REShow: Kevin Van Valkenburg - Hour 1

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Try Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry, clean feel all day. Well hey everybody, welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. I am fresh back from my two-week walkabout, fresh back from vacation here on NBC Sports on Peacock and NBC Sports Audio Sirius XM Channel 85. We say hello right here from Los Angeles, California to everybody out there on the Rich Eisen Show Terrestrial Radio Network powered by our friends at Westwood One. Everybody on our Odyssey Channel listening to us through that app throughout the entire universe. We say hello to those who are listening to us, whoever they darn well please, on our podcast where all podcasts can be acquired thanks to the Cumulus Podcast Network and youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show over anything that you may miss over the next three hours and for those who are listening for anybody out there who is listening yes do not adjust your sets folks on Peacock my tan is in fact raging and it is glorious and I'm wearing a short sleeve t-shirt that I bought in Italy because it's fashionable and I look fabulous in it and I am back in this chair and I thank Ben Lyons for filling in for me last week and for everyone else that's been patient waiting for me to come back I appreciate the fact that you weren't so impatient thanks to Ben's hard work in this chair and my guys Chris Brockman hey and DJ Mikey D and D's nuts and then TJ Jefferson who's lit the candle already even though the heat from my tan could have lit it all the way across I mean you ain't never lie somebody better turn AC on in here I'm back in this chair and I'm thrilled to be here on this program for the next three hours Kevin van Valkenburg who covers expertly the the game of golf which is what the Scottish call it without the L he covers it for the worldwide leader in sports he will be joining us on this program and there are not just one but two national football league training camps that open for their rookies to appear today in Las Vegas Nevada where Mo Green has no plaque or a signpost or anything any mention of his name in the town that he has he created disrespectful Las Vegas the Las Vegas Raiders are opening up for business for their um rookies in Henderson Nevada if you want to GPS it at the Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center the old IHPC as the folks in Henderson might call it do they I don't know if you live in Henderson college the rookies have appeared there and meanwhile in Rochester New York Rochester Saint John Fisher College Buffalo Bills rookies welcoming with open arms take your cot sing your fight song carry everyone else's bags you're in an NFL training camp and in honor of that today we have not one but two NFL guests Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers he's going to join us on this program in hour two USA Today did a write-up on their top 10 linebackers league he was number one hey now in the NFL top linebacker in the NFL Fred Warner of of Trey Lance's San Francisco 49ers he will be joining us on this program and then Najee Harris in hour number three of this program the man who will be toting the rock primarily for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Acresher Stadium say that he might be the most sure thing in Acresher hey well outside of Mike Tomlin not leaving for USC that's the that puts the shore in Acresher oh by the way that made it all the way to Italy while I was vacationing with uh with Suzy never say never but never yeah they said many of those Steelers fans said that while they were staring at the Heinz Field ketchup bottle that's coming down as we speak never say never but in that stadium uh yes Najee Harris will join us in hour number three of this program oh that's Najee he will be joining us on this program and hopefully you will as well 844-204-rich number down whatever on your mind in this sports world whatever is on your mind in this sports world love to hear if you want to call and say boy rich how did you get that tan I'm happy to tell you well then you're not on Instagram that's another thing we want to talk about on this program the all-star game is in this here town yeah we got a home run derby to talk about tonight in Los Angeles California battle for second place Pete Alonzo Pete Alonzo trying to hit one all the way to Rancho Cucamonga he can do it with those specialized home run derby ball and what an incredible lineup of stars I love it I mean this is take note NBA slam dunk competition this is the way it's done including Pete Alonzo the polar bear polar bear we'll discuss this on this program and there are eight um there are eight members of the home run derby tonight which is one half of the lead the Yankees currently have over Brockman's Red Sox right now and we'll discuss that on this program as well what is there to discuss oh much to discuss much to discuss fact that I'm back in this chair as well uh the last time I was in this chair was July 1 and Durant Kevin Durant is still a net yeah weird okay Russell West Westbrook is still a Laker although he doesn't have the same agent anymore and his agent is no longer with him because his agent apparently told him I think you should uh you should stay with the Lakers so what's up with that Kyrie Irving's still a net but we start this program today with two words two words we start this program today with two words the mullet the mullet or five words the mullet from down under man he's so good the mullet from down under which was apparently the original name of um that stripper show in Vegas it just didn't work it didn't work for the good people of Excalibur the mullet down under we can't sell tickets Magic Mike 3 working title can't sell tickets can't move can't move tickets to the mullet down under on the Vegas strip but you can in the old course in Scotland St Andrews in Scotland they call it golf without