US Women’s Open Recap, Canadian Open Drama, and LIV Golf Conspiracy Theories

Jake Hower: 00:00:00

Welcome back to Beyond the Tour. Luke, how are you?

Luke Manning: 00:00:03

Jake, I'm well. Big weekend of golf. So lots for us to get into, but also got out and got some practice in myself. So I'm excited for for my golf game and also to talk all things golf with you.

Jake Hower: 00:00:15

That's good. Likewise. It's it has been a very big week in golf with today, the longest day in golf wrapping up the U. S. Open qualifying. So we'll touch on that as well. Straight off the top, let's do a little bit of a round the grounds. So we'll just kick off with the, Week's biggest event, which was the US Women's Open, which was won by Yuka Sasso. She ran away with it in the end. The Aussie Hope Minji Lee faded away on the back nine, didn't she?

Luke Manning: 00:00:41

She looked good coming out of the gates, opening with birdie and had a a decent lead on the front side there, but it wasn't a B for Minji and we'll talk through that a bit later on.

Jake Hower: 00:00:50

At the RBC Canadian Open Rob McIntyre, Bobby McIntyre, Ended up winning that over Ben Griffin. Again, he was a little shaky coming down the back, but he did well to hang on with his dad on the back.

Luke Manning: 00:01:02

He did plenty of big names coming at him in that final round there and was great to see him get the victory with his dad on the bag.

Jake Hower: 00:01:10

And then over at the European Open on the DP World Tour, that was won by Laurie Cantor.

Luke Manning: 00:01:16

Liv's reserve player, or one of Liv's players making a start there in, in the European Open and getting the job done.

Jake Hower: 00:01:24

And we'll just quickly run through a few of the notables from today's us open qualifying. So it's a Cherry Hill. Aaron Rye was a notable from my perspective. He's over in over in Europe mainly. So he's English, he's come across, so he qualified along with Davis Thompson, which was another guy who's coming into the signature events now. So that was good to see at the bears club Matt Kucha, Daniel Berger and Burmy got in Dean Burmester. Woodmont, no one really notable. There were a couple that missed Kieran Vincent and Lucas Herbert were both a shot out of qualifying or out of a playoff at Duke University. Webb Simpson, Sam Bennett, who had that run at the Masters last year. And the other one, which we were discussing last week, Harry Higgs, who's in really good form.

Luke Manning: 00:02:11

Great achievement for Harry, qualifying for his first US Open and continuing his good run of form.

Jake Hower: 00:02:17

Justin Lowe, Brendan Todd, Seamus Power over in Columbus, Ohio, and in Springfield, Ohio, Zach Blair, Beau Hosler. And the most notable for, from our perspective was Cam Davis who bet or beats Adam Scott on the second hole in a playoff after Scotty chipped in for a birdie, and then that was followed by Cam Davis sinking and probably an eight footer on top of his chip in.

Luke Manning: 00:02:42

Heartbreaking to have to see two Aussies slug it out there for the final spot in the Springfield qualifier. Scotty led after the first round, not able to get get the job done, but he'd be pretty high on the alternate list, I'd imagine.

Jake Hower: 00:02:57

And then like I said, which isn't finished just as we go to recording, but David Pooj is in the clubhouse with the lead, with the two shot lead. He was at 12 under, so he's very likely to come to get through there.

Luke Manning: 00:03:09

Another achievement for the live guys there, if he can get through but just before we dive into the golf in a lot of detail you had an interesting experience over the weekend. One of your team mates. Tweets on X went viral. I think you it's something like 3 million views and 1. 7 K likes but also 1600 odd comments, which didn't necessarily agree with your take. And you did have a bit of a pile on from the Barstool fan boys. So maybe just talk us through firstly, how you going? And secondly, talk us through the tweet.

