The 2025 Year in Review, Part 8

Andy and Brendan close out the week with a planned Summer Friday hours episode that is prolonged with general sports talk and exhaustion. They begin with a Golfweek report on the 2024 schedule that is to be officially announced by the PGA Tour next week, or supposed to be. They react to the new term “Signature” events replacing Designated events, Pebble Beach getting that status, and the mishmash of some keeping cuts while others doing away with them. There’s a lament about the Olympics impact again as well as the loss of connection with these constant name changes. The second half of the podcast answers some Golf Advice emails on a Dynapower reward and hitting into a photo shoot at the Dallas Cowboys Golf Course.

3 Aug 202350min

It’s the final week of the regular season, and what better way to cap off this year of discontent than yet another shake-up at the PGA Tour. This time, it comes in the form of the players pushing back on the middle-of-the-night dealing that three suits conducted to change the future of their tour. Tiger Woods will be getting a newly created board seat that will give more power to the players on that board than the independent directors. Andy and Brendan discuss the details of these changes, what it means for Jay Monahan, the Framework Agreement, and how it’s all starting to get a little exhausting. Schedule for the week checks in on the Wyndham Championship, where Wyndham Clark is a no-show along with the rest of the Comcast Top 10. News hits on some Jon Rahm comments that it is a criminal a top 150 Tour player can lose money in a year, with a quick exercise running through some of the money lists to check on that claim.

2 Aug 202355min

Brendan is back and he returns to an Andy podcasting not at 100 percent after eating too much at dinner. This episode is a ramble that covers all manner of important and inane golf topics, and several non-golf subjects like vacation, the show Shark Tank, and Burmese food. They begin with some thoughts on the Sticky Note Classic that quickly transitions to a Senior Open recap. Andy has had enough with the Paddy RC talk, Brendan has Woosie empathy, and they both have delight in the absolutely brutal conditions. At the 3M Open, they discuss JT’s MC and Finau’s T7, and how we weight each. There’s great anger over FedExCup standings updates lagging. There’s praise for Lee Hodges, and some clarification on all the strawman J.T. Poston catnip about his going for the green. On the KFT recap, they discuss the Barstool broadcast of the Chicago event. News hits on the Jay memo a bit more and the outrageous decision by Carlota Ciganda do DQ herself rather than take a slow play penalty.

31 Jul 202358min

CBS Sports' Kyle Porter joins Andy Johnson with Brendan Porath on vacation. The two start off discussing Kyle's aversion to sandals and potential solutions before diving into the recent Jay Monahan Memo to PGA Tour players. In the memo there is some clarity to how the Tour will bring together the Tour players and LIV players and Kyle wonders if LIV will keep going. Then a large conversation about the Tour's stance against the MLR ball rollback is discussed at length. The podcast ends with some SGS Golf Advice which includes a golf celebrity encouter, a sore loser and a tournament result in question. Today's sponsors are AG1 and Oars And Alps, find more information about each at the websites below: www.drinkag1.com/shotgun www.oarsandalps.com/friedegg Promo code: Egg15

27 Jul 20231h 10min

Brendan is at the beach with family, covered in sand and Oars & Alps sunscreen, and looking for a break from the “vacation.” And Andy is ebullient about getting a new couch. So this is a punchy episode on a range of subjects -- the field list at the 3M Open including the scion of a Dockers enthusiast, as well as some bigger names grinding to make an improved playoffs cutoff. That includes Justin Thomas, who is covered in some detail vis-a-vis the Ryder Cup. The two majors, the Senior Open and Evian, are also covered tersely with some critique for Champions Tour golf given Steve Stricker and Stew Cink are just no-showing. The U.S. Junior is given “ECCO event of the week,” with some questions about what actually constitutes a “junior” given that some full-blown college players are in the field. There’s also an “All-Name Team” from that event. There’s a lot of yelling about a little Courier Cup points bylaw that has jammed Akshay Bhatia from being in a proper spot on the points list. News hits on a report that the much-hyped 17th hole at Royal Liverpool, “Wee Eye,” will be “blown up” and made much fairer.

25 Jul 202343min

The last men’s major round of the year is in the books and Andy and Brendan reconvene to discuss some of the larger picture items and plenty of the stupid amusements. They begin with Brian Harman, his career, his dominance this week, and the notion that this was a bad major. Then they cover the chasers, from Rahm and Rory to Cam Young and some of the other backdoor Top 10ers. A winners and losers segment covers some of the boorish fans, the un-dramatic 17th hole, “Waggle Cam,” and a few other players. An unplanned Ryder Cup discussion breaks out after some chatter and praise for the Sepptic Tank. There’s also plenty of chatter about Hoylake and its place in championship golf, despite a weekend that was less than compelling. Thank you all for your continued support of this silly endeavor, especially during these major weeks.

23 Jul 20231h 24min

Andy and Brendan check in after an eventful Saturday at Royal Liverpool that may leave us with a relatively academic Sunday. Brian Harman leads by five, but they discuss his round and how the good conditions allowed for some scratchiness that could come back to bite him with Cam Young and Jon Rahm as the immediate chasers. They discuss those two, their low scores, and how the likes of Tommy, Rory, and Jordan couldn’t do the same. There’s some level of critique for all three, particularly on Rory’s putting. They ponder who is actually a contender anymore given the spread, as well as the flop that was the 17th hole. They close with a longer Ryder Cup chat as Justin Thomas’s candidacy for a roster spot seems to have become a hot topic while some of the on-course developments have lagged. It wraps with a few compliments for Zinger analogies!

22 Jul 202347min

This was supposed to be a short one dammit! But Andy and Brendan got too worked up about both the sacred and inane from day two at the British Open. They begin with Brian Harman praise, and how his traits exhibit the best of what Hoylake demands, and some of the monotony and pitfalls of PGA Tour golf. There’s also a wide-ranging chat on some of the bigger disappointments, touching on DJ, JT’s delusions, and Scottie grinding to make the cut. Patrick Cantlay’s lay-up on 18 to do so is also put under the microscope. A contender/pretender segment examines a less-than-stout leaderboard at the midpoint. There’s an analysis on the R&A deciding to change the bunker maintenance to make them softer in the middle of the event. They also get into Rahm’s irritation around the circus of playing with Rory after a microphone got in his way. After trying to wrap it up for several minutes, there’s a throwback chat on Billy Boy and his ejecting of a protester -- how’d it go and what was said?

21 Jul 202356min