It's the son of which podcast. I'm your host Claude Harman. This week solo episode of the pod. I am back on the road currently in Adelaide, Australia for Lives in Saudi last week Underneath the Lights, but just kind of wanted to talk about the off season. I mean, just like the players, I got an off season and just want to kind of talk through some of the stuff that I did on my off season, which is always good to kind of recharge, live a normal life, get off the road. I think I did twenty two weeks on the road last year or so it's always nice to have an off season. One of the big things I did off season was I went to the PJ Merchandise Show, which is always, I think, a really interesting kind of state of where professional golf is. And I was really impressed with the crowds that I saw up in Orlando. I think there were some big manufacturers that came back to the PGA show and you kind of get a good buzz of kind of finger on the pulse of what's going on people, and I saw a lot of people really excited about golf. One of the big things I think I saw at the PGA show was It seems like there was a lot of tech, a lot of simulator tech. Obviously, TGL launched in the off season, and yeah, I watched some of it and I liked it. I liked what I saw. I thought the venue looks amazing down there in Palm Beach Gardens. I thought the way it looked on television was really really cool. I know they're having some issues with the technology and stuff like that, but I do think that there is a place for that kind of golf. And I don't know how many people are watching or what other people are thinking, but I liked it. I thought it was interesting, the team concept of it. I talked to Adam Scott in November. He was in Dubai. I was in Dubai. He was doing some practice at my academy and got to catch up with him and we talked about it and got to watch him play on his TGL team. You know, over the last three years, Live has made the move to go to team golf. And find it interesting that the PGA Tour is going to the same thing. Yeah, it's in a simulator, but it's cool. I mean, I think the guys really they look like they like it. I saw Matt Fitzpatrick at the Grove down in Jupiter a couple of weeks ago, and he had played in the TGL, and DJ and I were there. We were asking him about it and what he thought about it, and so I do think there is a place for that, and I think Lives has shown that team golf has a place. It's fun, and I think the guys you've watched on the TGL broadcast, to me, they look like they're having fun. And that's always been one of the things that I think has been hard for a lot of people to understand that haven't been, you know, a part of Live. I think, you know, it's twenty twenty five and everybody has talked about it. I've talked about it, and you know, I think everybody's tired of talking about it. But the team stuff is fun and it has been fun over the last three years for those of us that have been on Live and have been part of kind of a team. You know, the practice round, the way that the players travel, the way the players practice together and play together and hang out together. So in that respect, I think it's been cool to watch TGL kind of have that same concept and I think they're taking some of their cues, you know, from Live, which, hey, imitation is very flattering. So I think Team Golf is here to stay. I think it's here to stay on Live. I think it's here to stay in TGL and we'll see where it goes. But at the PJ Merchandise Show, I saw a lot of simulator tech. It seems like every simulator company is coming up with some sort of putting articulated floor, kind of where the floor can move, where you can put a monitor in the ceiling and kind of show you the line of the putt platform. Golf is a new company that I started doing some work with. They're going to be putting in some of their units in my academy in Dubai and in Thailand, and they've got an articulating surface so you can hit balls and the floor moves different lives uphill, downhill, side hill, something that's been very difficult for a lot of people to simulate if you practice on a driving range. So that tech is really cool, and it seems like every single company now, simulator wise, is coming up with some sort of moveable floor for putting, which, again we as golf instructors and as golfers, you're always trying to find a way to simulate what's on the golf course. So if you are in a simulator setting, having that type of movement to where you can see how the putts move. I've always thought that putting from an instruction standpoint, and we've been part of the problem as instructors, has been kind of taught backwards, right. We teach stroke first and then then work on feel. And I try with a lot of players now that are that are starting out juniors, beginning golfers, and even competitive golfers, is hey, let's not just go to mechanics first. Let's go ahead and look at what your feel is like onlaw pots, what your perception of break and speed, and how you're matching the line to the speed. I think that's huge, and I think all the companies out there are coming up with products that are going to allow golfers, whether they're in a home situation, whether they're in an academy or a studio type situation, lesson type situation, there is products out there. There are products available that are going to help that. So I saw a lot of that at the PGA show. I got to spend some time with Greg Rose and Dave Phillips, both from TPI, co founders of the titles Foremust Institute. It's always a great opportunity for me to catch up with them. I've had them on the pod and kind of pick their brains on where they see things going. There seems to be a lot of companies out there right now trying to do three D tech with just your camera, sports Box AI. I mean they're on the broadcast now on PGA Tour. It's an app you can put on your phone and kind of film yourself and then it puts mark on your body stuff. So I think we are going to see more of that, more tools for the average golfer to be able to say, Okay, let me video myself and use technology, use AI to see kind of what my body's doing. I think they've got to work some of the tech out, and I think they're trying to figure out how accurate it is. But my view on technology for golfers is I think there are a lot of people. When I go to these PGA merchandise shows and we look at new tech, it's always funny to me that within the instruction community you'll see other instructors at the PGA show talking about various products, talking about new technology, and a lot of times it's a lot of guys and people arguing over the tech. Who's got the right tech, who's got the best tech. Their tech doesn't work, their measurements don't work. I look at technology and I think that technology can help the majority of golfers get better. I think launch monitor technology, I think three D technology. I think all of the tech out there in some way can help golfers get better. So I think we are going to continue to see that. I think we are probably just at the beginning of AI and what AI can do in golf, what it can do for golf instruction, what it can do for golf diagnostic technology. So I'm really excited to kind of see where that goes. But it's always fun for me to just walk around the show and see what's out there. The companies that I work with, Cobrapuma, got to spend some time in their booths looking at all their new product and listen, if you listen to the podcast, you know that I'm a Cobrapuma guy. But when you get to see all the products from whatever manufacturer, you're associated with, from whatever clothing company that you're associated with. For me, it's always fun to kind of talk to, you know, the guys that are designing the clubs, the people that are designing the clothing. So I