing our competitive advantage, which is our talent pool. So it'd be a hard sell. So whilst I have been shocked that Jay's still in the seat. The flip side to that is who would want to take the role right now with things as they currently stand?

Jake Hower: 00:43:11

does it look like Joe Ogilvie is someone that's being positioned for that role?

Luke Manning: 00:43:15

That's the scuttlebutt, and He's been heavily involved in things but who would know?

Jake Hower: 00:43:23

I don't know what to make of it because obviously going back to the 6th of June, these guys made that decision. But since then, Jay hasn't looked like someone who has been able to have any influence at all. And so I I don't feel sorry for him, but would have been interesting to have let him, have a say in it. Just continue on the reins and see where things ended up, because I'm not so certain it would have been where we are now, which is a bigger mess than where we were.

Luke Manning: 00:43:50

He definitely looks like Dead Man Walking. And I think we have a de facto CEO in the Tiger, Cantlay, Spieth cabal.

Jake Hower: 00:44:01

All right. Let's look at this week's events. So we've got the two events only. We've got the Charles Schwab challenge at Colonial. And the other one on the the DP world tour is the the Sedale Open, which is in Belgium. Note in the, on the DP World Tour side is Thomas Peters play seems to align with the DP World Tour's stance on players from LIV playing their national opens or their nationally tied events. There's a few people commenting on the fact that maybe that means it's a stance that's being softened by the DP World Tour. I'm not so certain. I think it's just the fact that they're either co sanctioned or they're this, their home tournament, which they've all been able to play with play in to this particular point.

Luke Manning: 00:44:46

The DP World Tour is in a very precarious position. It's got the strategic alliance with the PGA tour, which is serving no purpose, positive purpose for them. In fact, it's in my view, a negative purpose because they're losing their top best 10 best PGA tour. So you really question where and how they're going to derive value from that strategic alliance. And if carving themselves out of this framework agreement allows them to maybe look to deal directly with the PIF. It might be something that they're definitely contemplating within their boardroom, what the strategic play is here. So it doesn't surprise me that we will see that softening that you talked about of live players playing on DP World Tour events. And then of course, we've got the rule change that McGinley has advocated and talked about for the Ryder Cup, where Rahm will definitely be playing in the Ryder Cup, no matter what. And I think common sense has prevailed there. And not surprised to see Peter's playing in his hometown event either.

Jake Hower: 00:45:57

And then looking across at the Charles Schwab challenge I don't know if there's anything really notable in that really, maybe the fact that Blocky's back in the field. So we've got to put up with that for another week. A couple of WDs. So Hovland, do you make anything of that withdrawal?

Luke Manning: 00:46:12

I just think major week or next week after a major. He's probably pretty disappointed that he couldn't get the job done emotionally. I think that would be quite taxing to be up and be mentally exhausting. So running around at the Charles Schwab challenge is probably the one of the low priorities he's got this week.

Jake Hower: 00:46:33

Do you think he would have potentially before the PGA championship have been thinking about using the PGA championship? As an event to get up for the Charles Schwab challenge,

Luke Manning: 00:46:42

Definitely. He was grinding at the PGA championship just to take out the Charles Schwab challenge.

Jake Hower: 00:46:50

we actually, we didn't touch much on Hovland. That was pretty remarkable turnaround really in terms of his form line.

Luke Manning: 00:46:58

Definitely. And elite players like Hovland, they work out their form slumps and they come out the other side and I think Rahm Do the same with his form slump, but I was really happy to see Victor back up the top, really competing for a major championship. He's going to be a major winner. It's just a matter of when and such a great guy too. Like you can just tell his attitude, the way that he carries himself. He's the kind of golfer that you would want your kids up to, to grow up to be.

Jake Hower: 00:47:32

And then continuing on with the Charles Schwab challenge. Stephen Jaeger Nick Dunlap is another withdrawal. I don't know if I read too much into that. He's been up and down since he, he won that that event to get onto her. Yes, that's a withdrawal that I think one of those two got Wes Brian back into the field which is good to see.

Luke Manning: 00:47:51

That's right.

