What's The Future Of Golf? (Hour 3)

And away we go, hour number three of our radio program.

That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show, coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Alex Meyer, senior writer from Golf Digest, going to join us coming up 20 minutes from now. And at 9 40 p.m. Eastern, 6 40 p.m. Pacific, you will hear once again from Steve Sands, NBC Sports and the Golf Channel, long time golf reporter and golf analyst, he's going to join us, as of course the big news today is all related to live golf, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour agreeing to a merger to unify golf, which did catch a lot of people by surprise. Right now we are going to get to a news brief, hot take Kiki, take it away. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. And this portion of the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio is brought to you by Wesley Financial stuck in a timeshare and one out contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at Wesley Financial Group dot com.

Once again, Wesley Financial Group dot com. We start things off in the world of golf, as that's really the epicenter of the sports world today. And this is Jay Monahan from today saying that this day is a historic day for golf, this courtesy of NBC. I think today is a it's a historical day for the PGA Tour and the game of golf. And you're right, you know, there's been a lot of tension in our sport over the last couple of years. But what we're talking about today is coming together to unify the game of golf. That was courtesy of CNBC. Do you consider today historical day for golf, Kiki?

Not at all. A day living lives in infamy more than historical. I think it's kind of a day of hypocrisy. That's the way that I would label this, where for the last year and a half, two years, we had what now ended up being all this nonsense with live golf. And let's just talk about it here in American terms, also the the PGA Tour.

And it was so much back and forth. And the guy that was the biggest fighter against live golf, Jay Monahan, now ends up coming to an agreement and all the money that he directed so many PGA Tour players to not take. He is now taking this money because obviously everyone eventually has a price. He thought the PGA Tour needed it and he wanted to keep or get those other golfers back.

Like whatever the reasons are, you want to stop the litigation so you don't figure out other things, get exposed and all that. Whatever the reason is, Jay Monahan, Kiki, he looks like the biggest hypocrite. Like if we had to go through all the winners and losers of this, the winners, I would say just for starters, Brooks Koepka. You have Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, the guys that took the money because now they're eventually gonna go back and get their PGA Tour card. I would say the winner, like as you said earlier, golf fans, because I think the average golf fans just want to see the best golfers play on whatever the new business venture is, PGA Tour, let's just call it for right now, whatever it's going to be called.

That's what people want to see, the best of the best when they tune in. But when you look at losers, is there a bigger loser today than Jay Monahan? Because yes, he got his. Yes, he did what he did. He did what he did, but this was a dude for the last 15 to 18 months, however long it is, all he did was tell people on the PGA Tour, don't do this, don't do that, using the victim's families of 9-11 as well.

And then today up, yeah, we took the money. There's no bigger loser than him. I would probably say Rory, just because he fought the fight and he's not getting the paycheck that Jay Monahan is going to get. He's probably going to get forced out, but Jay, I'm sure in this deal is making out like a bandit.

Yeah, but hold on now. You're not wrong. Rory is a loser in this for now, but Rory is also extremely influential and Rory had to know something was coming, whether that was his relationship with Jimmy Dunn, who was a broker in this deal and is a very big player in the golf world as that was explained to us earlier, whether it was that or it was maybe Rory have an idea that this was coming and it was, we'll take care of you. Because remember, these are unlimited funds. So with how much money did they give out to all these other golfers, maybe they ended up taking care of Rory McIlroy. I'm not maybe necessarily what he would have made going to live golf, but in some sense, some sort of compensation there. But he was, his own tour turned against him, stabbed him in the back. He was the face of basically fighting against Liv and the very entity he was protecting literally turned their back and stabbed him right in the back. They embarrassed him because now all of a sudden the exact thing he was fighting against the people he was trying or the entity he was trying to protect just did the exact opposite of what he was fighting for.

But do you believe that today, this just came out of nowhere and he didn't know up until today? Oh, even if he got an ankle in two weeks ago, what is he supposed to, he's not going to do anything about it. Well, it had to be more than two weeks ago because we're going back to the PGA championship where he changed his tune right after the masters.

