Golf Nuts

We dive into the Hero World Challenge, 2026 predictions, and the latest in golf gear. We're talking night golf, the 2028 Olympics' mixed team format, and how YouTube is changing the game. Plus, we explore the rise of simulators, sim clubs, and the Grass League's new team-based format. Winter golf realities? We've got you covered. Are you ready to debate the future of golf, short courses and night courses? 
Sound off in the comments! ⛳️

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Creators and Guests

Host
Brian Harstine
A passionate player and creator, Brian lives deep in all things golf, bringing the game’s most relatable conversations to the channel—on the course and behind the mic. A former junior tour standout with more than a few scholarship offers, he shifted into a career as an award-winning film producer/director before spending the last nine years leading innovation in financial technology. Brian mixes business insight with a 2-(sometimes 4) handicap, diving into gear, pros, courses, culture, and everything that makes golf addictive.
Host
Josh Lynn
That big swing energy part of the team, and a strong +/- 7 handicap killer in a low key money game. He is the natural and sometimes odd voice of the modern golf fan; From Youtube's latest, to gear talk to course stories and the chaos of weekend rounds, Josh brings perspective, humor, and personality to the Golf Nuts crew.
Host
Patrick Baird (PB)
By day, Patrick lives in the world of venture, but he found his second calling as a true golf nut. An enthusiast rocking one of the best 7 Handicaps, who loves the heart and tradition of the game, helping shape the show’s signature style with quick takes, thoughtful analysis, and a competitor’s mindset. His perspective brings balance and depth from gear and culture to the guts of the game itself.

What is Golf Nuts?

Golf Nuts is the golf worlds group chat; where golf culture, competition, and golf entertainment collide. Real takes, real debates, and zero corporate nonsense. We discuss the shots, the gear, the trends, and the moments every golfer knows / wants to know—whether you’re a scratch player or just here for the vibes. Where a perfect blend of real love for the game meets laid-back, entertaining YouTube golf vibes lives.

👍 Like what you hear? Hit that like button and let us know!
🔔 Don't miss out—subscribe for more episodes and stay in the loop!
📢 Share the love! Pass this episode along to your fellow golf enthusiasts.
💬 Got thoughts? Drop a comment and join the conversation!
🎁 Exciting news! We're unlocking giveaways at every milestone—stay tuned and be part of the fun!

Follow Golf Nuts Everywhere ⛳️
▶️ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@golfnutsofficial
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golfnutsofficial
🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/golfnutsx
🌐 Official Site: https://golfnutsofficial.com

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to Golf Nuts. We are in episode two. Today, we've got a stacked lineup. We're covering the hero world challenge. It's be six hot takes and a little bit of gear that's been launched.

Speaker 1:

We're gonna go

Speaker 2:

into golf nerd survival mode, what we are doing in golf culture like. The rise of night golf and the short course culture. Riding off of that, we're gonna talk about the grass league. We've got bag court. We've officially launched our simulator giveaways.

Speaker 2:

If you're watching this on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, subscribe now.

Speaker 3:

Sign up early, you got your best chance for you to win something is gonna be now because first 200 subscribers are eligible in something.

Speaker 4:

As a product, I've actually enjoyed it. I started using one of these. It's a rapso to MLM. I started using it for some speed training actually this week. Before

Speaker 2:

we jump into our topics today, we've got a new segment called New to Us. Right now, never before done, twenty twenty eight Olympics, the mixing format that they just announced. I'm sure you guys are gonna read about this everywhere. It's on the golf channel. Men and women from each country on the same team hosted at the famous Riviera Country Club.

Speaker 2:

Legendary course that's hosted Genesis Invitational each year. Aside from last year, it had fires in LA and they had to move it. This course historically has hosted several golf majors, including the nineteen forty eight US Open, Ben Hogan won, PGA Championship in 8395, and it's set to host the twenty twenty six US Women's Open and now the twenty twenty eight Olympics. Also, do see it on the schedule for the men's US Open return in 2031. Format is a two person team, one man, one woman, 36 whole event.

Speaker 2:

Round one is foursomes, and then round two is a four ball. So, let's get some reactions from you guys.

Speaker 4:

I'm excited about high level golf going back to Riv as opposed to just the Genesis every year. It's always a fun part of the West Coast swing for me personally. I tune in, but I'm really interested to see who is gonna be representing The United States.

Speaker 3:

When we look at rise of the YouTube golf, I think that it has conditioned us that we can start to see men and women starting to play together. So this is gonna be more accepted in a way that I think five years ago, this wouldn't have been as an an anticipated event.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Definitely. I mean, the four ball, foursomes, both of those are gonna be interesting. I think it'll probably be a match play type thing. Maybe bracket format.

Speaker 2:

We don't know all the details on that quite yet. There's a couple of events where you see like Jake Knapp was teamed up with

Speaker 4:

Jake Knapp played with Patty of Tucket.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So they won that. They've they've been playing that one together. I mean, there's a couple of other programs where we see, you know, mixed team formats. I think it's not just two people from each country.

Speaker 2:

I think it's multiple teams of two from each country.

Speaker 4:

Will there be overlap between competing in the individual and then also competing as part of the next?

Speaker 2:

Has to be. Has to be overlap on that. Absolutely.

Speaker 3:

I just don't know I don't know who kind of the rising stars from the female side. It's gonna be interesting to see who's gonna come out represent. And does that translate to viewers as well?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I mean, on the LPGA side, it's kind of Nelly, Minigie Lee, sister.

Speaker 3:

But we got Patty up

Speaker 2:

there. She'll come out.

Speaker 4:

Patty's not a top 10.

Speaker 2:

This is a topic we're gonna cover in a future episode. Joe Hallett has been one of the top teachers on Golf Digest top 100 list. Number one for, like, seven years. And he coaches and travels with the LPGA pros. Coached the girl that won the last US Open.

Speaker 2:

So we'll have him on the go into LPGA in a way that we've probably not before. So alright. So next on the topic list, the last piece of news to us, we've gotta talk about the Optum Golf Channel games. Let's play the explainer video. This is news to me as of today.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Optum Golf Channel games, where two four man teams go head to head in a series of high stakes, high energy challenges.

Speaker 4:

Happened by two of the game's greatest players it's all about.

Speaker 2:

Rory McElroy and Scottie Scheffler. Here's how it all works. Competition five, captain's challenge. Finally, it's a showdown of the titans. Only the captains Rory and Scottie will compete in the captain's challenge, hitting 10 shots from predetermined spots.

Speaker 2:

One point for closest to the hole, minus one if it finds the water, five points for holding a shot off the green, and five points for holding a putt. The winner scores one point for their team and claims bragging rights in the epic finale. Let the games begin. Alright. So that's just one of the segments.

Speaker 2:

They actually have explainer videos for each of these different game segments. There is a team. It looks like Scottie has his own team. We'll pull up who those people are. Looks like he has Peegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Luke Clanton, and then Rory has his own team.

Speaker 4:

Shane people that Scottie and Rory picked? Are these people that the Golf Channel picked? Did the Golf Channel engineer these teams?

Speaker 2:

Or Who knows who weighed in on this? Interesting. Get on there. Check out what the different formats are. Curious to see where this fits and, you know, all these golf products that are being tested and brought out.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Look, at the end of the day, guys, this is entertainment. I think that's good for the game of golf, but there's so much noise out there. These guys have with real personalities or I think that this is going to die pretty quickly. But for right now, this is a lot of noise.

Speaker 3:

We've got so many products that are coming down and at some point our bandwidth just can't handle how many things are being tied at the average consumer.

Speaker 4:

To your point, we're inundated with Grassley, TGL, tube golf left and right, some of which is great, don't get me wrong. And now this, I mean, I think that could it grab people's attention? Yeah. I think that'll be dictated by how serious these guys take it. I who doesn't who doesn't wanna see Scottie and Rory compete?

Speaker 4:

I definitely do. You know where I wanna see Scottie and Rory compete? On the back nine at Augusta on Sunday, or for a US Open or for an Open Championship or for whatever is gonna be Scottie's major to complete the career grand slam.

Speaker 2:

It's like a skills combine is what a lot of different games will feel like.

Speaker 4:

Which can be compelling if they take it seriously.

Speaker 2:

If they take it seriously. Yeah. I mean, we see it on Taylor Made's YouTube channel. Right? Like, they do these like combines and like it but it's only the guys that are already signed to Taylor Made.

Speaker 4:

And they get Tiger in there and

Speaker 2:

Those are engaging me. I think they're fun. I think this is gonna take that to an entirely new level. It is broadcast version of YouTube Golf.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean, you're they're trying to stay relevant, but you gotta be able to every sport that's going to thrive has to learn how to be watched, not just play.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I mean, who am I kidding?

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna watch it. At least the first

Speaker 4:

one or two or one.

Speaker 2:

I It reminds me a little bit of that thing that came out from Netflix that was It had some really exciting things of it, but it kinda kinda tanked, kinda failed a little bit. I think the execution was the problem there on the production side. You know, the host side for the Netflix event. If you guys don't know what that is, I'm sure Netflix is still running it. Because I think you'll find that products like this are gonna learn from products like that.

Speaker 2:

Right? They're gonna take what they like. They're gonna throw away what didn't work. They're gonna put their own flare on it. I mean, it's it's a golf panel event.

Speaker 2:

You know, so they sold the sponsorship to Optum, clearly. So this will be, you know, a little more commercial.

Speaker 4:

And people love the idea of team golf. Liv obviously has tried it. TGL is trying to do it. Grass league, which we're gonna talk about more later, is another entrant in the space. Here's another one courtesy of the Golf Channel.

Speaker 4:

There's the ultimate echelon of team golf. Right? And that's the Ryder Cup. And then for but just for me, everything else is a far distant second. Now this now the Olympics would be different.

Speaker 3:

We keep retrying to reinvent the wheel and capture what it is the Ryder Cup essence, which

Speaker 2:

is That's right.

Speaker 3:

You have Ant Poulter, as we talked about in the last part podcast. Two of his most memorable shots as an entire career came off of Ryder Cup shots that he played. So we keep trying to reinvent that in a new format. To me, it just hasn't grabbed yet. That's right.

Speaker 4:

As exhibited by the fact that there are TGL Live, now this.

Speaker 2:

Netflix, the match, Capital One's the match, the skins game.

Speaker 4:

YouTube golf mixes about the Internet Invitational.

Speaker 2:

When I sit down at the in the evening, you know, you get home from work, you're gonna turn on some TV or something, you're gonna decompress, you're gonna watch something you wanna watch. You know, sometimes that's gonna be pro golf. Sometimes I'm gonna wanna zone out and watch something, you know, and if I wanna watch golf, but I want something chill, like now we have products for that. And this product will likely give us more of that as well. Like, you're gonna see because they don't take it as seriously as the masters, you're gonna see some, you know, fun interchange between Rory and Scotty and these other guys, and you're gonna see

Speaker 4:

who they are. You know, and, like, when they brought the map back that year, it was around Thanksgiving, Tiger and Smolt had it at Shadow Creek. I don't know if it's that they didn't take it seriously, but you didn't get all that, like, trash talk that you want if they weren't gonna take it seriously. It just did not come off as a great product.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It's manufactured entertainment. And to me, it hasn't come across as authentic. And I think that the end consumer can feel that. That's why a lot of these products haven't worked yet.