think Cobrapuma is doing a really, really good job. I think they've got some really innovative tech. Their new driver. You've heard me talk about it. I really like it. It's fast scene players put it in the bag, and then they're three D printing with their irons. Kyle Westmoreland, who I've had on the pod before, he just won with their iron on the corn Ferry, and I think that technology I'm excited to see. You know what that could look like. Is there a world if the companies can three D print irons? Is there a world maybe five ten years from now, where you, as a player just are able to go online and say, Okay, this is what I want my iron to look like. Do I want offset? Do I want it to be more of a blade? Do I want it to be more game improvement, more top line less top line? What shape do I like in my Iron? So I think, just like I said about AI, I think we're scratching the surface of what building a golf club and building an iron could look like down the road, and I think Cobra he's kind of at the forefront of that. And I've got their three D iron in my bag. I love it. It's kind of got a blade looking, kind of old school iron look to it, but the tech involved in it with where you can hit it on the face, the forgiveness, I think all of that is we're just touching the surface. So it's going to be cool to see where that goes. On the Puma side, Puma's shoe company first and foremost, and I think Puma's got some really really cool stuff coming out, kind of some retro old school Puma golf shoes. So excited to see all of that stuff. Later this year, got to hang out with Steve Malbone from Malbon Golf, who you know, he's he's a friend. I think he's doing some really cool stuff. We kind of talked about all the stuff that they're doing with Jason Day and all the craziness in what surrounds kind of the stuff that they're trying to do in the golf space. And I think we're in an interesting place in kind of golf fashion as well. I think, you know, I think there's space for everybody, and I think there are a lot of cool new companies and I think it's going to make the bigger companies adapt and look at trends and stuff like that. So I think I saw more influencers at the PJ Merchandi Show as many influencers and people in that space as I did just regular golf instructors, regular PGA pros. You know, normally when you go to the PGA Merchant Show, merchandise show, it's khakis, it's blue blazers, it's you know, it's very much old school. But this year it seemed like there's just big armies of social media people walking around. And I think that's a trend. I mean, I think the YouTube golf stuff is here to stay. Like I said, I'm down here in Adelaide at the Live event and today Rick Shields was out. He signed a big deal with Live. You know, YouTube extraordinaire. It's got a huge channel, huge following, and he's now doing content for Live. We've seen the PGA Tour do that. We've seen the PGA Tour do their content creator. The pg Tour has hired influencers to kind of come out on tour to be a part of what they're doing. And I think that is here to stay. But you could just see it at the PGA show. You just see these armies of content creators just walking around with their videographers and sound people and so listen. I think the golf space is big. I think there's room for all of it. And I think you are seeing. You're seeing the manufacturers get more involved with YouTubers and influencers. You're seeing clothing companies do that, and now you're seeing tours do that. You're seeing the PGA tour do that. You're seeing live and I think that's here to stay. You're going to see that on the LPGA as well. I think they're trying to find a way to get more eyeballs in a non traditional way. I think the way that all of you listening to the podcast. Everybody consumes their content differently. Everybody has a way in which they like to produce their content or absorb their content, and I think the content creators right now, I mean, we've never been in a time to where it's easier to produce content. So if that's something you're interested in, I think it's here to stay, and I think we are going to see more of that. And I had a pretty extensive talk about that with Rick Shields today about what he's trying to do, what you know Live wants him to do, and that's happening on the PGA Tour as well. At Waste Management over the weekend we saw basically, I mean, you couldn't look at your social media feed if you're a golfer and not see somebody in the influencer social media space at Waste Management. The PGA Tour, I think has done a great job at that. They've got their sixteenth hole, their stadium, and it seemed like that was kind of the melting pot for all of the stars people outside the golf space that love golf. They're hitting shots, they're trying things, and then all the influencers and all the content creators are are at that as well. So again, that's not going anywhere. That is here to stay. One of the other crazy things that happened in the offseason Noah Kent finalist in the US Am. He'll play in the Masters and the US Open this year. He was at the University of Iowa, made the decision to go into the transfer portal, And for those of you listening in America college sports right now, it is absolutely crazy with all of the nil stuff, with all of the money that are being paid to now college athletes and college golfers are in that same boat. Now. There is a big shift in college golf right now to where the NCAA is reducing team and squad size if down to kind of eight nine, and I think a lot of the college coaches are kind of scrambling. So Noah, who I've had on the pod, made the decision to go into the transfer portal lead the University of Iowa, and it was just crazy the amount of offers from schools and what schools are now able to offer. And that is the wild wild West right now. I don't think college golf coaches ever envisioned time to where college athletes would be getting paid, that they could pay college athletes. College athletes could then say listen, I want to move, and another program saying hey, listen, we've got some money, we want you to come. And I think that's new. And I think everybody in college golf on the playing side, the players and the universities, the coaches, everybody who's trying to figure out where and how we navigate this kind of new world. But college athletes now in America that play college sports, specifically on the golf side, they're getting paid. Now, they're getting paid to play. And I don't have a problem with that, I really don't. I think it's been a little bit upside down. I mean, if you look at college football in America, I mean, if you look at the number of college football coaches that are making over ten million dollars a year, and historically the athletes, it's been illegal to pay them. I mean it's been illegal for college athletes who are on scholarships to get a job, to get a part time job. So I can remember when Tiger was at Stanford, he got taken out to dinner by Arnold Palmer, and Arnold Palmer paid for the dinner, and it was it turned into a really really big deal. The NCAA was talking about sanctions. Tiger had to write a check I think, to Arnold Palmer for the dinner and stuff like that. So those days are over. So college athletes now across the board. But in golf, if you're good, you can get paid. You can get paid to go to school, and you can get paid basically a salary to play college golf. So Noah kind of made the decision to leave Iowa and ended up it went to a bunch of different schools. I was part of that process, and we looked at a lot of different programs. It was like a two week period where I think I was basically every single day on the way to work or on the way home, I was talking to a college golf coach about their program, about the