Golf Nuts

OWGR, PGA, LIV, TGL, Brooks rejoins, Bryson negotiates, Rahm's Contract details, Tigers TGL moves, Rory & Chamblee disagree and Free Agency has a dark side.

Who really holds the power in golf today? Is it the PGA Tour or the rising force of LIV Golf? jump in to get all of the details on the high-stakes battle for control over the sport. With Brooks Koepka's quiet exit from LIV and Jon Rahm's staggering $566 million deal, the landscape is shifting fast. LIV updates Relegation format, Patrick reed makes moves, LIV gets OWGR points, Louis Oosthuizen & Paul Casey speak out on the 72 hole move and so much more!

Discover how the world golf rankings are impacting LIV's future and why the PGA Tour's strategies of “forgiveness” and “loyalty” could change the game for your favorite players. We explore the real power plays behind the headlines and contracts, revealing the strategic moves that could redefine golf's future.

All about the intersection of money, legacy, and star power in the sport. Tune in to stay ahead of the game and understand the next chapter in golf's evolving story. 

Sound off in the comments and let us know your take on the future of golf! 🎙️
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CHAPTERS
00:00:14 Introduction & Overview
00:00:46 Giveaway Announcement
00:01:11 Brooks Koepka's Exit
00:03:46 PGA Tour Policies
00:04:14 TGL Ratings
00:09:32 Jon Rahm's Deal
00:10:07 OWGR Impact
00:22:14 PGA Tour Strategy
00:38:45 LIV's Response
00:46:21 Conclusion

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:

Alright, Golf Nuts. Welcome to the next episode. We are talking about power leverage, who actually controls professional golf right now. In the last few weeks, the sport quietly crossed a line. Brooks Koepcz is out of live.

Speaker 1:

Bryson DeChambeau is negotiating publicly. Rory is inviting Brooks to TGL potentially. TGL's reshaping their player influence, and the PGA Tour is rewriting the meaning of reinstatement and who can come back to the tour. So let's get into it.

Speaker 2:

Before we do that, just as a reminder, we are running a giveaway for this Repsoto MLM personal launch monitor. Our first two subscribers on YouTube and first 200 followers on Instagram. We need 200 subscribers, 200 followers, one follow and one subscribe gets you two entries.

Speaker 3:

So like, comment, subscribe, invite your friends in, and this giveaway will go faster.

Speaker 1:

We're gonna start with some facts. LIV CEO statement came out. Brooks Koepka and LIV Golf have amicably and mutually agreed to part ways. Brooks is prioritizing the needs of his family and staying closer to home, which could be, you know, perceived in a couple of different ways. Kepka's rep framed it a little bit differently.

Speaker 1:

Family has always guided Brooks' decisions. He remains passionate about the game and will keep fans updated on what's next. So officially, this is mutual, family driven, and not framed as a golf disagreement. This will affect his contract. I'm sure that he's already figured out what his next plans are and that those just haven't been made public quite yet due to all the parties at play and the interests for Liv, EGA, you know, what that means for other golfers on every tour.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot

Speaker 3:

million dollars too, guys. But at the end of the day, Brooks and his wife did have a miscarriage sixteen months ago, that's going to take an effect here but I think Brooks was tired of playing second fiddle to Bryson on Liv and coming out of this, if we know that it's a year lockup period before he can join back the PGA Tour, right?

Speaker 2:

The last event he played in was middle of last year, so I think it's August

Speaker 3:

and he's eligible to be able to redeem his PGA Tour card. I think that Brooks right now, T Bill has already asked him if he can come and play with them. Roy had that statement that he put out the other day. Brooks has gotta be very selective right now. I think that's the key to his image, and I don't think that this has anything to do with family time.

Speaker 3:

I think that right now he wants to be able to he's already fallen off of making the Ryder Cup team. He already said that he worked his way off of that team. So now moving forward, needs to be selective on bringing himself back to The United States playing on various tours.

Speaker 1:

Look, to to to Jenna, that's Brooks' wife, to her credit, she's been very open about her situation and what's happened in the past, and I'm sure that makes a lot of women out there feel like they're not alone. But Kepika's wife, Jenna, publicly shared that they did suffer a miscarriage at sixteen weeks just a few months ago, and they also have a young son now. There's definitely some validity to the family statement. PGA Tour eligibility framing is also something to consider. Under current PGA Tour policy, players must wait a full year after their final live event and reapply potentially facing disciplinary review, which has extended now to Pat Perez who was in the booth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. He was in the booth and that's it. But they're taking it from the last time he was on air for LIVE, which, you know, it's a different way to read those rule sets, I guess.

Speaker 2:

I think to and and I am very sensitive to the family matters, but to put that to the side, if we're just thinking about the state of golf right now, I think about a couple of things. You have TGL, whose ratings have not been great for the first two episodes of this year, first two iterations of it. The the opener had about 645,000 viewers, with a peak of 730, and then week two was just about 355,000. It's about a two thirds of a drop from last year when Tiger debuted and that was a little over a million. So to kinda deconstruct everything that's going on right now, right, you've got TGL that's in a ratings crisis, you've got the PGA that is maybe sensing a little bit of the foot on the throat when it comes to live, never mind grief, because that's a different issue.