Speaker 3:

Again, I like YouTube golf so much more because we know Bob does sports. Those guys aren't very good at golf, but that is their brand. That is who they are. Because what they do is

Speaker 4:

like they are entertainer at their core.

Speaker 3:

But there's an authenticity about it. They're not trying to be anything that they're not. The problem I with so many of these new concepts trying to come out. Again, it just doesn't work from

Speaker 2:

being produced a lot less produced. I you know, we see these posts on Instagram where even my wife mentioned this. It's like, how much of this is reality TV for the guys? Right? Kind of is.

Speaker 2:

A lot. Yeah. Especially especially

Speaker 4:

with something like the Internet Invitational. Right? Like, that's

Speaker 3:

That's why I'm craving different formats and why I'm quickly clicking off of all the rest of them. I I'm just not captured by it. And I don't think I'm the only one that hasn't bought into it yet.

Speaker 2:

See, there's three different demographics in this room. And listening, there's probably a bunch more demographics. And these people may not watch the same Netflix shows as you either. Wolf has gotten enough people, enough eyeballs that are watching it on various formats to where you need to have different products to fit the different demographics because people are coming to the game for all kinds of reasons. It's not just, you know, the same sport that we read about that we grew up with.

Speaker 2:

You know, so that's a whole different thing. So let's let's move on. Just to give you guys a heads up, this is happening in Jupiter, Florida at the Trump National Golf Club. Next on the list, we've got the hero world challenge.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. So 2025, season closing, Scottie Scheffler is bidding for what would have been the first ever three peat at the hero. Hideki says not so fast, my friend, blistered that course. And then Albany was sixty sixty two on Sunday, I think. So he's a second time winner.

Speaker 4:

He won it in 2016 as well. This one actually went to a playoff. Yeah. I mean, he just stuffed a stuffed a nine iron for, like, three feet when they went back on 18, and and that was that. So good book into the season for Hideckey.

Speaker 4:

He opened the season, if you recall, with a win at the Century. And Kapalua then really didn't do anything for that middle every single other event until the hero, and then and then wins the hero. So

Speaker 3:

I watched the playoff in Hideki. God, he is a quiet assassin with his irons. He is a murdered by iron against anybody that goes up against him.

Speaker 4:

And then if he can putt, it's like good to know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. But we, you also knock it stiff within three feet. You're better make that putt. I think that at the end of the day, Scottie not winning the three peat was actually one of the best things that could happen for golf right now. Scottie not winning, it was getting so predictable.

Speaker 3:

And frankly, I think people were tuning out, but we had Becky actually helped them increase viewership slightly this year over last year, which was interesting because viewership has been dropping across the board for the PGA tour over the last eighteen months from where it was coming out of COVID. So I think this was one of the best things that could happen for the game of golf. Hideki himself though, one of the things I love about him, he's so quiet and understated. Anybody that's sitting here is saying that this was his coming out party. He never left that man.

Speaker 3:

As I already said, he is a assassin out there on the golf course.

Speaker 4:

And what in Kapalua?

Speaker 2:

I feel like he peaks his head up and and takes some of these events out from under some of the best players in the world. But, you know, he he's not the guy that's gonna be, like, on a streak. He doesn't streak and win, like, three tournaments out of like six tournaments or 10 tournaments. But, yeah. I mean, you look at his stats, he's always gonna be Yeah.

Speaker 3:

He's a top 20 top 20 player week in week out.

Speaker 4:

King of Scotty, by the way, he has now finished no worse than tied for eighth in his last 16 events. That's going back to March.

Speaker 2:

The engagement on this event was actually higher than any other PGA Tour fall event. And this is in the off season, which might be because people are starved with golf. Like, what do they do? Boom. Tiger hosts the tournament.

Speaker 2:

The Hero World Challenge invite only. You know. And anyway, so Tiger's sitting there in the press conference. He's talking about Scottie. And, you know, he he said something pretty interesting to me.

Speaker 2:

He said, this guy hits his windows like none other. Like, he he hits his windows like I did, basically, is what he's saying. He controls his spin to where when he misses and the spin is moving the ball in the right place on the green. You know, it plays to the right parts of the green. If he's into the wind or back of the wind, he changes his ball flight up and down.

Speaker 2:

And hearing that from Tiger means something totally different than hearing that from like, you know, Randall Chamblee. Right. Like, they're not out there watching him.

Speaker 4:

When he when he was in the booth, direct quote, I truly love watching him hit irons.

Speaker 3:

Tiger, I think brought, authority in there. But he would say to me obvious points when he was out there in the booth and we would all take that as a new gospel. I think that we give Tiger sometimes too much credit. And for me, fine. It helps bring in the viewerships, but I don't think that his analysis was the most in-depth throughout

Speaker 2:

the past.

Speaker 4:

It's definitely not his day job.

Speaker 2:

And when it's coming out of Tiger's mouth, it's like raw. You know, you can tell he's not, you know, an announcer. And that's I think that's what people kinda want these days more so than the past.

Speaker 4:

He also toasted Kevin Kissner

Speaker 2:

Who did? Live Tiger. No way. Remember the

Speaker 4:

the TGL match last year when Yep. Kissner smells it out of the bunker off of the flagstick? Yeah. I I forget what Kissner was saying. But Tigers was like, hey, I've seen you trip.

Speaker 4:

And then they play they play the video where Kissner spells it off. I thought Max Homer

Speaker 2:

was about to fall over. Dude, Homer should freaking booth, man. Like, he's Homa's hot take. What does he do with swing? Swing roasts?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. But yeah, look, Scotty did not repeat. Does it mean anything? Everybody's talking about what this means for the guy's career? Like, is it a signal for 2026?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely not.

Speaker 3:

This is preseason football, guys. Only thing this is setting up is what's gonna happen in January about what's gonna happen in the majors.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's just it's clickbait.

Speaker 4:

Fun event for those guys. They get some world ranking points. Yeah. Great. It's not an official PGA event.

Speaker 4:

You can bookmark this. Only other interesting storyline from the hero for me, Justin Rose. Sixth place, 18 under, 45 years old. Rosie has still got another major left. I don't know which one it's gonna be.

Speaker 4:

I don't know what's gonna come. Justin Rose will win another major before he hangs it up.

Speaker 2:

Twenty twenty six pro golf predictions. Like, you you just let us off right there, man.

Speaker 4:

Just before you tool all over me, tied for second at Augusta, lost in the Rory, missed the cut to PGA, missed the cut to US Open, ties for sixteenth at the Open, at the PGA last PGA last year, so in '24, tied for sixth. At the Open, the year before, if you guys remember, he tied for second. Alexander won. Rosie's got the juice.

Speaker 2:

He really does. He really does.

Speaker 3:

Well, that goes into, like, our guys. Let's look at Scotty. Oh, we're on Jersey one this year. He's winning another major this year.

Speaker 2:

Another major? Yeah. Probably. Yeah. I mean, over under

Speaker 3:

over. I don't think that Scottie is regressing, and I don't think that the hero world challenge is him regressing. I think that the floor is just rising to his level and everybody's getting so good. And again, we've we've been beating this horse, but that these guys are so good. They're plus plus seven, golfers.

Speaker 4:

Think you're lying

Speaker 3:

about See one and a how good that is.

Speaker 2:

So it's like, it's nine.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Floor is just getting so high right now. So I think you're right. Justin Rose, but there's 20 guys out there on tour that can right now go out and compete week in, week out and really challenge, I think for every one of these majors.

Speaker 4:

Scotty, I think Scotty over under, I think it's one and a half. I would personally take the over on that.

Speaker 2:

On majors or total wins?

Speaker 4:

Oh, on majors. You know, he's always strong performer at Augusta. Where where's the open this year? Major championship venues for next year. Obviously, Masters Augusta, PGA is at Eranamink, Shinnecock for the US Open, and the Open is at Royal Burkdale.

Speaker 4:

I could see him definitely contending at Shinnecock. And that's gonna be for the career grand slam.

Speaker 3:

I think that Roy is

Speaker 4:

Over under over under three and a half wins. PGA tournaments and majors.

Speaker 3:

I think that Roy's problem is expectation fatigue.

Speaker 4:

He's gonna have a huge hangover.

Speaker 3:

The PGA tour has made him to be the spokesperson that I do not think that he wants to be. So I think that this is gonna be a down year for Roy.

Speaker 4:

So you're going under?

Speaker 3:

I'm gonna go under.

Speaker 4:

I would go I would agree with that. I would go under. This year, I checked off arguably the last two things on his golf life career list of stuff to do. He completed the Grand Slam on the Masters, and he won an away Ryder Cup, which he performed in, by the way. He he lost to Scottie.

Speaker 4:

But, like

Speaker 3:

And if he doesn't win, the media is just gonna hound on him. I think that this is gonna be an exhaust exhausting year for Roy McElroy. Frankly, I think that once the media gets off of him two, three years down the road, when he's no longer the spokesperson for the, for the PGA tour, frankly, I think he comes back and he'll win one more because Roy's a world class athlete. He's a world class golfer. He's one of the best that's ever played the game.

Speaker 3:

But as I said, expectation fatigue.

Speaker 2:

On the Roy subject, it's a simple piece of math between his focus on the course and his focus to his life off the course. Yep. And I think once he's checked those boxes that he did check last year, you know, will he come back and come back with a vengeance? You know, what's his next goal gonna be? That's my question for him is what drives him now?

Speaker 2:

I mean, prediction for me on Scotty, when you look at his arc so far over the last couple of years, my question is, is this his two thousand year?

Speaker 4:

Right? Like This coming year, 2026.

Speaker 2:

2026. Is this when Scottie just shows up in a way that makes you go tiger watch? That's what I'm looking for right now. I think I think it's very the guys in, obviously the greatest form, that we've seen any golfer on the PGA tour being

Speaker 3:

Best football that's ever played the game.

Speaker 2:

Happy feet.

Speaker 3:

I I would say the big three right now, Scottie, Bryce, and Roy, they're carrying the entire sport, in my opinion. So what do y'all think happens with Bryson this year?

Speaker 4:

Line, 0.5. Does does he win a major? Does he not? Built to win outside of the US Open. I think he's shown he can play at Augusta.

Speaker 4:

I don't see I don't personally see him winning an open championship.

Speaker 3:

Shinnecock's gonna be tough for him. It's gonna be tough for all the guys. He can still win majors out there. We all know that he's a top five player in the world, but he's gotta stop acting like he's the smartest guy into him, because I think at times he starts to distract himself from how good he can be when he's trying to beat the game of golf at all times instead of just playing, go out and play the game.

Speaker 2:

I see him struggle with that in press conferences. I think he is aware of it because you see him catch himself, pull it back, be more humble. You know, this isn't YouTube golf. I'm in a press conference for a pro event. You know, it's gotta be a different version of me.

Speaker 2:

You know, I think he's struggling with his brand. Right? And and, I mean, he's got an amazing brand. It's not that he struggles with the brand itself. It's in his head.