fit and stuff, and ultimately Noah did a lot of visits and chose the University of Florida J. C. Deacon and the Gators. They won the national championship a couple of years ago. Jac has been on the pod. Noah's a Florida kid from Naples, and so that's where he's going to play his college golf. So the interesting thing is Noah played in the fall for Iowa, and you can't play for two schools in the same calendar year. So even though he's at the University of Florida now as part of the University of Florida Gator golf program, can't play. So that was a big deal for trying to figure out what we were going to do. He's going to play as a finalist of the US Am you get into the Masters and the US Open. So Noah will play in the Masters, He'll play in the US Open, but he isn't going to play any tournaments in college golf in the spring. He can play on the team, can practice with the team, he can work out with the team, he can qualify with the team. He just can't compete for two schools in the same years. So the next time he'll be able to compete for the University of Florida is in the fall of twenty twenty five. So we're scrambling to try and figure out, Okay, what is that land look like from a competitive standpoint. I think we're going to try and look at having him do some of the Monday qualifiers for some of the Florida events on the PGA Tour. Is there a world where maybe he can get some invites, maybe Asia, maybe DP I mean, maybe even PGA Tour. I mean, that would be unbelievable if he could get a PGA Tour event. But it has just been fascinating to watch in a very very short period of time the landscape of college golf change literally overnight, and I don't know where we're going to go with this. I think it's just the infancy of paying college athletes and paying college golfers. Listen, whatever side of the fence you're on on that, I don't have a dog in that fight. But I don't have a problem with college athletes being paid. I really don't. I think it's the world we live in and it's going to be really interesting to see kind of where that goes as well. And then I'm back on the road. Did Saudi last week and Saudi for Live they played under under the lights. They played at night, which was a really it was cool, but I gotta be honest, it was a weird experience. I think everybody was coming to Saudi Arabia that's associated with Live, the players, the caddies, the coaches, all of us on the team side. You know, you're flying. I flew from Miami fifteen hours to Doha and stuff, so the time difference, but then you're playing at night, so it's a really weird experience because normally you get up first thing in the morning and you're getting to the golf course early. It was the complete opposite. So everybody was jet lagged. We were trying to get to the golf course kind of mid afternoonish. I was getting to the golf course around three four o'clock every day, which normally I'm getting to the golf course between six seven eight o'clock at the latest, but three o'clock at night, having some food and then going out. And everybody was trying to practice underneath the lights at night, so teeing off at like six thirty seven o'clock at night pro am time. One of the pro ams DJ played in Saudi is tea off time seven thirty at night. So the other part of that is we were getting back to the hotel after the round. You're trying to eat, we're getting back. I think the earliest I got back to the hotel for the week was around eleven o'clock to midnight. And then your jet lag, you're wide awake, You're trying to sleep, but then you realize you don't have to do anything the following day until you know, four or five o'clock in the afternoon. So it was a really interesting experience. But the experience of playing night golf it was cool. I don't think I'd want to do that all the time, but I think lives trying to innovate. I think that Lives trying to bring some different things, and I think the PGA Tour is trying to do that as well. So I think all the tours are trying to figure out in twenty twenty five how they can innovate the product. But I said this to someone at the PJ Merchandise Show, and I think, whether you like Live, whether you don't like Live, that's I mean, we can talk about that forever, and that's a personal choice. But five to seven years ago, I never heard anyone talk about the product, what the product was of professional golf. Professional golf was, what it was, the tours played, where they played, the tours played, the tournaments they played, and I never heard anyone talk about the fan experience, what the fans wanted, what the product was, how the product can could be better. And I think Live coming along has made everybody in professional golf say, Okay, what do the fans want, what are the fans don't want, and how can we make that experience better. So, if you're on the anti Live side and you think there are a lot of negatives associated with that, one of the positives is it is made all the tours kind of pivot and go, Okay, how can we make the experience better for the fans? And the way professional golf is being televised and packaged and brought to all of you that are listening that are golf fans is changing. It's changing on a regular basis. Five years ago, there was no PGA Tour. You right, there are no content creator tournaments. I mean, if someone told you ten years ago that at the Tour Championship on Wednesday of the FedEx Cup Tour Championship there would be an influencer golf tournament televised on Golf Channel, nobody would believe that. They'd say, get out of here. That's never gonna happen. So when there isn't competition sometimes it can lead to a lack of innovation. And I think one of the positive things over the last three or four years. It's very easy, in my opinion right now, to look at professional golf and it's just doom and gloom. You know, we hear that on a regular basis. It's just product is bad, viewership is bad, the fan viewings down, all of those things. But I think golf is evolving. Professional golf is evolving, and I think the way that we view golf and the way that we watch golfers play, I think you are going to see more and more of this content creator to where you have someone who is on YouTube, who has their channel, and who is spending time with the best players in the world. I think it's bringing the best players in the world closer to the fans in these type of settings. Again, I talked about it earlier. Rick Shields was out with the four Aces today filming something for Live that'll be probably dropping soon. But you never saw that, right, You never saw any of the tours. I mean the PGA Tour now will have the players say listen, we need you to do these things with these content creators, with these social media people, with these YouTubers, they are going to be at the tournament and it's another way to get the product out. So I think that's here to stay. Night golf. I think we're going back next year to do night golf. And it was fun. It was a different atmosphere once a year. I think I'm fine with it, and I liked it. It was fun. Sometimes the ball was hard to see in the sky. I think maybe they had some more lights but I think all the tours are trying to figure out a way to kind of merge all of the kind of things in twenty twenty five that are on social media and how you can merge them into professional golf. And then for Live, this is our biggest tournament of the year here in Adelaide. Rumors one hundred thousand tickets have been sold. Concerts every night. We just saw the exact same thing at Waste Management. So I think this is the biggest tournament by far that Live has and I've been down here for all of them and it's always great to come down to Australia. The Australian sports fans, the Australian golf fans are amazing and I can't wait