I've never been to a PGA tournament. Luckily, my sons (both DIII college golfers) were able to attend the Amex on Saturday. Like me, they had never been to a PGA tournament and I was eager to get their perspective.

Here are 5 of their biggest takeaways:

1. "They don't miss!" Aside from the Nico minute from hell at Alcatraz, they were in awe of tour dispersion.
2. PGA West is not easy (for amateurs). With water everywhere and mounding muddling stances, shots have to be played to specific spots. Target golf on full display, and it brought the amateurs to their knees.
3. "He's right there!" My sons grew up seeing orange and jumped at the chance to watch their favorite player. They were shocked how close they could get to the action. Caddie conversations and pre-shot routines were on full display. They immersed themselves in the Rickie experience.
4. The margins. Rickie made 17 pars and one birdie on Saturday. Par doesn’t get you very far at the Amex. Rickie didn’t give himself enough opportunities and didn’t capitalize on those he had.
5. Aura. When the #1 golfer in the world is in the field you can feel it. I am sure it paled in comparison, but the apt comp is always going to be Tiger. The buzz around Scottie’s group was palpable. After Rickie finished they dropped back to see for themselves and it was everything they hoped it would be.

The AmEx does not get a lot of praise. “Dome Golf” “Fraudelent Field” “Birdie Fest” but for two boys from Alaska, it was an experience they will cherish for the rest of their lives

Just checking in on my boy Nick Dunlap after Andy and Brendan mentioned some big misses off the tee at Sony last week. These are all from the front nine today on the Stadium Course.......

Last years NCAA singles champion. Foregoing his last year of college and Masters exemption to join LIV. I’m an Ole Miss fan through and through, and always had mixed feelings about him. Think he will fit right in with LIV.

Fellow eggheads! A discussion on SGS this morning after replaying Caleb Williams's miraculous game-tying touchdown centered around some of the best, most memorable plays that eroded a little bit due to a loss. For me, I cited Rajai Davis's equally miraculous game-tying home run off Aroldis Chapman in Game 7 of the World Series in 2016 that would end in an extra innings loss. A memory for a lifetime even if only a moment of bliss.

Where and when has this phenomenon taken place in golf? There had to be some stakes -- i.e. player in contention -- and the shot is somewhat lost to history because the player did not go on to win the trophy. We want to talk more about this on the next SGS and would love to cite some fellow FEGC members.

After spending hours searching for the hidden One-and-Done link, I’ve got my first pick of the year in. Who do you like? Who do you hate? And, most importantly, what tournament are we saving Jordan Spieth for?

cam smith getting invited back along with rahm brooks and Bryson. What do people think?

While not TV golf, the stories by these legends are well worth the view.

https://youtu.be/8vZGCrySVAM?si=rXXziFnHM6eUPXU3

Faldo, Woosy, Sandy, Langer hosted by Iona. Highly recommended!

First, Vijay already used his two career money exemptions in 2022 and 2023. He should not have this one available.

Second, Andy was asking if somebody has compiled a list of who has career money exemptions they can still use. Ask and ye shall receive.

Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, David Toms, Stewart Cink, Davis Love III.

Finally, fields are flexing up to include all fully exempt people this year, so it is true he may not be taking a spot if and only if the field is flexing up. (Except Phoenix)

Derek Sprague is out as PGA of America CEO after a year in the post. Did another Don enact a little regime change of his own?

Three TGL matches down and everyone has played except Jupe stinks, and we just found out tonight that their potential roster next week is some combo of Akshay, Tiger, Kis, and Max. Not the change i thought they would make but you can’t show up to practice late. Also, they announced WTGL tonight with the retired Lexi Thompson. I don’t know if I’m more surprised there is an expansion team, a women’s version of the league, or that this will last more than 2 seasons. You have to wonder if the Liv/Tour negotiations are hung up on the PIF being able to get the next expansion team. A couple other thoughts:

• Just like the MLB and NBA, analytics may be killing the fun in TGL with Cantlay’s hammer strategy
• Per the most recent SGS, BP didn’t seem too thrilled there is TGL chat going on in the hottest club in town, and Andy looked like he was just disappointed.
• Shane told Gotterup he’s the best indoor golfer in the world and he responded with “I don’t know if that’s a good claim to fame”

Updated power rankings: Drive, frogs, NYGC, LAGC, Bay, Jupe

I’m not familiar with the flight and lodging costs for Newark non-stop to Delhi, but if we can all start hitting the books, maybe Pizza Hut kicks In some matching donations.

here is the excerpt,

“Someday, someday we should do a PJ trip-a-thon where we put, we have like one of those school fundraising things.