the l and just when you thought the golf gods were going to smile upon Rory McIlroy and the entirety of Scotland and everyone who came over from Ireland and anybody from I mean pretty much long shanks was rooting for Rory McIlroy the whole world 95 of the crowd was rooting for Rory I'm rooting for him you're rooting for him I know that Chris yeah for sure and the reason why you're also rooting for Rory in this point in time in this point in time is because he is the face of golf right now he is the face of golf right now in the face of the live tour coming at the PGA tour Rory McIlroy has basically planted the flag for the PGA tour worldwide and so at this moment in time for Rory to break through on the weekend and win right now at that spot in front of that crowd in this moment it had all the golf gods putting their thumb on the scale until the bullet from down under made the turn and said not today not today said Cameron Smith as he birdied 10 and 11 and 12 and 13 and 14 that happened yesterday that is just stupid that happened yesterday five birdies to start the back and then again to do it in this spot on this course at that moment with that crowd is one of the most remarkable feats and I know in a show like this we it's all about exaggeration hyperbole or whatever sometimes it's the over reaction on Monday right I mean we overreact recency bias whatever but you have to place it in perspective of one of the most special performances you've ever seen on a golf course in a major Cameron Smith deserves all of that plus the biscuit and the claret jug that he said he was trying to he was going to find out last night and I'm curious to see how how many beers he could fill in that I think he said later on he estimated about two would fit in there because it's only five and a half pounds it's not very big but he was gonna do it about 10 times you could take a bath and with the PGA championship right uh and the water maker you could you could there's an undertow in that thing yeah rich yesterday man it was the the true embodiment of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat the whole world's rooting for Rory just because he has been the face of the PGA tour in light of the live stuff and and just you know it's not hyperbole to say we're going to be talking about what cam smith did in the back nine yesterday forever yeah forever especially since the only other guy to win the PGA uh the players championship and the open championship in the same year Jack did it and he also did it at St Andrews right and so he was spectacular yesterday just spectacular and Rory couldn't make the putt make a putt he could well I mean he couldn't get it close enough sometimes too he kept on he kept on seemingly playing for par it was amazing actually he played he played a great round he didn't blow it and I hear people saying like he chunked it away he didn't he hit every green he had 18 greens in the final round of the open he two-putted every hole and that's what you're supposed to do that's what you're supposed to do but he needed 68 and he shot a 70 stay out of the sand stay out of those pot bunkers bunker right and get himself in any trouble don't three putt don't bogey the problem is perfect round you got a guy who shot a 64 and he birdied the first five holes in the back he just got beat you know you could feel it on the front nine too Rory had perfect birdie chances at three and nine he had eight footers and he missed both and you missed both and you're like ah gonna wish he had those and what a course I'm telling you what and I know this is something that Kevin van Valkenburg wants to talk about is where where you got guys were pounding at 350 360 in the old course uh when when there's when there's no weather no wind you know you're gonna have somebody who wins at 20 under par but it's still it's still the old course and it is the only course I think you could put it up with or on par with is is Augusta National because it's it's iconic it has an iconic hole the road hole is where I mean folks and I I know I'm talking to an audience that pretty much knows already but when you're teeing off over a hotel okay TJ okay I know you're not that deep into this you're teeing off over a hotel which by the way I'm letting anybody know when I check this off my bucket list if you're staying facing the the the tee box in that hotel you're getting one in your lap okay I am gonna skull it I'm gonna skull I'm gonna say I'm gonna just because I'm gonna honestly like a hard shank I don't know how many tee shots in my entire life I'll fortunately hopefully be able to get where I'm gonna I've been thinking about it for decades and so I'm gonna stand over that thing and it's gonna hit the hotel but you have to hit a hotel and then that second shot hitting the green is impossible and then and then you have to go over a bunker bunker in front of a road and and and and a stone wall that I'm absolutely gonna hit that too because I'm gonna because I'm gonna wind up somehow probably my third or fourth shot about 50 yards shy of the green and then I'm gonna I have no shot like that in my back I'm gonna skull it I'm gonna hit the wall hopefully it'll rebound on the green and then I'll make it in one so you got an iconic hole and then the number of scoring holes the number of opportunities that you can have to eagle if you're back by four or five shots you can make a run and if you're up by four or five shots there's many holes on which you find a wrong bunker you're toast it's over you're four five so anybody could come from anywhere and you could score from any spot and there there are some again highly challenging holes that you need to part in order to move on and then other holes in which you can eagle you can birdie and there's trouble everywhere that's like the background at Augusta you know you can score you can and no lead is safe and no deficit is too large and you can't just sit on the lead like kind of what Royer was doing to to make the