Jake Hower: 00:03:44

So, I've found, since being on Twitter I've been on Twitter X for a long time and mostly passive. It's my source of news and I'll comment on friends and whatever and whatnot. But over the past couple of months leading into this podcast, I've become a little bit more strategic and using it more for business purposes. So, starting to make a name for myself here and starting to promote. So I've been a little bit more active and going back a couple of months. I found that any discussion. That that revolved around live really hit a little bit of a sore spot and we're getting quite a bit of traction. So using Bryson, a few of his antics at the masters got a couple of hundred thousand views and whatnot. So when I saw this this initial. Post from Taylor made celebrating Trent's breaking 90. I saw that as an opportunity that if I could incorporate live into the discussion there that it might do quite well. So, it took two minutes to post and I edited it down so that the post was Under 280 characters. So it was all above the fold with X, when you're a premium subscriber, you can post long tweets. And when you post long tweets, it cuts it off. So that was a strategic as I went down that path. So you can't say a lot in 180 characters, 280 characters. So I just thought I'd just hit post and see what happens. And it did well for a bit. And then. Probably six or seven hours later as the U S started waking up, yeah, that started to gain traction again. And at the time I was in bed, so I had no way of controlling it. But by the time I woke up page sporadic and a few of the barstool guys had retweeted and the thread pretty much turned into a pile on there. So the majority of comments weren't even really about the premise of the tweets. It was more just the barstool he's a bone go get it. And that's what it ended up being, but, from our perspective or from my perspective, it was a pretty successful tweet. It didn't take long to post and that's resulted in 50 odd followers. We had four or 500 views to our websites, which is good because they're all now tracked and we can use them in retargeting for any sort of advertising we do. So yeah, it was a positive outcome from my perspective.

Luke Manning: 00:05:58

So maybe if we can just talk through the actual substance of the tweet, because I think a lot of the commenters probably misinterpreted your tweet as being a shot at Trent from Barstool, who tailor made, had made a post or a tweet around him breaking 90 in that tweet. Being an achievement of note and your tweet was more about TaylorMade choosing to lean into an engagement or a collaboration around Trent breaking 90 rather than engaging in a more earnest way with some Some of the bigger tours, particularly say the Live Tour.

Jake Hower: 00:06:37

So, again, there is some truth in that. So there's obviously the, pretty much all brands are ignoring leave or taking a wide berth, treading very carefully. So that's one particular aspect which is no doubt true. DJ, for instance, is the only leave player that TaylorMade still supports. In some sort of, he's the only sort of live golfer on their website that is still a sponsored player, but they haven't posted or mentioned his name since 22. So I think the last time they mentioned him was in on X is September 22. So they're clearly ignoring it. So there is that particular aspect. And when you. Sit down and you think about it. And you say a brand, probably one of the largest brands in golf is unwilling to post about some of the best players in golf, but is willing to promote someone breaking 90, that doesn't make a lot of sense when you actually think about it.

Luke Manning: 00:07:35

Do you think the two are mutually exclusive though? The way that I think about it is TaylorMade have probably two distinct markets the professionals market and the amateurs market. And maybe, They're diving into the amateurs market through the collaboration with the likes of Barstool, who a lot of their followers are going to be amateur golfers, probably a lot of hackers in there who'd love to break 90, and therefore it was quite relatable. And maybe that's distinct from, collaborating with the professionals. And maybe it's a side issue around whether it's the live professionals or the PGA tour professionals that that they choose to do but they're not necessarily mutually exclusive

Jake Hower: 00:08:20

No, they're not. Absolutely not. And I've got, in, in fact, like it was, uh, the post was designed to. So to sort of Ghana, this sort of attention, not, I didn't expect it to get 3 million, but Yeah, you wanted to get some level of discussion. And unfortunately the way the algorithm works is that platitudes and positivity doesn't move anything. You've got to go to the extremes. So you've got to garner either someone who's wanting getting behind you and back you up 100 percent or has the opposite view because they're the only people who then engage and and provide commentary on any sort of anything on you. X that sort of goes well in terms of tailor made and someone like a Barstool or other YouTube golfers, it's very smart. That market is a market that's growing fast and it makes 100%. Sense that they are working with brands like that and X to be honest is the platform you do that because the people who are watching golf on YouTube are also going to be on the social platforms as well in terms of the larger amateur market and golfers in a larger um, the majority of golfers, amateur golfers are not on X or not watching YouTube. They're your sort of typical weekend golfers. These people I don't believe would recognize someone like a Trent or a Barstool or any other YouTube golfers. They will recognise the very best in the world and that's it. So I think. In terms of YouTube golfers moving products, certainly yes, for that YouTube market outside of the YouTube market, outside of the show social media market. I don't believe I do move any product because people just aren't aware of them.