for the tournament to start. It's going to be bigger this year than it was last year, and it was bigger last year than it was the year before which the first year, everybody that was on Live that came down here was just blown away by how crazy the fans are for golf in Australia and the golf course, you know, the Grange Golf It's not one of the superstore Australian sand belt golf courses, but the bunkering in this part of the world is second to none. It is, in my opinion, the best bunkering in golf. And the fact that they're going to play a professional golf tournament and showcase Australian golf and kind of the sand Belt kind of design and stuff. I'm here for it. I love it. It's hot down here. Last year Live came down to Australia in April, so they were going into fall. It's in the hundreds here. It's firm, it's fast, it's bouncy, and it is going to play very very lynxy and they are trying to put some water on the golf course to try and soften it, just to try and save it because of the heat. But I think the greens are going to get very very firm, they're going to get very very fast, and I think on Sunday it's going to be a shootout and there's going to be a lot of stuff going on. But this is Live's kind of flagship. To me, it's kind of like their Players Championship right Live doesn't have any majors. If I said this was like a major for Live, everybody would crush me. So this is like to me, it's like it feels like the players, right, it feels like this is one of the biggest tournaments. This is their biggest tournament of the year so far, and it's one that everybody you know that is associated with Live has marked on their calendar. And it's a fan favorite down here. I mean, the fans just come out and support this, very similar to the way that the fans come out and support Waste Management. You know, they have their watering hole here down in Adelaide for Live and Waste Management. Last week had the sixteenth hole. They're a purists that hate that. They're a purist that thinks that goes too far. I don't know. I like to watch it. So I do think that professional golf is changing. I think it's changing really right before our eyes, and I'm interested to see where the landscape and where we go in the future. We're already seeing this week in the last week or so and this week again USGA RNA trying to find a way and having a qualification system for the live players to play in some of these tournaments. So I think you're going to see more crossover. You hear all the rumors about what's going on with a merger. When will the two tours come together? Will they come together? What will that look like? That's above my pay grade. I don't think anybody knows what that's going to look like. But if the off season showed me one thing, it showed me that the professional golf landscape is changing. But as I've said before to everyone listening, professional golf is a very very very small, small part of golf. It really really is. It's a huge part of it. It's probably the biggest, most recognizable part of it because it's on TV, because of the PGA Tour and all the various tours all around the world. But the way that all of you listening consume and watch content and watch golf is changing, and I think all of the tours are scrambling to try and figure out how they keep up with that. What is the demand? What do you as the viewer, as the golfer, what do you want to see? And I think we've never been in a time where all of our voices are being heard. They're being heard by the tours, right They're definitely being heard by the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is trying to pivot again. If five seven years ago you told me that there would be a team indoor golf league that Rory McElroy and Tiger Woods would be fronting, and on Tuesday Night it would be on ESPN and America, Scott van Pelt and all of the superstars that they have involved in this and they're bringing out to showcase it would be involved. I just don't think people would buy it. I just think they'd go nah. I mean, they're never going to do that. So I think there's a lot of different ways to consume content, and rather than look at all of the negatives about where a lot of people think the game is going, the state of the game and stuff like that, I try and look to the positives and say, Okay, we're getting more eyeballs on maybe some different ways of consuming golf content. Maybe we're looking at different ways of formatting professional golf. I don't know, but I think there was no competition. It was the PGA Tour that was it, and European Tour, Asian Tour. They weren't necessarily big players. It was the PGA Tour. And now I think there are alternatives, There are options, and there are a lot of different ways to consume, watch and ob all of the content that is out there, and I'm here for it. I've got a podcast. I continue to be blown away that I can be in Saudi Arabia and someone who lives in Rio walked up to me and said, huge fan of the podcast. I mean, if you told me five years ago that would happen, I wouldn't believe you. So the golf Lands tape is changing. But focus on the positives that are positives for you as a as a consumer of golf content. Where you watch it, how you watch it, what you pay for. You have power you can vote with you know what you choose to watch. And there's a lot of content out there. There's a lot of great golf being played all over the world on a bunch of different tours. There are a lot of great young players. I got to watch Tom McKibben hit a lot of golf balls last week. I've known Tom. He made the choice to go to live. He's young. A lot of people are questioning that decision. I've known Tom a long time. He used to practic just at our place at my academy in Dubai. I've hosted him and he's practiced at my place in Florida. I think he's a bright star. I think he is part of this next wave of really good young players and we are going to continue to see them. And it's interesting the choice that Tom made to choose live over playing on the PGA Tour. He's one of the players that finished inside the top ten on DP World would get you automatic status to the PGA Tour. Matthew Pavaughan, who I've had on the pod, he did that, got to the PJ Tour one last year. We're seeing Thomas Dietree just winning waste Management. He played the majority of his golf even though he played college golf in America, played the majority of his golf in Europe. He's just one on the PGA Tour. So I think, again, it's easy to look at all the negatives. I think there are some negatives in professional golf right now, but there are positives, and there are a lot of them out there. And I've been saying this for three four years. You can choose to watch any tour that you want. Just because you're watching one tour doesn't mean that you're not a fan of the other. That there's some sort of litmus tests. You have to be a PGA tour person, you have to be a live person, all of that stuff. There's a lot of great golf all over the world on so many different platforms that you as a lover of golf, as someone that wants to watch golf, There's never been a better time for golf content. It's out there, you find it, and I'm excited to see where all of that goes. So just a little brief kind of what I've been doing. It's my podcast, so I can talk about that. We've got some really great guests coming up, and we're going to continue to try and give you as much great content as possible. Son of a Butch comes to you most every week. I try and get it out every week. My travel schedule sometimes that's tough, but be patient. And I continue to be blown away by how many people listen to the show. And I can't think all of you enough for making the podcast a success. Without you all listening, this doesn't happen. We will see you next week.