turn and just expect to win that walk up 18 with the the hotel and the backdrop and oh my god it's it's beautiful and and so I was all in on it I loved it so much drama on the last four holes I loved it and by the way just because you know there there is an iron rich and and eyes and I'm a team player uh flying back east um yes from yesterday I watched the entire stream the entire thing on peacock thankfully the wi-fi was strong enough on the flight to stream it unbelievable the whole thing it looked beautiful was incredible and Cameron Smith just he just took it he took it with a performance for the ages which is the way we said and so uh just to make sure I'm checking all the boxes as an American sports broadcaster spectacular win by the man from down under which you have to say when somebody from Australia does anything and it was um remarkable for sport which is what you must say when you're talking about anything in Europe and certainly if you're talking about anything in the united kingdom across the pond is that it trifecta I could stay I'll be here all week Hank Goldberg would be proud hey may he rest in peace he passed away while we're gone so um lots to talk about with Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN we're going to dive a little bit more into the um British Open which by the way what did they stop calling it that it was like a few years ago I grew up I grew up I was watching Jack win British Open I know Tiger still said it the other day he was like British Open hopefully I'll be here a while yeah it's the open uh the open championship um and Fred Warner of Trey Lance's San Francisco 49ers and uh also Najee Harris of Accra Shore Stadium fame it's not going over well in the burg right now I'm telling you you're taking down a ketchup bottle right now man and people are pissed the users are gonna revolt bro I'm telling you by the way I just said those words I just said those words into a microphone and that's not ironic no no it's happening they're taking down a ketchup bottle and people are pissed there it is wow look at that the first ketchup bottle has been ruined okay we're gonna how many are there there's one there's two they jump like this there's two when they get in the red zone there's two they wanted to put they wanted to put up 57 they're cool we got room for two it's gone all right so is there ketchup in that I want I mean I'll take a bottle oh you know who wants to know that my son Zander Eisen he would take that right now you guys know the key and then he's asked for more he asked for more huh you know the key to the you know the Heinz bottle right we're gonna get into this later on we're gonna get into this later on because as you know in the 21st century and certainly in this year of our lord 2022 I don't understand when people get really emotional over naming rights so that that's a subject we're gonna hit on this program oh and Baker Mayfield's a Carolina panel oh yeah that happened yeah that happened too so we'll hit on that on this I'm back in the chair my tan is in fact Raging Edition of the Rich Eisen Show Kevin Van Valkenburg of espn.com and espn fame senior writer going to talk about what an incredible open championship yesterday back here on the Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio outfit for those who may have missed what we just talked about on Peacock Chris Brockman sticky finger five finger discounted my best dad ever silent my fingerprints are not on that side okay very good uh mine arcs and then took it back uh joining me here on the Rich Eisen Show on the Mercedes Benz Van's phone line to talk about the 150th open championship that Cameron Smith essentially ripped away from the rest of the field including Rory McIlroy who finished third is senior writer from espn uh Kevin Van Valkenburg back here on the Rich Eisen Show how you doing Kevin good rich it sounds like your desk could use a candle that you could light for Rory McIlroy you know what uh we we could we could pour we could pour one out we could pour one out um so you know obviously in the sports world uh a lot of discussion about what somebody who loses didn't do um and we can kind of get to that in a minute but that would also um I don't think give full faith and credit to what Cameron Smith did in front of an entire um golf world and also uh gathered uh patronage on the old course rooting for Rory McIlroy that was unbelievable where does that rank for you kevin it's pretty high up I mean I think you could maybe the only thing you could quibble with is that the old course isn't quite the test that it once was where guys would have to sort of choose what you know clubs they were going to hit into greens because you know the nuances of it they're all kind of pounding driver although cam was kind of one of those guys who strategically laid back on certain holes like he he was the one who was thinking his way around it how many guys are going to shoot a 30 on the back line it's really only happened a couple times you know Nicholas at the 86 masters is sort of a famous example and that's kind of what happened that had to happen if you played this round 50 times Rory probably wins 48 of them that he didn't really play poorly he just didn't play great and cam did it well did he play aggressive enough do you think Rory what do you think about that I think there's some some holes that you could quibble with where maybe he should have gotten a little more aggressive but I actually think what's weird to think about is I think he played this final round a lot like Tiger Woods would have played which is basically like hey you got to come and get me like I'm gonna I'm gonna basically do nothing wrong you know a lot of people sort of don't really remember how Tiger was so good at playing defense in those final rounds like he didn't really throw up 65s unless he had to chase and then he never really won one of those except for the 2019 masters where he came from behind and so you know there's a