Jake Hower: 00:47:51

notables at the event, we've got Finau, Flower Horshall, who had a good T8 at the PGA championship Min Wu's in there. Colin Morikawa, Scheffler, and Scotty all playing this week. Was

Luke Manning: 00:48:06

Yep, backdoor T8 from Billy Boy Horshall. So we'll be seeing him riding high at the Charles Schwab Challenge this week.

Jake Hower: 00:48:17

that only his second in a major, potentially, or was his first, maybe?

Luke Manning: 00:48:23

I'm not sure but he's always entertaining, shall we say, probably more entertaining when he opens his mouth off the course than what he is with the club in hand.

Jake Hower: 00:48:34

Scheffler is obviously the favorite, or has to be the favorite. Can you see anyone other than, anyone else knocking him off?

Luke Manning: 00:48:40

Look, Morakau is in the field and bar a cold putter on Sunday, he was. really in contention at Valhalla, so I wouldn't be writing him off. Finau as well, seems to be more, much more comfortable in the PGA Tour events than he is in the majors. He pokes his nose into the lead in a major and then recoils pretty quickly. So there's definitely some form coming in to Charles Schwab and Scheffler might not have it all its own way.

Jake Hower: 00:49:13

it'll be interesting to see what happens there whether or not Sheffler can continue his form that'll be something to follow. I think LPGA, so we saw Nellie Corder win her sixth event from seven starts maybe eight starts. Was it

Luke Manning: 00:49:25

Seven, I think.

Jake Hower: 00:49:27

seven? Yep. She bet out Hannah Green who bogeyed the last, I believe. I didn't get a chance to watch much of this event. I'm not sure if you did.

Luke Manning: 00:49:34

No I know that they were tussling as they came down the stretch there nearly incredible to win six from seven. And also good to see Australian Gabby Ruffles in T3 for the second week in a row. Some good results coming through for the Aussie girls and that's just great to see.

Jake Hower: 00:49:53

Gabby Ruffles has been trending. She obviously fell off a couple of years ago off the tour and had to fight her way back through the Epsom tour, but she's always looked like she's at that particular level. She's very talented and it's good to see her at the top of the leaderboard. The other notable thing from that event was there were 12 withdrawals with sickness, with a little bit of gastro, I believe.

Luke Manning: 00:50:15

I didn't see that.

Jake Hower: 00:50:16

All right, moving around, what else have we got to cover off on? Maybe Rory's filed divorce on, was it the Monday or the Tuesday leading into the PGA championship?

Luke Manning: 00:50:27

A day or so after he'd claimed the Quail Hollow title, the Wells Fargo title at Quail Hollow. Obviously disappointing for Rory personally, also for his young daughter Poppy. Closely off the back of that announcement and during the PGA Championship week, rumours broke about an alleged relationship between Rory and the CBS correspondent Amanda Balionis. Formerly known under a married name as Amanda Renner and recently changed back to Ballionis. Who knows if there's anything in that. No doubt things will develop and progress, so we'll we'll stay tuned. But social media was certainly right across it.

Jake Hower: 00:51:09

Yeah, I think it adds a little bit of additional context to a few things. So we're talking before we hit record, about timing and Rory stepping off the board maybe this, likely this had a bit to do with that. And then also even the context around Rory going to play with Lowry. Just it adds a little bit more context. He's obviously been under a lot of pressure from, in, in every direction, Rory. He seems to have handled it quite well in terms of his gameplay and yeah, there's not much really more to say about it, but

Luke Manning: 00:51:40

Amazing. If all of these things have been going on, it's amazing that he's been able to continue to perform at such a high level. But this is what separates these elite golfers and elite sports people from the rest. They're just able to compartmentalize things better than other players and other humans. And that's how they're able to maintain elite performance.

Jake Hower: 00:52:01

He's just got that roadblock around the majors though, doesn't he?

Luke Manning: 00:52:05

Yep. Giving himself plenty of chances and probably unlucky to lose to Cam at at St Andrews. Cam pulled out some incredible shots to beat him and his putter went cold, but You've still got to go out and win them.

Jake Hower: 00:52:18

Are we at the point where Rory and Greg Norman, their careers are taking very similar sort of paths.