It's the son of which podcast. I'm your host Claude Harman. This week solo episode of the pod. I am back on the road currently in Adelaide, Australia for Lives in Saudi last week Underneath the Lights, but just kind of wanted to talk about the off season. I mean, just like the players, I got an off season and just want to kind of talk through some of the stuff that I did on my off season, which is always good to kind of recharge, live a normal life, get off the road. I think I did twenty two weeks on the road last year or so it's always nice to have an off season. One of the big things I did off season was I went to the PJ Merchandise Show, which is always, I think, a really interesting kind of state of where professional golf is. And I was really impressed with the crowds that I saw up in Orlando. I think there were some big manufacturers that came back to the PGA show and you kind of get a good buzz of kind of finger on the pulse of what's going on people, and I saw a lot of people really excited about golf. One of the big things I think I saw at the PGA show was It seems like there was a lot of tech, a lot of simulator tech. Obviously, TGL launched in the off season, and yeah, I watched some of it and I liked it. I liked what I saw. I thought the venue looks amazing down there in Palm Beach Gardens. I thought the way it looked on television was really really cool. I know they're having some issues with the technology and stuff like that, but I do think that there is a place for that kind of golf. And I don't know how many people are watching or what other people are thinking, but I liked it. I thought it was interesting, the team concept of it. I talked to Adam Scott in November. He was in Dubai. I was in Dubai. He was doing some practice at my academy and got to catch up with him and we talked about it and got to watch him play on his TGL team. You know, over the last three years, Live has made the move to go to team golf. And find it interesting that the PGA Tour is going to the same thing. Yeah, it's in a simulator, but it's cool. I mean, I think the guys really they look like they like it. I saw Matt Fitzpatrick at the Grove down in Jupiter a couple of weeks ago, and he had played in the TGL, and DJ and I were there. We were asking him about it and what he thought about it, and so I do think there is a place for that, and I think Lives has shown that team golf has a place. It's fun, and I think the guys you've watched on the TGL broadcast, to me, they look like they're having fun. And that's always been one of the things that I think has been hard for a lot of people to understand that haven't been, you know, a part of Live. I think, you know, it's twenty twenty five and everybody has talked about it. I've talked about it, and you know, I think everybody's tired of talking about it. But the team stuff is fun and it has been fun over the last three years for those of us that have been on Live and have been part of kind of a team. You know, the practice round, the way that the players travel, the way the players practice together and play together and hang out together. So in that respect, I think it's been cool to watch TGL kind of have that same concept and I think they're taking some of their cues, you know, from Live, which, hey, imitation is very flattering. So I think Team Golf is here to stay. I think it's here to stay on Live. I think it's here to stay in TGL and we'll see where it goes. But at the PJ Merchandise Show, I saw a lot of simulator tech. It seems like every simulator company is coming up with some sort of putting articulated floor, kind of where the floor can move, where you can put a monitor in the ceiling and kind of show you the line of the putt platform. Golf is a new company that I started doing some work with. They're going to be putting in some of their units in my academy in Dubai and in Thailand, and they've got an articulating surface so you can hit balls and the floor moves different lives uphill, downhill, side hill, something that's been very difficult for a lot of people to simulate if you practice on a driving range. So that tech is really cool, and it seems like every single company now, simulator wise, is coming up with some sort of moveable floor for putting, which, again we as golf instructors and as golfers, you're always trying to find a way to simulate what's on the golf course. So if you are in a simulator setting, having that type of movement to where you can see how the putts move. I've always thought that putting from an instruction standpoint, and we've been part of the problem as instructors, has been kind of taught backwards, right. We teach stroke first and then then work on feel. And I try with a lot of players now that are that are starting out juniors, beginning golfers, and even competitive golfers, is hey, let's not just go to mechanics first. Let's go ahead and look at what your feel is like onlaw pots, what your perception of break and speed, and how you're matching the line to the speed. I think that's huge, and I think all the companies out there are coming up with products that are going to allow golfers, whether they're in a home situation, whether they're in an academy or a studio type situation, lesson type situation, there is products out there. There are products available that are going to help that. So I saw a lot of that at the PGA show. I got to spend some time with Greg Rose and Dave Phillips, both from TPI, co founders of the titles Foremust Institute. It's always a great opportunity for me to catch up with them. I've had them on the pod and kind of pick their brains on where they see things going. There seems to be a lot of companies out there right now trying to do three D tech with just your camera, sports Box AI. I mean they're on the broadcast now on PGA Tour. It's an app you can put on your phone and kind of film yourself and then it puts mark on your body stuff. So I think we are going to see more of that, more tools for the average golfer to be able to say, Okay, let me video myself and use technology, use AI to see kind of what my body's doing. I think they've got to work some of the tech out, and I think they're trying to figure out how accurate it is. But my view on technology for golfers is I think there are a lot of people. When I go to these PGA merchandise shows and we look at new tech, it's always funny to me that within the instruction community you'll see other instructors at the PGA show talking about various products, talking about new technology, and a lot of times it's a lot of guys and people arguing over the tech. Who's got the right tech, who's got the best tech. Their tech doesn't work, their measurements don't work. I look at technology and I think that technology can help the majority of golfers get better. I think launch monitor technology, I think three D technology. I think all of the tech out there in some way can help golfers get better. So I think we are going to continue to see that. I think we are probably just at the beginning of AI and what AI can do in golf, what it can do for golf instruction, what it can do for golf diagnostic technology. So I'm really excited to kind of see where that goes. But it's always fun for me to just walk around the show and see what's out there. The companies that I work with, Cobrapuma, got to spend some time in their booths looking at all their new product and listen, if you listen to the podcast, you know that I'm a Cobrapuma guy. But when you get to see all the products from whatever manufacturer, you're associated with, from whatever clothing company that you're associated with. For me, it's always fun to kind of talk to, you know, the guys that are designing the clubs, the people that are designing the clothing. So I