Intel on driver testing, a Rickie Tour Live audit, and hacking the Fall schedule

With minimal golf news to chat about, this Friday episode covers a myriad of topics including geography, plane flight paths, and the Green Bay Packers. Andy is still recovering the Micah Parsons news and Brendan prompts PJ to explain his love for the Packers in 2025 just to make things worse. After an abridged Football Corner before college football kicks off this weekend, Andy and Brendan move on to golf and discuss Sunny Kim's latest win on the Minor League Golf Tour. Brendan is especially impressed by the record books on the Minor League Tour and suggests the PGA Tour take some notes. They also run through the field at next week's BMW PGA, where most of the potential European Ryder Cup team will tee it up alongside some LIV boys and... Corey Conners? Brian Rolapp is reportedly wondering how the PGA Tour can better market the mules, so Brendan and Andy come up with some ideas and players they'd like featured. Andy then audits the PGA Tour socials to figure out where some mule content could fit in. In other news, Kapalua is now shutting down in order to preserve the course due to a water shortage and The Sentry is officially in danger. There's plenty of Golf Advice to send you off to a holiday weekend, with listeners wondering when they can drink non-alcoholic beer and an Andy takedown of the handicap system in America. To wrap things up, Brendan, Andy, and PJ look ahead to Week 1 of college football and highlight some games to watch, with Andy making a shocking revelation.

29 Elo 1h 18min

This Wednesday episode was recorded live right after the interminable dog-and-pony show announcing the final six captain’s picks to fill the 2025 US Roster for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. Andy and Brendan are giddy coming off that show and dissect the six picks, who got snubbed, and the agonizing choice by Keegan Bradley to just captain and not play even though he is clearly one of the best 12 US golfers this year. They also outline some points of concern on the roster, potential pairings, and a laundry list of amusements for the one-hour show with all six picks sitting on a zoom. They ponder the notion that the Americans are on “the back foot” and the Euros are tap-dancing in their heads. The role of Tiger Woods, if any, in these decisions is also bandied about. They close with schedule for the week and some news on the Masters and Open switching up their exemptions into their fields, a Rory-Scottie skills challenge coming to TV in December, and the Tour Championship’s monster ratings.

27 Elo 1h 16min

Tommy Fleetwood has finally won a PGA Tour event. Naturally, this episode starts elsewhere, as Andy and Brendan immediately jump into some quotes from Robert Garrigus and James Hahn. As told to Adam Schupak, these men are very unhappy about the PGA Tour's continued shift toward Signature Events. Garrigus challenged Jordan Spieth to a match for his "five sponsor exemptions" into Signature Events next year and Hahn wants Brian Rolapp to get his phone number from Jay Monahan. This sets Andy off, wondering which players should feature in the "Mule Derby." Things eventually get back to the Super Bowl of Golf, won by Tommy Fleetwood after four rounds of preferred lies. Tommy held off "Playoff P," Keegan Bradley, Russell Henley, and a half-hearted charge from FedEx Cup fourth-place-finisher Scottie Scheffler on Sunday. PJ questions whether this Tour Championship should even count as Tommy's first win, but Fleetwood is now Mr. 1,001 regardless. Andy and Brendan discuss the week at East Lake and give Tommy his flowers for landing the plane on Sunday afternoon. With the U.S. Ryder Cup team set to be announced on Wednesday, it seems like Keegan Bradley will select himself, leaving one of Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, or Sam Burns at home. There's a lengthy discussion about what Keegan should do, but everyone agrees things are trending toward him being a playing captain. The European Ryder Cup team also got a boost on Sunday, with Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton teaming up to win the LIV Team Championship in a playoff. Elsewhere for Europe, Rasmus Hojgaard qualified on points, all but locking up their 12 players. Brendan is unsure of how Rasmus accumulated enough points to make the top six and questions whether all points lists should go away for the 2027 Ryder Cup. Stew Cink went back-to-back at the Ally Challenge, beating Ernie Els in a playoff in Michigan and Brooke Henderson won her national Open on the LPGA. Finally, President Trump declared that he's in favor of Keegan Bradley's playing captaincy and said he will be attending the Ryder Cup on Friday. Will he chop it up with Don Rea? That remains to be seen.

25 Elo 1h 26min

Andy and Brendan return to unpack Brian Rolapp's presser at East Lake ahead of the 2025 Tour Championship. Brendan is in especially high spirits following a strong start from Jacob Bridgeman who has found himself in contention to win the FedEx Cup after one round in Atlanta. The bulk of this episode is spent recapping Rolapp's press conference and discussing his first orders of business as CEO of the PGA Tour. It sounds like major changes are coming and Andy, Brendan, and PJ wonder where Rolapp and his newly formed committee will begin. Whether it's taking a piece of revenue from majors, various media rights deals, or shrinking the Tour even more, Rolapp seems eager to shake things up. The back half of this show previews the LIV Team Championship in Plymouth, Michigan. The event will be LIV's 50th tournament, leaving Andy and Brendan to wonder whether the league will make it to 100 events. Brendan runs through some all-time LIV stats, as this golf entity actually has accurate bookkeeping - a rarity these days! Jon Rahm has come down from Mt. Everest and made an interesting draft choice when choosing his first-round opponent, drawing comparisons to his beloved Arizona Diamondbacks. We will be back on Monday to break down golf's Super Bowl in full after a new FedEx Cup champion is crowned at East Lake on Sunday night.