Luke Manning: 00:52:24

You're going to get a few people offside saying that, given that Rory's got four majors and Greg's only got two, and I think Rory's surpassed him now. But in terms of missed major opportunities, if you put aside the numbers that they won, and you start looking at the numbers that they missed out on, then maybe you're right. Maybe there's a real correlation there, or a parallel. No. I don't think they're best mates at all.

Jake Hower: 00:52:54

And the other interesting thing that happens of most of sort of golf Twitter, it's not Twitter, most of golf X were on, ESPN's coverage of Scotty's arrest and also golf channels, lack of coverage golf channel on to single out NLU for calling them out. So it was a little bit of a spat that sort of played out over, over Saturday. Wasn't it?

Luke Manning: 00:53:15

Yeah, so Sully, who's got control of the NLUX account, said that it was hard to see anyone cover this breaking story from in relation to Sheffler. Hard to see any outlet cover it any better than what ESPN had done. And then quite strangely, the Golf Channel's PRX account decided to dive into the conversation and attempted to point school by making the case That NLU were being paid by ESPN to cover this particular event, and therefore maybe there was an element of bias in their comments. Just a really unnecessary entrance by the Golf Channel into that conversation. They could have let it go through to the keeper, but instead they led with their chin. And of course, NLU have such a tribal following. They just got completely trounced in response.

Jake Hower: 00:54:15

I didn't make much of the golf channel, lack of coverage. Obviously it's very well known that they've had lots and lots of budget cuts. They've moved from, was it South Florida up to Connecticut? To me, they just didn't have the resources to cover it. Like they're talking about NLU others were talking about they, have anybody that could jump on and talk about it. They were at the PGA championship. They'll hear they had the live from set, but the reality is not just the online, the presenter that they need. It's the, all the support staff, it's the camera operators, it's the producers, it's everyone else. I just don't think they had the resources to be able to do that.

Luke Manning: 00:54:50

And if that's true, all the more reason that you let that comment from Solly on the X account go through to the keeper. Don't even play at it.

Jake Hower: 00:54:58

They doubled down and backlash more than doubled down on them.

Luke Manning: 00:55:04

That's right. You get Tron whipping his followers up into a frenzy and it's a PR disaster for a company like Golf Channel.

Jake Hower: 00:55:13

Hey, what do you think about we, if we hear it a little bit from those guys, NLU about biases and whatnot, they tend to hold that line that they're independent and that they're they're not. Objective, but I actually don't, it's not true. Like we all have biases. I think you should be leaning into the biases. You can still be objective and you can still take in multiple points of view, but the reality is our opinions what people are tuning in for. Those opinions are biased at the end of the day.

Luke Manning: 00:55:43

And I think it's fine to have opinions and you don't have to live. You don't have to like the PGA tour, but if you're going to cover golf as as your job, which is what Solly does, sticking your head in the sand and not saying anything about it for. long periods until you absolutely have to that's not covering golf in my view. And that's what I think Soli in particular has done. There've been many times over the last 12 months where, for example, the live event last year in Adelaide, I don't think there was any mention in their podcast following that weekend of what had happened in Adelaide, there was no mention on on the X account of anything to do with Live Adelaide, despite the crowds going absolutely bonkers and there being lots of viral footage of it. So that, that has disappointed me in terms of how they have covered golf, but they're evolving. They are more regularly covering it now maybe out of necessity. Maybe because they're, they've. form the view that lives not going away and maybe the PGA Tours at real risk is. So they need to hedge their bets a bit more.

Jake Hower: 00:57:01

Yeah, that, and to me, it's just easy to say, Hey, we're not covering live because we don't like it, or we've got ties with the PGA tour, that's just the way it is. So yeah, I dunno, just embracing those biases. I think you can still remain independent and you can still comment on things.

Luke Manning: 00:57:18

The other thing is they're followers and they're supporters. Whether they want to hear that content, is the other thing. So they might be catering to their audience as well.

Jake Hower: 00:57:28

There you go. That's a big episode. We've got a little bit of a break now. Have a bit of time next week to to review the Charles Schwab challenge. See what interesting storylines come out of that. Maybe Blocky's going to have another top 15 or something there.

Luke Manning: 00:57:41

We can only hope.

Jake Hower: 00:57:44

right, Luke. Thanks, mate. We'll speak again next week.

Luke Manning: 00:57:47

Sounds good, Jake. Catch you next week.