think Cobrapuma is doing a really, really good job. I think they've got some really innovative tech. Their new driver. You've heard me talk about it. I really like it. It's fast scene players put it in the bag, and then they're three D printing with their irons. Kyle Westmoreland, who I've had on the pod before, he just won with their iron on the corn Ferry, and I think that technology I'm excited to see. You know what that could look like. Is there a world if the companies can three D print irons? Is there a world maybe five ten years from now, where you, as a player just are able to go online and say, Okay, this is what I want my iron to look like. Do I want offset? Do I want it to be more of a blade? Do I want it to be more game improvement, more top line less top line? What shape do I like in my Iron? So I think, just like I said about AI, I think we're scratching the surface of what building a golf club and building an iron could look like down the road, and I think Cobra he's kind of at the forefront of that. And I've got their three D iron in my bag. I love it. It's kind of got a blade looking, kind of old school iron look to it, but the tech involved in it with where you can hit it on the face, the forgiveness, I think all of that is we're just touching the surface. So it's going to be cool to see where that goes. On the Puma side, Puma's shoe company first and foremost, and I think Puma's got some really really cool stuff coming out, kind of some retro old school Puma golf shoes. So excited to see all of that stuff. Later this year, got to hang out with Steve Malbone from Malbon Golf, who you know, he's he's a friend. I think he's doing some really cool stuff. We kind of talked about all the stuff that they're doing with Jason Day and all the craziness in what surrounds kind of the stuff that they're trying to do in the golf space. And I think we're in an interesting place in kind of golf fashion as well. I think, you know, I think there's space for everybody, and I think there are a lot of cool new companies and I think it's going to make the bigger companies adapt and look at trends and stuff like that. So I think I saw more influencers at the PJ Merchandi Show as many influencers and people in that space as I did just regular golf instructors, regular PGA pros. You know, normally when you go to the PGA Merchant Show, merchandise show, it's khakis, it's blue blazers, it's you know, it's very much old school. But this year it seemed like there's just big armies of social media people walking around. And I think that's a trend. I mean, I think the YouTube golf stuff is here to stay. Like I said, I'm down here in Adelaide at the Live event and today Rick Shields was out. He signed a big deal with Live. You know, YouTube extraordinaire. It's got a huge channel, huge following, and he's now doing content for Live. We've seen the PGA Tour do that. We've seen the PGA Tour do their content creator. The pg Tour has hired influencers to kind of come out on tour to be a part of what they're doing. And I think that is here to stay. But you could just see it at the PGA show. You just see these armies of content creators just walking around with their videographers and sound people and so listen. I think the golf space is big. I think there's room for all of it. And I think you are seeing. You're seeing the manufacturers get more involved with YouTubers and influencers. You're seeing clothing companies do that, and now you're seeing tours do that. You're seeing the PGA tour do that. You're seeing live and I think that's here to stay. You're going to see that on the LPGA as well. I think they're trying to find a way to get more eyeballs in a non traditional way. I think the way that all of you listening to the podcast. Everybody consumes their content differently. Everybody has a way in which they like to produce their content or absorb their content, and I think the content creators right now, I mean, we've never been in a time to where it's easier to produce content. So if that's something you're interested in, I think it's here to stay, and I think we are going to see more of that. And I had a pretty extensive talk about that with Rick Shields today about what he's trying to do, what you know Live wants him to do, and that's happening on the PGA Tour as well. At Waste Management over the weekend we saw basically, I mean, you couldn't look at your social media feed if you're a golfer and not see somebody in the influencer social media space at Waste Management. The PGA Tour, I think has done a great job at that. They've got their sixteenth hole, their stadium, and it seemed like that was kind of the melting pot for all of the stars people outside the golf space that love golf. They're hitting shots, they're trying things, and then all the influencers and all the content creators are are at that as well. So again, that's not going anywhere. That is here to stay. One of the other crazy things that happened in the offseason Noah Kent finalist in the US Am. He'll play in the Masters and the US Open this year. He was at the University of Iowa, made the decision to go into the transfer portal, And for those of you listening in America college sports right now, it is absolutely crazy with all of the nil stuff, with all of the money that are being paid to now college athletes and college golfers are in that same boat. Now. There is a big shift in college golf right now to where the NCAA is reducing team and squad size if down to kind of eight nine, and I think a lot of the college coaches are kind of scrambling. So Noah, who I've had on the pod, made the decision to go into the transfer portal lead the University of Iowa, and it was just crazy the amount of offers from schools and what schools are now able to offer. And that is the wild wild West right now. I don't think college golf coaches ever envisioned time to where college athletes would be getting paid, that they could pay college athletes. College athletes could then say listen, I want to move, and another program saying hey, listen, we've got some money, we want you to come. And I think that's new. And I think everybody in college golf on the playing side, the players and the universities, the coaches, everybody who's trying to figure out where and how we navigate this kind of new world. But college athletes now in America that play college sports, specifically on the golf side, they're getting paid. Now, they're getting paid to play. And I don't have a problem with that, I really don't. I think it's been a little bit upside down. I mean, if you look at college football in America, I mean, if you look at the number of college football coaches that are making over ten million dollars a year, and historically the athletes, it's been illegal to pay them. I mean it's been illegal for college athletes who are on scholarships to get a job, to get a part time job. So I can remember when Tiger was at Stanford, he got taken out to dinner by Arnold Palmer, and Arnold Palmer paid for the dinner, and it was it turned into a really really big deal. The NCAA was talking about sanctions. Tiger had to write a check I think, to Arnold Palmer for the dinner and stuff like that. So those days are over. So college athletes now across the board. But in golf, if you're good, you can get paid. You can get paid to go to school, and you can get paid basically a salary to play college golf. So Noah kind of made the decision to leave Iowa and ended up it went to a bunch of different schools. I was part of that process, and we looked at a lot of different programs. It was like a two week period where I think I was basically every single day on the way to work or on the way home, I was talking to a college golf coach about their program, about the