The Shotgun Start

This Wednesday episode begins with a question that seemed unfathomable two months ago: are the Bears better than the Packers? Then an unplanned segment, the Mid-Am Minute, takes place, with the microscope on an event overseas during a time when maybe it’s never been better to be a Mid-Am. The Butterfield field is discussed, from the favorites to the press conference invitees to the unknowns. Brend...

This Monday episode begins with a Sunday night sports update not presented by a bank and not planned at all! There are some deep thoughts on Bullet, and bullet, before Andy and Brendan get to the CJ Plaque winner Rory McIlroy. They discuss Rory’s return to the top spot in the OWGR (but not the FEC) and the meaning that takes on 10 years after he first did it. They discuss both Rory and Lydia Ko ge...

It’s an early Friday, some may even call it Friday Junior, episode. Andy and Brendan react to being able to watch absolutely nothing from a loaded CJ Cup at Congaree, with TV limited to three afternoon hours and no featured groups streams. There were a couple grainy cellphone videos posted to social media though. Another Spieth debate somehow ensues. Andy gives out four show-me players who he thin...

This Wednesday episode begins with some fun stories about airplane travel. Then Andy and Brendan get to the CJ Cup, where a great field will play at Congaree. They express enthusiasm for this rare fall windfall but lament some lack of creativity. This leads to a discussion on the news of the PGA Tour’s four new elevated events -- what’s good and what’s a miss with this new reworked schedule for 20...

This Monday episode reacts to an INCREDIBLE sports weekend with wild scenes in Knoxville, Fort Worth, Utah, Salt Lake, Cleveland, Philly, and Jeddah, among others. Andy and Brendan sort through it all, starting with the Zozo, where Keegan and Rickie put some people to sleep. They assess Keegan’s strong career, which now resides in the Pancake Zone alongside Fowler. They compare five-year peaks and...

It’s another *Thursday* episode, with Andy on the road for the big Bears-Commanders national TV game. He and Brendan begin with an amusing note from the Pres Cup, where fans dressed up as Canadian mounties may have heckled a certain Town Crier. Then they get to the idea of LIV instituting a cut, of just three players, and what it says about the desperation for OWGR points and whimsical changes. Th...

This Monday episode begins with excitement over Illinois football and Guardians baseball. There’s also an allegation of thirsty attempts at foodie influencing. Eventually, Andy and Brendan get to golf and Tom Kim’s second PGA Tour win at the tender age of 20. They discuss his trajectory and how he’s a strong argument for the tour keeping more avenues open as opposed to closing things off in their...

It’s an odd week, so this Thursday episode is a bit of a mash-up, hitting both the schedule for the week while also getting out on an #FBF segment focused on past hollering about the Official World Golf Rankings, which finds itself again in the crosshairs of some hollering. Andy and Brendan begin with the schedule, which provokes an absolutely preposterous Jordan Spieth take. Unsubstantiated rumor...

It’s a road-weary Monday episode with Andy in Frisco, where he has some thoughts about the development of North Texas and the PGA’s “efficient” new headquarters. On golf, they discuss Sunday at the Old Course, where Alex Noren hit it off the Rusacks hotel for a potential eagle. That leads to a harebrained idea of how the Old Course should combat that kind of good break. There’s also some Ryan Fox...

This Friday episode was recorded on a personal free zoom account with the 40-minute time limit, so it cuts off abruptly at the end, and one person was in his car shouting at the bluetooth. Andy and Brendan close out the week discussing the back-and-forth flurry of lawsuits this week -- the PGA Tour counterclaiming against LIV, Pat Reed expanding his defamation suit to include more people and a dif...

This ramshackle Wednesday episode comes to you with Andy in a car and Brendan in a construction zone. The two try to make it snappy, hitting on the shhhhedule for the week, the importance of the Dunhill to the future of a bolstered European fall schedule, how the players can impose their will on that schedule, and what it might mean for the Sanderson, our other beloved event of the week. The back...

This Monday episode is a wide-ranging reaction to the Presidents Cup, which enjoyed an entertaining and more-competitive-than-expected weekend. Andy and Brendan discuss the weekend that was in Charlotte, but not without first swerving into a couple random topics like the excitement around a “clinching point” and “grit measurements.” Then they break things down with a revolutionary new format -- Wi...