Speaker 2:

How do you turn on the switch between, you know, entertainer and

Speaker 4:

You know, high fiving you know, high fiving the fan and autographs between holes at Pinehurst to, okay, wait, this is actually a, you know, a press conference that is with the real media and I've got to be a professional golfer. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, look, he went from, like, villain to folk hero in two years.

Speaker 4:

And he's the only one of those guys that Liv was actually a positive change for their career for.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Only one. I think

Speaker 3:

he's also carrying the entire Liv brand right now.

Speaker 2:

Only one who's actually, if you look at all of the big names that were paid hundreds of millions of dollars to be brought over to Liv, Bryson's the only one whose fan base and engagement level has grown since joining live.

Speaker 3:

The rest of the guys, I can't tell you what they're doing with Bryson's the one that you keep up with, but I think a lot of that has to do with YouTube golf.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, what are you gonna do when you're playing, what, eight eight tournaments a year? Yeah. And then majors that you get or or turns you might get invited to? You know, what what are you gonna do in the middle of that? You you gotta do something.

Speaker 2:

Bryson, I believe, is a a major, like, lethal threat. We're under this year.

Speaker 3:

Does he win one?

Speaker 2:

I think he top fives in two.

Speaker 3:

I will take that bet all day long. I I think you're right. On top You

Speaker 4:

think he will top five and two?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I think he's gonna compete. He'll he'll be there on a Sunday coming down the finish line, but I don't know if he wins.

Speaker 2:

The question about whether he wins or not is how focused he is. He has the capability. He can do it. He can steal one out from under any of these guys, including Scottie, but he has to be, like, on, like, on point. And he's gotta figure out his wedge game.

Speaker 2:

He is talking about that left and right. Like, it's in his head. He knows his wedge game isn't good. He's gotta flip that switch. You know, the other guy on YouTube, Wesley Bryan, is all about how good he is at wedges.

Speaker 2:

Even if John Rom's talking about how his his nickname's like Wedgely Bryan. You know? Like, you gotta spin his worth part of his game and turn it into a scoring part of his game. That that's his unlock for for winning a major.

Speaker 3:

How dangerous is his upside though if he can figure out that butch game?

Speaker 4:

Very. I still don't know that he wins an open championship though. I don't think his game is built for it. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to be proven wrong.

Speaker 2:

Shift a little bit into Rory on, predictions. So, he won a last year. I don't think that he's gonna be coming into this season with any less confidence. Definitely more confidence than he had last season. Last season, he was struggling.

Speaker 2:

Can he do it again? Will he do it again? And then once he did it, won the grand slam, it was, well, what are you gonna do now? Are you gonna win the Ryder Cup? The media frenzy was crazy.

Speaker 2:

It's hard to focus during that period of time, but he did it anyway. You know, so now, honestly, I feel like he is floating through the air in 2026. I think that you're looking at over under four wins plus for for Rory. And, you know, I think Scottie's got five, minimum five wins.

Speaker 4:

So, you're going over you're taking over three and a half for Rory.

Speaker 2:

Over three and a half for Rory.

Speaker 4:

Probably floating in the sky is that your head's in the clouds.

Speaker 2:

See, that's not how I look at it. Some of the best rounds I've played are when I just don't have worries. Right? You're not worried about money. You're not worried about getting home to your kids.

Speaker 2:

You know, you're just you've completed things you gotta complete. You know everybody's taken care of. You know? You you're just floating. You're not worried about parts of your game or or the things that are outside of your game.

Speaker 2:

You're able to focus, I think.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. We'll see. I mean, he so there's the masters. He won at Pebble. He won the players.

Speaker 4:

He won the Irish Open. That Big Eagle on the eighteenth hole forced a playoff. He did win a seventh race to Dubai this year. He beat Seve's record. That was

Speaker 2:

that was pretty cool to watch.

Speaker 4:

Rory also interesting enough, and I don't know if this has any effect on your calculus. Rory is reducing his yearly schedule down to 18 to 20 events. Mean He's kinda kinda pulling a tiger. The the realm of how many total overall wins, he's just gonna have fewer shots on the goal.

Speaker 2:

Sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Yeah. I think that this I I beat this was earlier, but I don't think that Roy's gonna have a great 2026 comparatively to what he had last year. I think that this is a middle checkout year for him. And I think that he's, again, gotta get out of the limelight.

Speaker 2:

The challenge that Roy always has is round one. He's a he's self admitted, he's a momentum player. And when he feels like he just does not show up on round one or round two, and he puts up, you know, a round par score, he does sort of turn the momentum off. Once he catches a little bit of fire in round one, round two, like, he is always in that top. He's always in the hunt on Sunday.

Speaker 2:

For him, it's a momentum. It's a it's a mental challenge. Can he get the momentum and maintain the momentum? He's not one of those that's gonna play a perfect round of golf. He knows that too.

Speaker 4:

He shot even 72 in the Masters this year. He had two double bogeys over the last four holes and shot even par.

Speaker 2:

On Sunday?

Speaker 4:

On the first first round.

Speaker 2:

On day one. Yeah. He knows that's his challenge. Just like Bryson knows his challenge is wedges. Like, he's self proclaimed, understands this.

Speaker 2:

So

Speaker 3:

Now we all know that you just don't wanna blow up on the forest egg.

Speaker 4:

Can't win can't win the tournament on day one, but you can lose it.

Speaker 2:

That's that's right. Now, look, a a major shooting around par in a major is less penal to them than shooting around par. I mean

Speaker 4:

oh, sorry. Unless it's the PGA of Valhalla.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Under par winning. It's I mean, yeah. Then you have to show up around one, two, three, four,

Speaker 4:

like period.

Speaker 2:

You have to show up. Alright, guys. Do we have any dark horses coming out of the PGA Tour in terms of not just regular wins, but major wins over under on a dark horse that has not won a major before? Adjusting Rose doesn't count.

Speaker 3:

Could you have a guy like Harris English who has for the last decade been a top 25 money owner, week in, week out, exceptional play doh come out and actually win or can he not close it out?

Speaker 2:

I don't know. Harris English had some flashes of genius last year.

Speaker 3:

Do you think the Ryder Cup was a setback for him though because he played so bad in the Ryder Cup?

Speaker 2:

Not really. I think the format has too many caveats to, you know, how you individually played, you know, format, the stadiums are different. Yeah. All of that stuff changes the way the player will bank that in their minds. Now, if they felt defeated in a way, regardless of format, they don't put that caveat on, maybe.

Speaker 2:

Maybe it affects them. Possibly.

Speaker 4:

I've got two for you. Dark horses that could win. Tommy Fleetwood?

Speaker 2:

A major.

Speaker 4:

A major.

Speaker 2:

He is in form.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. He's in he's number two in data golf rankings right now. He was close, like spitting distance from winning one. Tommy Fleetwood good, and I also think Cam Young good. Cam Young was right there his rookie year at the open when Cam Smith played out of his ever loving mind.

Speaker 4:

And Cam Young got the monkey off his back getting a win this year. And he played very well with Ryder Cup. Not that that has an impact on but it's like a momentum building exercise.

Speaker 2:

Another one. Was it the RBC? I think it was Sam Burns and Fox, Ryan Fox that ended up in this pretty, pretty cool playoff. Cam Young was literally right there on the very last hole. He air mailed the green on a par five, but easily should have made a birdie in that playoff with the other two.

Speaker 2:

RBC Canadian Open. That's right. Canadian Open. Yes. Not the Heritage.

Speaker 2:

Not not the Heritage. Yeah. Forget they sponsor Apple. Shout out to RBC for sporting golf. Just like this year, we had a crazy upset with JJ Spawn.

Speaker 2:

I think that was really cool to see.

Speaker 4:

That was a sick putt. Huge for lab golf. Idea free should should have been Yeah.

Speaker 2:

$200,000,000 is what lab golf was bought for, and I bet that putt helped.

Speaker 3:

So put them on the map in a way that they weren't before.

Speaker 2:

Y'all, Adam, there's a whole thing about this and our resident lab

Speaker 4:

There's there's a great podcast if you haven't listened to it. You probably haven't because it's six one hour six or seven one hour episodes. The Fire Pit Collective did they did like soups and nuts, the story of lab golf.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And now we got different iterations of lab putters that end up in the hands of winners across DP World Tour, Asian Tour.

Speaker 4:

Senior Senior US Senior Open.

Speaker 2:

And then, the US Open with JJ Spawn. So, a dark horse for me back to prediction. Think we get a dark horse in 2026. Everybody's gonna track Rory. Everybody's gonna track Bryton.

Speaker 2:

They're gonna track Scottie. How many are they gonna take? But, man Lee

Speaker 4:

Wood and Cam Young, baby.

Speaker 2:

Honestly, I love Matt Tomna. His ability to go low is huge. The ability for him to get creative on a course is huge. It's the mind game.

Speaker 3:

He doesn't seem to have the there's a factor there where he's just not a a killer.

Speaker 2:

He's got it, but he's distracted. The whole thing with his caddy last season was something that derailed, I think, what could have been a pretty solid season for him. The guy the guy can go low.

Speaker 3:

Like It just seemed like 2022 was kind of his his year to me. And when he didn't strike, I don't know. Again, I just think he's missing a little bit of the the kill.

Speaker 2:

It's just it's just something in the mind that's gotta flip. I mean, you see it with the greatest players in the world. Once they figure it out, I mean, they they had the game. But once the

Speaker 3:

All of these guys, as we've already said, there's 20 guys out there that have the game every single week out there.

Speaker 4:

How about Aaron Rye? Thirty seventh of the world just beat, just beat out Rory and Sleetwood. Double gloves. Iron covers.

Speaker 2:

Iron covers for the win. The whole story behind that too is is very interesting.

Speaker 4:

Very cool. Very touching.

Speaker 2:

With his dad and Yeah. If you guys don't know about that, look, Aaron's eye a great story. Yeah. I mean, go and go and watch him talk about it because it's gonna mean a lot more than hearing it from me. But frankly, like, he was given a set of clubs and he did not want to, you know, ruin them at all.

Speaker 2:

He didn't have a chance to buy new clubs. His dad was going, you know, out of his way to make this happen for him. And he wanted to, you know, keep them nice. And to this day, like, he does he does that. Probably in his head, that's probably something he curious and probably helps him get through every round, reminds him, you where he came from, what it's all about.

Speaker 4:

And he basically would end a playoff, by the way, to win an Abu Dhabi.

Speaker 2:

We all

Speaker 3:

have our routines and I guarantee you putting that head cover back on, taking it off. That's all part of his routine that he's developed since his early days. And as you said, didn't wanna destroy the clubs that his parents really couldn't afford give him growing up. Those that come from me get the best coaches, get the best equipment, but having a guy like that come from the humble origins that he did. I love the story.

Speaker 3:

And I would love to see a guy like that emerge as being one of the next superstars in the lake.

Speaker 2:

Alright. Let's switch gears to equipment, ball drops, club drops, 2026. You know, what are we looking at? Pat, you wanna lead us off on a couple of these?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. So just as a point of reference, 2028 is when the new testing conditions for professionals are gonna take place regarding the golf ball rollback. TBD on if, like, that actually happens or not, I personally think it's a terrible thing for the game if they do that. One of the cool things about golf is that seven Brian's case, less than seven handicappers can play the same stuff that, you know, Rory and Bryson are playing, and it's just a measuring stick. But all that to say, twenty twenty eight for pros, twenty thirty for the the regular golfers like us.