fit and stuff, and ultimately Noah did a lot of visits and chose the University of Florida J. C. Deacon and the Gators. They won the national championship a couple of years ago. Jac has been on the pod. Noah's a Florida kid from Naples, and so that's where he's going to play his college golf. So the interesting thing is Noah played in the fall for Iowa, and you can't play for two schools in the same calendar year. So even though he's at the University of Florida now as part of the University of Florida Gator golf program, can't play. So that was a big deal for trying to figure out what we were going to do. He's going to play as a finalist of the US Am you get into the Masters and the US Open. So Noah will play in the Masters, He'll play in the US Open, but he isn't going to play any tournaments in college golf in the spring. He can play on the team, can practice with the team, he can work out with the team, he can qualify with the team. He just can't compete for two schools in the same years. So the next time he'll be able to compete for the University of Florida is in the fall of twenty twenty five. So we're scrambling to try and figure out, Okay, what is that land look like from a competitive standpoint. I think we're going to try and look at having him do some of the Monday qualifiers for some of the Florida events on the PGA Tour. Is there a world where maybe he can get some invites, maybe Asia, maybe DP I mean, maybe even PGA Tour. I mean, that would be unbelievable if he could get a PGA Tour event. But it has just been fascinating to watch in a very very short period of time the landscape of college golf change literally overnight, and I don't know where we're going to go with this. I think it's just the infancy of paying college athletes and paying college golfers. Listen, whatever side of the fence you're on on that, I don't have a dog in that fight. But I don't have a problem with college athletes being paid. I really don't. I think it's the world we live in and it's going to be really interesting to see kind of where that goes as well. And then I'm back on the road. Did Saudi last week and Saudi for Live they played under under the lights. They played at night, which was a really it was cool, but I gotta be honest, it was a weird experience. I think everybody was coming to Saudi Arabia that's associated with Live, the players, the caddies, the coaches, all of us on the team side. You know, you're flying. I flew from Miami fifteen hours to Doha and stuff, so the time difference, but then you're playing at night, so it's a really weird experience because normally you get up first thing in the morning and you're getting to the golf course early. It was the complete opposite. So everybody was jet lagged. We were trying to get to the golf course kind of mid afternoonish. I was getting to the golf course around three four o'clock every day, which normally I'm getting to the golf course between six seven eight o'clock at the latest, but three o'clock at night, having some food and then going out. And everybody was trying to practice underneath the lights at night, so teeing off at like six thirty seven o'clock at night pro am time. One of the pro ams DJ played in Saudi is tea off time seven thirty at night. So the other part of that is we were getting back to the hotel after the round. You're trying to eat, we're getting back. I think the earliest I got back to the hotel for the week was around eleven o'clock to midnight. And then your jet lag, you're wide awake, You're trying to sleep, but then you realize you don't have to do anything the following day until you know, four or five o'clock in the afternoon. So it was a really interesting experience. But the experience of playing night golf it was cool. I don't think I'd want to do that all the time, but I think lives trying to innovate. I think that Lives trying to bring some different things, and I think the PGA Tour is trying to do that as well. So I think all the tours are trying to figure out in twenty twenty five how they can innovate the product. But I said this to someone at the PJ Merchandise Show, and I think, whether you like Live, whether you don't like Live, that's I mean, we can talk about that forever, and that's a personal choice. But five to seven years ago, I never heard anyone talk about the product, what the product was of professional golf. Professional golf was, what it was, the tours played, where they played, the tours played, the tournaments they played, and I never heard anyone talk about the fan experience, what the fans wanted, what the product was, how the product can could be better. And I think Live coming along has made everybody in professional golf say, Okay, what do the fans want, what are the fans don't want, and how can we make that experience better. So, if you're on the anti Live side and you think there are a lot of negatives associated with that, one of the positives is it is made all the tours kind of pivot and go, Okay, how can we make the experience better for the fans? And the way professional golf is being televised and packaged and brought to all of you that are listening that are golf fans is changing. It's changing on a regular basis. Five years ago, there was no PGA Tour. You right, there are no content creator tournaments. I mean, if someone told you ten years ago that at the Tour Championship on Wednesday of the FedEx Cup Tour Championship there would be an influencer golf tournament televised on Golf Channel, nobody would believe that. They'd say, get out of here. That's never gonna happen. So when there isn't competition sometimes it can lead to a lack of innovation. And I think one of the positive things over the last three or four years. It's very easy, in my opinion right now, to look at professional golf and it's just doom and gloom. You know, we hear that on a regular basis. It's just product is bad, viewership is bad, the fan viewings down, all of those things. But I think golf is evolving. Professional golf is evolving, and I think the way that we view golf and the way that we watch golfers play, I think you are going to see more and more of this content creator to where you have someone who is on YouTube, who has their channel, and who is spending time with the best players in the world. I think it's bringing the best players in the world closer to the fans in these type of settings. Again, I talked about it earlier. Rick Shields was out with the four Aces today filming something for Live that'll be probably dropping soon. But you never saw that, right, You never saw any of the tours. I mean the PGA Tour now will have the players say listen, we need you to do these things with these content creators, with these social media people, with these YouTubers, they are going to be at the tournament and it's another way to get the product out. So I think that's here to stay. Night golf. I think we're going back next year to do night golf. And it was fun. It was a different atmosphere once a year. I think I'm fine with it, and I liked it. It was fun. Sometimes the ball was hard to see in the sky. I think maybe they had some more lights but I think all the tours are trying to figure out a way to kind of merge all of the kind of things in twenty twenty five that are on social media and how you can merge them into professional golf. And then for Live, this is our biggest tournament of the year here in Adelaide. Rumors one hundred thousand tickets have been sold. Concerts every night. We just saw the exact same thing at Waste Management. So I think this is the biggest tournament by far that Live has and I've been down here for all of them and it's always great to come down to Australia. The Australian sports fans, the Australian golf fans are amazing and I can't