Speaker 1:

I'll disagree with that one.

Speaker 2:

But feeling emboldened, no less. Whether or not, can speculate as to what's actually going on in the front office, but feeling emboldened. You have Bryson, who is in negotiations with Liv, unknown future there, but Brooks, excuse me, deciding to leave. So then, how do we kill multiple birds with one stone? Look, Pat Perez is not gonna be just automatically granted carte blanche's PGA Tour card back.

Speaker 2:

Bruce Kepka's won five majors, guys. And so you can bring back in a five time major winner, somebody who, in comparison to say, a Scottie Scheffler or a Xander, is a much more colorful character and can kind of play that bad boy role, you get him involved, again, what did we talk about on the show previously when it comes to Bryson and potentially joining TGL, it's a way to start moving things back to the mothership, it brings in a potential rating boost and an absence of Tiger, and it gets Brooks back on track to play in major championships in 2027.

Speaker 1:

And Roy's on the record, we've all seen it by now, probably. He said, we would love to have Brooks join a TGL team, don't know what that would look like, he is a founder of that league, he also has said, to take a quote on your take, they've made their money, they've paid their consequence. If bringing guys back makes the tour stronger, I'm okay with it. And look, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes. We can look at this as just guys talking, or we can look at this as business moves using the press and what they do say to manipulate, you know, an outcome.

Speaker 1:

And I think what we're seeing here is exactly that.

Speaker 3:

You also have Liv now going to 72 holes Yep. This net season. Liv Golf's move

Speaker 1:

to 72 holes is definitely something they're trying to push so that they can get those OWGR points. However, it is putting them in a bit of a predicament. From a negotiation standpoint, their original contracts with players were for 54 holes. Now every single player on that tour is starting to look towards their negotiations, bringing that point up as it is seemingly a contract violation. Taking issue with this are also Paul Casey and Louis Zuestaizen, who joined Bryson, calling out questioning the league's move to 72 holes.

Speaker 1:

Now what's more important? Getting OWGR points to retain players or being financially solvent? Because at the end of the day, renegotiating every player's contract when they're shelling out as much money as they are can get very costly. And even though they have extremely deep pockets, this could be disastrous for them. We talk about free agency later in the podcast, and this is exactly the double edged sword that free agency brings up.

Speaker 3:

But they don't have outside of Bryson, who's their big superstar right now, Ram's not really, he's pretty quiet over there on Liv. Don't see anybody Ram else

Speaker 1:

a as superstar. I mean, to be honest, he's made some rounds around YouTube Golf, big time. You know, I would say his career, when you put it back to back with Bryson, is just as good, maybe a hair better in some ways. The difference is that Bryson's just more vocal. He is he likes the press, You know, he likes YouTube golf.

Speaker 1:

He's got his own channels. That I think that's the difference there. It's Liv signed an unprecedented deal with Rom. The terms were different than other players. The amount of money was larger than other players.

Speaker 1:

Liv clearly sees the value of Ram, you know, and can they pivot into leveraging him in the sense that Brooks is leaving, and Bryson is negotiating now his contract. He's openly said, I am in negotiations, and, you know, it depends on how Liv sees the future of their tour. He's not saying anything from a political standpoint that would put him in a position, negative position during that negotiation, which is smart negotiations in general, but he is using the public as well to help manipulate an outcome. When does your deal with LIV expire? And have you thought of beyond what your professional life would be after after your LIV career?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I think there do I how do I phrase this? I I would say that, yeah, next year is when it ends. We're looking to negotiate end of this year, and I'm very excited. They see the value in me.

Speaker 4:

I see the value in what they can provide. And, I believe we'll come to some sort of resolution on that and super excited for the future. I think that, you know, Liv's not going anywhere. HE has been steadfast in his belief on team golf and whether everybody believes in it or not, I think it's a viable option. I think it's a viable commercial option.

Speaker 4:

You know, our our team has been EBITDA positive for the past two years, so we're starting to grow and move in the right direction just like TGL. You know, TGL has done a great job. They're they've got some teams that are making some some money, and I believe there is a sustainable model out there. How it all works with a game of golf? Who knows?

Speaker 4:

But I know my worth. I know what Liv brings to the table, and I'm excited for the future of of what golf golf is gonna be.

Speaker 1:

Right. He's saying, I might not sign with Liv essentially.

Speaker 3:

Something none of us have ever discussed before, but Bryson's having such a moment right now in The United States. I wonder what Ram's perspective is in the optics are in the European market. Is he bigger over there and do they really push him more in the European market than they do here? Because again, he's pretty silent here, but as big of a contract as he had with Liv, they've gotta be pushing him somewhere. He's one of

Speaker 1:

the most enjoyable guys to talk to. Everyone I've heard, you know, that's met him, that played with him, You can just watch the YouTube events, right, where he's hanging out with all of these guys. I mean, he he just gets it. It's you know, he I think he could make that jump. I think he doesn't wanna do the work that Bryson's doing potentially.

Speaker 1:

You know, I I don't know. But on the YouTube side, which is you know, there's a lot of production behind that.