Speaker 2:

On that subject, if they roll back the golf ball, do we also roll back what's in our bags? I mean, we're not pros. We're not getting, you know, do we want to play the same thing that pros play? And will will the manufacturers do that?

Speaker 4:

That's one of the coolest things about golf is because it is a sport that you play the same way professionals do. I mean, I kind of enjoy playing the same thing that the pros play. And so, unfortunately, I probably will be one of those. Like, just give me the rolled back golf ball. They're doing it.

Speaker 4:

Want to. 100%.

Speaker 3:

I don't think that this is an issue. Golf doesn't have a distance problem. It has a timing issue. The game is just getting too long with the COVID golf that's coming in that doesn't respect the game, doesn't respect, pace of play. That's the problem that we have.

Speaker 3:

It's not a rollback issue.

Speaker 4:

So to your point, the expected distance reductions by the rollback. Longest hitters in the game, your Bryson's, Rory's, etcetera. Expected loss of 13 to 15 yards. Average PGA per player, nine to 11 yards. Recreational golfers, five yards or less.

Speaker 3:

And every driver that I've bought since 2020

Speaker 4:

How many drivers have you bought?

Speaker 3:

Not since '2 oh, it's 03/2021 that Brian actually helped me build last year, but every time I keep thinking I'm going to have 15 yards to my overall drive. And yet the older I get, shorter it seems to go.

Speaker 2:

I, I actually went cold Turkey. I stopped playing the game of golf for a large amount of time. I'm embarrassed to almost say how much. Had a a nice exit in a company in 2019 and picked up the game again, and I have no idea why I ever stopped playing it. But I came back to the game with a set of clubs that was 18 years old that I toured with in juniors and, you know, men's men's professionals.

Speaker 4:

Over those clubs.

Speaker 2:

We'll we'll have to do a little deep dive on that. But it was a nine eighty three ks. We're talking about distance drivers and whatnot. So I was playing a Titleist nine eighty three ks. And I mean, I still played it.

Speaker 2:

I played the whole set. And I went in the, you know, a couple of different club fitters at the time. And I wanted to test not just the clubs, but also the fitters, because I know how much that really changes the game. And I will say that from a nine eighty three k to the sim driver was the first driver I got, the original sim. It I I legitimately gained nearly 20 yards.

Speaker 2:

Nearly now if I hit the nine eighty three k center, like, the distance difference was a lot lot closer. But, man, like, it's so forgiving. The distance on off center hits is is ridiculous. And then you you look at all differences now that are helping you optimize your trajectory. You get the most hang time, optimize your spin for your swings.

Speaker 2:

And that's how you can have a 108 mile an hour swing and still carry the ball to 75, two eighty five, you know, and still, like, roll it out to 300, three ten. Yeah. You know, if you have a great fitter, all that matches your swing, that matches your profile, the the shaft and the club work together, And we're looking at some really interesting releases in '26. My Golf Spy again does deep dives on golf balls. I actually was fitted into the Pro V one x left dash.

Speaker 2:

I played a couple other balls that surprised me. Was very impressed by them. But You do play left dash. I do play left And I've been tracking it and they haven't updated that in like four four or five years.

Speaker 4:

Funny you mentioned that because the new left dash is coming in 2026.

Speaker 2:

Boom. I'm so excited about that.

Speaker 4:

Bryson played it allegedly at the US Open when he won at Pinehurst in '24. It was a prototype then. And it made its debut officially more widespread debut at the Procore in this September.

Speaker 3:

But guys, we also have guys like Adam Tshnape who just won that Buttonfield Bermuda championship. He was using an eight year old, Ping G 400 driver.

Speaker 4:

Bernard Langer still plays the G 400.

Speaker 3:

Which how much is a company like Ping just absolutely about to tinkle in their pants when a player comes out and wins with an eight year old technology? And I believe it's three wood, say it's something like years old.

Speaker 2:

Bermuda was won by a guy playing his whole whole bag was old. Like, his whole bag was old. I mean, I think it was the m six and oh, Aaron Wright. Nope. Aaron Wright and the guy that won two guys.

Speaker 2:

M six wins.

Speaker 4:

Crazy, the wins, like, mile an hour wins. Yeah. And the that I don't know what you're talking about. Adam Schenk?

Speaker 3:

I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 2:

I went on eBay and I looked at m sixes.

Speaker 3:

But at the same time, guys, like, just be comfortable with the equipment that you have. That extra three yards that you're gonna get this and that. We don't need to upgrade as often as some of these guys are.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. But that's fun.

Speaker 2:

It is fun. Look for the for us, you know, unless you are really serious and you're dedicated, you're you're putting in your ten thousand hours, you're working on specific parts of your game, you're methodical about growth of your game, both off the course, on the course, or competitively, then then it's a different story. But for the the rest of the world that's, you know, competitive, you know, playing your member guests, you're, you know, the casual competitions. Yeah. You're you're gonna wanna just get a new thing and have fun with that new thing.

Speaker 2:

I mean Yeah. It's our version of what, like, the your wife's YSL bag or whatever she's gonna spend way too much money on. You're gonna be like, mind blown. And then you turn around and spend $4 on golf clubs.

Speaker 3:

We just lost some female, dealership there because of this hate being like that. No.

Speaker 2:

I actually validated their bag purchase. If you really think about it, Pro V1X left

Speaker 4:

Pro V1X left dash, the new Bridgestone golf balls, which I've never personally it just hasn't ever really worked for me. The the successor to the Tour B lineup, obviously, they've got Tiger Hawk in those. He has allegedly confirmed a ball speed increase, but he only just got cleared to chip and putt, like, in the past week or so. We'll see. Jason Day, another Bridgestone staffer, really likes it.

Speaker 2:

Wesley Bryan's been playing that per Jason Day. Day, I guess, slip I don't know, slipped him some balls or something. I don't know how that works.

Speaker 4:

He went

Speaker 3:

to his house and they did a jump into his backyard. Jason Day's got a exceptional

Speaker 2:

sit down his. So, yeah. I mean, there's there's some, like, they're they're going I don't know if it's a marketing tactic, but they're going with some, like, low key slide in

Speaker 3:

hype.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. And they're and they're very smart marketing to your point. They're calling it just like the Versus Proto series right now.

Speaker 3:

I would hate to get so plugged into a brand new golf ball though, and then make your entire game based around that. And then now in two years from now, you're gonna have to switch to a different golf ball. I understand you wanna dominate in the prep and time as best you can. But again, these are guys that, as we just said, using the same equipment for sometimes eight years.

Speaker 4:

I tell you so one one guy's opinion on the golf ball, like, I think the the least accessible, but could arguably be the most beneficial to just, like, the everyday weekend warrior golfer would be golf ball fitting. Yeah. And and and you can go I mean, you can go get, like, when the titleist van drives up to your course, yeah, you can do a titleist ball fitting. Like, the only other the only thing that's commercially available and read readily, excuse me, readily accessible is also Ping products called Ballnamic.

Speaker 2:

I saw that. I saw that.

Speaker 4:

You can load your simulator numbers into it and it will and what you currently play and it will spit out.

Speaker 2:

That's an

Speaker 4:

what's the best ball street? It's like $20 for five fittings.

Speaker 2:

That should be more widely widely, you know, brought to the average golfer. I think

Speaker 3:

Yeah. But guys, until you're a single digit handicapper, none of this matters. We're gonna see next year the new Amazon golf ball is going to be everywhere. And that golf ball is not gonna be the best ball out there. It's gonna compete with what was a mojo.

Speaker 3:

But They

Speaker 4:

haven't put it in a, you know, my golf spy? They haven't put it in a test, like, comprehensive head to head with all the other golf balls yet, but they have tested it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. But know that when they test a ball, that's not a part of the ball test. It's a bunch of the people at different skill levels hitting the ball in the simulator, and then they cut it open and they look at the inside and they're like

Speaker 4:

Manifractic tolerances.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Is is it consistent?

Speaker 4:

I don't think they've done that. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

From what I've heard so far, it could be a surprisingly good ball, like the first Kirkland ball and I guess the the most recent what it did. Dude,

Speaker 3:

though, didn't they? Because their original Kirkland ball was too close to

Speaker 4:

the part of the one. Part of the one. Yeah. But the the Amazon ball is urethane cover. They're like $6 a dozen.

Speaker 2:

There are some surprising balls that do not have urethane covers that are performing extremely well in tests. One of the title of balls, I know for a fact, I think that's the velocity for tour speed. And then one, one of the, I think it's the tailor made tour response.

Speaker 3:

But does the bogey golfer who's the amateur bogey golfer that goes out six times a year need to be buying Pro V1s or just eco and they need to just buy the Amazon golf ball. At the end of the day, you settle the masses to dime with the glasses guys. I think this is going be one of the hottest selling golf balls in twenty It twenty

Speaker 4:

might very well be.

Speaker 2:

The average golfer that's, 10 handicap, maybe higher than that even, that's going out and playing with his kids or or younger guys that are getting into the game. I mean, cost is a big factor. Golf is an expensive sport. Like, throw down $50 a dozen? Heck no.

Speaker 2:

Like, yeah, you need a ball that fits that a 100%. I think they will if be your door in today. Yeah. Problem with the low cost golf balls is that from year to year, they are not consistent. It's like find a ball that's good, and then from year to year, keep it consistent.

Speaker 2:

If Kirkland was able to do that, which they weren't because of lawsuits, you know, now they've kinda come back. And I think the most recent one is pretty good. If they can keep it consistent

Speaker 4:

The three three the K SIG 3.5?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. And Vice kinda did that. Vice kinda did. But Vice kinda came up a little bit in price too.

Speaker 2:

So

Speaker 4:

You wanna talk clubs?

Speaker 2:

Let's talk clubs. Bring us, bring us

Speaker 4:

Quick rundown on what we know so far. Taylor Made has released UI four d. You've seen Scotty with his with a blue face that they made for him. Scotty Rory, Fleetwood has one in the bag as well. Callaway's new driver setup is the successor to the, you know, the Paradigm and the Elite called Quantum.

Speaker 4:

I haven't seen color photos of those just like the USDA certification photos that they send in. Ping has released the g four forty k during Just expanding a lineup. Year release, so they put the g four thirty k max in the previous off season release to similar option. They added a second and a half degree loft option to that. It's a low lofted driver.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Then I mean, it's low loft, but to be fair, the technology seen getting put in these clubs over the last six years, especially in the last couple years, has brought MOI super high. It's brought the center of gravity super low. It's launching balls higher with force in, and you might want to bring that down with the I mean, you know, the other thing is if you wanna turn that seven and a half up to a a nine by one and a half degrees to create, you know, a a fade or draw bias. Right?

Speaker 2:

Right now, it's mostly in turn them down and that creates more of a, I believe, fade bias.

Speaker 4:

Oh, they've got a rear weight in this one too.

Speaker 2:

There you go.