There were some things happening. What is he going to do? They're not stopping this merger because Rory McIlroy says no, obviously there's billions of dollars on the line. So he just is at that point saving his own face.

So there's not as many recent clips of him blasting Liv and then all of a sudden having a bloat. Like if, if you were blasting another radio station for an entire year and all of a sudden a month ago on that before CBS sports comes, he said, Hey Zach, by the way, we're merging with that station. Now you're going to be on there. And callers are saying, well, Zach, what about the station? Go out. I don't really want to talk about anymore. How much is life really going to change for Rory McIlroy where Jay Monahan? Yes, he's getting his, he'll get taken care of. We all know that he's probably going to be out of what he's been doing. I would imagine like, how are these PGA tour golfers going to want that guy to be there to be the commissioner still or whatever the new titles, but how are they ever going to be associated with this guy? And what I'm saying is, even though it looks like you may think from afar, no one really has leverage here with who you're dealing with, but if these guys don't want to play or they threatened not wanting to play because Jay Monahan is involved in some capacity, he kind of could just say, we're not going to play until he's gone.

And eventually he's, he's exposable. Those other guys are not. I mean, we can say that, but then it's money out of their pocket. You guys are going to take it.

Remember we're also going to go. Monahan is the guy that told these golfers not to take it. So how he finds a way to smooth this over is a lot tougher than anything. Rory McIlroy is going to have to deal with.

Sure. Rory McIlroy went out there and said, I want to stay in the PGA tour. I want to do this.

I want to do that. I don't agree with the guys that went to the live golf tour. He's going to be heavily compensated. Rory McIlroy. I want to say for Rory, I think it's embarrassing.

Like sure. Jay Monahan is the biggest villain without a doubt. That's we're not even compared to apples and oranges, but for Rory, I think the embarrassment he's facing today, I think is worse than the villainization that Jay Monahan is getting. But do you think there's more people that are bringing up Jay Monahan today or they're bringing up Rory McIlroy? Like in terms of embarrassing, when you go back to that 9-11 clip that he had when talking with Jim Nantz outside of this, people just one day, what did Rory know?

I don't think really there's been a big reaction today. Oh, Rory McIlroy is a loser. Rory McIlroy did this. I think it's more you feel bad about Rory. I feel bad because this is the guy that again was fighting a good fight that all of a sudden, what are you trying to protect? Stabbed him in the back.

It sinks. Let's get more from Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA tour. He explains why he wants to partner now with the Saudis is courtesy of CNBC. We've recognized that together we can have a far greater impact on this game than we can working apart. And I give Yasser great credit for coming to the table, coming to the discussions with an open heart and an open mind. We did the same and the game of golf is better for what we've done here today. I can't take anything what he says seriously.

Just be honest when you're trying to justify what you did today. Jay Monahan says the global nature of golf forced the PGA to make this deal. CNBC. When you look at the game on a global basis, there are now more people playing the game outside the US than playing inside the United States. You look at everything that has transpired in terms of the forms of distribution, top golf and all the other ways that people can interface with our sport. There are now people off course, more off course participants than on course participants. And that combined audience in the US is 48% under the age of 35. Reaching a younger demographic at a time when the sport has never been more popular and doing so by coming together to collaborate at this point in time, that's where we see the commonality and purpose and that's where we see this huge opportunity.

Maybe you can explain this to me, Hickey. What does that have to do with anything in terms of this agreement today? Well, you'll see that answer. It's just another excuse of all. We gotta, we gotta be in the global game and this is the only way we can do it and that's our excuse of taking the money.

Okay. Brandel Chamblee says the live PGA merger is one of the worst days in golf history. This courtesy of our friends of the Golf Channel.

I think this is one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf. I do believe that the governing bodies, the entities, the professional entities have sacrificed their principles for profit. And then of course I tried to imagine what circumstances would have led to such a capitulation. I think there are three things likely that would have led to something like this. Intractable legal issues going on indefinitely into the future. No doubt with legal vulnerability on both sides of this issue and the only people that stood to profit from that were the lawyers that were involved. And then of course the, I think, entanglement of the various business entities and sponsors that the PGA tour has that have Saudi money, PIF money in them. And I think it became increasingly difficult for the PGA tour to disentangle themselves from that scrutiny and from that criticism.