Luke Manning: 00:10:04

and therefore your point around letting an opportunity go by in terms of collaborating with the likes of live that then turns my mind to, they must have some data that they're working on around what they're Avatar buyer is what their ideal customer looks like, and it probably still is very much US centric where we know acceptance of live is certainly Beyond where LIV would like it in fact, there's still quite a lot of resistance to LIV within the U. S. market hence possibly the reason behind their lack of collaboration to this point.

Jake Hower: 00:10:45

I agree 100 percent and, it's social media. It's a good way to go into discussion. And if we're not talking about that, there's not much we're going to be talking about.

Luke Manning: 00:10:52

Hey, look, it would be remiss of me not to check in and see, are you doing okay? Given the whole social media debate over the last week around Grayson Murray's suicide and the calls for people to just be nicer to each other particularly on social media platforms. There was some pretty terrible things said about you, about this podcast. Hopefully you're doing okay and you haven't taken any of it to heart.

Jake Hower: 00:11:18

No, I don't. I can't, you can completely ignore the majority of it, which I absolutely do. But certainly on that point I really feel for influencers who tread this particular line or also people who. Would potentially get stuck up in this, which potentially didn't weren't able to cope with it because you should see my DMS it's, I've got probably 40 messages in there and it's worse than any comments on that particular post. It's a big problem. And yeah, certainly awareness on that is a big thing. I, yeah, that was, I was, I'd heard that Basel have been able to produce this sort of stuff previously, but seeing it firsthand, it's like you can, it's It was quite disgusting really from some of their followers. I know it's not Bastl's fault, but yeah, it's definitely, that's something that we need to get better at collectively.

Luke Manning: 00:12:05

All right, well let's move on to the golf then.

Jake Hower: 00:12:08

US Women's Open, what did what are your thoughts?

Luke Manning: 00:12:11

As you mentioned, Yuka Sasso got the job done there now playing for Japan formerly the Philippines. I think her mother's Filipino and her dad's Japanese. So, she she's chosen to play under the Japanese flag since about 2022. Interestingly, talking to to one of my Filipino mates just around that change he did ask the question about whether there may have been maybe some underhanded behavior in the Philippines. It's known. Particularly in sporting circles for corruption and some shady dealings. And possibly the Japanese market for her provides a bit more sanctuary and a bit more protection from that. I have no knowledge of that, but it was just an interesting comment that that my mate made to me as we were talking about the change from the Philippines to Japan. She she certainly was able to close it out based on the back nine. She looked a little shaky and possibly out of contention early on the front nine but was able to really steady the ship make a bunch of birdies on the back nine. And then she drove the the par four 16th or 17th coming home and made a birdie there. It wasn't a, certainly it wasn't a lay down Mazare birdie because the eagle putt was extremely difficult but that was pretty much all she wrote from that point. And. You close the door on, on the likes of Minji Lee and Andrea Lee who had their chances and Andrea to her great credit hung around a lot longer than I thought she would. I thought by the time, by the turn she was pretty much cooked and Minji looked the goods after about five holes where she had a three shot lead. She came out of the gates with a birdie. And had she have parred the course from the fifth or sixth hole, she actually would have won the tournament, but the course was playing extremely difficult. The greens and the undulation were in the fairways were a real test for the players. And overall, I think Lancaster probably came out as the star of the tournament.

Jake Hower: 00:14:13

It was a really tough test of golf and Yuka that sort of that 15, 16 where she hit the five iron on 15 that particular hole that the height she got with that particular shot, like she just had seemingly a lot more firepower and just more shots than the others and Minji. I thought she was looking quite solid and she was playing the type of golf she needed to. Obviously she's made a few birdies before she got to sorry, a few bogeys before she got to the 12th and then just hit an okay shot, but not what she wanted and that the course punished her. So from that particular point she come on down a little bit, but it was a, grueling tests and Yuka's win was really good. Just on the, her switching across to Japan. Oh, I did a little bit of research as to why that particularly happened with a Japanese law for dual citizens requires that they make a decision. At age 22 and relinquish one of their citizenships. Hence she chose Japan and probably there might be more to it, but I'd say more, more so commercial reasons than anything else. If you look at the amount of Japanese press that she had following her lots of sponsorship on the lady side coming out of Japan and Korea, so, that's possibly a reason she ended up choosing Japan.