Speaker 4:

And then in driver land, the last ones that we know, Cobra, OPTM, I'm assuming that's Optum. I'm sure it'll probably be a speed demon if they're trying to have a successor to the dark speed. And then PXP has released things called the lightning.

Speaker 2:

How good of a name was dark speed?

Speaker 3:

A deck you just won with the Shrix funds this week at Brook Dive Shrix funded. That's promising as well. And That's right. Yeah. People discount,

Speaker 2:

I think, Mizuno and shirts on in terms of the bang for the buck you get out of those drivers. Those are wild. Yep. Let's talk about, like, a little release schedules for two seconds. Tylis is in kind of a you know, if everyone else zigs, Tylis zags.

Speaker 2:

You know, they they release them much later, more towards the actual season when they do club releases rather than everyone else that's releasing them right now. Like, they release them or at least they're announcing them now. They tour test them now, and then they come out top of next season, you know, for the rest of us to buy. Titleist, it'll be a little bit later in the season where they're switching, you know, when you have an opportunity. So it's interesting tactic from a company perspective, and they might get a little bit of knowledge from whatever what everyone else has released, and how do we want to change or reposition our products slightly in the market based on what's been released.

Speaker 2:

I think there's some strategy there. And then your direct to consumer is really hard to test. You know, they they might release, you know, in the same windows. You see others release new drivers. They're piggybacking, I think, on some marketing as well.

Speaker 2:

When everybody's doing new driver tests, they can include those with them. But how do you and I go with SPXG? Like, you gotta find a club.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. You you gotta go down the West here in Nashville.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. But guys, at the end of the day, I think that we, at life, a business and a golf equipment, if you buy it in December, you won't trust it by April.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's like, it can't be me. It's gotta be the equipment.

Speaker 3:

I'm not playing well enough right now for me to go buy any equipment during the downside downtime right now. So I'm, I'm not, I don't buy during the wintertime.

Speaker 2:

We're going with our cyber week golf buys. Everybody probably had their laptops open for a little bit too long every evening. I mean, at least there's millennials shop on our laptops. You know, everybody else shops on their phones now.

Speaker 3:

And at the end of the day, this is all optimistic buying. I wait till my season starts before I start adding to my bag.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

I haven't bought anything either. I came close to buying a box of the, probably a couple of boxes of the chrome two or triple diamond. I played that I played a box of those or I really liked it actually. I think it's a left dash killer.

Speaker 2:

It's I mean, it's a distance demon. But

Speaker 4:

Little little bit softer

Speaker 2:

than the left Yeah. The question is, how do they feel off of the two two clubs in your bag that cost you the most strokes? Your wedge and your putter.

Speaker 4:

I think it's softer. It feels a little softer off the putter than the left dash. And I got better spin off of it than the left dash.

Speaker 2:

I hit my irons more than I hit my driver, you know, every round. I think everybody does. If if my irons are coming out of a weird window with weirdly low spin, like, the green the way you want to, you know, that's a I'm just not gonna play that ball. I don't care if I'm five or seven or even 10 yards further down the fairway. You know, that might be one club difference on the iron, and I'm guessing too much on how it's gonna come into that grain.

Speaker 4:

The left dash work for you?

Speaker 2:

Left dash work it did work for me, but head to head, if you look at it in the charts, it it's a very different spinning flight profile now than that that triple diamond. They say it's a left dash pillar because they're both supposed to be like Long. High flight, low spin, long balls, but they feel different. They fly different.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

The only thing I've been tempted to buy lately has been ordering a couple of the Tacoma wedges. They're a $100 apiece. Just trying it out. If I don't like it, I'll turn around and sell it on Facebook marketplace.

Speaker 2:

And they didn't do any cyber deals. Like they're just already rock bottom prices. Like, just get it. That's a

Speaker 3:

$100.

Speaker 2:

Makes sense. For me, Cyber Week is a lot less about clubs. Even a lot less about balls. It's like, what kind of shoes am I looking for? What kind of deals?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, glove deals big time in the offseason. I even wait till post Christmas to look at glove deals. Last season, I think I picked up 11 paying tour, you know, like their Yeah. Their version of the idolist tour and so on and so forth for, like, $11 a piece.

Speaker 3:

I don't wear gloves.

Speaker 4:

Freddie couples.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

You have leather, you have kangaroo leather grip.

Speaker 3:

So I put the wraps on it that yeah. I just don't wear grips.

Speaker 2:

We've got some of the segment coming up called bag court. You guys might like this. It'll be a recurring segment. Some of these will be we're gonna take out some clubs out of each of our bags and just either roast them or talk about the setup.

Speaker 4:

The only thing I would add on Cyber Week is painter golf shoes. I would have bought some, but I've got like three pairs of them. They're awesome shoes.

Speaker 2:

For a while there, I was on like Nike wall shoe stint, man. Like, there's a there's a shoe that just the heel toe drop and the way the stability on it felt nice. And every time there was a sale, because that's

Speaker 4:

a Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Huge big box store, like, I can get those things for 60 to $80. And they're like a $180 shoe.

Speaker 4:

People rave about the the new Scottie and the Rory shoes.

Speaker 2:

For me now though, it's gonna come down to what color ways do they go into. I mean, I I'm one of those.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I'm at this stage of life, I keep shoes shirt, and that shirt set of clothes with my clucked in my bag. So if I ever need to, I can just change right away. So that's probably grabbing another pair of shoes. It's really to just rotate whatever I've got out there in the car.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. My car is my golf locker too.

Speaker 2:

All right. So yeah, Mr. Electric car over here has a frunk, you know, the front trunk, which is also my, my golf locker. It's got multiple pairs of golf shoes, the golf bag, training aids, interior gear, rain gear, you know, it's got a change of clothes in there. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Just in case just in case I'm out off a meeting and I can squeeze something in, it's like, why not? If the name of our podcast does not represent who we are, then I have no idea what to tell you. Alright. So next segment, we've got winter golf realities. You know, what is winter golf for you guys?

Speaker 2:

Like, let's just talk about this. Everybody's having to deal with winter golf in different ways. You might be in Florida and you might be listening to this going, yeah.

Speaker 4:

Irrelevant. Too relevant to me.

Speaker 3:

I'm on this year guys, because going off of an injury, broken rotator cuff, couple packed ribs. So I just now in the last week, I was starting to take full swings again and said you both some video it started to really try to get that guy off to the Gulf Fall. So, I've got a simulator at my house that I built after a divorce. Once you do that, you can have the freedom to do that kind of purchases and build outs in one's house again.

Speaker 4:

And to never leave one's house again.

Speaker 2:

As we're talking here, there's a SkyTrack, commercial on, on the golf channel here. These ads are going to be everywhere guys. Simulators

Speaker 4:

Simulator market is projected to reach between 3 and a half and 4 and a half billion by 2033.

Speaker 3:

So what's interesting is you got the fall the rise and fall of top golf and yet the simulator market is still as hot as it is. And I would have thought that coming out of COVID now that people can go back to real world and they can get back out there and with the courses that simulated world would have fallen off. And I seem to find a lot of them for sale on Facebook marketplace, but I think the market's just getting spayed. There's more than are hitting the secondary market.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. What do you guys think is the number one score killer when you're playing winter golf? Like, you know, we if we go out right now in golf outside. Thirty, forty degree weather, you know, where we just say, I've gotta go play, whether it's nine hole or whatever. What do you think hurts your your game the most in the

Speaker 4:

I mean, for me personally, my threshold for going out and playing is about 50 degrees. I'll play in the forties if I'm desperate and it's sunny and not windy. And the same thing that kills my score in the winter is the same thing that kills my score in the regular season right now and it's putting.

Speaker 2:

Okay. What about anything particular about putting? Just Too

Speaker 4:

many damn three putts, man.

Speaker 2:

Okay. But what about why why winter? Why would you choose that?

Speaker 4:

That's very consistent across winter and on all seasons. I'm an equal opportunity three putter.

Speaker 3:

Okay. Temperature to me is a false illusion out there. It's not a cutoff for me. It's wind wet. I'll quit calm and cold.

Speaker 3:

I'll still go out there

Speaker 2:

and go have some fun.

Speaker 3:

And I loved it. At least this time of year, you've got 80% less traffic when you're out there playing. So you can walk onto any muni if you want to right now, you're going to play nine holes in an hour. I love that. I'll go do that all day long.

Speaker 3:

If it's 42 degrees outside, give me a title less beanie. Give me a just a

Speaker 4:

A muff? Title less muff? Cart muff?

Speaker 2:

Now put a pin on exactly what the answer is to this. It's been reported that putting is a thing that costs you the most strokes in the winter because speed control. Evidently the greens in the winter because the grass is dying and all that stuff. It it's much harder to figure out grain speed, things like that. So that that's that one.

Speaker 2:

I that's the yeah. It's that or you need

Speaker 3:

to buy another putter. You need to get the the purple.

Speaker 2:

The purple d f three has to happen for Patrick. Have you guys have been listening to us?

Speaker 3:

Anybody who has a connection with the lab, we need to get our man a purple d f three.

Speaker 4:

But you can just buy them now. Like, they're not limited edition anymore. Well, flip and go.

Speaker 3:

You wanna plug your Patreon now, and then we'll just get the audience to start, tripping in?

Speaker 2:

For those that don't know, the purple d f three was a limited release colorway. And by the way, lab, shout out to them for actually doing colorways like most people don't really have that in the game. It really personalizes it for a lot of people, which is fun. But anyway, it was limited. Now I guess you can just buy it.

Speaker 2:

So he has no excuse to retire retired orange. Oh, I guess there's only so much room in the factory for colors. As

Speaker 3:

a color blind man over here, I don't know the difference between any of what you're talking about.

Speaker 4:

So you should just get a purple one.

Speaker 3:

I'll I'll take black and gold. I'm gonna support my alma mater.

Speaker 2:

They did come out with Yeti over the cyber week, which reminds me of a giant Lego piece.

Speaker 3:

Looking $1,400 clubs I've ever seen though.

Speaker 2:

It's wild.

Speaker 4:

DS three PO is cool.

Speaker 2:

I mean, that never leaves the office, man. It's like gold plated.

Speaker 3:

It's 24 karat, one was so

Speaker 4:

much better. DS three PO.

Speaker 2:

Alright. So other pieces of winter golf that are, keeping me up. You know, we're always tweaking our golf sims this time of year. Yeah. For me, I mean, I'm I'm gonna live in that sim.

Speaker 2:

I might go to a couple of these new member only sort of indoor golf clubs.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. They're cropping up everywhere. Everywhere.

Speaker 2:

It's a whole different business model, which I think is driving those numbers you talked about earlier.

Speaker 4:

There's what here, we're in Nashville, There's the original one was was Hideout. Hideout? There's two locations of Hideout. In Where's the private one? In town golf club just opened.

Speaker 2:

That one is also in Atlanta, I think. Like Charlotte.

Speaker 4:

Yep. There is five iron golf over by Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2:

I haven't New York.

Speaker 4:

I haven't met the head.

Speaker 3:

So is it that these indoor golf sims are working and Topgolf isn't?

