3.23.26 | Shane Ryan & Brentley Romine | Matt Fitzpatrick Wins Valspar + College Golf at Colonial | 5 Clubs

Good morning and welcome, man. This is Five Colbs on God channel. You are a vital part of our game.

Thank you for having me on. All the way to the greeting. What was that fun?

I've always wanted to be on five clubs. Thanks, Gary.

Good morning. Good to have you with us. It is a Monday morning live on God channel.

Also PJ tour radio channel 92 on Sirius XM. I'm Gary Williams. You can see not in the studios and show that North Carolina at colonial country club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Wonderful women's college event is going to start this morning in just about 90 minutes.

I got here yesterday. I got some thoughts to share with you about being back in a place that in less than two months will be hosting its 80th edition of their PJ tour event.

The Charles Schwab challenge. One of the great historic sites and golf if you consider that there is no other place in this country that is hosted a US open a US women's open and a players championship.

That's right. 1975 here at colonial so thoughts before we're done here on a Monday.

And of course, wherever we are, this program is always brought to you by century insurance. When it comes to business insurance, that's what they do.

They want to be right by you and we appreciate how they invest in the game of golf with us.

First tea the United States golf association and of course the PJ tour century insurance. So on a Monday, what do we have ahead for you over the next hour?

Well, let's get to our cheat sheet because there are things to discuss. The weekly winners every tour around the world basically was was working this week.

So we've got a lot of winners to celebrate and identify the Valsbor. It is kind of the end of the Florida swing. They're going to come back to the state of Florida, down to Miami to derail for a new signature series event in about a month's time.

But a Valsbor recap in just a couple of minutes because Matt Fitzpatrick after what happened late last week at the players championship does what he does.

God, he's got grit and guts and game. So we will talk about him and how he won.

Shane Ryan from golf digest author. A couple really good bugs. I thought the book he wrote about the PJ tour that is now 10 years removed.

One of the best best views of professional golf that I have read, Brent Lee Romain, he knows college golf as well as anybody.

He's going to join me reporter writer for golf channel golf channel dot com. And we will talk as I mentioned, a little college golf beyond not only getting Brent Lee's view is they get toward kind of the middle part of the spring season.

Heardling toward those NCA's which of course you can see here on golf channel and just some thoughts about playing yesterday with a couple of the best collegiate players on the women's side yesterday at this great historic site at colonial.

And let's get back to the winners because as I mentioned, all of these tours in action this past week. And so we take a look at the weekly winners that we had across the board starting with that Matt Fitzpatrick.

And then Jordan Gumburg who wins in China on the DP World Tour. This is somebody who hold his third shot on the 18th of the final event last year.

If he didn't, he wouldn't have the job that he currently has, which is by itself amazing. And I remember talking about that at the end of the year, he turns around and he wins just one other note about that.

There is a young man who now works at the PGA tour used to work at golf channel Ori Marcus, one of the great people who loves golf as much as anybody. His brother is his caddy. So Jordan Gumburg wins for the second time of the DP World Tour.

Speaking of seconds, Bryson Deschimbo for the second time on live this year, both in playoffs, he wins in South Africa. He was very emotional after the win.

I'm talking about things that have gone on in his life and last week. I don't know necessarily what he's speaking of at some point. Maybe I'll talk about it possibly at Augusta National a couple of weeks time.

H. J. Kim wins the Fortinet Founders Cup outside his San Francisco presentation of the golf course, the added elements to the broadcast. I thought enhanced it.

She holds off Nelly Corda, even though she shut up. Final round 73. She wins. And then finally, Steven Alker, who is one of the better stories, considering he has no resume.

And I really didn't have one at all when he turned 50 as far as accomplishments on the PGA tour. That's his 11th win on PGA tour champions.

And for the second straight year, he does it in a plan off over the same guy, Patrick Harrington, winning the Cola guard classic.

Those are your weekly winners presented by golf pride when it comes to grips, the options, the materials, the products.

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Now, the basketball championship is interesting how every year everyone says, well, that this golf course is the most underrated.

If it gets said that much, does it no longer become underrated and then it's written in a way that it's kind of in a weird way overrated, it's not overrated.

It's really, really good. It was baked out and it doesn't matter to me what it looks like. It's how it plays and it played firm and fiery and crispy.

And it's Matt Fitzpatrick who wins. Let's take a look at that final leaderboard from the ball spa or interesting mix of players.

It's his third win, 11 under par, excellent week T to green. He was fifth off the tee was second in approach.

He wins for the third time, but he's got all those other important wins, including that last event of the DP world tour last year.

When he beat Rory McElroy after Rory forced the playoff, David Lipski makes a big jump in the FedEx Cup standings.

He was a 101st after Puerto Rico. He wakes up this morning, 33rd. Jordan Smith came off the DP world tour.

His best performance on the PJ tour. He makes a big jump. He's up to 41st. Speaking of jumps, you better jump in if you're going to get on this

grander train for Augusta National, because the trend line is rolling toward the first major of the year, Marco Penge.

That's his first top 10 in his PGA tour career, sun GM. He hit it all over the lot going into the fight around.

He'd only hit 16 fairways. He finished the week, only hitting 22. He still manages to finish fourth in the event.

Emiliano Grillo, Steven Yeager, Patrick Candle, his first top 10 of the year.