Speaker 3:

While we're here so we don't get too lost, can you one of y'all give our audience here some of the breakdown on what Ram got for his special contract?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Why don't you look that up, Patrick, because while he's building that, another interesting point on Liv is the OWR points have been a discussion for years. This is something that's holding Liv back, and it goes to Ram's contract and why he negotiated it. Trevor Immelmann, who is one of the heads of the OWGR, which is the World Golf Ranking Points for those that don't know, this matters to every golfer on the planet. They need those to get in and maintain their status on tours, get into events, get into majors.

Speaker 1:

He says Trevor Immelman Immelman says, progress has been made with Liv's application, but no final decisions yet. Meritocracy and structure matter. He is essentially saying it it could happen, but look, guys, we're not there yet. Breaking news, though. Just today, February 3, LiveGolf did receive OWGR points, but there's a kicker.

Speaker 1:

The Live CEO is not happy. Liv Golf responds after being granted OWGR points, voicing concern that limiting the points to just the top 10 players really misses the mark. Their statement reads, the fundamental principle that performance on the course should matter regardless of where the competition takes place. Limiting points to only the top 10 finishers disproportionately harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold. No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such restriction.

Speaker 1:

The game deserves transparency. The fans deserve credibility, and the players deserve a system that treats them equally. I'm on the fence here, guys. Like, he makes a couple good points, but I don't know. Top 10 receiving OWGR points is a huge step forward for them and probably is what they should live with for quite some time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean and and look, I think the OWGR, little bit of a hot take here, but I think the OWGR and all of this, it's become apparent, probably has and holds more power over the professional game than arguably anyone except maybe Augusta National.

Speaker 1:

Outside of, yeah, the PGA Tour, I would absolutely agree with that, a 100%.

Speaker 3:

It is the number one hindrance to LIV. If you could get those points and you're a LIV player, because of the amount of money that's on LIV, more players would have gone over.

Speaker 2:

That's right. And I don't think that they foresaw that it would be that difficult to get OWGR points and get approved for it. I think they thought they would just kinda walk through that door because of this whole ruse, frankly, of we're doing this to grow the game. Now, the only one that's really bought into that hook, line, and sinker, he's a dyed in the wool believer, to his credit, is Bryson DeChambeau.

Speaker 1:

True. And, he's he's doing things to grow the game outside of LIV, which shows that that's what he believes in.

Speaker 3:

I'm going back to Brooks. Brooks has got exemptions on every one of the majors till 2029, so he is unlike a lot of these other players that have gone over. Has the flexibility to be able to stay and play or have stayed and played. And I think that this leaving though, you know, we've talked about TGL, I've made my point quite clear on that over the last couple episodes that we have that I think it will die over the next five years, I don't think it exists anymore. Liv is at a very precarious point right now where unless they get these points, I think that it's gonna have a short life span too.

Speaker 1:

I can see that, but on the TGL front, look, Rory is making moves to try to bring Brooks over, has some leverage points towards the PGA Tour's advantage. You look at Tiger and Tomorrow Sports announcing the WTGL, the women's, essentially the same golf league we're seeing here, but for the women of the game. And, you know, there are moves being made. The product is mature at this point. We're through three matches of the season, and while the ratings weren't quite there, in prior episodes, we did talk about how the earlier ones are likely not to get the type of ratings we're gonna see in mid season and towards the finale.

Speaker 1:

Now, we're looking at the fourth one coming out as we're recording this episode in a couple of days. That's supposed to have Tiger coming, but Tiger is actually not going to be playing. Damn. He will be there.

Speaker 3:

He'll be there. He's got some Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Don't know if it's injuries, I'm not

Speaker 3:

sure He what it had a surgery about a month ago.

Speaker 2:

But mark my words, those ratings are gonna be higher than any of the first two or three.

Speaker 1:

Just because he's hanging out.

Speaker 2:

You know? Hanging out in the boot.

Speaker 3:

But y'all remember when we were in college and you're playing beer pong with your buddies and you got your celebrity shot to come in and one of your friends comes in and shoots that he's maybe the best beer pong player out of the group. Outside of that, just don't see from a selection, I don't think that Brooks needs TGL. I don't think it helps him here.

Speaker 1:

So let's pop back to Ram really quick. We touched on his contract. Let's just highlight a couple of these really big differentiators. People don't understand this stuff. They hear these big topic leading titles that say, Ram got 600,000,000 or some number.

Speaker 1:

Brooks got over a 100,000,000, some unknown number. And regardless of all the reasons why you could move over to live OWJR points anticipated or not, those numbers are the reason why they moved. They are vocally saying, I do this for my family, but they're also trying to protect their career. None did it better than Ram.

Speaker 2:

Mhmm. So, Ram's contract, which was the largest in Liv's short history, was £450,000,000. It's about $566,000,000 with 302,000,000 of that paid upfront. That was the guaranteed piece as a quote unquote signing bonus. And then the rest was performance based bonuses, which he very well could have just blown out because he cleaned house last season, if memory serves.

Speaker 1:

Some big differentiators that I noticed, he was able to negotiate and prepare with his sponsors to retain all his sponsors as he moves over. Pretty crazy as a lot of these other guys had great sponsorships that they ended up losing like Dustin Johnson.