This Friday episode reacts to the first day at the Presidents Cup, where the USA took a 4-1 lead over the Internationals. Andy and Brendan discuss the lineups, who flopped and who impressed. They get into the agonizing pre-match ceremony, the playing-through golf, and the fight in the International side against what could just be a dominant era of American golf in all team events. The second half...

This Wednesday episode serves as our official Presidents Cup preview. If you’ve come for picks, predictions, top points earner candidates, and pairings you want to see, well you’re in the wrong place. Andy and Brendan have a rambling discussion about people getting off shots at this Pres Cup, how badly the LIV losses wounded it, what happens if the Internationals win, and whether reform is needed....

This episode is for all those people who have been waiting all day for Sunday night to avoid the Packers-Bears game. Andy and Brendan record right after a stunning turn at the Fortnite Champ, where Danny Willett booted it from three feet after Max Homa chipped in to successfully defend in Napa. They discuss some players making early impressions and the streaming/network experience doing the same f...

This Friday episode begins with Italian Open leader Matt Fitzpatrick, and where he now sits among recent one-time majors winners as most likely to bag a second. That leads to an exercise breaking down first page leaderboard favorites at majors right now, going through the current upper crust of the game and pondering the future of Brooks and DJ. Those two will tee it up at Rich Harvest Farms, an u...

This delayed Wednesday episode drops on the heels of a WSJ story on Jay Monahan’s private plane usage, PGA Tour expenditures, questions about an “efficient” global home and “unusually fast” aircraft, a Tour with 750+ employees, and and tax filing language that put the whole place under the microscope in a way its not accustomed to. Andy and Brendan react to the article, both superficial and substa...

It’s Victory Monday! A jubilant Andy and Brendan begin with their 1-0 football teams, the controversy around the Bears flooded new field, and the Browns superstar kicker. Then it’s on to the European Tour’s flagship event that got Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, and Shane Lowry contending at the end. They praise Lowry’s year of consistency and win, then go over some insightful comments and his quip that h...

This is a meandering Friday episode that touches on tennis, the grim prospects for the Bears and Browns, and the death of the Queen. That last bit of news has altered the plans at the BMW PGA at Wentworth, where play was suspended on Thursday and Friday and the flagship event has been reduced to 54 holes. There will be jokes, probably from Sharky. They discuss the early sniping from the grounds an...

This Wednesday episode begins by sifting through the various comments and call-outs that have occurred this week at the DP World Tour’s flagship event, where there’s a commingling of LIV players and non-LIV players in the same field. Andy and Brendan discuss the “cold hard facts” offered by CEO Keith Pelley, Rahm and Billy Boy’s critiques, Talor’s tweet retorts, Rory’s intimations about the future...

This Labor Day episode is largely a discussion of the LIV Boston event and where this disruptor league might be heading. Andy and Brendan discuss the tension between the curiosity factor from its initial events wearing off against the context for the league that builds with each event. They discuss how Westy’s abominable gag may be the surest sign yet that this is legitimate competition. They are...

It’s Friday going into a holiday weekend so Andy and Brendan are quite cheery for this week-ending episode. They begin with a few random thoughts and another round of “unsubstantiated rumor Friday” that’s centered mostly on LIV vs. PGA Tour stuff. Bubba’s amusing comments about serving others as a reason for joining LIV are examined, as are HV3’s rationalizations for joining. Then they review a co...

Andy and Brendan close out the month of August with this Wednesday episode on the latest round of LIV signees making their debuts in Boston. They discuss Cam Smith’s rationalizations for leaving, Joaquin Niemann making his decision, and how they represent a new element for the LIV collective. That transitions to the one big whale LIV did not get -- this round at least -- in Hideki Matsuyama. They...

Andy and Brendan are buzzing as they hit record shortly after watching that Sunday duel between Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler at the Tour Championship. They discuss the fallacy of the entertainment being a “win for the format.” They praise Rory for the longevity of his greatness, critique Scottie for a poor day in an otherwise excellent year, and revel in a rewarding day of golf-watching to f...

August is winding down but the summer of upheaval and change in pro golf continues with the PGA Tour announcing its next move in the battle against LIV. It’s a series of moves, really, dramatically re-shaping what the Tour is, who controls it, and acknowledging some truths that many have been shouting about for years. Andy and Brendan discuss the new “elevated” tour, how it will all fit into the s...