couple where you know Rory probably could have tried to throw the ball you know back to a couple back pins but to be honest like he just played really mistake-free golf and it's hard to sort of look at a specific decision and say hey you really you know he left that eagle putt one revolution short it's hard to sort of say well yeah you should have been more aggressive on those pots like he just couldn't really he got aggressive on 17 and made a great swing into the toughest pole in the world essentially and just couldn't make that putt so that's kind of what it came down you know and he went up against truly one of the great putting performances ever in golf I think I agree and and it's interesting you bring up Tiger Kevin because I don't know who it was on the NBC Sports coverage I think it might have been Nota Begay but at the very outset of the coverage a text message from Tiger was read on the broadcast did you hear that did you hear that Kevin it is the text of John Wood that Matt Kuchars old caddy that's who it was essentially said you know take care of the the short par fours make your birdies there you know make the birdies in the par fives maybe do a couple things here there but just basically clean up uh everything play a tidy round and you'll be fine and that's kind of exactly what Roy Dix a birdie didn't do a couple special things here there I was sort of actually thinking about like 2005 Masters where Tiger and Chris DiMarco were way out ahead of the field and essentially Tiger kind of did that plays really safe and there was that one amazing chip that we all remember and that was kind of the essentially the difference the amazing thing and Roy just never had that amazing one moment like if he had had one of those that's right it's probably enough to hold off game but he just didn't have that one amazing moment yeah Tiger said no three putts no bogeys just um and play a play a boring and get a boring 68 and had he gotten a boring 68 there would have been extra holes even that still wouldn't have been enough that's how good Cameron Smith was I've got Kevin van Valkenburg from ESPN here on the Rich Eisen show who is Cameron Smith for those who may just only know him as a guy with the mullet that they see on television walk me through him if you don't mind yeah so Cam's a great uh Australian player that was never really regarded as like one of the top uh you know young players in Australia coming up you know there's a lot of other guys that were sort of more highly regarded than he was and he is just an unbelievable wedge player and putter and as a very fearless dude he won the players championship earlier this year uh and he did it really by basically being aggressive and going after a lot of pins and that's kind of his MO if he just doesn't really care too much about uh the sort of fear that grips a lot of golfers and sometimes that leads to total disaster he makes occasionally uh dumb decisions he did kind of on the pothole of the players this year all he had to do was sort of punch out into the fairway and he tried to hit a little more of an aggressive hook and hit it in the water and almost ended up blowing a championship that he had sort of got fought all day to get in position for it he drives the ball kind of crooked but he's just an artist with the putter and really in a way that I'm not sure we've seen in the last you know few years I mean it's if you had a putt right now that had to go in and anybody on earth could take it you'd probably want to pick cam smith to roll it in well I mean on the the back dime kevin I honestly thought every time he had anything lined up it was going in I it really the the the the hole looked like the ocean to me just watching it I can only imagine it wasn't his I mean it was really like watching a basketball player get on a run where it's like they're unconscious you know like Jordan throwing in all those threes in the finals or stuff yeah shrugging doing the same thing like it's just he just he as soon as he stared over it he wasn't going to miss and what's crazy is that he just the day before you know had a lot of those similar putts and couldn't make anything so it sort of shows you the fickle nature of putting is that sometimes you see the line and you can judge the speed and everything is just going in and some days you don't have it and sorry for Rory but you know the one day that he needed you know cam smith to be immortal he absolutely was not yeah and especially that his final putt of the day um it should be noted broke a tie that suddenly occurred because Cameron Young his fellow Cameron their shirts were the same right they had the same titleist hat their names were the same this is obviously a different haircut a little bit different build but uh I mean uh cam Cameron Young made that eagle again was that's that's that's the shot we were looking for from uh Rory to try and and tie things up or or make a threat or hold off cam smith but instead I mean smith had that pot uh you know very makeable obviously which he made some people might even lift it out he just dead center cut that thing I I will never forget it that was unbelievable it really was it was really amazing to watch cam young hang in there I mean he wasn't really part of the narrative of the day which is like could Rory hold off cam smith and yet cam young was kind of just doing I mean he's an amazing I think young player he's certainly already thrown up like rookie of the year could have easily gotten in a playoff at the pj championship at southern hills drives it a mile he's he's a lot of fun to watch and I think when he rolled that eagle and it was like holy cow like actually this really could not it's not might not be wrapped up for cam smith yet I mean I was not like the easiest uh up and down through the valley it's been there and yet you know just like he showed on 17 like cam smith just he gets pace and he understands like the where to leave the next pot so that he can roll in kevin