Speaker 2:

BJ'd lost

Speaker 1:

out with Taylor Made and Adidas. No equipment or apparel fallout. Endorsements stayed intact. Original players that joined Liv at the end at the beginning, they lost Callaway, KPMG, Workday, RBC, Amex, you know, tens of millions of dollars per year evaporated, but that was part of their calculus. They knew that was probably gonna happen.

Speaker 1:

You know, Phil lost some big ones, and they looked at it and said, well, they're giving me 200,000,000. They're giving me 120,000,000 or whatever the numbers are. That does factor in considering you'd have to work pretty hard for a little bit longer period of time on the PGA tour to accomplish that. But leaving the tour, leaving Liv has some challenges, and what Ram built into his contract here is very interesting because it does give him some edges that these other guys didn't negotiate in, except for one that followed him on, which was Tyrell Hatton. I think he has some of these same provisions.

Speaker 2:

And Ram also got, similar to the other captains, his own expansion team. So, Legion eight, or Legion sorry. Legion Legion thirteen, x III with an equity stake.

Speaker 3:

Well, we can't talk about any of this without then coming back to Bryson's going through a contract negotiations right now. And what do you guys think is going

Speaker 1:

to happen with that? That's an interesting subject because I don't think he's really as much negotiating for money as he is for control and structure of what LIV could be in the future, and business guys behind that tour, they they have some challenges. You know, they started with this free agency concept. This was something that Greg Norman jumped up on stage way back when Liv was getting going, and Greg Norman said, we're bringing free agency to golf. Right?

Speaker 1:

NFL and all. I mean, this is this big thing that you wanted to happen, but at the same time, that's the thing that might shoot them in the foot.

Speaker 2:

You talk about Norman. This is in the last couple days on social media. Someone was popping off on a video about, you know, how Norman either founded or created Liv or something like that, and I just kinda hit him in the comments. Was like, if you think Norman created Liv, you know, look, give him credit. He stepped in as the first CEO and kind of, like, got it off of the ground from that leadership position, but, like, he was nothing more than a vessel.

Speaker 2:

I don't wanna say figurehead because he deserves some credit for what he did do, which was go from zero to one, however rocky it may have been. But, the important stuff like official world golf rankings has been lacking, to say the least. And now, to your point, Brian, we're stuck in this era of like, okay, well, yes, we've brought free agency to golf, But that's a very expensive problem to have if you're the PIF.

Speaker 3:

If Leith is going to survive that moving forward, that three things have to happen. You have to sign Bryce into a new contract, whatever that is, and he's gonna be paid handsomely. I know it's time to have the money. Second, you gotta make sure that there's not a star exodus that's happening out there and that that narrative comes back. Because if you lose a couple more big name guys, like, again, Liv is dead, the last is if you can start getting World Golf ranking points, then it could be here for a while.

Speaker 3:

But other than that, I think that we're seeing the beginning and the end right now.

Speaker 1:

Look, Ram, he has the ownership stake in Legion. We talked about that, but bonuses aside, Ram can out earn his own deal, up to $50,000,000 per year in additional upside. Team success bonuses, performance accelerators are all built in there. The original players had flat guarantees, minimal bonuses, capped upsides. So that's a pretty big addition from him.

Speaker 1:

Ram gets rewarded for winning. Originals got paid for showing up.

Speaker 2:

Right? They had to get him in the door.

Speaker 1:

Yep. I'm gonna lie through a few more here. Flexibility is something that he got. His schedule allows him to control his calendar more than any of the other guys. They had to show up for all eight, right?

Speaker 1:

He actually has the ability to say, oh, I've got some family challenges. I'm not gonna show up. That's in his contract. It's crazy.

Speaker 2:

He's probably that flexibility probably extends to the media gaggles too because some of the early stuff that they did as far as pressers was was kinda like, oh, wow. Man. Like, Phil Mickelson, I think Phil wanted to be there. But some of those guys, you're looking at them, and they're sort of up there nervously on the on the stands before some of the tournaments. You're like, blink twice if you're okay.

Speaker 2:

Right? Bryson, I'm just curious if you wanna share your thoughts on some of the recent developments.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I I mean, look, I'm contracted through 2026, so excited about this year.

Speaker 2:

Alright. And, John, I I would ask the same same thing to you as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, man. I'm not planning on going anywhere. So very similar answer to to what pricing gave. I wish Brooks the best. And, as far as I'm concerned, focused on on the league and my team this year, and hopefully we can repeat as champions again.

Speaker 5:

I mean, I I really don't have any thoughts. I haven't had a lot of time to think about it, but I I know I'm here to stay. I'm I'm here to support Liv. I'm, a captain of a great team and and a great group of people. So, I'm happy where I am.

Speaker 5:

I'm proud of where I am. I think we're doing many great things, particularly in Australia, and I can't wait for this league to keep growing.

Speaker 1:

Now here's a really big picker. Ram renegotiated protections for his DP World Tour membership and his Ryder Cup membership, ability to pay fines, which is part of why his number is so big.

Speaker 2:

Which he's outspokenly said he doesn't want to and does not intend to pay.