Luke Manning: 00:15:30

No doubt that's that makes perfect commercial sense. She did say that if she could play under both flags she would. So she still feels that affinity that the Philippines but maybe you're right. The commercial realities came home to roost in the end, and she had to make that choice. As for Minji with such a difficult course, not being able to find a fairway was a real thorn in her side in the final round. Really very un Minji like, where she is quite reliable off the tee and finds a lot of fairways. And you talked about Sasso having the shots that the other players didn't necessarily have. I think your point's well made about the the trajectory and being able to hit those towering high shots and of course, no surprise she's able to do that given that she's role modeled her swing off Rory McIlroy.

Jake Hower: 00:16:25

The course, as you say early on, I think after day one, it was getting a little bit of a negative press. But I think by the end of the weekend, most were pretty happy with how the course played. It wasn't, in my opinion, unfair. It was just a really grueling test of golf and very typical of a U S open set up.

Luke Manning: 00:16:44

Possibly some of that criticism came because a number of the big names Really pretty much bombed it in the first round and meant that they weren't going to make the cut. I think that probably led to a lot of the criticism. As you say, by the end of the fourth round it became clear that Lancaster was a great championship golf set up. It provided a fantastic test and I think the overwhelming majority of fans wanted to see the golfers. Be able to navigate that challenge and the course play the way that it did.

Jake Hower: 00:17:20

I think probably the thing that would stopped me from being opinionated initially after that first round was the top of the leaderboard. It was quite a sort of broad, we had a lot of Korean, Japanese, Minji was way up there, players who play potentially different style of golf. Then what we typically see on the LPGA tour and that to me probably meant that they maybe were a little bit more adaptable early on. So, yeah, I certainly, by the end of it, everyone's pretty happy with the course. It was a great test of golf and we had a good winner.

Luke Manning: 00:17:53

The domination of the leaderboard by the Asian based players really did stand out, particularly the Thai and Japanese players. I felt for Mihai, who really tried her hardest throughout the whole tournament. She maintained the lead for quite a long time, but I always felt that she was making so many clutch up and downs or, 10 foot par putts that it eventually, Luck would run out and it would have to come home and bite her, and unfortunately it did in the final round there. I

Jake Hower: 00:18:31

Running through the rest of the Aussies Hannah Green finished T16 Kemp at 29, Ruffles at 51. So she made the cut or was battling to make the cut. And then she had some up and had an up and down weekends. The other two Kiriakou and Keeley Marks were both missed cuts, which is relatively probably to be expected for someone like Keeley at at this sort of point in her career.

Luke Manning: 00:18:54

think that's right, and Hannah Green came storming home to backdoor that that finish, that T16 finish. So she wasn't ever really in the mix. It was really just Minji from the Aussies point of view that the main focus was and the main chance was.

Jake Hower: 00:19:12

Lexi also missed the cut, Lexi Thompson. That was her 18th US Open as we spoke about last week. After she announced her retirement from a full time schedule.

Luke Manning: 00:19:22

Disappointing for Lexi to miss the cut in her final US open, and she was quite emotional afterwards, as you would expect. Just a shame to, to see her go out in that way, but it's probably not the last that we'll see of Lexi. I wouldn't be surprised if she does make appearance in some other majors from time to time. But what a fantastic career. In any event,

Jake Hower: 00:19:44

How, like, do you have any sort of idea of what she might decide to play? Like what is retirement from a full time schedule mean? Like, does it mean majors and a couple other big events?

Luke Manning: 00:19:55

It wouldn't surprise me if we don't see her for a couple of years, possibly to have a family and then look to maybe make some sort of a semi return. Everything will depend on, I think, family life for Lexi, so we might see her play in some of these celebrity events like what we've seen Annika Sorensen do, et cetera, but it's very unclear what it looks like at this point.

Jake Hower: 00:20:21

Hey, did you catch any of Charlie Hull over the weekend?

Luke Manning: 00:20:25

Did anyone not? And the fact that she likes a cigarette, or or to rip a dart was the terminology used. Interesting to see cigarette smoking glorified in the way that it was. I think it's less about the cigarette smoking though, and more about the fact that Charlie is just an A grade character and in golf, we need these characters. So I'm all for more Charlie Hull content, probably less of the smoking content, but it was a point of interest, particularly the one where she had the cigarette hanging out her mouth while she was smoking, while she was signing autographs for fans. Again It's illustrative of her being a real character in golf, I think, rather than promoting cigarette smoking. But, she did give some interviews after the tournament saying, Well, look, if you guys think that's interesting, you should have a camera follow me. I've got friends that say that my whole life is a reality TV show in the making. Cause I've got heaps of these interesting anecdotes and stories that happen along the way. So, she certainly seems like a great personality and we need more of that in golf.