van valkenburg few more minutes left with the espn senior writer here on the rich isin show where where do things stand now live tour pga tour the rna as we saw uh did not do any favors in terms of tee times and pairings uh to those on the live tour at least that was the sense that a lot of people got uh where do things stand on that now that again football's starting I think this story is going to get lost a little bit in the shuffle all the so-called majors as we as we have turned them are over even the the non so-called um it appears what the fedex cup still remains where do things stand essentially kevin well it was kind of nice for I have a week of really muted live talk at least but uh you know the rumors were still percolating all about whether cam smith is going to be the next person to jump or whether i don't well there you go i think greg norman just uh just pulled the plug norman was listening you think he was standing behind him the whole time while he's making the curve i'm curious where he's going to go with that because those are the rumors that are hot henrik stenson too it looks like it's going and he's going to have his uh what his rider cup captaincy stretch yeah and the thing with cam smith too uh is that he's now going to have five-year exemptions at all the majors he can play in the british open until he's 60 now uh and if his price tag for liv probably just went way way up if he hasn't signed already and so that's uh one of the hot rumors out there this week well i mean that's the way things are going to go uh one would think is that the live tour will be on top of whoever wins any major championship that'll be the first phone call that they make we're showing up in the middle of night with a bag at the crib you know you get a call from wayne gretzky wayne you know wayne on line one no seriously apparently that's he's one happening i haven't seen that's apparently he's part of the the the uh you know the the entree well news just broke that david faraday's leaving nbc to become an analyst for live oh is that right that just broke in the last couple minutes by andrew marshon and charles barkley is out there he has said that you know i would hurt my mom or something for 200 million dollars and now he's being rumored to have an involvement and live now again the money is absolutely off the charts insane you know we're trying to get kevin back i know i mean we'll keep tap dancing a couple more minutes because uh you know phones will just like turn off on you and things like that so um but wow so faraday is that was his last broadcast for nbc yesterday yeah andrew marshon just had the story he's leaving the live becoming to become an analyst they have their third event coming up soon at uh at one of trump's courses right here in the uh united states yeah okay wow again uh you just you get disappointed by things um when you you know but you you buy news like that but i can only imagine david faraday probably just got offered more money than he's ever been offered in his entire broadcasting career to do that you're probably right i i can't even imagine barkley as well again but yeah at some point though i mean it it's you're just watching very famous incredibly talented players playing a tournament that means what to you you know what does it mean to you what does it mean to them what does it mean to anything what does it mean like there's what's the history of it what's what are you like what legacy are you trying to achieve and trying to attain i guess again it doesn't matter if you just look at your account you're thinking that's a that's a whole boatload of zeros right if you're getting let's just say cam smith is getting if 200 million dollar essentially signing bonus to go to this thing you know sergio garcia had said today that he's thinking of withdrawing from the dp world tour he already withdrew his a resign from the pga tour because he's quote not feeling the love out there we got no kidding you were already one of the most not liked players anyway and you go and do this i believe kevin's back on i think we got him back on kevin did greg norman pull the plug on that conversation is that what happened i think it was the power outage but we can't rule anything out okay so uh you were saying about um you know that it was interesting that to get a week off of the live talk and by the way uh in the conversation uh in in the interim between your phone going out and um and then this it appears david faraday's leaving nbc sports to start calling matches for the live tour by the way kevin wow so what do you think it's not not surprising either i mean it's just so much money involved that you know i think that if you don't have moral issues with uh going to to work for live then they're just going to keep picking off more and more people i mean it you know cam smith was asked in the press conference uh afterwards if he was interested and he kind of gave one of those non-denial denials that kepka did of how dare you ask me about this right now and i think everybody thinks that he's going to be the next player to go and there's a lot of rumors about tadeki mansayama i mean i think you can sort of feel a lot of the the players who were sort of most adamant about this not going like rory and john rom starting to soften a little bit because they not that they're going to go but they feel sort of like maybe the pj tour and the dp world tour ought to come to more of a kind of an agreement of understanding because right now the rider cup is going to look like it's devastated i mean hendrick stenson is rumored to sort of be stripped of his rider cup captaincy because he wants to go and and take you know millions from the live tour so i i think there's just we're going to see more of this stuff play out after the fedex cup is over after the president's cup is over i mean there's a lot of talk that the australian guys are interested in going as soon as the president's cups come and gone because that's kind of