And then of course the fact that there would be billions of dollars on the table for potentially the growth of the game globally at, I say in the best case scenario. It could have been any one of those. It could have been a combination of all three of those. Hickey, would you consider this one of the worst days in golf history? Like as we asked you earlier, is this a historical day? Is this one of the worst days in golf history in your mind? I would say one of the more embarrassing days because it's truly shameful how they reverse course. Now again, I think also it's easy to caught up in the moment of this is terrible for the game of golf. I think it's embarrassing is the word I would use. Not historic, not saddest or worst.

I would say embarrassing. I think what a lot of people are missing here is the litigation part and what else could have come out when you're in so much litigation for years and years and years and years. And what else are you trying to cover up in order to have this litigation stuff go away? And kind of what was said earlier, as much as you want to roll your eyes at it or not, maybe the PGA wasn't in that great of a shape as we thought they were. Where, yeah, you have unlimited funds, that's one thing, but did you need to make this deal? And the way that it was explained earlier in the conversation that we have with Steve Sands, a lot of people think that maybe they needed to do this deal more than what a lot of people understand today. But ultimately, heck, you know this, everyone eventually has a price. And when you could eventually get yours, something that you say is awful, awful, awful, you eventually end up taking it.

It doesn't make it right, but that's just the reality of the situation. All right, let's continue. Let's go to Doug Peterson. He believes that Trevor Lawrence is ready for a huge leap this season.

This courtesy of the Rich Eisen Show. The way he played the back half of the season is the way he needs to start this year. There was a lot of confidence at the end of the year with him, and that's the next phase, right? It's putting all of that together, and we feel, or I feel too, like he's the guy which he showed towards the end of the year.

He can put the team on his back. It's kind of weird because we know that the Jaguars are going to win that division that you call a team that you know is going to win a division, a Dark Horse Super Bowl contender. But I kind of feel like Jacksonville Hickey is that Dark Horse Super Bowl contender, because when you look at the AFC, I think people right away would go Kansas City, obviously, Cincinnati, obviously, Buffalo, maybe some would even say the Jets or the Chargers before Jacksonville. I feel as if because that AFC South has such that perception of being a stinky division that, and you haven't had a team, well, last time a team for the AFC, was it the Colts against the Saints? Last time a team from the AFC South got to a Super Bowl, right?

09. Yeah, so since they really haven't been a player to get to a Super Bowl in a long time, I know Tennessee got to an AFC title game not that long ago. The Texans got to the second round before their franchise just started to basically fold after they allowed that big comeback by Kansas City. You haven't had them be a player for a Super Bowl for such a long time. Matt Jacksonville in 2017 got to an AFC championship game, and they almost got to Super Bowl. They didn't get there since they've been out of the Super Bowl picture for such a long time. I feel like we just look at the AFC South and think, yeah, no one's going to really do anything from there. But Jacksonville's a team that should win easily double-digit games. You have a great head coach. You have a great quarterback. You have a good roster.

I'm not saying they are going to get to the Super Bowl, but they're in that conversation of teams that could make a run this year and maybe surprise you and end up getting to that Super Bowl. Which is why if I'm them, I give Deidre Hopkins a call. Get the best of both worlds. You want a little bit of a good salary range? You want to be on a competitor?

You want to be a number one target here? Go to Jacksonville. Yeah, but do you need him? You look at those receiving options that they have. You got Calvin Ridley. You just paid 18 and a half million dollars for Christian Kirk who had a good year. Zay Jones had a really good year. You got Evan Ingram there. They drafted Brendan Strange.

I don't know if there's enough targets there for the underwear. And do you know what Calvin Ridley's going to give you after a year off? Oh, you don't think Calvin Ridley's going to be excellent? I think Calvin, well basically two years off.

Yeah, so we're talking about a long break. Layvon Bell never got it back. I know it's a different position, but he was off for a year, never regained. Totally different position. I think Calvin Ridley's going to be an absolute stud.