Jake Hower: 00:21:35

get her on full swing.

Luke Manning: 00:21:37

Full swing, and I think Mel Reid said something along the lines of I've only got one PG story about Charlie Hull I can tell.

Jake Hower: 00:21:45

All right. Switching heading north up to the Canadian Open. So that was a really solid week from Bobby Mac after speaking a few weeks ago about how tough the transition to the PGA Tour has been for him. He had his dad on the bag. I think his dad got the call Monday or Tuesday or sitting on the couch and jumped on a flight the next day and he's on the bag. So that's a big time win really with the field there and with his dad on the back.

Luke Manning: 00:22:13

A very popular winner too. It was only a matter of weeks ago that he was commenting about how lonely it can feel on the PGA Tour as an international player coming over. And so this was a fantastic win to see. Bobby get up. He had a four stroke lead going into the final round. He would have felt really nervous after the third hole given that his lead had evaporated. Mac Hughes had three straight birdies through, holes two to five. And Bobby had a bogey. to start with so that four shot lead had evaporated but he grinded it out he showed a lot of grit on that back nine and was able to get the job done coming you know under the gun down the stretch

Jake Hower: 00:22:59

Really probably the main two challenges was it was Ben Griffin and Mackenzie Hughes was a little bit further back. But certainly Yeah, it wasn't an easy win. He had a bigger lead around four or five shots midway through and lost that and ended up having to at least hold a, apart from a foot or two feet to actually clinch the win.

Luke Manning: 00:23:21

a little bit of meat left on that bone for his final putt but it went in the center of the hole he would have been a little nervous too seeing Rory charging who he was four under through his first seven holes, got himself in the mix. He ended up finishing three back at T4, but no one likes to see a charging Rory on a Sunday. It's a bit like, Tiger used to be, if he was charging on a Sunday, a lot of the front runners sort of parted ways and allowed him to come on through. But as I said before Bob showed that level of grit and determination to, to get it done. His first win on the PGA Tour and a big congrats to him.

Jake Hower: 00:24:01

And he got the exemption therefore into this week's signature event events, but decided to head home to party.

Luke Manning: 00:24:08

And what a party it will be. I have seen some footage, rehashed footage from him partying post Ryder Cup victory. So I think the Scots can expect a fun time back home when he gets there.

Jake Hower: 00:24:23

Now, Rory, that's a, that's an interesting one. He just needs to be a little bit closer to the, to, to the top of the leaderboard when he's making these charges. Cause we often see this from him, particularly in the majors over the last few years, where he's charged, just ends up a little bit short because you're so far back.

Luke Manning: 00:24:40

Well renowned for the backdoor top 10 or backdoor top 5 coming in and shooting a 64 or 63 in the final round to make up a lot of ground. That has been seeded in those earlier rounds. So you're right. If he's closer, it's going to be danger signs for those front runners.

Jake Hower: 00:25:00

Ryan Fox had the outright lead through the early rounds. Victor Perez also finished off quite well both, I believe coming from the Euro to a top 10. So they've been very impressive this year.

Luke Manning: 00:25:14

They really have and it does put a question mark over from a DP World Tour perspective the arrangement under the Strategic Alliance where the top 10 get a PGA Tour card and how sustainable that is as an initiative. under the strategic alliance. Do you think it needs a rethink from a European tour perspective? Because clearly these players are world class. They're coming into the PGA tour events and they're giving them a shake or they're winning them. And it, it is disappointing to see that that happen where they DP world tour events. Not to be under the under the strategic alliance.

Jake Hower: 00:25:57

Strategic Alliance and also the OWGR. There was always talk about in the old OWGR system that that favored international golfers, DP World Tour, Japanese golfers compared to PGA Tour players, and most people would be using the example of. Of these golfers traveling to the U S and just not able to compete in the PGA tour events. But to me, I think what a lot of international golfers are that the PGA tour guys aren't necessarily, is that they're a lot more they play on different course layouts. So they're more adaptable, which I think probably leads to them being better than potentially these people think, So I think we've gone too far the other way with the OWGR as well. That needs to be maybe realigned or readjusted more back towards where it was.