their rider cup so i i just it's not we're never going to see the end of this really i think because it's just the saudis have too much money well i mean if if if now david faraday starts calling matches for for um the live tour and apparently barkley is going to be talking to them and and suddenly you're you're putting together an entertaining package around it what what are you hearing about possible television partners or or that's still just verboten because of the contracts that these television partners have with the pga tour i mean that that that's what ended up in all honesty the afl getting a television package is what really made them a real threat to the nfl and led to a merger so yeah what about that uh what are you hearing about that right now kevin yeah i mean i don't think we've if it's if there are negotiations with that going on right now none of it has kind of uh leaked out i i still think that it's a little bit of a too hot of a product to handle especially considering all of the various conflicts that are going on right now but you know if you are a upstart uh you know television network or even if you're you know a straight up kind of you know more along our lines of an online deal but you but you have some media cable channel rights or would you be interested in taking a you know swing at this i think of course you'd listen and whether or not uh you know the that's enough to sort of establish it permanently is a kind of a permanent thing i don't know i think probably once they get sort of an actual tv deal it becomes a whole lot more of a reality that it's just never going to go away and the pj tour is suddenly like facing such an existential threat of like what happens if if one of your guys like justin thomas or rory does cave you know i think all of that we're still at the very beginning of this livestock that's what's kind of i think people go to overlook there's been so many times along this process people said oh well that's dead or oh the only guys that are going to go or guys that don't matter we're still just really at the very beginning we haven't even gotten to the lawsuit sort of stage yet we're still nicholas is filing a lawsuit to be able to keep his lifetime membership on the pga tour so i i think this is going to play out kind of over the next couple years so then what last one for you on this then is is what's the general sense of how long of a game the saudis and greg norman and the consortium that's running this um are planning like what's the idea like okay like three four years from now you know there'll be three four five billion in the hole and not even remotely close to making it back and and so what you know and right i mean yeah what what what's the long game here do you think i think that when we think about the live tour that we need to sort of think about it in a way that's it's different than any other sort of sports tour that you could imagine like i know that we know that they have essentially a four-year plan that they've kind of laid out over the first two years they've talked in private about spending you know a couple billion dollars and whether that you know to a normal sort of person a league that essentially makes very little and loses two billion dollars would seem to be totally unsustainable but if you're the saudis and you're sort of saying hey you know this is sort of helping improve our global uh relationship with business leaders with investors there's more people who are interested in in helping us build a high-speed train in the middle of the this new city we're building in the desert there's no like sort of direct exchange of like this has to be profitable to them for them to want to keep it going it's really just sort of is this kind of helping in a lot of ways launder our reputation which has taken some much deserved hits and helping the sort of larger community say you know what we want to help the saudis kind of modernize their country and their society and so we can see that these golfers were not sort of canceled or criticized too much for doing this so we're going to go ahead and go forward with that and so four years from now if it's lost four billion dollars that's kind of a drop in the bucket when you're essentially looking at an investment fund that's right now worth 600 billion and might be worth a trillion dollars within you know a decade that's a pretty good investment if you're sort of saying to yourself you know what japan or various european countries or china is willing to invest money in us because they feel like it's a beneficial business relationship with them and they kind of like closing up and playing golf with fidaki manciana or an expensive or whatever and so i don't think there's ever a moment either live people will say differently that you know this has to be profitable eventually but i really think that if you just think of it in in larger global terms what is a country that has an enormous amount of money what is a bill coming to them really worth two or three billion dollars if they feel like it overall improves their chances to sort of get people to sell them things that they need to modernize their country in the meantime though we're gonna watch incredible major tournament championship moments like sundays and then ask the winner are you going to go to the live tour or one year the winner will make that announcement upon winning or one year i'm serious and then one year we'll wind up seeing an actual live tour member already certified winning a major championship and that will change the calculus and the dynamic every single time that's the way it's going to go for a while it looks like kevin you know absolutely and i think there's there's still a thing kind of hanging out there of whether how many of these guys will be able to get into majors through world golf ranking point there's going to be a sort of reckoning i think that comes in the next year over whether the official world golf rankings will recognize