The Shotgun Start

Andy and Brendan are back in 2024 and they’re starting a little worse for the wear but enthusiastic and encouraged for another year. They discuss some quick resolutions and the PGA Tour’s opening event at Kapalua, including a variety of Catnip subjects and a field that is not its strongest coming out of the gates. The Rahm-to-LIV impact is felt pretty quickly and they discuss this as well as some...

Andy and Brendan reconvene after the holidays to catch up on all they missed during the break and settle up with a few listener queries before the end of the year. They opened up the floor for SGS Golf Advice as well as an AMA on Twitter, so they bounce around on many subjects related to the podcast, golf, Tour golf, themselves, and golf courses past, present, and future.  See omnystudio.com/liste...

Andy and Brendan are back for the finale of the Year in Review, picking up with the PGA Tour’s visit to Congress for a hearing on its “merger” with the PIF and going all the way through to the last low gross championship of the PGA Tour season. Before YiR, they begin quickly with some amusements from an article on recent LIV transactions, some Q-school thoughts, and a dispatch from the ground watc...

This monster episode wrangles with a perfect Browns-Bears mess of a game that Andy and Brendan wish they had attended in person. After debriefing on that for a bit, they move to the Catnip Carnival that was the PNC Championship and try to set up the higher stakes golf that will be Monday’s finish at Q-School. Then they discuss some reports of Geoff Ogilvy coming to NBC, as well as Kevin Kisner for...

This Friday episode continues the Year in Review, which is in the throes of major championship summer. But in 2023, those majors took a backseat to the summer bombshell of a PGA Tour and LIV, or PIF, “merger” announced out of the blue on June 6 on CNBC. This portion of the Year in Review picks up post-PGA with the full onset of Mike Block mania taking over the entire sports world, another amusing...

Well, the mules have slowed Year in Review progress to a crawl. Brendan and Andy react to a letter from a law firm signed by 21 PGA Tour players from the “mule” category, or maybe something else, demanding to be heard and wanting transparency into the PGA Tour Policy Board’s process. They read down the list of names one by one trying to ascertain the motivation and success probability of this kick...

It’s Victory Monday! Andy and Brendan delight in their teams’ Sunday success before looking ahead to the highly anticipated Bears-Browns clash this coming week. Then they get into the memo from the PGA Tour Policy Board announcing that they’ve singled out, unanimously, a funding partner in Strategic Sports Group, inclusive of Fenway, to proceed with in negotiations in conjunction with the PIF. The...

This Friday episode begins with the slew of reports that Jon Rahm is leaving the PGA Tour to go to LIV. Andy and Brendan discuss this rampant rumor in recent weeks becoming more “official” and what might be motivating Rahm, in addition to the obvious financial carrots. They discuss the move within the context of the Framework Agreement negotiations, which are apparently being alpha’d by Patrick Ca...

With a stomach bug raining hell down on one of their houses, and awful Comcast internet service shutting things down multiple times, the world continues to conspire against the progress of the 2023 Year in Review series. But Andy and Brendan cobbled this Wednesday episode together, beginning with some more follow-up on the USGA rollback announcement and the continuing momentum toward a Jon Rahm to...

Whew, what a weekend from the golf content gods! Andy and Brendan come primed and ready for this Monday episode, beginning with the report in Golf Digest that the governing bodies are now considering a universal rollback of the golf ball as opposed to just a local rule for elite pros. They discuss the many player reactions to this news, from the hysterical quotes from some of the pros down at the...

It’s Friday! And the first of the month! And Brendan’s internet is absolutely awful. But Andy and he march on through the spotty connection to get to the weekend with some initial reactions on the first round of the Hero World Challenge. They discuss Tiger’s first 18 holes, Will Zalatoris’s new broomstick, Collin Morikawa learning how to sit down again, and Spieth’s potential “momentum” narrative...

Andy and Brendan pause the progress in the Year in Review for this “regular” Wednesday episode to celebrate the return of Tiger Woods at the Hero World Challenge. They discuss Tiger’s health and 2024 prognosis, which seems promising, and then transition to his less-than-promising update on Framework Agreement and PGA Tour investment negotiations. Why do things seem gridlocked and “murky” to use Ti...