Speaker 2:

Think it's close. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I think I would argue

Speaker 3:

Since since Callaway came in Yeah. To Topgolf for $2,200,000,000 valuation, and now they just sold off 60%.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Here's my grip on Topgolf and one of the things that I think is a big separator. One, I look, top golf is outside. You get to hit on a range. I like that. But then they negate it by giving you crap golf balls.

Speaker 2:

Like, these balls have been beat to hell.

Speaker 4:

And they're chipped and all that stuff.

Speaker 3:

Top golf's biggest problem that it has is that the average consumer to Topgolf doesn't return.

Speaker 2:

They only go one. Right. Yeah. And because it's a

Speaker 3:

And you're joining, especially the ones that you're actually joining, you're going to be going quite often and it's created a community. And frankly, I think that society has always been craving community for a very long time, especially from a male's perspective or a male loneliness epidemic, they say right now. And so now you've got a whole new community. You can go in there. You can talk about your scores, talk about your game.

Speaker 3:

I was texting you guys last night. I said, hey guys, I think I figured something out. What golfer hasn't said that before in a group text message? That community is just something that I think is being craved for so long. And that's why I think the indoor golf ones work, Topgolf doesn't.

Speaker 4:

Community is a big piece of it because unlike Topgolf where so what are we gonna do tonight? Well, you go to Topgolf. You can just walk in and walk out of one. There's a there's the community aspect because with like in town or hideout or five iron, you have to be members of or go with a member. So there's a little bit of an exclusivity factor.

Speaker 4:

But I think

Speaker 2:

You though that are just poke a tea time, one in Franklin. It's it looks like the same thing you get at the private clubs, but you can go with your son. You don't have to be a member. You can, you know, get a tea time. Period.

Speaker 2:

It's I don't know what it is per hour, but,

Speaker 4:

you know Community aspect, I think it's closer to, quote unquote, real golf. So, you're hitting drives and you're hitting irons. You're not just, like, target picking. It's it's it's more real golf than it is driving range.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Simulators can't replace real golf, but it can expose your

Speaker 2:

Golfers today, pros and otherwise, aspiring juniors, they want to get to college and college that want to get on. They are addicted to this. They know your numbers. It's helping them be better players out of the gate. You're getting kids that are reaching levels that you wouldn't see in the past.

Speaker 2:

Now I think they're losing a little bit of the creativity of the sport because they are learning on sims a lot more so than you would see, you know, in the past. But at the same time, like, the data is good. It feeds you what you need to know in order to get better. You can order food and you can hang out and your wife's

Speaker 4:

while you're doing it or whatever.

Speaker 2:

But you also got

Speaker 3:

guys like Josh Adi, who's one of the greatest golf sim guys out there, and he's tried to make it on some of these mini tours and it doesn't translate over. He's like a plus eight on the stem. And yet he's only made, I think he's only made like one or two lower level, golf tournaments that he's actually made the cut on.

Speaker 2:

Let's let's talk about your golf sim handicap versus your real handicap. And this just this year, actually Pat and I were out playing with a friend of mine who's a member at Governors and he brings out a friend of his. Both of them are higher handicappers, but they they love going to the indoor sim. I mean, they love it. It's like it's their after work beer hang.

Speaker 2:

The guy goes, okay. So how are we gonna do these teams? How are we gonna, you know, play with each other? You know, my indoor my indoor handicap's maxed, but my outdoor, I don't even, you know, like, it's worse. And I was first time I ever had to do that math in my head going, what is the difference between your handicap and Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Your actual handicap? Like, how do you what is yours versus, you know, it's it's gotta be lower. Right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Because it's an automatic two pot.

Speaker 3:

You don't get the it breaks it. You don't get it real life. And this is the problem that I have with TGL that I just don't think that it's gonna work in the long I told you all the last episode. TGL doesn't survive five more years from now.

Speaker 4:

But it's still fun. And you can go do it for forty five minutes if all you've got is forty five minutes. The last point on why this why people flocking to SimGolf, and I think it's an important one for distinction, is that the cost to join clubs has increased exponentially. Exponentially. Over especially since COVID over the last four

Speaker 2:

or have a bursting we're bursting from the seams in terms of players, and the players have nowhere to go. You know, the Munis are overrun. The tee times, good luck finding one on any any given, like, weekend.

Speaker 3:

Wall of these getting worse. Tee boxes are getting chewed up. Guys don't respect the game. Filling divots. They don't know how to fill divots.

Speaker 2:

Private clubs are moving up in cost and obviously it costs a lot to maintain clubs, especially when they're getting more play. And you know, you're, you're ending up with clubs that used to be, you know, $15 or less, a lot less sometimes that are now 90 or 100.

Speaker 3:

Quality hasn't gone up with the price going up. That's the problem that I have.

Speaker 2:

Correct. It's it's access. It's really just access. Are you gonna be able to play the game on a better course? And then it's do you feel like you're a good enough player to pay that amount of money to get onto a nicer course that is maintained better?

Speaker 2:

And there there's these different levels of the game. There's gaps that these things are filling.

Speaker 3:

During the, financial crisis, between 02/2011, some of the courses in Nashville, Tennessee that are going for, they're not even allowing you to put your name on a wait list, like a Ridgeline country club dropped its pricing down all the way to $5,000 to join. And they were begging people to try to join back with them. I think that right now golf is in a heightened stage. And I say this with the clubs in just Nashville, you guys can comment in if this is happening in your own hometowns, but I think that they such a high in the demand that's so high right now.

Speaker 4:

It's a pricing exercise.

Speaker 3:

And we have a lot of people coming in. It is a pricing exercise, but, but then you've got these new guys that are coming up that are increasing the prices year over year. And now it feels like they're just gouging the consumers coming out with a product because the hype is out there, but they don't understand that where is their brand in five years, where is their brand in ten years when this too shall pass.

Speaker 4:

Loyalty notwithstanding though, the big OEMs have increased their prices ex exponentially also.

Speaker 2:

You know, look, the indoor golf community fills a gap. Right? That gap's being created by this loading of membership prices, but also the demand for access to the game. You know, so will it go away? I I think that every every industry goes through a bubble goes through this phase of just rapid growth.

Speaker 2:

Everybody's gonna be building it. Of those products just won't survive. Right? Some of the products won't be good enough. Won't be enough people paying for it.

Speaker 2:

It might be overpriced or underpriced, and there won't be winners in that business. You know, I think we're looking at some of them right now.

Speaker 4:

Are winners in every bubble. There's gonna be winners in the AI bubble. There are winners in the .com bubble.

Speaker 2:

In terms of simulators, we've we've ran some research on this. So there's some pro sim and some anti sim things we're gonna read off as we close out this segment. Best feedback tool ever created. Strike awareness improved massively. Depends on the mat you hit on, in my opinion.

Speaker 2:

My low point control actually got better. That's interesting hearing that from people on a mat that typically increases your fat shots. Your way your brain thinks about that.

Speaker 4:

You can also use them outside.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you can use the same house that you bring my mind to the rain all the time actually. Alright, anti stim camp says it ruined my tempo. I don't understand that one personally. Indoor swing is not outdoor swing. Also, don't understand that one.

Speaker 2:

Why is your indoor swing not your outdoor? Like, are you trying to swing for the fences or something?

Speaker 3:

I told you guys earlier. Sims, I think, expose your flaws more than anywhere else. And when you have ego and we all stand on a tee and you and it's a 100 and a three fifteen yard par four, and you're sitting there with your boys going, I'm going to try to drive this one on the SIM it's coming up. Hey, we can't get it there.

Speaker 2:

Right. That's funny. I can see a lot of people doing that. Actually, the last one here on this list, I get addicted to chasing ball speed, not hitting good shots. That's the difference between not just people on a sim, but people on a course.

Speaker 2:

Right? So I think all of these anti sim camp things seem to be just normal mental problems. For golfers.

Speaker 3:

Golfer and he gets to the range and he's gonna go practice for a little bit to get ready for that coming season. And he ends up hitting eight whoopages and you're hitting 20 drivers. It's like you didn't work on your game.

Speaker 2:

But it's fun. Last season

Speaker 3:

Chicks in the lawn.

Speaker 2:

My driver was I can can hit it a good distance. But it was the thing that cost me the most strokes. When I had my driver under control, found some great scores last season. But, that's so I will be the guy probably hitting a 110 drivers just trying to get that thing under control. The most trending thing for winter golf training, stim golf training, whatever it is, is speed training.

Speaker 2:

Right? Not just can I hit the ball better, but how much faster can I get? And you can work out a ton. I think you've got to work out a ton if you want to increase speed. But there's something about just speed training, swinging fast with some of these Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Sticks, some of these different tools.

Speaker 4:

And not trying to hit a ball. Yeah. Like swing as hard as you can. I started I started speed training. I said this this literally this week.

Speaker 4:

And it's weird at first. Go out and swing your driver without a ball, swing it as hard as you can.

Speaker 2:

Bryson did a video where he's he I think he did with a couple of different YouTube golfers, Grant Horrath being one of them. And he just says, alright, we're gonna do a speed training session. He goes out to the range, drops down, I don't know, a 100 balls or something, and they just start swinging, swinging hard. It's like, don't care where it goes. Swing harder.

Speaker 2:

Swing harder. What are your numbers? We're going for this now. We wanna hit one seventy six ball speed harder. How do we get there?

Speaker 3:

Guys, the game has gotten bigger, faster, stronger. Look at all of these players that are out there. They're working out versus the eighties PA players standing next to a current PGA player is nine day different athlete. And Bryson has shown us that if you can hit it further, every one of his statistics has gotten better in his game, the further he hits it. Tiger did it first.

Speaker 2:

Last piece on this segment. If you play in the winter a lot in cold weather, knowing that it's gonna affect your game, does it make you worse come season?

Speaker 4:

I don't think so because I would just be miserable if I didn't try to go play golf.

Speaker 3:

It's also all about feel. We already said to it. If I'm consistently playing as it's walking back up out there, as long as my short game is dialed in, I'm going to play the best rounds that I'm going to play.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. If I can shoot good in hard conditions, if I can get better in hard conditions, when there are, where there is cold, there is wind, there is rain, maybe I don't even want to be out there as much as I normally do. I know that I will shoot better in the on season. Now, if you build bad habits, that's a different story. Alright.

Speaker 2:

So, next up on the docket is night golf short courses, you know, the six, nine, 12 hole. What is the future of this format? I mean, you'll hear stories week in week out from pros, Tiger included, how they grew up on a par three. This is how they got good at the game. If you can score from a par three in, you know, that's that translates.

Speaker 2:

The par threes always have been critical, but there hasn't hasn't really been a lot of new layouts, new courses until what the last three, four years, you know, Bandon kind of put in a few. They put in a new one. What? Timers put in a yep.

Speaker 3:

The hay has become more and more popular when you visit Pebble.

Speaker 2:

If you have a golf resort, you have a par three. Like, that's almost a prerequisite now. It's like probably even something you play for free. Now locally here in town, we've got Percy Warner is pretty good and course done in Franklin Course is very good. That that's a golf house of Tennessee runs that.

Speaker 3:

Bryson does his bread 50. We're gonna tee off in the ladies tee. Shortens the course, but it's teaching you to condition yourself that hitting boaters becomes your average. If you're in a late level golfer. And that's why the average golfer here watching us, if you're even watching this, you clear enough about your game, get out there, play from the women's tees a couple of times, learn how to score.

