Wyndham Championship is just around the corner!

Before we get to your event, I'm just curious because I kind of just brought it up as we were waiting to clear up clear up all our stuff here. Is there anybody on tour? Is there a player on the PGA Tour? And maybe some do, but that have quite the value of Hideki Matsuyama, especially globally. I mean, Scottie Scheffler might be the best player in the world or Jon Rahm, but is Matsuyama maybe worth more because of the market he speaks to?

You bring up a good point. You know, he is an absolute national hero in Japan and he is, I mean, he's certainly the greatest Japanese golfer ever to play the game. So, um, you know, and then his win at the masters several years ago was a big deal. And so you probably have a really good point. I mean, um, I think Rory actually has that same type of international appeal, but you're probably right.

It's going to be, it's probably going to have to be an international player that is playing right now. I mean, obviously tiger's in a different league. Tiger's still the answer to all those questions. Of course, if, if tiger could play, and I've told the story so many times, and before we get to your event, um, I was there the week tiger played, cause he was trying to qualify for the playoffs and it was like a major, I remember being around, I think it was the fourth tee, it was on Thursday or it might've been Friday.

We were, we were like six deep around the fourth tee. It was bonkers what that was like. Uh, I will never forget. I think it might've been the year that Davis loved one. I don't know. I'd probably, uh, I probably completely got years confused.

That's exactly right. 2015. All right, so let's talk about what your reaction was. And, uh, Mark Brazel is a tournament director CEO of the Wyndham championship. So what was your reaction when the news broke? Did you have any heads up that it was coming?

Oh, no, no, I did not have any heads up. Um, I was, I guess I've been kind of hopeful that they've been, uh, trying to work something out, but I did not see this coming. Why were you hopeful that they were trying to work something out? Just curious. Just because I felt like, I thought I felt like the negative energy was hurting golf.

Okay. And I felt like it was kind of a, even though the PGA tour is the bigger entity, I felt like, um, it was just a war that really didn't need to be fought. Mark Brazel is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. How did the absence of, I don't know about all of the players who went and chose to play at live, uh, and you have a few past champions, uh, by the way, there, um, how did, how did the absence of those players impact a tournament like yours? Um, you know, we, we, we always loved having Sergio come to town. Um, we didn't get him every year, but we got him quite a bit. I mean, and then Henry Stinson, we, you know, Henry won our event and, um, he never, he didn't play a lot here, but he's had some success here. Um, obviously Patrick Reed took down, um, Jordan Spieth and a heck of a playoff early on in their careers. Um, but, um, you know, we, we kind of went through it. I don't think it really affected us too bad. Other than just missing a couple of our, we always love to have our past champions here.

Let's just, you know, no matter who they are. Mark Brazel tournament director, CEO Windham championship is joining us. So when the PGA tour announces, uh, you know, whatever the, however they called it, we'll just say a strategic alliance, uh, with the public investment fund. Um, what is your understanding and what that means for the schedule going forward? Well, it's not going to affect anything in 2023 and it feels to me like that is safe to say on the PGA tour for sure. And on live and on DP world tour.

Um, and I really don't think that it's going to affect anything for 2024. I would imagine the tour is any day now going to announce that schedule for 24. Um, but you know, who's to my, my, my understanding of kind of what went down here is, is there's just a, there's kind of a new entity. The PGA tours will the PGA tour, the European tour is still the DP world tour.

I guess I'm reading and getting, coming to grips with the live tour, probably going away. Um, starting next year, um, obviously the governor of the PIF is going to have a seat on the policy board of the PGA tour. Um, somebody from Saudi Arabia, whether it's him or his boss will be the chairman of this new entity, but Jay Monahan will be the CEO. There'll be a, probably a spot for the European tour commissioner. Um, and then my understanding is that the PGA tour will fill out the rest of that board of directors. So, um, yes, you do get in the PIF, you do get a big, um, big, big sponsor for golf in general and the tour. Um, but I almost feel like I understand what Rory was talking about in his interview today that he said, I hate, he hated live golf because it, it was, uh, you know, it took a lot of really good players away from the PGA tour, which.

Which made those players really, if you, if you will. And, and, um, so I think that. I think that Rory was really trying to distinguish between live and the PIF and, and I understand where he's coming from there.