21 Elo 1h 14min

At long last, Andy has returned from sea (and air!). He joins Brendan and is fired up off the jump, coming in hot to defend the city of Chicago after last week's "slander." Andy's back just in time for golf's Super Bowl - the Tour Championship at East Lake. Brendan shares some quotes from an Adam Schupak article about the event possibly heading out of Atlanta sometime soon, only to find that Tim Finchem might've promised the event would stay there "in perpetuity." The winner of this week's event, which is now being played without Starting Strokes, will win both the tournament and the FedEx Cup for the 2025 season, unlike Jon Rahm's LIV title that came with zero victories. Rahm compared his win-without-winning to climbing Mt. Everest, sending Brendan off the rails at the preposterousness of that comparison. After running through the Schedule for the Week, Andy and Brendan then get into the 2026 Schedule for the Year after the PGA Tour announced its dates for next season. Trump Doral will host a new Signature Event in May, making it nearly impossible for rookies and those without signature status to play between the Masters and the PGA Championship. In other news, Paul Azinger will receive the Payne Stewart Award this week and Andy has a few questions about how the committee chose him as the 2025 recipient. TGL has announced the start date for its second season, going head-to-head with an NFL Sunday in December. This leads into an NFL Minute to close out this episode - Andy loves what he's seeing from the Bears, Joe Flacco is starting for Brendan's Browns, and PJ is already apathetic about Justin Fields and the Jets.

19 Elo 1h 15min

With Andy lost in an airport (not at sea), Brendan! once again called upon PJ to step into the "big chair" to close out the second round of the 2025 FedEx Cup playoffs. After he was unable to make history as the defending FedEx Cup champ last week, Scottie Scheffler fought back with a vengeance at Caves Valley. Scottie chased down Big Shot Bob MacIntyre in the final pairing, putting an exclamation point on his latest win with a chip-in on the 17th hole. Brendan shares some insight from his weekend on the ground, covering pace-of-play and a proper showcase of the top 50 players on the PGA Tour. One of those 50, Ben Griffin, had a rocky start to his Sunday and shared post-round that it was due to an "overdose" on creatine, sending Brendan and PJ into a tizzy. Jon Rahm was not in Baltimore, but he was in Indianapolis for LIV's individual season finale. He took home overall champion honors after a Sunday 60, but lost the weekly event to Sebastian Muñoz in a playoff. Brendan and PJ discuss the absurdity of Rahm - who did not win all year - beating out Joaquin Niemann's five-win season for the 2025 LIV title. LIV relegation is also a hot topic as big names now have to play elsewhere next season. The "Lads Club" is in full effect for Ryder Cup Europe with both Harry Hall and Marco Penge having big weeks despite seemingly having no shot at the 12th spot on the European roster. On the American side, Keegan Bradley had a nice Sunday at Caves Valley, but questions remain whether he should pick himself to play at Bethpage following a t-4 from Sam Burns. PJ then celebrates a long-awaited Victory Monday after Dick Green wins the Champs Tour event in Calgary. Brendan wraps up a great week of golf at Olympic Club for the U.S. Am, and shares an unsubstantiated rumor about next year's PGA Tour schedule to end this episode.

18 Elo 1h 22min

As promised on Wednesday's episode, Kevin Van Valkenburg returns to discuss the 2021 BMW Championship at Caves Valley and the ensuing SGS episode that continues to live in infamy. Before KVV comes in, Brendan keeps PJ in the big chair to run through some press conference quotes and results from the first round of this year's BMW. Brendan unleashes a rant about the proliferation of the Little League World Series across ESPN properties, leading to a lengthy discussion about the state of youth sports and selling out to private equity. From there, early storylines from the BMW start to emerge including plenty about next month's Ryder Cup. Scottie Scheffler doesn't want to talk about the upcoming matches at Bethpage, but Rory and Keegan both had some thoughts about a playing captain in their pre-tournament pressers in Baltimore. Brendan and PJ also preview LIV Indianapolis, share some concern about Xander Schauffele in this lost season for him, and check in on match play at the U.S. Am. KVV then comes in to join Brendan as the two remember their time at the birth of "Patty Ice" against a villainous Bryson DeChambeau at the 2021 BMW Championship.

15 Elo 1h 18min

Brendan! and PJ run amok on this episode while Andy's out on a boat somewhere. They have a lengthy food discussion to kick things off with the "Burger Dog" at The Olympic Club has taken center stage at the U.S. Am. There is debate about the merits of Chicago cuisine, bagels from just anywhere, and Phil Mickelson's Portillo's experiences in Bolingbrook last week. Tommy Fleetwood's tour of the 30 MLB stadiums has also continued after he was spotted at Camden Yards on Tuesday evening. He's in town for the BMW Championship at Caves Valley in Baltimore, best known as the birthplace of "Patty Ice" in 2021. Brendan and PJ take a small look back at that event, with more to come on Friday thanks to a special guest. Picks are made for the second round of the playoffs and PJ argues that this driver-wedge fest may be a proper way to crown a champion of the PGA Tour season. They run through the rest of the Schedule of the Week before dropping in some news about Versant and NBC striking a rights deal for the USGA Championships. If you still have cable, you're in good company here! Brendan then calls on Golf Channel's Brentley Romine for some onsite coverage of the aforementioned U.S. Am, burger glizzies and all.

13 Elo 1h 25min