Luke Manning: 00:26:48

And your point about adaptability. is probably borne out by the type of reasonably similar style setups that we see on the PGA Tour. And a lot of the influential podcasters and course architect experts talk about this the dartboard golf that we see week in week out for regular PGA Tour stops doesn't, necessarily provide for adaptability, provides for the bomb and gouge, the driver wedge, putt, putting contest style engagement. And so I think that's why when we see a course like Lancaster play the way that it did, or Royal Melbourne, when you see it as part of the President's Cup, you see those courses and It's just an entirely different viewing experience. Now that's not to say that the top guys on the PGA Tour are unadaptable. They're just not called upon to do that enough, but they have shown that they absolutely can adapt. And I think the 2019 President's Cup is a great example of that, where the US team was really under the gun and behind after the first two days. But by the time singles came around, they had worked the course out. They had adjusted their play and the really top guys showed that they've still got all the skills. And they were able to come up, come home over the top of the internationals on a course that you probably would have thought the internationals would have been able to hold a lead on in that final point. But the adaptability is there. We just love to see more of it.

Jake Hower: 00:28:35

that's right. Give them more give them different layouts so that they can actually show how adaptable they can be.

Luke Manning: 00:28:42

And a lot of this is determined by sponsors and broadcasters. Sponsors want events in particular cities, at particular locations that align with their, maybe their corporate head office or where their major clients are, etc. So, the PGA Tour has some challenges in that regard. And I guess this is part of the dynamic that's going on in golf at the moment where the PGA tour is like trying to turn a big shipping can tanker big shipping tanker. But some of the disruptors are able to move more nimbly. And that's why we see Liv being able to secure agreements with the likes of Marido, et cetera, or changing up venues where they haven't worked.

Jake Hower: 00:29:26

What did you think of Bob Mac calling off the drone?

Luke Manning: 00:29:29

I didn't see it, but I saw it on social media but you'll have to talk me through it.

Jake Hower: 00:29:35

Just a few times there, he's pretty much told the drone to piss off. Oh, now thinking about it to me, like a drone gives us a constant worrying and unless it's moving around at really low level, it's something that these golfers Probably need to learn to put up with because the broadcast, particularly on the PGA tour, the broadcast partners who pay the bills. So you should be giving them the best opportunity to do what they like as as far as possible.

Luke Manning: 00:30:03

It might also have something to do with the type of drone. I saw two different types of drones that, live, that Liv had been using, so last year at Liv Adelaide, the drone was really big. And it made quite a bit of noise and it was very imposing in the air. This time around you'll remember that the drone was very small and so on, on the 18th on the 18th hole where we had those two playoff holes, the drone was constantly in the sky, but it barely registered. Any sort of recognition because it was small and quiet. So, possibly it has something to do with the type of drone. And I can understand a player's perspective if it was as big as the one that lived last year. But but certainly with technology advances, you think this will be complaining about a drone will be a thing of the past over time.

Jake Hower: 00:30:58

Now, just rounding out the Canadian, we've got the Aussies in the field, Adam Scott at T42, Harrison Endicott and Aaron Baddeley both missed the cut.

Luke Manning: 00:31:07

So continuing the run of not much to talk about for Australians on the PGA Tour. Scotty just continues to plot around that midfield, making cuts but not really in contention. And Harrison Endicott, after getting his tour card, hasn't really been able to make much of a splash. So hopefully there's some more positive things ahead for him for the remainder of the season.

Jake Hower: 00:31:32

Okay. This week we've got Liv Houston going up against the Jax event, the signature at Memorial.

Luke Manning: 00:31:40

So some great golf ahead. Live Returns Golf Club of Houston, which is a George Fazio design. It's hosted a lot of PGA Tour events in the past. In fact, it was the host of the Houston Open from 2003 to 2019. So it's it's a golf course that has stood up to championship conditions. Should be a good test for the guys. We've got the 25 million purse on offer 20 mil for the individual and five mil for the team. And for the Aussies, the shotgun start will kick off at about 3 15 AM on Saturday morning. So you'll have to set your alarm clocks nice and early for that one.

Jake Hower: 00:32:21

This is this sort of, uh, this swing of the schedule generally is a back nine. You see the back nine wake up six o'clock or thereabouts.

Luke Manning: 00:32:29

The young kids sometimes get you up though a bit earlier, but yeah it's hard to get up at 3. 15.

Jake Hower: 00:32:35

And I think this is probably one of the reasons I'm a big component proponent of live is the fact that they're going into different time zones. It gives the opportunity for more people around the world to tune in life.