Speaker 1:

Maintains DP World Tour membership, keeps Ryder Cup eligibility, and there's proof. Obviously, he played in the Ryder Cup this last year right after he announced he was joining Liv. You know, in contrast, Holter, Westwood, Garcia, they were permanently banned. Sergio So is Hendrick Stinson. Yes.

Speaker 1:

Stinson as well.

Speaker 2:

And he would have been a captain probably.

Speaker 1:

So Ron protected his past. Originals lost their past, essentially, the things that made them who they are was negotiated and taken away from them once they signed that original lib contract. So all in all, Ram really has something the rest of that tour doesn't have. And I think what you're gonna have is this imbalance with the rest of the players understanding and seeing what's occurring, and they're going, you might even have the ability to renegotiate. Can I get those things in my contract?

Speaker 1:

This free agency thing works. It's a double edged sword. It can go against the players and make it harder for them to stay on that tour. And if they can't stay on Liv, then they're relegated, and they have to go back through, you know, this thing that's occurring right now, which is this open season for Liv. They've got four rounds.

Speaker 1:

Look it up. It's interesting. Not sure I really understand or follow it that well. But essentially, you can earn your way onto the tour over the course of four rounds. There's some eliminations and so on.

Speaker 1:

But if you're getting relegated or if you don't make the tour, are you gonna go what? You're gonna go play on PGA again? Well, you can't.

Speaker 3:

You're supposed to sit up a year, but I if I were the PGA tour right now, I think it would be incredibly powerful. And we already said they've got their their foot on the neck of Liv. What if they came out and said, We will give you six months exemption. Any player that leaves Liv to come back to PGA Tour will welcome you back like the prodigal son right now with open arms with no penalty.

Speaker 2:

If you could qualify, the door's open, but make your decision now.

Speaker 3:

That would be big, guys.

Speaker 1:

So look, this is an interesting topic. We're following it, it's ongoing, there's new stuff coming out literally every day right now in the off season. This is when that free agency is hitting, this is when these contracts are being negotiated before we hit this next season, so watch it over the next coming couple of weeks, months, and maybe we'll even see Brooks joining the TGL. I've seen that part of the problem with TGL ratings is accessibility to even watch it. People are looking at how to watch it.

Speaker 1:

They can't find it, and part of that is due to ESPN being a little bit opaque in terms of how to access it. They have evidently restructured their ESPN plus, and some people that get ESPN with their Hulu and so on, you know, it's it doesn't include ESPN two and certain types of programming, and people just don't know how to access this. You know, personally, I use DirecTV now, and I just record it so I can catch up on it later, but I've gone through the Reddit comments. I've gone through the Instagram comments. I mean, this existed on another platform that was more easily accessible, even just straight to flipping YouTube.

Speaker 1:

64%

Speaker 3:

drop off in viewerships. I mean, at the end of the day, guys, the accessibility has to be there, but the fact that this is coming on midday, as you just said in a platform that you have to have a subscription for when people are cutting the cable left and right. To me, if I'm TGL, you gotta serve to the masses a dime with the classes and it's a that they have right now that you need to make this fully accessible on YouTube if you wanna get your viewership up. And even earlier to the stats that Patrick alluded to, that wasn't just Nelson ratings. That was Nelson ratings added on with another enhanced metric that's supposed to give an additional booster.

Speaker 3:

So that's 66%, 64% drop off is actually even higher than that.

Speaker 2:

That's the optimistic scenario.

Speaker 1:

So look guys, double check your ESPN subscription or whatever subscription you think you have because there are evidently different variations. So if you wanna tune in and figure this stuff out, once we hit probably five, six, seven episodes in, we'll have enough data to look at. We'll have enough matches to look at. Hopefully, exciting things will have occurred. There's definitely some early stars that are kind of peering out in these first couple episodes.

Speaker 1:

Know

Speaker 2:

Chris got her up.

Speaker 1:

Gotterup did some cool stuff for sure. There's some putts dropping on Roy's team. It's very it's very interesting thing to follow. So tune in if you wanna check out what's going on in the off season on TGL. We've covered the first half of this odyssey.

Speaker 1:

This is the second half. What happens now that he's allowed back on the tour? You know, there's a lot of details behind this. Let's, let's uncover some of the facts.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Well, so you have what you have really here is a, for those of you business school nerds out there, a real time case study in leadership that's playing out. Many of you will remember back to the Ryder Cup this past year. Brian Rollap, new CEO of the PGA Tour, was announced that Jay Monahan was stepping down, didn't put his best foot forward arguably with the whole policing of the fans and some of the abuse that was laid on from the fans towards the European side in the Ryder Cup. Fast forward several months, and here we have a I think arguably a tick mark in the win column for Brian Rohlap, with member reinstatement program.

Speaker 2:

So a couple of sound bites from him that kinda lay out the the land here. This is a one time defined window and does not set a precedent. It does. Once the door closes, there is no promise that this path will be available again. Fans want the best players in the world competing against each other more often.

Speaker 2:

What this really is about is the product. Brian Rolep is a product guy. He came from the NFL who understands probably better than any major sports league in the world that the fan experience and the viewer experience, the product, if you will, is is paramount. So, this is about the product. It's not about forgiveness for Brooks Koepka or anybody that left to go on the LIV tour.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Okay. So, he left the PGA tour, went to LIV, took the money, won a major. Now he's back. The PGA Tour has created this one time returning member program.