I do. And finally, I know we got to get to Alex Myers. Dak Prescott, negotiations going on in the contract. There's two more years left on his deal before he becomes a UFA in 2025. Let's hear Jerry Jones and if there's urgency for a Dak Prescott extension.

It is not imperative for me to wrap anything up. Would you like to see the Dak extension done for the others just because of what that does? Not necessarily. Not necessarily. And I'm not trying to give you a vague answer.

It just is not a prerequisite. Pollard has nothing to do with Dak. Alex Myers joins us next and this is that Yelp show right here on CBS Sports Radio. Do you hear that? That is the sound of BMW performance without a single piston or cylinder. A generation of all electric vehicles designed and built like no other. The BMW iX, i7 and i4 revolutionize every drive into a thrilling opportunity to feel the pure rush of BMW, 100 percent electric.

But isn't that what you'd expect from the ultimate electric driving machine? Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty, we continue Zach Gelb show, CBS Sports Radio. What a day in the world of golf and that's probably an understatement with this surprising news of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and live golf agreeing to a business merger to quote unify golf and close quotes.

Let's go out to the hotline right now. Welcome in a friend of ours, Alex Myers. Does a great job, senior writer at Golf Digest.

Alex, I know you've now had several hours for this to process. When you look back at today's announcement, what still stands out to you and kind of how do you process it? Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that stands out to me most is just how much of a bombshell this was not only for golf fans, golf media, but the players themselves.

I mean, it seems like on both sides, but especially the PGA Tour. I mean, you've got guys going to Twitter and expressing, you know, disappointment that they learned about this deal with live on Twitter. I mean, it's kind of, you know, column or cow was tweeting.

I mean, big names. You know, we're hearing even hardly anybody knew about this. So I think that's the thing that surprised me most is that this, you know, this really kind of came out of nowhere and it seemed like there was just a few, a very tight, tight circle of trust that knew about this deal that was going to be announced today.

Was Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, I guess, in that circle of trust, if you want to steal a meet the Fokker's reference. You know, I exactly I, I think Phil was I feel like Phil has been kind of hinting at it recently, talking about things that he knew that were coming out. He was being very cryptic. You know, I think a lot of people thought maybe he was talking about some of the lawsuit stuff. Maybe he was, but I feel like just in the last couple of weeks, he has really gotten back on Twitter, you know, really gone on the offensive, you know, taking shots at Brandel Chamblee at Eamon Lynch.

You know, some, some other guys as well. I think he was kind of feeling it and, you know, feeling very, very, very, very, very, very, very, good about this situation and how he thought he was going to look when this all came out. As for Rory, you know, he stopped really talking about this stuff a few weeks ago. And to me, I just can't imagine that the guy who became the face of the tour, you know, leading the players meetings and everything else for a year straight answering all the questions would not have any sort of inkling about this. Now, whether he knew it was going to happen today or maybe some of the details, I almost feel like he stopped talking about it because it was, you know, going in a different direction than maybe not what he wanted, but certainly not what he anticipated.

So I could be wrong on that. He could have been totally blindsided as well, but it's hard to imagine that, you know, your main guy, you wouldn't at least give a little bit of a heads up on something this big. Talking to Alex Myers right now. And if I'm a golfer on the PGA tour today, I'm livid because you look at this whole situation, Jay Monahan told you, don't take the money, don't take the money. And you still have a decision to make and it's still your decision, but you trusted Jay, you trusted the PGA tour. I know probably things all go back to normal probably soon and we'll get back to focus it on the golf. But when that guy tells you not to take the money and then he hush hush in the middle of the night, takes the money. And I don't get where he goes from here and Jay Monahan.

I agree a hundred percent. And we're getting word, you know, they, they had this meeting today. I think he zoomed in, I don't even think he was there. But he, you know, he took just a few questions. Apparently Maverick, Neely was the main guy peppering him with questions and guys said that Jay had a tough time answering them. He did say, look, I know I'm going to be called a hypocrite.