Luke Manning: 00:32:47

Taking a risk because a lot of the time zones don't work well for the US market. And that a lot in terms of comment on social media and whatnot. I'm not going to tune in. I won't be getting up at that time, et cetera. So it is a risk to play in these locations. But. We've talked about this before. It all comes down to what lens you're applying. Are you applying a US centric lens or a global lens? And without question, Live are trying to exploit the global opportunity. They're applying the global lens and they're leaning into those time zones, different time zones, even if there is a clash with the US market.

Jake Hower: 00:33:26

There's a little bit of discussion around visiting Houston in June. So the weekend is pretty much what's 35, 34, 34 centigrade. So it's going to be nice and warm with low humidity, no rain low wind. So it's going to be interesting to see what the crowd turnout is in the, in Houston over the weekend.

Luke Manning: 00:33:46

It's pretty warm. I think that might play into the, to the advantage of the likes of the South Africans, the Australians, maybe the South Americans even the Spanish to some extent. So, be interesting to see how the teams go and as you say, whether the crowds turn up. It's always a bit of a question mark in the U. S. about whether the crowds will come or not. I can guarantee you there'll be the usual posts and photos of halls where there's zero spectators and the standard no one's watching post that comes out. But I think we'll probably see a decent turnout as my anticipation.

Jake Hower: 00:34:24

Do you have a pick?

Luke Manning: 00:34:25

My pick is probably Burmester. I think he's in good form. He'll want a good showing before he gets to the US Open next week. And he's just really playing great golf.

Jake Hower: 00:34:38

I was going to agree but I will instead take Smith coming into Pinehurst. I think he'll be also pretty sharp. And if you're taking Burmester, I'm taking the Stingers for the team.

Luke Manning: 00:34:51

And look, I'll I'll take the fireballs.

Jake Hower: 00:34:55

Okay, that's good. Now the memorial.

Luke Manning: 00:34:59

Signature event. Big purse this week on the PGA Tour of 20 million. And undoubtedly we're going to have a strong feel given that it is a Signature event. Defending champ, Victor Hovland, hopefully we see Vic in his best form because I think world golf is so much better with Victor firing on all cylinders. He's one of the, I think, top five guys when he's right on his game. And so hopefully we see him In great form, not just for Jack's event this week at Muirfield Village, but also next week when we get to Pinehurst. And I think we've got nine out of the top ten ranked OWGR ranked players for what that's worth. But certainly all the big names are going to be there.

Jake Hower: 00:35:46

To be picking McElroy again. I think this is the type of event he will win and then he'll bomb out next week.

Luke Manning: 00:35:52

look, I'll I'll go for Victor going back to back.

Jake Hower: 00:35:56

I come back on board with Rory. But he burnt me again at Valhalla. I think now I think he's someone, I just can't pick him in majors now until he actually wins one.

Luke Manning: 00:36:07

You've joined Solly on his I'm Never Picking Rory Again. That fooled me too many times. So, good to see you and Solly in the same boat there.

Jake Hower: 00:36:17

On the DP world tour, I've got the Volvo Scandinavian mixed tournament. So that's a, is a combination of the DP world tour players. And is it the

Luke Manning: 00:36:26

That's right. The ladies European tour. So really interesting event. This one that have the men's professional and the women's professional golfers competing in the same event for the same trophy and the same purse. So A couple of Solheim Cup players teeing it up in Madeleine Sagstrom and also Linnie Grant. In fact, Grant was the first female winner of this event. So she'd certainly be looking to repeat that achievement. And then in terms of the men, some some names in terms of including Nacho. Elvira, who won two weeks ago on the DP World Tour Rasmus Heugard and former PGA Tour player Dylan Fratelli, Frugal Fratelli.

Jake Hower: 00:37:13

We get any time to watch the, any of that?

Luke Manning: 00:37:16

I'll have to see how the the timings line up, but I'm quite interested in that event to see how that how that is staged because as in Australia, we have some mixed events, so it'd be interesting to see how the Scandinavian mixed tournament compares to the mixed tournaments that we have in Australia and if there are any sort of. format differences that would be interesting for us to pick up here.

Jake Hower: 00:37:40

So it's we saw also through the week that the Sheffler charges were finally dropped.