Speaker 1:

So there is an expiration date on this. At least right now, there's an expiration date. It allows a very small group of LIV players, those that won majors or the players championships since 2022 to apply for reinstatement. The word apply sort of means they might not get it, and maybe that the terms are going to fluctuate from player to player. The key framing here is one time window, limited eligibility, deadline to apply, not available to, like, 98% of live players.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's fewer than that. I mean, it effectively only applies to four people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Guys, this is the biggest haymaker that's happened since the live PGA tour rivalry that's happened. As you just said, four players this applies to right now. Cam, Bryson, Kepka, and Ron. They don't care about anybody else here.

Speaker 3:

And Kepka's still gonna keep $85,000,000 of the $100,000,000 that he went over supposedly. That's fourth Well we

Speaker 1:

know it was north of 100,000,000, so we don't know exactly how much. We know he left his contract a little early, so he's probably gonna be He did

Speaker 3:

get the full payout, but inside sources are saying $85,000,000 he's still kept. That's life changing money right there. Kepka's being brought back like the prodigal son guys, and and PGA Tour is brilliant on what they just did because as long as right now, Liv doesn't get the World Golf rankings, and if they have a star, Liv is dead. Liv is dead. But even out of that list, I would still put a hierarchy that they really don't care about Cam as much as they care about Ram and Bryson.

Speaker 3:

And Ram's locked in.

Speaker 1:

Ram's locked in. Some of these people signed contracts later than Brooks. Brooks was coming to the end of his, which was a natural time to get out. He did end it a little early, so there was that about, I think, 20,000,000 that he's probably gonna forego. You know, we can fact check that, but Brooks is back.

Speaker 1:

The story really isn't about his return, it's about what this changes.

Speaker 2:

But it's interesting to juxtapose the family argument. Right? When at the beginning of Liv, the outset, you had Dustin Johnson prominently being like, ah, look. You know, I think that it was in full swing. The quote was this is season one of full swing.

Speaker 2:

The quote was something like, why on earth would you not accept more money to work less? And he was justifying that as I get to spend more time with my family. And now Brooks is saying, well, after having been globetrotting on Liv, they fly in, they parachute, and they take over these cities and these golf courses for a week, and they parachute right back out from where they came, week in and week out, whereas Brooks is just saying, I I wanna I wanna be spending more time with with my family.

Speaker 1:

I think we've got a couple of quotes that Josh is gonna pull up from Brooks, but there's penalties. This might be the most costly penalty in all of sports, possibly sports his history. $5,000,000 charitable contribution that we mentioned. No FedEx cup bonus money. No signature event exemptions, so he could still play into those events.

Speaker 1:

And no equity participation for five years. That's tens of millions of dollars in projected long term impact. So it's not really a free pass for him to come back, it's definitely costing him something.

Speaker 3:

Kepka said in his interview, he said, I believe in where the tour was headed, I understand there were financial penalties and I accept those. I don't think he's really sorry though guys. I think this is just an understanding of the cost of coming back and again if he wants to be relevant in the next couple years because he was working his way out of not being relevant and getting off, Three more years on Liv dropping your world golf rankings, I just don't see where he goes. He even followed that up and he said, There's definitely going to be guys that will be angry and I need to rebuild those relationships. Time's only gonna tell here.

Speaker 2:

And I think you're already seeing a little bit of that anger, by the way, from YouTube Golf's Finest, right? Wesley Bryan has been lighting Instagram on fire, talking about, oh, well, you know, Brooks is able to just walk back in the front door. Does that mean that I get to come back? Because I played a nine hole scramble on YouTube.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Mean, that that's a whole different level of messed up.

Speaker 3:

I would argue, though, what you just said is really important, and I haven't thought about. If that's Wesley Bryant is arguably more popular today than Brett Kepka in the game of golf and more important for the future for the game of golf, and yet the PGA Tour, because as antiquated as they are, they're not gonna be able to see the value in reinstating Weston over reinstating Brooks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Something interesting too that that I just thought about, and look, he's in the back the back half, if not the back, like, last two holes of his metaphorical 18 hole career. One main name that is notably left out that is a major championship in the not too distant past from all of this and eligibility to return, anyone? Anyone? Damn.

Speaker 2:

Mickelson.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah? One year. They set the they set the line at 2022 to present. If you wanna major the players 2022 going forward, not 2021, not COVID, 2022. So I think it's also, like, the PGA tour, while they have moved on substantially from a lot of the deep the deep wounds, the deep pain of the Monahan Norman years with Liv and and while Brian Rollapp has has definitely done a lot to move this discussion forward and come back towards some sort of semblance of a table to negotiate or some sort of way to bring things back together and get the talent back focused on the product, They definitely have not forgotten how a lot of all this started and it was with Phil Mickelson, so see you bud.

Speaker 1:

There's been a lot of players that have started to talk about this. Horschel being one of them that said, look, like, we can be not happy about this, but he said selfishly, you know, I'm okay with it because it's gonna help my equity in the tour. And he's talking about the PGA Tour Enterprises program. You know, the tour health, the product, you know, all of that is gonna be boosted. But the players that do have a participation in this equity program, they stand to gain when some of these players come.