I said things with the information I had at the time, you know, it is what it is. But, uh, apparently as like you said, a lot of the guys, not surprising, we are livid about the situation and yeah, I mean, you mentioned the money. I mean, it's crazy, you know, these guys who took the money, you know, they kind of got penalized by not playing the tour.

Now they seems like they're, they're going to be welcomed back open arms and they have to keep the money or at least part of the money. Again, we don't really know all the ins and outs of some of these contracts, but certainly anyone who got a big contract at least got, you know, a good portion of that. And so you're right, there's certain guys who are thinking, well, what the heck?

I could have just taken that money. Um, yeah, it's, it's definitely a weird situation. Uh, it's gotta be a weird situation even for the live guys too, though, because some of those guys, um, you know, were kind of taken to fill out the, the roster, so to speak.

Right. I mean, where the, where did some of those young kind of unheard of unheard of guys go? Where does some of those old names, but who were kind of washed up go now? Um, do they get to play out their contracts?

Do they have to, you know, fight their way back onto tour somehow? Uh, so there's going to be some awkwardness from those guys as well, but certainly the most awkward. This is from the guys who, um, you know, are a upset about not getting their share. Um, and also the guys who spoke out against it so vocally and against other players. Now they're kind of mixed back with those same guys.

It's, it's a weird situation. Alex Meyers, like you said, we don't know how much money they got and, and what was already paid on all that stuff, but if you're now working together, how are they going to reportedly find these players to get their PGA tour card back? Do you think those are just things to appease people right now and kind of cool down some of the flames coming from the PGA tour members that stayed just to say that now you'll deal with it a later date? Like it's not going to be real punishments for these guys that ended up going to live golf for now, trying to come on back for, to get their PGA tour card, right?

Yeah. I mean, I know again, we're going to have to see, I mean, I guess it might come down to, we'll see how, how much the players fight this. Um, you know, maybe, maybe they kind of make some sort of demand that there is some kind of payback. Maybe it's, they get some money.

Um, because now obviously, you know, these guys are. The theory being funded by the same money that the list guys were, um, there's billions of dollars being infused to the tour in theory. Now the tour could, or this new entity that TBD doesn't need to name it in theory, this new entity could pay players a contract like doing play payers, parents fees, which the PGA tour is traditionally not done or at least not done officially. So maybe there's a way to scratch these guys back to kind of say, okay, we get it. You missed out on the big payday.

Um, now you kind of get it a little more. Um, I definitely think some of the stars, you know, the guys who we know rumored to turn down contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars, they're going to be taken care of, I think on some level, but it's, it's the rest of the guys, the Maverick Muse, you know, you know, the majority of the tour who might be left kind of in this middle spot. Um, and, and yeah, again, certainly there's definitely going to be hard feelings, uh, in particular against getting money in talking to Alex Meyers right now, senior writer from golf digest. I remember when we had John for the last, you know, the first two majors of the year, we talked about the intensity and the intention about live golf was not really the same as it was going back to last year, heading into both the masters and also the PGA championship.

Now with this stuff onto the scene, and we've seen Brooks Koepka, right? When the PGA championship and get another watermaker trophy, the guys that ended up going to live golf, like the big names, Brooks Koepka and, and, and Phil Mickelson, how does today's news really impact the way that people are going to view them? I mean, I don't know how it can be viewed that they, they don't come out as the winners here. I mean, they, they just for themselves in terms of enriching themselves, uh, sure. They all took some, you know, hits publicly, but now that the tour is merging with the same people they took the money from, they've got to say, Hey, wait a minute, you criticize me. You can't, you can't criticize me as much.

Or if you do, you didn't have to criticize everybody else. So not only did they make out well financially, they're going to make out well, PR wise, especially a guy like Phil Mickelson, who kind of spearheaded this whole thing and kind of became the main villain. Now, you know, it's going to be, people are going to be spinning this very positively in Phil's favor that he kind of got the ball rolling on this. He was the big name that got, you know, was the domino of the fall, him and Dustin Johnson, maybe you could argue, um, those guys, you know, who knows 20 years down the road, they could be looked back as almost pioneers or, you know, heroes that they got the ball rolling on this. Now there's a long way to go. We have to see what comes about with this entity. We have to, you know, hopefully it's something that all golf fans will eventually get behind. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think all those big name guys who were kind of the villains last year, man, they, they came out looking pretty good today.