Send PJ to the call guard.

I still think, I think the best PJ trip should be, there's a direct flight from New York to India.

Deal.

And the best trip is PJ, sending PJ solo to India.

I thought you were going to say, opening up the Brick and Mortar Spirit Halloween Black Friday pop up in Tulsa. I thought that's where you were going with that. When we were talking about Brick and Mortar the other day, I almost brought that back up, but didn't out of fear that it might actually happen someday.

I don't think there are enough sour patch kids in the world to get PJ through that direct flight from New York to Delhi. That would be a tough, that would be a long journey for you.

I mean, we'd get so much content out of it. If you know you're not supposed to do video on a plane, I would disrupt that immediately.

I think the thing too is we could have the fundraise bar of a threshold that PJ gets[…]”

From The Shotgun Start: The 2025 Year in Review, Part 9: The End...?, Dec 22, 2025

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shotgun-start/id1435273901?i=1000742378377&r=10326

This material may be protected by copyright.

A few thoughts I have from the season opener:

• cam young teed off to killing in the name. Didn’t have him tagged as a rage fan.
• had no idea cantlay and Lucas gloved were hurt but huge pickup of gotterup.
• Happy to see they were able to secure a ref sponsor and Derrick Stafford is back
• Billy is the greatest tgl player ever
• Gotterup hit it 320 off the deck with a mini driver to touch em all
• Fitzy complains a lot
• wasnt expecting the piza funnel hole

please keep any responses serious for this very serious competition.

28, no kids, and consequently a reasonable amount of free time on my hands. As we’re rapidly approaching the second tgl season I thought I’d share some of my thoughts with a brief team-by-team preview following a hectic offseason.

The Drive - the defending champs have a lot of questions to answer going into season 2. JT is out for the season and Billy Ho is coming off injury (which may have been caused by doing the dirty bird too much), but rumor is his surgery was planned so his recovery would peak just as season 2 begins. Lucas Glover is splitting time between his golf game and increasingly popular radio show, and the Pat in the hat had a year so bad he fell from 11th in the world this time last year to his current standing at 24th (somewhere he hasn’t been since the SGS was only a few months old).

NYGC - Rickie is still Rickie, but aside from that the team is on the rise. After a heartbreaking defeat in the championship last year, Cam Young (Mr. ~746) has caught fire, Chicago’s son is back playing well, and Xander has a new app and ended the year looking not that bad I guess.

LAGC - The Brits on this team are playing great, with Rosey sitting at 10th in the OWGR and YouTuber/Fedex cup champ ( listed in order of importance) Tommy Fleetwood ending the year as the hottest player on the planet(?). How will that translate to an indoor sim league with horribly inaccurate launch monitors? Not sure. The Americans on this team are another story. Sahith was out for most of this year injured, and Colin might holdout because this will be too much media interaction. Maybe he and Marty can bond over what product they use to coif their hair.

The Bay - Honestly I don’t have much on these guys. Thank god the Chef didn’t go to Liv or else Matt Berry wouldn’t know what to talk about. Wyndham is probably still doing community service on the grounds of Oakmont so who knows if he’s even eligible to play.

Jupiter Links - Did I miss something or do we still not know what’s going on here? Tiger certainly can’t play but he still could probably crutch out there and be better than Kis. Max and TK both aren’t playing great to my knowledge. I’m not a gambling man but the line for holes won for the year with this lineup has to be O/U 6.5.

B Frogs - I think Rory announced on the SGS that Michael Thorbjornsen was joining the team, so does that mean someone is leaving? Do they just get another player since they didn’t win a game last year? Or is it a prize for Rory winning the grand slam? No matter, things have to be looking up for the Frogs as they can’t do worse than last year and the “players” have them first in the preseason polls.

Pre Season Power rankings: 1. NYGC 2. The Bay 3. LAGC 4. Frogs 5. Drive 6. Jup Stinks

Maybe this will be a weekly power rankings (probably not) with inspiration taken from the WOWgr, which left us far too soon.

Thoughts on the golf games? Feeling a lot of the fatigue Brendan referenced on SGS with these “the match” style tv events. Seems like the main focus is to pack as many sponsorships and gambling promos as possible. The idea of a golf skills competition is fun, but when Rory was on the pod and said the idea was just brought to them and there wasn’t much input into the events it didn’t sound good.

Rory on the Year in Review????? No…. No. No way.