Speaker 1:

The ratings are gonna go up. The income's gonna go up. Your merchandise sales is gonna go up. So let let's for those of you that don't understand that PGA Tour Enterprises and why it matters, after the LIV disruption, the PGA Tour created a for profit commercial arm called PGA Tour Enterprises separate from the nonprofit tour, the PGA Tour. It holds commercial media rights designed to bring in bring in outside capital, aligns players with long term value.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And so, long term value. When we think about that from an investor standpoint, oh, you hear the buzzword equity and you think, oh, well, they must own a piece, their own piece of of PGA Tour Enterprises. Let's make a couple things clear. This isn't stock, it's not ownership, they can't trade it on or trade on it.

Speaker 2:

It is long term vesting and the the value of it really depends on the success of the PGA Tour overall. I would think if there's a one to one analogy to something in the business world, it would kind of be this nebulous brand equity, really. And it's more of a profit share if you wanna think about it that way.

Speaker 3:

But this was also a band aid guys so that they could put reward those players that stayed on the PGA tour versus the ones that went to Liv and they had to come up with something at the time when Liv was being created or they were gonna lose more of the top 100 players, and it was gonna create a real rival league. Right now though, we're saying forgiveness is very selective here.

Speaker 1:

This was not for everyone, the Enterprises program. It was for players who stayed, and it was also players who declined live offers, player directors, PAC members, so it's not just players as well. Leaders who carried the tour through the disruption. This was a loyalty settlement, not a performance bonus. So the way you gotta look at this is not like something they're gonna be giving out to all.

Speaker 1:

This was something to reward loyalty, as Josh was mentioning.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And, look, anyone who left for Liv was excluded from this this nebulous equity and from PGA Tour Enterprises. Let's be clear on that. And players that are coming back now are still gonna be excluded for years. Brooks Koepka is gonna be excluded, I believe, for five years from the equity and the incentive program.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, okay. So it does continue forward. Players can, you know, I guess, earn their way into it. And it's not all players on the PGA Tour. Think I it's only players above a certain level.

Speaker 1:

You know? And that that's why Marshall's comment kinda matters here because, you know, keeping strength on tour, keeping that product growing, keeping the income coming in does give them a lot of long term value. Maybe not those that just earned their card and those that are in the, you know, bottom echelon of the tour, but it's meaningful for these guys for sure.

Speaker 2:

So, back to Brooks and and one of the comments that he made really stood out to me and it was about, you know, there are gonna be some guys that are pissed about this. And I understand and I accept that those this is paraphrasing, obviously. I accept that those are relationships that I'm gonna have to come back in and I'm gonna have to mend. Jordan Spieth, the other day, said, if he comes back and plays good golf, that's good for everybody. I wonder, I can't help but wonder if that is Jordan Spieth towing more of the Billy Horschel line of, ah, look, if he comes back, it's gonna only increase my value over the long term, I e, that's good for everybody, even though everybody isn't everybody.

Speaker 2:

Or is it, you know, yeah, I didn't have a problem with Brooks, and, you know, he just needs to come back, speak with his clubs, and that's gonna be that. You know, it's really this do we move on, do we not? I think that Brian Rollap would tell you that, like, okay, well, when it comes to these four guys potentially that could earn their way back on here, we need to just move on.

Speaker 3:

We're also gonna have to expand the field after we just did a contraction, guys. We haven't talked about that. So now you're gonna bring Brooks back, you're gonna have to expand the field. Now it's by one but he can't have a sponsorship exemption and he's gonna have to come and play his way into these tournaments. They're not just gonna freely give it to him where he automatically gets into a mall But, again, I think this is a brilliant strategy by the PGA Tour right now.

Speaker 3:

And as we've already said, this is the biggest swing they've taken at Liv.

Speaker 1:

Let's take a look at Liv's response to this for a second, and then let's dive into that that strategy piece because that's really interesting.

Speaker 2:

Liz's response in that they released the same statement that the PGA Tour made with the same

Speaker 1:

word I'm for gonna read this to you guys. I mean, is Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Put it on the screen.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Have a full statement, three paragraphs long. From the outset, LiveGolf has championed an open ecosystem of freedom for all, not just for a limited few. So they're they're trying to poke at a few things here. One that supports players rights to compete across various platforms, reinforcing the belief that the growth of the game is best served when the game's best players are empowered to seek the most competitive environments around the world.

Speaker 1:

They're talking about their free agency program. I'm gonna skip down here because this is the part that really gets me. As the world's golf league, LIVKIT golf continues to offer the best professional golfers the most competitive, challenging, and lucrative environment in which to pursue greatness on a scale. Here's PGA TOUR's official statement prior to that. PGA the PGA TOUR continues to offer the best professional golfers the most competitive, engaging, and lucrative environment in which to pursue greatness.

Speaker 3:

Shot fired.

Speaker 1:

It's it's quite funny to see how this rolls out. So when we think about strategy here, I mean, this is a the the golf war continues. We're years into it. They've tried to talk. They've tried to come to the table to merge these things, and now we're in the middle of this free agency piece, which maybe they were waiting for this whole time to try to lure players back over.

