The Irish Prince of Ponte Vedra, a new Brooks-Rory rivalry, and an LPGA scandal

It’s a big week on the Shotgun Start as the PGA Tour swings down to Mississippi for the Sanderson Farms Championship, aka the Peacock Classic. Brendan and Andy review some of the, uh, well-traveled names in the field, which leads to a lengthy digression on the Stadler father-son duo and a scary inside detail about the state of Smylie Kaufman. Then they get to discussing Akshay Bhatia and if his debut is a sign of a teenage takeover or if this is a risky test case. Over on the Euro Tour, they highlight the new GPS system being put in use to track slow play at Wentworth. The U.S. Mid Am earns event of the week and also prompts Andy to portray the bracket as a clear case of good vs. evil, as well as lay out his official stance on who should and should not be eligible for reinstated amateur status. They wrap with some amusing if not frustrating quotes from Bubba Watson on the stressful and onerous driver testing now in effect on the PGA Tour.

18 Sep 201954min

This Monday episode reacts to a wild Sunday of golf from across the globe, most notably at the Solheim Cup. Brendan and Andy review the weekend at Gleneagles, offering up a few critiques of the mowing patterns, pace of play, and some lineup choices before heaping praise on what was arguably the greatest finish to a team match event we’ve seen. Suzann Pettersen’s play on the 18th, before the clinching putt, is given due praise and they contemplate whether this finish boosts the LPGA over the rest of the season. Joaquin Niemann is then hailed as our new overlord atop the courier service rankings, which Andy equates as the best player in the world. Sergio’s win is given a modicum of praise as well as the Champions Tour player now making Ron Burgundy sweat atop the Schwab Cup. The episode finishes with a wonderful Lee Westwood locker room story heard over the weekend.

16 Sep 201951min

It’s Friday! Brendan and Andy are back together holed up in an NYC hotel to reflect on opening day of the PGA Tour season. They begin by discussing all the rookies and KFT grads populating the top of the leaderboard and the return of living under par with low scores aplenty. Then they get to the back-and-forth of the Solheim Cup, where Danielle Kang and Suzann Pettersen provided sustenance for the aggregation station. Is the Solheim more heated than the Ryder Cup? A glorious Flashback Friday touches on some other match play tension and this week’s PGA Tour host venue. Included within are Seve’s debut and some stir-the-pot quotes, two Euro team members that sulked and sabotaged their own team, and a captain who tossed a note from Nick Faldo in the trash rather than read it to the team. They wrap with a breakdown of the Rory vs. Brooks Player of the Year debated that boiled over this week, highlighting some of the more amusing conspiracy theories on why we got these results.

13 Sep 201956min

This Wednesday episode begins with an argument and admission that it’s take two following a record button mishap. We begin with a juicy and alarming quote from the range at the Greenbrier on the new driver testing, which may not change any behaviors at all in the coming PGA Tour season. The new color-coded system for testing is given a full review. Then we get into the Slovak Open and the Shotgun Start audience taking over the comments section of the stream as the BFB won his national championship. The return of PGA Tour Live and Fan Vote Friday prompts a reveal of the Rickie Tour Live Audit, which has some damning numbers. In the last segment, we run through some lightning round answers on some the events and players we are most looking forward to and the ones we could do without over the next few months. Then we discuss a hypothetical blank canvas for Q4 of the year and how we’d approach it -- from events to markets to field sizes to formats -- if we were the PGA Tour.

11 Sep 20191h

Victory Monday this is not, as a new week begins with the Bears and Browns both 0-1. This non-golf matter gets full attention at the top as Brendan processes all that went wrong and the emotional tumble that occurred throughout the day. Andy is also quite amused with a cheeky nickname he comes up with for the Browns coach. Rafa Nadal’s slow play penalty is applauded and put in contrast with just how far golf is from such a move. Then it’s on to the Porsche European Open, where there’s praise for Paul Casey for his win and also contemplation of whether he’s underrated or just disliked. The primary news coming out of that event, however, was Matt Kuchar yet again taking some serious liberties within the gray area of the rules. Is he obtuse, entitled, unsportsmanlike, all of the above? This progresses into a separate topic of cheating and if that’s something that occurs much, if at all, at the Tour level. The episode concludes with a discussion on the Walker Cup, which was harder to comment on because no one saw it.

9 Sep 201942min

This delayed Shotgun Start ends with a host plagued by hiccups but comes out of the gate discussing the Bears debut on Thursday night football. Is the season over or is the door ajar for optimism? Then we get to news that the PGA Tour has will put new driver testing in place for this coming season. We discuss what we like and where the policy leaves us wanting. Also, we plea for real-time public release of the results on a giant video board with some dramatics around the new tests. Then we preview the Walker Cup and how the conditions of Hoylake will be a significant departure for so many of these highly acclaimed young American studs. We also offer to fly to Liverpool to periscope it in lieu of the lack of TV coverage. A delightful Flashback Friday goes deep on the origins of the Walker Cup, touching on a variety of amusing details like the GBI team getting worse for the wear in New York and writer Bernard Darwin having to step in and actually play matches for the team as a reserve player. Flashback also goes into a legendary stymie from the early Walker Cup days that has us yearning for the return and legalization of the practice.

6 Sep 20191h 8min

Brendan and Andy return from the long weekend to tidy up the place, doubling back to some of the action from across multiple Tours. Andy is disgusted with the LPGA not giving exemptions the next week to high finishers at an event, as we’ll see with Yealimi Noh following her near-win in Portland. Then they react to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship and enthusiastically welcome the son of the Swing Surgeon back to the PGA Tour. They run through some of the players who got their cards, why this event worked so well, and if it can be replicated on any other Tour. Then they move to this week’s schedule, which is mostly an excuse to rant about the lack of events when there are so many bottlenecks other weeks during the summer. They also discuss the lack of TV coverage for the event of the week, the Walker Cup. In news, they get to Pat Reed’s special Masters Porsche, Bob Koepka’s tweets at Brandel and steamrolling of Little Boy Dru, and a fun Stevie Fountains story from a listener.

4 Sep 201945min

A truncated Friday episode will wet your whistle heading into the holiday weekend. We begin with some scores from Europe, where Westy is lurking and Rory continued living under par. We address some comments on the “fair” test of the Swiss course from Mike Lorenzo-Vera, and start to compile a list of similar euphemisms. Then we move to Rory’s comments on the new major schedule and if his point about spreading them out over 9 months, like in tennis, works for golf. We also discuss Ian Poulter’s extreme frustration with the pool cleaning service. Then in Flashback Friday, the occasion of the KFT Championship prompts a look back at a Web Tour Finals of yore that prominently featured golf’s most famous retiree, among others.

30 Aug 201936min