Luke Manning: 00:37:46

And as we had previously spoken about, our gut feel was that this was likely to be just a big misunderstanding rather than any sort of crime, and certainly not a felony. So, common sense seems to have prevailed. The District Attorney's had a look and has made a decision to drop the charges, and both Scotty and Detective Gillis issued statements following the dropping of the charges again, Scotty being very magnanimous and all class in terms of his response, probably a bit of tongue in cheek from Detective Gillis in terms of how he has responded Agreed with Scotty that there were no hard feelings. I'm not sure that he's the one that should be saying, I've got no hard feelings that I'm harboring given that he seems to have completely overplayed the situation and caused a huge amount of embarrassment and upheaval for Scotty in the midst of a major tournament remains to be seen whether Scotty will take things, Further, or whether he let sleeping dogs lie now that the charges have been dropped, I suspect there'll be a number of lawyers in his ear saying that he should be thinking about bringing civil proceedings against the Louisville Police Force and maybe Detective Gillis for wrongful imprisonment or some sort of civil cause of action. We'll just have to see what happens there. It doesn't strike me as being the type of play that Scotty would engage in, but you never know.

Jake Hower: 00:39:30

Hey, and finally, do you have some time for a little bit of conspiracy theories?

Luke Manning: 00:39:35

Always.

Jake Hower: 00:39:36

Always good. So, Christo Leche who was sitting second on the PGA tour University standings. And he pulled out of the nnc the NCAA finals with a back injury. Christo has a US open exemption as an amateur. He turned pro. At the end of last week, which essentially meant that he lost his exemption. And he today went into final qualifying to try and qualify. He did not qualify. He's in no events prior to the U S open. So there wasn't really any reason for him to turn pro except if he was to announce this week that he's joining live, The reason you would turn pro last week is so that you could try to qualify for the U. S. Open because the only way he could have then tried to qualify was to be a pro because he was already qualified, follow me?

Luke Manning: 00:40:25

Yeah it was puzzling to me why he decided to turn pro and give up the exemption. So I've been scratching my head, not really understanding the play here. So. What are you saying? That there's a move to live that could be on the cards?

Jake Hower: 00:40:42

Well, it makes, that makes sense. Like, I think the only other reason I can think of for him to turn pro and try to qualify for the U. S. Open is maybe some reason to get the points from appearing in the U. S. Open. Maybe he was overconfident and expected to qualify. And he wanted to get a little bit of a head start with the points that he could earn before becoming a pro and trying to and on the corn ferry tour and trying to qualify. I'm not sure that's the only other thing I can consider, but other than that to me, like that would be the reason that you would turn pro if you're joining live. Cause ideally you would just not turn pro until you were actually announced if you were joining live, but yeah, just maybe that's the reason turn pro try and qualify.

Luke Manning: 00:41:25

Possibly, although you're talking joining from next year, right?

Jake Hower: 00:41:29

Oh, I think like announcing now,

Luke Manning: 00:41:31

playing this week. And playing as a wild card.

Jake Hower: 00:41:34

Potentially, yeah. Or joining another team. It probably makes more sense that he would take Hudson Swafford's position, who has not been in good form at all. I think, if we look at Laurie Cantor, for example, Laurie Cantor was the one that probably unfairly had to relinquish his wild card ticket in when an AK joints Hudson Swed, since coming back from Indu in injury has not been good at all. But he had an existing contract, so maybe if you're getting the talent of someone like a Christo Leche that the Liv guys are just willing to pay out Swafford contracts and, put Lamp Shane as a wild card for the remainder of the year

Luke Manning: 00:42:12

possibly. And the. The clues just don't really add up at the moment. So something's cooking behind the scenes because the decision to turn pro when you have the exemption just doesn't, in and of itself doesn't make sense.

Jake Hower: 00:42:28

Not for the summon of his quality.

Luke Manning: 00:42:29

No,

Jake Hower: 00:42:32

Maybe it's just something, maybe there's something we're missing, something non obvious, but simple. But that should play out this week. We should know more in, before next episode.

Luke Manning: 00:42:41

Oh, we'll stay tuned to see where it lands.

Jake Hower: 00:42:44

All right, Luke, I think that's it. Anything else?

Luke Manning: 00:42:47

No, that's all. So thanks everyone for listening. And we'll look forward to being back next week with a recap of the signature event at Muirfield and also a recap of Live Houston. And probably a preview of the U. S. Open.

Jake Hower: 00:43:03

Lovely. See you later.