Speaker 1:

But what's the downside to what Rollapp has put together here? Like, this is a legal precedent. Currently, it has a limited window that expires.

Speaker 3:

February 2.

Speaker 1:

So, know, will they reopen that later? You know? Because for example, Ram's contract, it goes, like, through this season. Like, he's not even gonna be up for technically negotiations, so I'm sure he would forego a significant portion

Speaker 2:

of his contract. Originally don't forget what year it was, but it was, a five year deal. Right?

Speaker 1:

Mhmm.

Speaker 2:

Because this will be his third year on Liv. 2026 will be.

Speaker 1:

That's right. Cam Smith probably is one of the ones that could jump, you know, considering his contract. He's one of the earlier ones to join.

Speaker 3:

How about if you're Bryson's team right now use this as leverage? And Bryson's gonna want more control of this league.

Speaker 1:

So those reports are evidently coming out of Golf Digest. They report on Bryson De Schambeau's status. The whispers suggest he wants out when his LIV contract expires this year. Maybe that's just posturing to negotiate his contract higher with LIV. His asking price is evidently really steep to the Liv guys, which it should be.

Speaker 2:

So it should be.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And he's demanding more control over Liv's direction. Tour officials recognize their exemption could serve as leverage in his negotiations. The tour wants only three live players back, supposedly.

Speaker 2:

Look, I think what it really comes down to over the medium term is capital. You know, you have we talked a little bit about in PGA Tour Enterprises. They needed to form very quickly an entity separate from the nonprofit PGA Tour that could bring in capital to really just, like, quickly stem the floodgates for all these player defections to Liv because Liv was offering guaranteed contracts at the time and shelling out a ton of cash to do it. Now going forward, you've seen the balance kind of tip in favor of the tour now with Brooks coming back, and that's opening a door potentially, I don't know, what if Bryson comes back? That's gonna make things, I don't think it happens, we'll see, but that's gonna make things a lot more expensive for Liv, and it's gonna make things a lot more expensive for them to get even any player, frankly, I think, to sign on, and to defect going forward.

Speaker 3:

In five years from now, three years from now, so many of these are already gonna be nonexistent, but there's gonna be remnants of what Liv has. I do think that Liv has a great atmosphere about it, that the PGA Tour is just an old school mentality. We've talked about in the first episode that the waste management is such a fun tournament to go to from a fan's perspective, but I don't want to go to the John Deere. I just don't care. But the week in, week out, what can we take from Liv that will make the PGA Tour more accessible, more engaging, more fun to watch for the

Speaker 1:

They've already taken what they wanted to take. You know? I think that you're gonna see maybe some adaptations and updates now that Brian Rohlap's in place. But, I mean, frankly, when you win a live golf tournament, you're winning money, and that's it. Like, you take home a trophy for the very first time or the second time, you know, any of these PGA Tour events, regardless of whether the sponsorship changes, you've got names on there that date back to the history of this game, sometimes to the entire history of this.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think that the PGA Tour, you can call it older, but you can also call it, you know, history that you wanna be a part of. I think all of us at some point in our lives are gonna realize we wanna leave a mark on this world when before we head out. And that's that's a lot of these guys way of doing it doing it.

Speaker 3:

What about behind the scenes guys? We've never talked about this, but I think one thing Liv does really well to cater towards the players and towards the back end staff that helps make these players so great week in week out. It costs the players so much money to be able to travel when you're paying on the PGA tour and it can be the difference between making money that week or losing money that week. If don't make the cut, you still have to pay your caddies, you still have to pay for your hotel And one of the things that Lyft does is they shuttle these guys around on BBJs, they make sure to take care of the caddies so the caddies are now traveling with the players and they don't have to worry about that capital cost. I think these are small adaptations that maybe Brian coming from the NFL will adapt more to be able to make the PGA Tour a place that feels more welcoming for its players.

Speaker 3:

But again, I think there's gonna be something moving forward here that we're gonna see some adaptations that these the players are gonna this is gonna be a better league for everybody moving forward.

Speaker 1:

So let's we got the facts. We looked at the contracts, the statements, the timelines, the incentives. Brooks played the system. You won. Now everyone else is recalculating what loyalty actually buys you because the rules just changed.

Speaker 1:

So they are still looking at Lib. This is not over. The money is still strong over there. It depends on, you know, how hard they're gonna fight back and if they're gonna keep throwing money at this this clear problem that Liv now has because the PGA Tour, you know, has precedent. They have history.

Speaker 1:

They have loyalty, and they've built up a lot of things that mitigate the risks for those that stay on the tour. Let's let's keep tracking this. We're next time we talk about this subject, there's gonna be a significant amount more, I'm sure, that comes through the news cycle that we will gather, aggregate, and come back to you guys with. So we'll keep doing what we do, waiting, listening, collecting facts, telling you what actually matters once the noise dies down. If this episode changed the way you see the sport, share it with someone.

Speaker 1:

Comment. Tell us what you guys think. So we'll see you next time. I'm Brian Harstein. Patrick Baird.

Speaker 3:

Josh Flynn. Take care. Awesome. Bye.