Speaker 3:

That's what you need to do.

Speaker 2:

Go play with your wife, your kids, play at their tees, like have fun with them. You know, I go to Percy Warner and it's a pretty short, short course. You could you could take driver or some club to almost every green. Frankly, I leave every wood in the car. And I practice like, can I hit my three iron off the tee and then close it in?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And that that course, by the way, has an interesting history. What is it? Snedeker and Snedeker.

Speaker 3:

That's where you grew up playing.

Speaker 2:

Well, they they came back recently, put in a bunch of money and redid the course. Percy? Percy Warner.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah. I like Percy.

Speaker 2:

Put $11.14 bucks to play it

Speaker 3:

or something.

Speaker 2:

That's where the game grows, new players, new you know, whether you're a young kid or a guy coming after work, you know, if it's close to the house, like you're swinging a club. Yeah. We've

Speaker 3:

talked about the golf simulators courses like Percy Warner, the indoor SIM setups that are happening. It's all about convenience. If you can get out there and just play, that's what golf needs and have the access for so long. This is a game that has really only been accessible by those with proper means.

Speaker 2:

I think these, you know, six, nine, even 12 hole courses that do exist. Right. Or they go to a simulator. But I mean, like, like we said, there's there's a gap from a simulator and that's that scoring range. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Golf doesn't need to be easier, guys.

Speaker 3:

It just needs to be faster.

Speaker 2:

And this is fast. I mean, I, I remember doing Percy Warner walking with my wife, so it wasn't like just me. And we did it in, I think like forty four minutes, forty six minutes. I like timed it. I was actually really curious, but that course can get backed up too.

Speaker 2:

And you can

Speaker 3:

Five hour rounds is the biggest threat to the future of golf in my opinion.

Speaker 2:

We're already there. Five, six hour rounds. Now I will say we just I we just had a baby. I know, Patrick, you also our babies were born one day apart. Baby boys.

Speaker 2:

I got out. We put him in the cart with us. His first time on the course. Luckily, it was on like a holiday weekend. Everybody was gone from the course.

Speaker 2:

Nobody was there. But I said, we're just gonna squeeze out, play nine. We got out, teed off, played one ball down. I think I was done with nine all nine holes, you know, not a short course in sub fifty minutes. I've never done that before.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. But that fits modern day life and it's not apologizing for being golf.

Speaker 2:

I just didn't wait on anybody though. Right? There was nobody around. Golf can be played fast, but I think there's a challenge between we have to bring in money so that we can pay to keep up this course, which means more people on the course, which means more members at clubs, and then that affects pace of play. And we're not talking PGA Tour pace of play, which is a totally different monster.

Speaker 2:

You know, we're talking regular golfers pace of play. How do we squeeze in around? How does it become enjoyable for us? Because I guarantee you, my dad will hate it when he's waiting at a course that he pays a bunch of money for. Do we reject people from these clubs so that you

Speaker 4:

can have base to play?

Speaker 2:

I mean, is that really the solution?

Speaker 3:

Again, it is the number one threat to the future of golf. Is it, especially if you're paying quarter million dollars to join some of these country clubs, if I get out there and I either can't get a tee time, or if I'm going to be miserable with playing a synth hour round of golf, I'm not paying that money.

Speaker 2:

The quarter million dollar and up courses probably don't

Speaker 4:

have don't that problem. Have, you're not chasing the numbers to get more revenue.

Speaker 2:

We're talking about the ones that, you know, people are paying 75, $50.20, 30, you know, depending on the part of the country you're in. You know, those are the ones that you end up having big memberships, you know. You know, and they may not have two courses either.

Speaker 3:

It's like Nashville can bring 1,500 more homes to add on to its community. It's already at a six hour pace on Sundays. If you're going to go out there and go play on the weekend, paying $140 for a round and it's $75,000 worth to join to me at some point now that new 1,500 homes joining into a gated community is going to want to join the country club.

Speaker 2:

So here's where we're

Speaker 3:

It's only gonna get worse. You should have added a second 18. But the ROI, you're gonna get more money from building the homes than you are gonna get to build another 18 holes.

Speaker 2:

That's the question though. Do we build more courses? Is there even land to build more courses? Do more courses just increase cost to the membership? Like, what's the actual solution to pace of play?

Speaker 2:

Or not even just pace of play, just access being able to go play golf. Because that's a part of that. And that's the subject we're on now. Like night golf, short courses. You know, if land's an issue, if cost is an issue, if the goal is to get players to play, even when they don't have time to do 18 or even a full nine, like what products need to exist?

Speaker 2:

And I think there are some I think in The United States, there's only 16 night courses.

Speaker 4:

Period. Night golf. Huge in The Middle East.

Speaker 2:

Honestly, that's a temperature because it's so flipping hot out.

Speaker 4:

You could you could see a world where I mean, it gets hot here in the summer. Yeah. Not that hot, but it gets hot and humid. And so

Speaker 3:

if you're

Speaker 4:

a club with a big old membership, invest in the lights and light up, you know, light up mine. But

Speaker 3:

that can't

Speaker 2:

be done everywhere because residential communities might spill and there's some challenges with it. But does it need to exist? Yes. I think it needs to exist on a much larger level than it currently does. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

We're emerging as a sport right now, and it's going to be interesting to see what's going to happen over the next decade. And I think there's going to be a lot of things that are going to come that none of us in this room can predict right now. Where's the future going to go?

Speaker 2:

Frankly, I think it's a lifestyle change that's driving these new golf products we watch, but it's also driving the golf products that we interact with, not just sim. We are seeing a resurgence of short courses tied to resorts, but the ones not tied to resorts still have a challenge from a business model perspective. So where do you where do you find these? Like, you do have your Sweetens Cove, which are, if

Speaker 4:

you guys wanna know about it,

Speaker 2:

nine holes, big greens, two pins for green, multiple tee box options, and play it as much as you want if

Speaker 4:

you get out there.

Speaker 3:

Backed by Peyton Manning is one of the founders.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. But it is, frankly, it's a full nine holes. So it takes up a larger footprint. You know, if you're trying to put this around a city, demand is, you know, can you find that much space? I mean, that's

Speaker 4:

Difficult.

Speaker 2:

Probably a 150 acres minimum.

Speaker 4:

Right? Very difficult.

Speaker 3:

Also, getting pretty rounds you're gonna get per day coming in because it's sweetness because what you

Speaker 2:

Unless you go night golf. Night golf increases the number of rounds you get per day.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. But to run those lights is a costly endeavor.

Speaker 2:

Not, not as much these days. I mean, look, number one, you go with renewable energy. Two,

Speaker 4:

you go Like with

Speaker 2:

the LEDs drop the light usage to, you know, fraction of what it used to be to run these type of night courses. I think the business model is super capable. And if you combine your course daytime play with the ability to have night night golf with it, it's huge. Now, there is a I think there's a missing piece and it's what you see with a top golf, what you see with the indoor golf, and there's some lifestyle stuff that you have to put around it. You know, what you put next to those courses.

Speaker 2:

You know, restaurants, you pair it with an indoor facility. Is a short course also have an indoor facility? You do have like a gym? Do you have, you know, sports bars? Like, or is it some big new complex that people are gonna dream up and it's gonna be, you know, the next hot place to go for corporate events and golf and

Speaker 3:

The Pacific Rim and The Middle East, I think are the two areas where the most emergence is happening. Yeah. But we need to walk closer into how they're doing it. And I think in the next five years, we're behind five years from the

Speaker 2:

Singapore, Korea, also Telecturkey has a a really interesting one. I mean, it's out there. Is out there. It's proven. The question is where and how is it gonna emerge in The United States?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Do you include like pop stroke, for example, in alternative golf? Are you talking about full swing only?

Speaker 2:

Pop stroke isn't for golfers. It's for entertainment. You know, we love golf, so we're gonna go play it. But it is it's just replacing mini golf.

Speaker 4:

It's an evolution of pop up. More similar to top golf, less similar to alternate golf format.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Leading off of night golf short courses, the grass league comes to mind. We mentioned we're gonna talk about this, and some interesting things have happened around the grass league. They launched on the golf channel as a short course, par three, high stakes, team based

Speaker 3:

golf. Another team based golf league? No way. There's just too much noise.

Speaker 4:

I'm interested enough to I haven't watched the full episode or iteration of it, but, like, from what I've read and little short clips that I've watched, I'm interested enough to check it out. It's pros and amateurs. It's team format. I think it could be what TGL so desperately wants to be.

Speaker 3:

It's all gonna come down to the personalities. They come out and shine right away. Maybe it grabs a little bit of a niche market here, but again

Speaker 4:

running time,

Speaker 2:

it still has that slot in the TV market. Look, it's it's been around for a little while. They have franchises. This is similar to TGL, similar to Liv. There are owners of those franchises.

Speaker 2:

Difference is that you go through this qualification rounds. Like, go in and you grind. You you do a two man format scramble. Brother sister won it this time, and she is actually an LPGA pro. Gabby Ruffles.

Speaker 2:

Gabby Ruffles. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Brian and Gabby Ruffles at the Los Angeles Roses.

Speaker 2:

That's it. So, you know, like, you you get different levels of players so you can go through this draft and actually teams, franchises will buy you. Buy your team based on your performance. You don't even have to be from this specific area. I think they have 24 potential franchises, 12 or so were are active now.

Speaker 4:

They're they're planning on releasing approximately one new franchise per year.

Speaker 2:

There was 15,000 people on the grounds the last event, and it was on the golf channel. They got their they're they're getting broadcast deals because it's not in prime time. Right? Your your off season golf products. That's what a lot of these kinda fall in the category of.

Speaker 2:

It's not a huge amount of money they're playing for. It's like a 100 k. I'm gonna challenge Josh to check it out. Because frankly, of all of us sitting here, the vibe has backwards head on, wears his hoodies, smoking his cigars. Like, you look like the guys that are playing on this tour right now.

Speaker 3:

I'll watch it. Report back to you guys next episode if I understand it or not.

Speaker 2:

I I

Speaker 4:

will I will watch it also. There's something there. I'm interested enough to watch it.

Speaker 2:

The thing about these leagues is it's fun to track to find out what's going to land not just land with audiences, but what's gonna survive. How does it grow? Does the prize pool go from a 100 k to a million next year? Do the franchises get more expensive? Who buys the franchises out from underneath each other?

Speaker 2:

And which pros start to play in this because they see other pros that were in it this year?

Speaker 4:

The other wrinkle on this, by the way, money does not go to the competitors. The money goes to the franchise owners and the franchise owners can have their own agreements with the competitors and the competitors make money through NIL deals.

Speaker 3:

I'm a watch this report back.

Speaker 4:

Sounds good. So, look,

Speaker 2:

I think it was slightly less engaging on some levels than TGL, frankly. My my takeaway. TGL has pros, has the names. Because some of the storylines within the grassland were around pros or former pros that were on tour for ten plus years. It's like, where did they go?

Speaker 2:

What are they doing? You know? How did they get here? Some of these guys during the announcements were like, hey. He just came from his office.