How about your view on Greg Norman? I know he was literally left in the dark on this stuff, but Steve sands told me earlier, everything he promised to those live golf guys, they ended up getting an, and then some, so he kind of said he was heroic looking, you know, that's a good point. And, and you wonder, you know, he did promise those things and you wonder, you know, the way it came about, I just feel like there's no way he could have foresaw that this is happening like this and especially this abruptly. Uh, but you're right. I mean, those guys, you know, they went through a tough time. Did you know that the resignations from the DP world tour, the fines, the bands and all this stuff fighting to get into majors.

Uh, but now they come out looking pretty good. Now, whether Greg Norman comes out on the other side is another story, but either way, he definitely, um, did his job for, how do you government for, I mean, he, he, you know, he got the job done. He learned some guys, he got enough of the ball rolling that the tour had to respond in this manner. Um, and, uh, but yeah, the fact that he was, it seems like he was left in the dark about this announcement as well is pretty, it doesn't seem like it's great news for him going forward. And we've already heard in the past tiger said, you know, they, he can, I couldn't imagine them working together. Greg Norman is still the guy. Um, so we'll have to see if there's a little shakeup with that position or not, but either way, you're right. He delivered.

I don't know if it was him or he got lucky, but he did deliver. And again, it just shows you, I mean, money just ends up winning in all these situations. I mean, it's not that lived at anything groundbreaking. It really isn't. I mean, could the team thing work?

Could it be interesting? We'll see, but it's the money. The money beat the tour, the litigation that was going on, it was going to be costly.

It was going to go on drag out for years. The tour ended up taking this money. Uh, it helps them out. They overextended themselves perhaps by bumping up their purses this year.

It all comes down to the money and they just were never going to win a money battle with the Saudi Arabian government. Yeah. And that's the thing.

Everyone has the price eventually, no matter if you like how the money gets there, you know, money's going to win out. But did the PGA tour need to do this? That's the, that's the question I have.

That's the question. And you know, I don't know if they needed to do this, but they certainly made huge jumps in the purses. They also angered a lot of their sponsors. They had, you know, Honda pulled out this year, uh, with some of, you know, how the designated events, it was such a clear two tier system now with these, with these, uh, tournaments that I think a lot of sponsors were getting ticked off at that. Um, you know, Tiger even mentioned at the end of last year that the tour dipped into its reserves. Now they have a big reserve, but dipped into its reserves and it even talked about taking out a loan. So again, I don't think the tour was, you know, going bankrupt anytime soon, but certainly I don't think they wanted to get to any sort of dangerous financial point because then they'd even have a weaker position. So I think before something like that happened, they ended up taking a deal that was probably pretty similar to what was on the table a few years ago when Jay Monahan reportedly said, I don't even going to take a meeting on this.

And now a few years later, he ends up kind of taking the same deal. And, um, yeah, it's, it's going to be really interesting to see how the live concept gets folded into this because there's so many moving parts here. Are you going to break up all the teams, start a new, all this stuff there's now there's a lot more sponsors that probably would want to get in on the teams, you know, you know, big names that were out on the sidelines that they were hesitant to get in bed with the Saudi government.

But now if it's the tour, you know, you might see a team Nike, a team alloy, that kind of thing. Just a lot going on here. And they've got a lot of work to kind of hammer this out.

It seems like it's coming about really quickly. And as you said, Alex Myers, we have no clue what the specifics are. But if people have no clue what you're talking about in regards to these teams, can you just explain that to them? Yeah, so I mean, obviously, you know, live, they had, I think, 12 teams, and their big model after these contracts ran out. I mean, they were really hoping that these teams would end up being bought, like, you know, an NFL franchise or an NBA franchise, and they would be bought and owned by certain owners and, and that the players on the team would have equity, that would be the way that they would really get paid, that they wouldn't be getting these like hundred million dollar contracts anymore, they would, they would get the money from sponsors. And, you know, in the past few weeks, live at a couple sponsors, they started to, to, you know, go in that direction. But certainly no team had been outright bought yet.