live tour events and whether that'll be enough to get guys directly into the majors like for someone like cam smith he doesn't really care about that moment because he's got an exemption for life into the british open and for the next five years into all the other majors so he can go and basically play the british open forever and all those other majors until he's in deep into his 30s and figure out the hope that this is kind of figured out if you're you know someone who hasn't won a major a taylor gooch or you know one of the other sort of younger guys who went to live and you want to play in these majors you're going to find yourself in a tough spot if the owgr never says hey you know we're welcoming you guys we're going to weigh these points accordingly so i think you're right i think that dustin johnson could easily win a major and sort of it could be a huge thing for live i think brooks kepke you never know could win another major he's going to be exempting him to a lot of them for a long time so all of that is going to come to a head and you're right what if we get a professional wrestling situation where a guy you know rips open his shirt and wearing a live shirt on the on the 18th tee or whatever and sort of says thanks to greg norman for all the the benefits that i've gotten from you and i think everyone needs to be prepared for it and in the meantime all the players that are like you know this is a this is a media driven thing you guys keep bringing it up well the reason why it's keeping brought up is because points are on the line and we don't know if we're going to see you next year we don't know i mean this is way too much of an open wound in a fluid situation that's why it's being discussed not just to stir anything a lot of the players seem so angry about being asked about it right the way i sort of responded is if you were proud about this if you felt good about your decision why not just own it so yeah i think it's a great opportunity like i i don't really care if uh you ask me about it because i think that i'm really honored to be taking you know considered for being compensated the way i think i deserve them but they're they're really defensive and really angry about a lot of it and i think it's in part because there is a little level of shame but they know like whether it's phil nicholson or Ian polter or somebody that's brooks kepka these guys have snapped their reporters about it they know that what they're doing is kind of goes against what they were previously stood for kevin thanks for the time look for my call again appreciate it thanks again as you mentioned thank you you bet that's kevin van valkenburg of espn um right here on the rich isin show all right we'll take a break when we come back here um one more item to discuss um from uh from sunday and the weekend's events um that i think you'll want to stay tuned for let's just put it that way that's next the rogue st driver every golf equipment company claims to be long longer off the tee but calloway's new rogue st driver is the only one built to completely bomb it there's four different offerings i use the max by the way uh got a chance to play with my brother-in-law the other day using a rogue st now max driver and i'm telling you you really can feel the difference it's amazing yeah i love it i absolutely love my rogue st driver because it's engineered with a new tungsten speed cartridge gives you more speed on off-center hits provides more forgiveness thanks to high moi and i'm telling you every single time you swing it you feel more confident standing over it because you know all you need to do is just make a good pass the ball is going to go fly i love it and like i said there's four different offerings the max the max d is a dedicated draw model the max ls stronger trajectory more neutral ball flight the real players out there there is this is what the tour players love the rogue st triple diamond ls it's awesome calloway's thought through every aspect of speed so all you've got to do is go rogue find your rogue st driver calloway golf.com slash go rogue one last thing to talk about look i don't take anything away from from cameron smith but one of my favorite moments uh with uh with rory mcelroy when he went up by two strokes um you know making that uh making that birdie going up by two strokes uh and then um his uh his caddy put him in that that cart and just we would just roll it rolled him right down uh from one from the green to the next t box just put him in i'm sorry that was that was that no i'm sorry that was rafael devers homeworking about on saturday night to go up one nothing oh that's right and then and then the yankees scored 14 unanswered and then and then and then double digited him the next day rich it's easy just think of championships just put him in a championship who deserves by the way 300 million dollars and for whatever reason the red sox and a big crap all over you but then oh yeah you deserve all the money no no he does he absolutely does he's remarkable the yankees can't get him out but it's like you know you've homered he he's homered against the yankees a million times and just put him in a cart and we like he's never homered before right down the dugout high five everybody and then let's give up 14 unanswered what is it like to hate fun oh it's not hating fun what it is it's like like for instance matt carpenter right he's been there and done that he's been there and done that and he's doing things that say well what just off the top my he's doing things that like only uh ruth and garrick have done and damagio let me just turn my ear off oh my god ruth garrick and damagio in terms of multiple games with seven or more runs batted in in a single season the only of the yankees who have done it ruth garrick damagio matt carpenter you don't need to shout those guys were pretty good carpenter and so what did he do did they what did he do did he go in a golf cart did he go in a cart you know and then you