Speaker 2:

You know, now he's on here out here and they're 19 under and in the hunt for, you know, a 100 k price.

Speaker 3:

Consistency? Name recognition. Reasons why YouTube can be you can put out five YouTube videos a week. I need to be able to recognize your name. If you were coming out once every six months, you just aren't going to scratch it because I'm not gonna care who you are.

Speaker 3:

And I'm not gonna retune back in. I might tune in one time. We all dream of that. We come off the sofa, come in off the, and be able to play with the best of the best guys. Watch the movie rounders.

Speaker 3:

You want to sit at the table with the best of the best, but at the end of the day, end recognition, consistency.

Speaker 4:

I mean, that's content generation in general. Like, you've got to be consistent. It's got to be high quality.

Speaker 2:

These products that are coming out, but in ten years, we're going to be like, oh, yeah, we did see where that started. Right? And it started in a very different place than probably where it is in whatever, five, ten years. Tune into a YouTube channel, go back in time to their early videos and see what those look like.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. There'll be elements of LIV. There's going to be elements of TGL. There's going to be elements of the grassroots that will emerge into what is going to be the Nets dominant league.

Speaker 4:

And look at what happened in the nineties with, I forget what it was called at the time, but Norman's new proposal for to to expand golf internationally. And then the PGA Tour immediately took that and incorporated into what became the World Golf Championships. Right?

Speaker 2:

This is a very different product. As you watch it, the teams, the personalities, very different. It's a niche product, but it is getting broadcast potential. You know, we're gonna track it. Let's watch it.

Speaker 2:

We'll see. We wanna know what your thoughts are because this is happening in real time. All these products that we keep talking about, it's like, what do we want?

Speaker 4:

Hit us in the comments. Do you think it's stupid like Josh? Are you mildly interested like I am?

Speaker 2:

Alright, guys. So this week's recurring segment, we're gonna wrap up with bag court. New segment, we're gonna grab a club out of each of our bags. We're gonna roast it, or we're gonna break it down. Alright.

Speaker 2:

Josh, what you got?

Speaker 3:

Alright, guys. I've been playing with the t one hundreds for the last couple years. The title is to a just a great iron I mean, there's a reason you guys see so many of these still out on

Speaker 4:

the First gen T100? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Tell me what I did here.

Speaker 4:

Okay. Respect on the title list, T100s. It's a bit it's with the successor, the AP two.

Speaker 3:

AP two.

Speaker 4:

Jordan Spieth played those, put this in there. I don't even I look, I know you don't use gloves, but like, I what the this looks like a checker flag candy cane bastardization on here.

Speaker 2:

It looks like an attempt to, like

Speaker 4:

And you and you've got

Speaker 2:

you've got what would be

Speaker 3:

a good grip. I do have a great grip on there, but I want you to hold that right now. You feel that?

Speaker 2:

She went like, you went like grip and then grip wrap, making it jumbo.

Speaker 3:

One thing that an average golfer needs to go do is get fitted for your grip.

Speaker 4:

There's no way you got it.

Speaker 3:

So when you're talking with guys like, gosh, the great long hitter, losing my mind, lives in the van out at Hernan Ditch.

Speaker 4:

John Daly.

Speaker 3:

He's talking about John Daly. John Daly. Go with the bigger grip. Peter Finch talks about it as well. Put the bigger grip.

Speaker 3:

It's one thing that the average golfer just needs to have a little bit. But you already you've already got an MCC

Speaker 4:

plus four in there. Get extra wraps under your grip. Don't wrap it with the the whatever that is.

Speaker 3:

I like how that thing comes out. It feels great.

Speaker 2:

I mean, look, you must not be hitting your nine iron a lot. Wear pattern on here is minimal. I mean, that's that's the roast I'm gonna give you. Maybe in that nine iron more. If this feels good to you and you have the feel off of that, no gloves, fine.

Speaker 2:

The style of it clearly looks like you're trying to make it like a like a master's umbrella. If we've all seen the master's umbrellas like this is master's umbrella. It's like going back

Speaker 3:

to the racing days when my father and I used to be involved in NASCAR right there. It looks like a checkered flag almost.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Calling back to the race days. And we've got a Project X 5.5 super light. Frankly, like, I think you have more speed than this shaft is made for and it's graphite. So it's probably even lighter.

Speaker 2:

The profile in this, I don't know. You might need to graphite it. Rifle steel.

Speaker 3:

So what what you're comfortable with, guys

Speaker 2:

It might be no step steel. I don't I'm not familiar with

Speaker 4:

It's rifle steel.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. You might be What kind of shaft do you have?

Speaker 3:

That one's an extra That's

Speaker 2:

graphite all day.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Graphite shaft.

Speaker 2:

ABS is making some interesting graphite stuff now. Alright. Let's move on. Pat, what we got from Pat? So clearly, out of the gate, we've got we got a red Red Ventus dropping t r seven x.

Speaker 4:

Okay. New to the bag this year.

Speaker 2:

And for those golf nuts out there, is it the Yes. It's the Velicore. He's got it set to a one. Okay. 21 degree.

Speaker 2:

And we're talking seven wood, my friend. Seven wood. Long have

Speaker 3:

you always been

Speaker 2:

It's my

Speaker 4:

first one.

Speaker 3:

Okay. I grew up when I used to play.

Speaker 4:

The bowling got it this year. It is night and day different, night and day better, easier to hit than my four iron. I wish I got, wish I got rain a long time

Speaker 2:

ago.

Speaker 3:

Have you ever tried chipping around the grain with your seven wood?

Speaker 4:

I ship around the grain with my three wood all the time.

Speaker 3:

Oh, okay. Okay.

Speaker 2:

And Arcos. He's got a Arcos bag, my friends. Arcos. Tracking those stats.

Speaker 4:

Arcos is like a whoop for golf. If you want to know that alcohol is really bad for you and you don't sleep enough, get a whoop. If you wanna know that you really need to work on your short game, get Arcos.

Speaker 3:

Is that the did you learn, Pikachu that you've had?

Speaker 2:

It is.

Speaker 3:

So you're applying this and that in the same bag. You got a driver with seven wood? Okay. So no.

Speaker 4:

In terms of like distance?

Speaker 3:

Like you're gapping and you're-

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 4:

Driver three, seven, then driving iron.

Speaker 3:

What's the difference in distance when you drive an iron in that?

Speaker 4:

Ten, fifteen yards.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

And that flies a lot higher. Holz Springs easier.

Speaker 2:

Do you have what's the ball speed difference?

Speaker 4:

Couldn't tell you.

Speaker 2:

The thing that I'm gonna be focusing on this next season from a fitting standpoint in terms of gapping, it's gonna be a ball speed difference, which equates to a distance difference. Right? If the spin is all correct. So I guess pro fitting says, what, five miles an hour ball speed between your irons between your clubs. It's kind of the the target.

Speaker 2:

So that that would be interesting to check. Okay. Roasting for two seconds. Ventus red TR. That's like basically like unwrapped?

Speaker 2:

No. I I love these shafts, man. Like, it but it's basically like a Ventus blue. Ventus red TR is red is a higher flight. Blue is a mid flight.

Speaker 2:

Black is a low flight. So now we've got like There's a good one

Speaker 4:

now too.

Speaker 2:

Basically right in the middle.

Speaker 3:

You just wanted to make it look like it goes faster is what it looks like.

Speaker 4:

Right. Red.

Speaker 2:

Fast. Seven wood launches at high, plus this shaft launches at high, higher than most, plus you have speed, which creates more spin, and you're launching it high. This thing must just, like, drop out of the sky.

Speaker 3:

As you said, he's holding greens. Holds greens.

Speaker 2:

Frankly, guys, he is at a golf club, which has new greens. We played not long ago. I could not hold a a green with almost any club. They are rock solid. So if you can build a green with this, I guess I guess there is a purpose for it in your bag.

Speaker 3:

Here goes off. I just wanna see the mishits on there. To your credit, no. There's sky marks on this thing.

Speaker 2:

Sky marks? I'm looking at

Speaker 3:

him getting underneath all this. Trying to tee it up too high.

Speaker 2:

Only a 17 handicap?

Speaker 3:

Take this off

Speaker 2:

of He's like he's like a strong 10.

Speaker 3:

By the way, usually?

Speaker 4:

I hit it off the tee on there's some short par fours that we've got that I'll hit off the tee.

Speaker 3:

Rudder, what you got? Alright, guys. Here you go.

Speaker 2:

I'm going give you a wedge that's probably going to leave my bag next season. So I figured why not throw it in there?

Speaker 3:

Like the lead, Teddy. Eve loves the Motus champ.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man. Those Motus shafts.

Speaker 4:

All of

Speaker 3:

your iron motives?

Speaker 2:

I'm one of the weird guys that does put the same iron shaft in his wedges.

Speaker 4:

Same stiffness too?

Speaker 2:

Same stiffness as well. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

He's down. I switched my butt.

Speaker 4:

I do X and my gap wedge. And then I switched to stiff in my fifty six and sixty this year.

Speaker 3:

Did you stamp nuggets on that because that's what your grandma called you growing up?

Speaker 4:

Actually, it's what we call the dogs. Enough lead tape to make difference or did you just put on there because it looks cool?

Speaker 2:

No. It from a swing weight progression throughout the bag, I wanted these to be about a d 5.5 so that as you get into the regular set, you know, you're dropping into fours. And then once you get all the way up to the top bag, like, your your three iron, red like a d 2.53.

Speaker 3:

Did you add some grind on that or is that stock?

Speaker 2:

No. There's no added grind. That's probably just use. So yeah, just a lot of use. And from a stamp, here's the stamps.

Speaker 2:

I'm not sure the camera will pick this up. Lotus one twenty. We're talking to that. It's almost worn off from the bag, but an x.

Speaker 4:

I've got dynamic gold one twenties in mine. In my irons.

Speaker 2:

Those are good.

Speaker 4:

Like those,

Speaker 2:

the one fifteen dynamic gold one fifteens that have been in the market like a storm. I actually put that in a, like a driving iron. I like them, but I'm debating doing another driving iron build with a graphite shaft. I think it makes more sense for me.

Speaker 3:

Graphite shafts. Welcome to the club.

Speaker 4:

It's all about the graphite.

Speaker 2:

All about the graphite. So what? No roasts?

Speaker 4:

You got

Speaker 2:

nothing on this?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I already made fun of you for nuggets.

Speaker 2:

The nuggets. To wrap up episode two, we're gonna talk about our giveaway. We've got a Wrap So to MLM one. Patrick's been using it. Tell you a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

But again, if you guys want this, be one of the first 200 subscribers. Once we hit 200 subscribers, we're gonna go into a draw. We wanna get away as much stuff as possible. And honestly, like, every milestone we hit, we are gonna have a new and bigger prize at every bigger milestone. So two if this is 200 subscribers, you know, what are we gonna be talking about when we hit a thousand?

Speaker 2:

Right? 5,000. Million. A million, we will be giving away like a flipping trip. So like, subscribe, hit us up on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, wherever you're watching this.

Speaker 2:

Thank you guys for tuning in. If you've made it this far, you're probably the only

Speaker 4:

one. Power listeners.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. That's called family members, guys. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Keep the classic golf nuts.