But now, it opens the door to so many more opportunities for that to happen. You know, you might have different golf manufacturers or apparel companies wanting to get in the game, and sponsor more than just a player, but actually a team. And again, they were hesitant to do the deal with with with live. But they, you know, these are partners, longtime partners with the PGA Tour, it could be different that way. So again, we're gonna have to see what happens with the existing teams. But certainly there, you know, the memos were clear today, there is going to be some sort of team aspect going forward. Certainly the piff, the Saudi government wants that they want to monetize that.

And that's kind of their differentiating factor. But how it gets folded into the tour is, again, it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of people trying to figure that out in the next few months. How do you think the golfers are going to handle this, that are on the PGA Tour? I know you had the Canadian Open this weekend, and you had the meeting today, but then next week, obviously, is a major championship at the US Open?

Yeah, you know, of course, it's crazy. Rory McIlroy has the first press conference tomorrow. Does he show up, you think? You know, I wouldn't if I was him. I would say I'm not going.

Yeah, it depends just how Matty is. Again, if he was completely in the dark about it, I could see him not showing up. But he has been such a good soldier for the tour.

I feel like he'll try to spin it positively. And again, it could wind up being great for a lot of the players. I mean, certainly there's a lot of money here. It's just, it's a matter of the guys who, you know, really took that moral high ground.

Now they're kind of getting paid by the same people. It's just a bizarre situation. And, you know, I don't think these guys are going to walk and just give up their careers just to, you know, make some sort of statement. I mean, we'll see.

I can't imagine anybody doing that. But yeah, it's interesting with it being the Canadian Tour last year, that was, of course, Rory took the shot at Greg Norman after he won. And now it comes back to this week to have this happen. You know, the US Open will be a totally different ballgame because those guys will all be again there. And then, you know, all the big names are still going to be concentrating on winning a major. But yeah, you're going to hear a lot of ticked off people, I think, in these next few weeks. I mean, we already heard some of that today. Watch. This will be the year that Phil Mickelson wins the US Open.

That would be unbelievable. I mean, he's flying high right now. No doubt about it. Mr. High Flyer. He's feeling good.

You could tell on Twitter. He's taking the shots. You know, I almost don't. I really can't blame him. He's taken so much heat himself, whether, you know, he deserved a lot of it.

But now for him, it's his chance to fight back. So, you know, it was like he tweeted today. Today is an awesome day or whatever he said for Phil Mickelson and some of those other big live guys. It certainly was today.

Last thing I'll ask you, how do you describe today? I mean, shocking that I seriously wouldn't when I was in the office today and we first saw this the CNBC link report. And I mean, I really thought it was April Fool's.

I checked the calendar. A few other people said there's no way this is true. I mean, I'm talking about like veteran reporters who are like, there's no way this is true. And then sort of trickle out.

No, this this actually is true. I mean, this was just a it's a monumental day in the history of golf. No doubt about it. I mean, it's, you know, we're going to remember it for a long time, whether it ends up being good or bad. The day that this merger was announced is certainly one that we'll all remember. So I'm just stunned by all that happened today. And, yeah, again, so many questions to be answered still in these next few months.

Alex Myers, senior writer from Golf Digest. Alex, appreciate the time as always. You got it, Zach. Take care.

Anytime. offers today. Rancher blue cheese.

know what it is. I love eating wings. But in the summertime, I crave wings with blue cheese in the summertime. And now, since we're in summer mode, give me all the wings and all the blue cheese that you can imagine.

Can we do this one day? No, I'm good. I don't want to try. You won't try blue cheese.

No. How do you know? How can you say you don't like something if you've never tried it? There are a few things that I can just look at and say, not for me, or I can smell and say, not for me.

That's one of them. Like that carrot cake cupcake that you had in Kansas City that I had to beg you to try. Then you go, wow, I can't believe I tried that. That was phenomenal.