Andy and Brendan are back from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend a little worse for the wear, but they jump right back into the annual favorite Year in Review series. After a few comments about current events, they dive back into the Swamp Swing starting at Bay Hill, where the details of the designated events structure came out and the mules revolted. This part also covers The Players, with some in...

Andy and Brendan recorded this prior to the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA, planning for primarily a Year in Review episode. But news and rumors intervened, so they discuss Jordan Spieth joining the PGA Tour board in Rory’s seat, rampant “rumors” of Jon Rahm going to LIV, and the schedule release for that LIV tour. Then they get to the 2023 Year in Review, Part 2, with some wildly entertaining nu...

Andy and Brendan are back for one their least favorite but also most enjoyable exercises of the year: it’s the SIXTH annual Year in Review! And they are maybe, kinda out ahead of it this time, although that could all change quickly if their pace of play slows to crawl. This first installment begins as always at the start of the year in Kapalua, where Collin consults with the Chip Monk and new arma...

Brendan begins this Victory Monday with a declaration that the Browns are going to the playoffs while Andy considers a potential visit to the midwest for the Browns-Bears game in December. Then they get to the news from Sunday morning that Paul Azinger is not coming back to NBC and Golf Channel next year. They ponder some replacements, especially if the “has to have won a major” unwritten rule is...

It’s Friday! Andy and Brendan are ready to get to the weekend and a short holiday week with plenty of Year in Review research awaiting. They begin with pictures of the TGL “arena” deflating due to a power loss. Are we officially at the “show, don’t tell” phase of this ambitious endeavor? Or are we way past it? Then they get to LANTO Griffin calling out names, from Rory being “bought” while on the...

It’s whiparound Wednesday, and Andy is confronting the possibility that he might have made a mistake adding a second dog to the house. Brendan begins with the Netflix Cup, an assault on the senses in a place that excels at that, Las Vegas. What was that? Who was it for? Was it good at all? They react as they watch and the Cup drags on. Then they bounce around on all manner of golf tidbits, from di...

It’s a jubilant Victory Monday at the Shotgun Start with a totally unexpected Browns win over the Ravens and Illinois perhaps finding its quarterback of the immediate future. It’s also a victory Monday for the PGA Tour, where Camilo Villegas won in Bermuda to back up the incredible story of Erik van Rooyen’s victory the week prior. They discuss this feat, Camilo’s perspective, and all the good the...

It’s a stuffed November Friday episode for Brendan and Andy, who is dreading the Bears playing in national primetime yet again. They meander from that into the lengthy Wired article on the tech and plans for TGL, which provided some of the most substantive details to date about what this is and what it might look like. This leads to a few different rants on the current silly season splash of money...

This Wednesday episode begins with one more travel tale for 2023 as Andy recalls a particularly egregious neighbor on his plane ride home on Tuesday. There’s also some cycling culture follow-ups from Brendan before they get to the actual golf for the week. They begin with another round of TGL news, from the big Ballfrog rollout at Fenway to the sixth and final team setting up shop in great America...

It’s a Monday in November, so this podcast rambles all over the place talking about some golf and non-golf topics. Andy and Brendan begin with some travel tales from the weekend, including a humorous hotel situation, miscalculated drive times, and questions about cyclists. Then they get to the WWT Championship in Mexico, where Erik van Rooyen capped off an incredible back nine with an even better...

This Friday episode begins with a round of apologies for the schedule issues this week. But there’s also some blame game going around before they transition to a hybrid whiparound Wednesday and Friday chat. The first half begins with the firehose of news on TGL, where the Ballfrogs have a roster, Collin Morikawa has the chills, and Jon Rahm is exiting the stage before play even starts. They discus...

Andy and Brendan are together in the Shed in Central California for this lively Monday episode. They begin with some thoughts on the weekend that was in golf, starting with the Asia Pacific Am at Royal Melbourne and the desire for more Sandbelt golf in our lives. News hits on the report that the PGA Tour rejected Endeavor’s bid to become an investment partner in their new for-profit entity, prompt...

It’s unclear what was really planned for this episode, or what it actually turned out to be about in the end. For some reason, there is a Michael Block tangent as Andy and Brendan discuss their imminent annual Halloween costumes episode. There’s also a discussion about listeners requesting fewer tangents and more golf talk. There is an apology, sort of, to the Texas Rangers and Diamondbacks fanbas...