Oh, I, I absolutely understand that. And, um, I think we're, I mean, we have so many clips from, uh, from Rory says he came to grips, uh, with the fact that, uh, the public investment fund. Which was always going to, they weren't going to stop being interested in being involved in golf. He came to grips with the money and the amount of money.

Uh, that they have put in, I think that the 70 was 75% of the investment, uh, in this new entity is going to come from the public investment fund. Uh, does Wyndham get it? I don't know.

I need to, I need to find out. I wouldn't, that doesn't sound bad to me, but you know, the, the, uh, PIF had, they started kind of supporting the European tour. And then, and then now I think they have been supporting the LPGA with their tour. Um, and they, so they've been supporting golf in a big way. Um, I think that the, the real problem that made everybody uncomfortable was just this whole creation of a new tour to compete against the PGA tour.

And I mean, that was really the issue that I feel like most everybody had. I think when you and I talked last year and I talked to Billy Horshall also at your event, uh, last year, and he has obviously been, you know, not quite to the level of Rory, but very close in terms of being outspoken against what was going on. Um, I've never put it, I've never made this, uh, you know, I've never used the fact that it was Saudi money as being, this is why we should dislike it. I understand that. I understand Randall Chamblee of Golf Channel, uh, taking a moral stance on this. I'm not against that. Um, but to me, it was intentionally disruptive, uh, and not just trying to shake it up.

I've never bought that for a second. I always felt like it was trying to destroy the PGA tour. Cause I always, I've always thought that that was Greg Norman's end game. And I think that's maybe what Rory was thinking, uh, when he goes, I hate it. Um, I don't think he hates the players, right? I think he would like to see some of those guys, maybe more than, maybe more than others, uh, come back. But he also talked today about ramifications. Well, how do you see that? You mean of the, of the players trying to come back to the tour?

Yeah. Consequences like how he does it. He said today, it's not like they're just going to be welcomed back. There will be consequences for their actions.

How do you see that? You know, I, um, I told, uh, I, I did a press conference yesterday, um, for our local, uh, press and, and I told them there's going to be some answers, some questions that I might not be able to answer and give it out to the tour. However, you know, I do agree that, and there always have been this, there's been this discussion about what are these players going to have to do to get back on the PGA tour if they wanted back in.

Uh, obviously if, if, if they dissolve, um, live, then there, it'll be, I think it will be a little easier, but you know, the, the, the whole issue, whenever anybody said to me, um, you know, this whole time, the last couple of years about, you know, this whole issue is there's a bunch of guys, and this is calling it pretty obvious, but there's a bunch of guys that did not take the money. They were loyal to the Windham championship and to the PGA tour and to, to the, the golf entity that brought them here, right? I mean, PGA tour is it. And, um, you know, yeah, I'm sure there's going to be some time and money that both are going to have to be on the table to get back onto the, on the PGA tour. And I, I mean, it's more, I joked earlier with Jason Sobel of the action network that it's, it's stroke and distance, uh, you don't get, you don't get a free drop.

It's not, uh, it's not embedded ball, uh, like in, uh, I don't know. Final thing, the, the tour just announced less last year, the restructuring of events and elevated events. And, um, where does Windham stand with that? And, or are we just going, is it going to be business as it has always been with Windham, uh, final event on the regular season?

Do we know anything more about it? If you're talking about 2023, I would tell you that it's going to be business as usual. 2024, you know, with all the, with all that's going on, I guess there could be some things in some curve balls thrown our way.

I'm not positive. I think that if you held a gun to my head, I would say, no, I think things will be pretty much business as usual for the Windham championship. Will be that we would be the last event right before the playoffs and playing a critical role in who's going to be in the top 70 and getting to go to Memphis, who's going to be in the top 50. And this is the key top 50 that gets to go to the BMW championship. And that top 50 will be the ones who populate the elevated events the next year. So that's a big deal. Um, and then they're always playing for big money, but they're always, they're also playing for that Comcast top 10 money, which ends at my tournament, $20 million that there's a rumor out there that that might go up even more next year. So might as well. And they should put all that cash behind the 18th green.

Uh, so they can, whoever can dive into it can dive into it. Mark Brazil, CEO tournament director, Windham championship. I appreciate you doing this. I will talk to you and see you soon. Thanks, Adam. Appreciate it. Great to see you. Nice to see you too.