That was stupendous, as you said. Well, sweets are easier for me to do, not to mention I like wings as it is. I don't got to add anything else or to mask the flavor of whatever sauce I'm eating.

So I just I like them as is. That's all like a good burger. I don't need any ketchup on it or mustard or mayonnaise or whatever. Good burgers. Good.

Just have it straight up as is. You were like the Kwame Brown of food takes. I don't know. I think I've anything. I'm enjoying the food more than you. If the food is good, you don't need to add extra things to make it taste better. You've never tried it.

Just don't need to stop. You can't say something sucks if you've never tried it. Don't like it. I would never eat that. That looks disgusting. It looks horrible.

That's right. Please. Hasn't failed me yet. Now you sound like Jay Monahan, where you just won't accept reality here and you're trying to justify something and you're saying things when you haven't even actually tried it. Let me ask you this, too, because I find this funny. Our boss or one of our bosses, David Mayordik, is calling you Triple B. And I was wondering, I go, when did Hickey start teaming up with Lavar Balls, a big ball of brand.

But BBB Triple B is now in referring to D.A. calling you the bad boy of radio. And David has added the belching part of it.

So the belching bad boy of radio in hot take Hickey. I thought you had a very bad boy of radio type of moment today where I've encouraged you, even though I'm not a fan of the shower no cap videos, if you're going to do them, you know, you have to bring some props. You have to spice up the theatrics of the video a little bit because it gets boring if you just see yourself getting a generic sports take in the shower, like Hickey's been doing recently on Twitter. You brush your teeth in the shower. Is that for show? Because you start that video off today with an electric toothbrush in the shower and you spit.

And you go, OK, here's my take on live golf and the PGA Tour. Oh, that's my preferred destination or my preferred location, probably is a better word to use for my teeth. I hate brushing my well, it's not hate.

That's a show. I just get to the sink and put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, brush your teeth for two minutes and then spit out, you know, the toothpaste. And that's what I do. But if I'm in like if it's late night, like I always take a shower every night before I go to bed and it's like, all right, I just I love staying in the shower and letting the hot water run on me. OK. And so I figured, OK, I'll do that and also be productive and brush my teeth at the same time.

So to kind of kill two birds with one stone. Do you do that towards the end of the shower? Beginning.

No, beginning. So you get into the shower. That's right. The water's on. Water's on. You're in the shower. This is before any soap or shampoo or anything.

That's right. Because I was going to say my concern would be you have some soap, you still have some leftover shampoo on your body or something like that. And then you get that onto your toothbrush.

No, no, no, no, no. You turn the shower on. You let it get right the right temperature.

You put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, walk right in back to the water, let it run. Very relaxing. Brush my teeth.

I've never heard of anyone right on the ground. So that's kind of fun to think it's really you guys are missing out. Then let me tell you, OK, it's yeah, I don't say a blast because it's still brushing your teeth. Frank, your teeth. Now, that's a experience.

As best as you could have brushing your teeth, I would say brushing your teeth in the shower is the way to go. You're really one weird sum of a bitch. I don't know. I think that's common. Or if it's not common, it should be common. You know, it's funny. Me, my friends had this exact conversation and one of the girls in the group could not believe that her boyfriend brushes his teeth in the shower.

And so that's my preferred location. Well, the girlfriend is the intelligent one here. Your buddy is a moron and you're a moron brushing your teeth in the shower. It's just weird.

Before I go here and when I go to bed. Probably 50 percent shower, 50 percent standing up, I feel like the toothbrush is just very dirty before you even very dirty, dirty body in the shower before you put any soap on or shampoo on. You're grabbing that toothbrush and you're what's the difference? That seems gross to me.

What do you grow? There's no difference. Not a clean place.

Yes, they are. Disgusting, disgusting. I if I went to your shower in New York City. I bet you there's some some gross things growing in the bottom of that. No, I clean it. I'm in there every day, twice a day. I'm not going to some disgusting, damp cave. I don't know. I just cleaned it on Sunday. Very weird, very weird, very weird. But, you know, do something different than brushing your teeth.

Get a rubber ducky or something. Zach Gilp show, CBS Sports Radio.