wait for the tournament to start. It's going to be bigger this year than it was last year, and it was bigger last year than it was the year before which the first year, everybody that was on Live that came down here was just blown away by how crazy the fans are for golf in Australia and the golf course, you know, the Grange Golf It's not one of the superstore Australian sand belt golf courses, but the bunkering in this part of the world is second to none. It is, in my opinion, the best bunkering in golf. And the fact that they're going to play a professional golf tournament and showcase Australian golf and kind of the sand Belt kind of design and stuff. I'm here for it. I love it. It's hot down here. Last year Live came down to Australia in April, so they were going into fall. It's in the hundreds here. It's firm, it's fast, it's bouncy, and it is going to play very very lynxy and they are trying to put some water on the golf course to try and soften it, just to try and save it because of the heat. But I think the greens are going to get very very firm, they're going to get very very fast, and I think on Sunday it's going to be a shootout and there's going to be a lot of stuff going on. But this is Live's kind of flagship. To me, it's kind of like their Players Championship right Live doesn't have any majors. If I said this was like a major for Live, everybody would crush me. So this is like to me, it's like it feels like the players, right, it feels like this is one of the biggest tournaments. This is their biggest tournament of the year so far, and it's one that everybody you know that is associated with Live has marked on their calendar. And it's a fan favorite down here. I mean, the fans just come out and support this, very similar to the way that the fans come out and support Waste Management. You know, they have their watering hole here down in Adelaide for Live and Waste Management. Last week had the sixteenth hole. They're a purists that hate that. They're a purist that thinks that goes too far. I don't know. I like to watch it. So I do think that professional golf is changing. I think it's changing really right before our eyes, and I'm interested to see where the landscape and where we go in the future. We're already seeing this week in the last week or so and this week again USGA RNA trying to find a way and having a qualification system for the live players to play in some of these tournaments. So I think you're going to see more crossover. You hear all the rumors about what's going on with a merger. When will the two tours come together? Will they come together? What will that look like? That's above my pay grade. I don't think anybody knows what that's going to look like. But if the off season showed me one thing, it showed me that the professional golf landscape is changing. But as I've said before to everyone listening, professional golf is a very very very small, small part of golf. It really really is. It's a huge part of it. It's probably the biggest, most recognizable part of it because it's on TV, because of the PGA Tour and all the various tours all around the world. But the way that all of you listening consume and watch content and watch golf is changing, and I think all of the tours are scrambling to try and figure out how they keep up with that. What is the demand? What do you as the viewer, as the golfer, what do you want to see? And I think we've never been in a time where all of our voices are being heard. They're being heard by the tours, right They're definitely being heard by the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is trying to pivot again. If five seven years ago you told me that there would be a team indoor golf league that Rory McElroy and Tiger Woods would be fronting, and on Tuesday Night it would be on ESPN and America, Scott van Pelt and all of the superstars that they have involved in this and they're bringing out to showcase it would be involved. I just don't think people would buy it. I just think they'd go nah. I mean, they're never going to do that. So I think there's a lot of different ways to consume content, and rather than look at all of the negatives about where a lot of people think the game is going, the state of the game and stuff like that, I try and look to the positives and say, Okay, we're getting more eyeballs on maybe some different ways of consuming golf content. Maybe we're looking at different ways of formatting professional golf. I don't know, but I think there was no competition. It was the PGA Tour that was it, and European Tour, Asian Tour. They weren't necessarily big players. It was the PGA Tour. And now I think there are alternatives, There are options, and there are a lot of different ways to consume, watch and ob all of the content that is out there, and I'm here for it. I've got a podcast. I continue to be blown away that I can be in Saudi Arabia and someone who lives in Rio walked up to me and said, huge fan of the podcast. I mean, if you told me five years ago that would happen, I wouldn't believe you. So the golf Lands tape is changing. But focus on the positives that are positives for you as a as a consumer of golf content. Where you watch it, how you watch it, what you pay for. You have power you can vote with you know what you choose to watch. And there's a lot of content out there. There's a lot of great golf being played all over the world on a bunch of different tours. There are a lot of great young players. I got to watch Tom McKibben hit a lot of golf balls last week. I've known Tom. He made the choice to go to live. He's young. A lot of people are questioning that decision. I've known Tom a long time. He used to practic just at our place at my academy in Dubai. I've hosted him and he's practiced at my place in Florida. I think he's a bright star. I think he is part of this next wave of really good young players and we are going to continue to see them. And it's interesting the choice that Tom made to choose live over playing on the PGA Tour. He's one of the players that finished inside the top ten on DP World would get you automatic status to the PGA Tour. Matthew Pavaughan, who I've had on the pod, he did that, got to the PJ Tour one last year. We're seeing Thomas Dietree just winning waste Management. He played the majority of his golf even though he played college golf in America, played the majority of his golf in Europe. He's just one on the PGA Tour. So I think, again, it's easy to look at all the negatives. I think there are some negatives in professional golf right now, but there are positives, and there are a lot of them out there. And I've been saying this for three four years. You can choose to watch any tour that you want. Just because you're watching one tour doesn't mean that you're not a fan of the other. That there's some sort of litmus tests. You have to be a PGA tour person, you have to be a live person, all of that stuff. There's a lot of great golf all over the world on so many different platforms that you as a lover of golf, as someone that wants to watch golf, There's never been a better time for golf content. It's out there, you find it, and I'm excited to see where all of that goes. So just a little brief kind of what I've been doing. It's my podcast, so I can talk about that. We've got some really great guests coming up, and we're going to continue to try and give you as much great content as possible. Son of a Butch comes to you most every week. I try and get it out every week. My travel schedule sometimes that's tough, but be patient. And I continue to be blown away by how many people listen to the show. And I can't think all of you enough for making the podcast a success. Without you all listening, this doesn't happen. We will see you next week.