What went down: It’s the final Sunday recap pod of the year?! In the 2023 golf year, we can never be sure. KVV and D.J join Soly to talk more about the framework agreement, where the PGA Tour has gone wrong, PNC and superlatives.
(4:15) On the first day of PIFmas, my true love gave to me…a partridge in a private equity tree?
Per ESPN: “A multibillion-dollar deal between a group of well-known U.S. sports team owners and the PGA Tour is imminent, as the tour still hopes to reach a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.”
The trio reacted to what could come out of “PGA Tour Enterprises” and their potential collaboration with PIF. Could this win the good graces of the membership again? HOW much is going to be infused into it? KVV reveals his golf bureaucracy fatigue and asks that you wake him up when the majors are back.
How much better is it gonna get? Let’s hope we can enjoy golf for competition’s sake again. Or could there be some three-dimensional chess going on?
(17:00) Soly gives a pop quiz on the past few years’ worth of decisions the PGA Tour has made to get us to this point, featuring: PIP, PGL, designated events, Big Jay overstaying his welcome and other indiscretions. What coulda, shoulda, and woulda happened!
(1:04:45) Reactions to Jon Rahm’s public self-imposing of his NDA from his new job, the mule uprising (broken by someone by the name of TronCarterNLU on Twitter…), NBC eyeing Geoff Ogilvy and the Kisner signing.
(1:07:00) PNC Championship. TC, absent from the show, relayed his fury re: the winner playing from the up tees. Does the PNC solely exist for Charlie content? Probably. But it’s fun.
Q-School was rained out over the weekend, so there was a Monday finish. Here are your five PGA Tour qualifiers: Harrison Endycott, Trace Crowe, Blaine Hale Jr., Raul Pereda, Hayden Springer.
(1:13:15) It’s time for NLU superlatives! The guys declare: Favorite Shot IRL, “This Moment Should Have Been A Bigger Deal,” Mule of the Year, Bleakest Moment of the Year, The Disappearing Ink Award, Pro Golf Shot of the Year, Best Picture (Favorite Tournament), Person of the Year,
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Best take: I deeply resonate with KVV’s merger/framework agreement/LIV/PIF/PGA Tour/acronyms fatigue. In some weird alternate universe where golf is the sport of the youths, there’s a TikTok edit of Jay Monahan pressers and speaking engagements with flashy transitions over Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero. I’d probably be a little less tired if we were having that much fun with it. Instead, we’re all just suffering watch man-babies lawyer up and keep secrets. There are soap opera plots spicier than this.
That said, 2023’s Best Take-r Award goes to KVV. This was a tough decision, as it was a four-way tie between TC, Soly, Randy and KVV. For the tiebreaker, I asked each of them individually what their least favorite holiday song was and why. KVV not only managed to share the same hatesong as me, but perfectly encapsulated why it sucks:
“I have to go with Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney.
The why: It represents Paul in his most simplistic maudlin era, when he wasn’t even trying complex themes in his music, he was just making happy gibberish. Lennon was writing Merry Christmas War Is Over and belting his brains out, and Paul was writing music that felt like it should have Muppets dancing around to it in a video. At his corniest, Paul is a writer of children’s birthday party soundtracks.”
Worst take: (1:07:10) I feel personally attacked for feeling kind of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ on Geoff Ogilvy and Kevin Kisner. My Gen Z is showing. I’m sorry. I’ll give all of you the worst take because I’m lukewarm on all of it. However, I am open to it. And if you need any further proof that I’m Gen Z – I don’t have a better solution.
(1:38:00) Comparing Blockie to Jar Jar Binks is a low blow, D.J. Jar Jar didn’t chase clout. The clout chased him. Meesa offended!
2023’s Worst Take-r is Soly, who built up a very early lead in the early days of show notes and led with 5. KVV assembled a fairly consistent campaign but ultimately ended up one worst take shy of taking home the award.
Mea culpas:
The winner of Mea Culpa of the Year goes to Randy, who had to hand it to Bailey Tardy after ripping her lightning-in-a-bottle-like ascent to the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Women’s Open. The commitment to the in-person apology was truly noteworthy.
Quotables: (1:13:00) “I weep for the brands. What about the brands?” -KVV
“No one’s thinking about the brands.” -D.J.
(1:15:00) “I gotta give Tron another shoutout: how he continues to have his Forrest Gump-ian presence in seemingly every storyline in golf. The Ludvig stuff, the Scheffler stuff is great – he went and played golf with Spencer Levin last week, his childhood hero! If Spencer comes and gets his PGA Tour card fresh off the heels of that, you gotta hand it to him.” -D.J.
(1:25:30) “My Bleakest Moment of the Year was when they had the flash mob at LIV London.
I rewatched it today, because I really couldn’t believe that it was real, that it wasn’t from 2005. The song for the flash mob is “Party Rockers in the House Tonight” (Party Rock Anthem), which is perfect. All the fans are just standing with their arms crossed. It reminded me of that scene in Mean Girls where they start grinding when they do the Jingle Bell Rock and all the teachers are just like, ‘Oh my God.’” -KVV
Referenced works:
(4:15) ESPN report: PGA Tour, U.S. sports team owners group nearing deal
(54:00) Rahm is under ‘very strict instructions not to do public events’
(58:00) Golfweek: Rank-and-file players hire lawyer to demand information from PGA Tour on outside investors
(1:07:10) Golfweek: NBC eyes Geoff Ogilvy for analyst role to replace Paul Azinger
Ads: (1:10) Thanks to our friends at Titleist – who have recruited TC’s beloved rookie Ludvig! We also did a big staff-wide WITB video this past week – check it out over here.
(53:30) Shoutout to Rhoback – in case you needed another reminder of how great the performance hoodies are! Pair them up with the Rhoback five-pocket pants and load up on all of the gear in time for the holiday season. Use code “NLU” to get 20 % off through the end of this week.