know what maybe take a curtain call from the yankees stadium crowd who loves him and why not and why not it's funny no no no it's funny it's funny you know everyone you know you guys making fun of me being on in italy and you'd be doing social media this and that you're like you're sick and tired of it how about being on the other end of it okay you're just having a good time you're having a good time six hours ahead don't even know wake up the next day it's a beautiful day wake up the next day and you see that the yankees lost the red sox because before this uh series win they split four in uh in boston yankees took the first two then the red sox took the next two okay and so uh you know you wake up the next day and you see oh yankees uh red sox beat the yankees oh okay then you go on your twitter feed just to see what's going on in the world and you see your friend um you say start at three rookies on the mound consecutive come backwards guess who's not afraid of the big bad unstoppable yankees this red sox team hashtag the energy is about to shift by the way after this uh they went and got uh uh swept all four games in tampa after the energy was about to shift uh so and and who are you who are you who are you also tweeting that who are you tweeting who are those people you're tweeting that so they are now on my timeline trying to troll me too tongue in cheek okay okay really got it new odds to the humor or lost no no no but that doesn't translate six hours ahead because you're also tweeting at people i don't even know of they're all red sox people i started taking a look on it i said who are these people and they start showing up on my timeline too before we left before we left it was a 12 and a half game lead the yankees had on the red sox and i'm like when i come back is it going to be single digits or 15 what am i supposed to say you said single digits well what am i supposed to say put it up put it up 16 and a half good news news we're halfway through the year and your team's good i mean what's today's day i don't know what we're doing if i'm not mistaken all right 13 game believe the yankees have in the american league east is the largest lead it's the largest lead anybody's had in the history of the american league east uh since the uh you know uh realignment everything oh that's what it's gonna end with zero rings it's possible yankees need to definitely get that get that rotation a little short up certainly with uh severino luar is real good his team's got to look in the rearview mirror and see the atlanta braves that's right last week rich yankees looking oh i must have missed that yeah we took care of that toronto is the team i'm worried about you should no no no stop it you shouldn't be worried about anybody it's the astros you worry about yourself you don't want to be in a game seven in houston again i mean you don't do that you don't want to do that you don't want to you don't want to go to houston you don't want to go to houston where they you know where they you know where they won't take their jerseys off oh that's true oh this is great fred warner of trey lance's san francisco 49ers coming up i'm gonna bang 27 times i can bang 27 times for the runs we scored what eight titles since you were born like let's let's count them while you're alive yeah that's nonsense oh no nonsense oh nine uh he's right nonsense oh nine that's right you gotta cut they gotta finish it gotta finish it but they've made they made the break let's let's uh let's take a break yes you know we'll take a break and uh and come back and thursday it'll be a double header yankees in houston oh really yeah to make up for the first week that got blown off with the with the uh wow with the lockout they got it's a double header in houston to start things off it's gonna be like a thousand degrees boom right at you and the Astros are just four back that's it that's the that's the one how about the mariners 13 14 wins 14 wins in a row on fire 14 wins in a row for the seattle mariners the oriel's got to 500 they're in the mix same same thing uh with uh with the white socks there's some good okay no let's see let's take a look at the nationally the Dodgers have 60 wins now the Dodgers have 60 wins as uh how many times Clayton Kershaw gonna flirt with the perfection in a single year i'm surprised he didn't get taken out 60 and 30 there are the metropolitans metropolitans uh raves are right there right there and uh the bravos well the braves and braves are two and a half behind the mats cardinals and giants and then there's that's it there's nobody close enough uh and l to put up on the marlins are five back okay don matting these marlins everyone how about the padres a great for them no tatis the whole year i know right he's like finally maybe gonna start throwing okay here we go slam diego we gotta get them back in the mix man slam diego slam diego why can't i say that it's it's sophomoric to roll down your cart and and say devers deserves 300 millions at the same time why can't i say the same sentence they're just like oh he's on the bet hey let me crack on your celebration but then say you deserve all the money you do who cares act like you've been there before which he has against the Yankees he wears him out where is him out what is it like not enjoying fun oh i love fun this i'm have for instance i'm having a boatload of fun right now but no one else this might be my most fans this is great for the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments it's something to wrestle with bruce prichard and conrad thompson too all-time hogan opponents macho man's gotta be in the conversation where's andre for you i've always said andre was number one wow because even going back before you know hulk hogan was a babyface hulk and andre were able to go in and headline at the new orleans super dome at shay stadium in japan wherever they went that was an attraction something to wrestle with bruce prichard listen wherever you get your podcasts