Maybe he is shaking off the slumber, and who knows, because Patrick, again, he has accomplishment.

He has been in contention at Augusta National, and then SH Kim, all in a tie for seventh.

It's seven under a couple of other notes. Jordan's speech just outside the top 10, a tie for 11th.

And then Gary Woodland finished 14th good week for him the week after the interview that he did with Rex Hoggard.

And by the way, Rex and Ryan follow us at 9 a.m., and also Jacob Bridgeman, who was my pick.

His worst result still to this date this year on the PGA tour is 18th, because he finished 14th.

All right, back to the top of the leaderboard and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Last week with him, not squandering the lead, but because of what happened on the 18th hole, that is a truly taking one right in the chops.

And even though Kim Young did what he did, particularly making the birdie on 17 hitting the t-shirt that he hit on the 18th hole,

but for Matt Fitzpatrick to turn up the next week and get back into the winner's circle and win on the PGA tour,

I remember years ago when Matt was at Northwestern for not very long.

I remember being out there at Conway Farms, and he was kind of being mentored to our modest degree at that time by Luke Donald.

And Luke said it to me, and I remember a couple of other guys in the European community at that time.

Lee Westwood, pardon me, being another talking about how, yeah, he looks like he's 12 years old.

And yes, he had won a US hamter of Brookline where he would later win a US Open that he is, he has got a chippiness about him.

I thought that that was actually reflected in the things that he talked about after winning in terms of pace of play.

He didn't just pass over it. He was righteous about the fact that it upset him and he was bothered by it.

He did what he did. He actually went ahead and played a shot closer to the green and was actually up on the green and waited another three to four minutes before his playing competitor played his shot into that green.

That is somebody who is a reflection of a couple of things that look everybody's path is different.

He was going to use the American college system as his next step. It didn't agree with him. He turned professional.

He didn't have an asset that is not, it's not altogether essential or critical in order to make a living.

But he felt that he needed to gather speed, refine that speed most importantly, because if he didn't have that in his toolkit, he didn't know that he that he could be among the best players in the world.

And then you put that in concert with the diversity of the clientele, Mark Blackburn, who again, no matter who he works with, they all look different.

They're all different people. And Matt is one of the people that he works with.

And if you look at the progress that they've made, and if you look at his stats, and if you look at the things that he does well, and he's always been very, very good, the closer you get to the home, the other thing that he did, which it's always naturally going to cause comment or observation.

When you see somebody chipping cross handed, it would suggest that there's a fault there that there that's a hole in his repertoire.

He is truly among the best players in the world, not yet has he become prolific. He's hard to be prolific, especially when you split time.

When he continually represents Europe on the Ryder Cup team, that automatically says he's in the top 20 in the world in my estimation.

He also proves another point that anybody who thought that just because they were bringing the same team from Rome to Beth Page, that they were going to be the same guys, many of those guys are better than they were two years ago.

Fitzpatrick is a perfect example of that, and I can go down their roster, and that would be true of almost the entire roster in Fleetwood and McIntyre.

They are advancing in a way that they've not leveled off. They're still ascending. It's a very, very good win.

I think that if you look at the winners in the Florida swing, it's representative of golf courses that, yes, the first three kind of have similarities because of the punitive nature of all the water features.

Then you get to the final one, and you think you're in the sand hills of North Carolina. Good win for him.

Like I said, there are a couple of guys starting with Andrew Schoffley. The train is getting loaded up with people who are going to be heavily invested in him at the first major of the year.

We're going to take a break. Sun is coming up. Got the proper win, the North win for the hair piece today, because otherwise when we were at the James Hardy, that was unwielding for the entire hour.

But it's great to be a colonial back and forth worth one of the great historic sites for championship golf, wonderful women's event that's getting ready to begin today.

It's as good a field as you will see in college golf, men's or women's.

At any point during the year, seven of the top 11 teams in the rankings are in this.

They're smaller, kind of boutiquey field so that we'll get started here at 830 local time when we continue.

Shane Ryan, love his writing, love his thoughts. We'll bounce around on a number of subjects with him.

He's going to be Romine to talk some college golf and then some thoughts from me about being a colonial.

As it relates, not only to this event that's going on here this week, but also the PGA tour and things that might be lost that will not be to the benefit of the PGA tour.

It is a Monday. We're live on golf channel also PGA tour radio channel 92 on series XM back with Shane Ryan right after this.

Back in on a Monday live here on golf channel also PGA tour radio channel 92 on series XM.

And this segment of five clubs brought to buy century insurance, their investment in golf runs deep.

And they want to invest in your business insurance because that is what they do.

Sentry insurance right by you son coming up a colonial country club in Fort Worth, Texas north wind ripping about 25 miles an hour right now.

That would mean 18 did into I know that the guy is joining me now from golf digest also author of slaying the tiger a tremendous book.

I don't care that were 10 years from move from basically the year in which he constructed it so worthwhile to read.

And of course the cup they couldn't lose about the rider cup and whistling straights in his contributions to golf digest not only writing feature pieces, but also weekly.

You can read golf pocket, but golf apocalypse, which is just thoughts and musings on a weekly basis.

He is Shane Ryan, his devils onto the sweet 16, basically a birthright for his program, even though he put poison.

And anybody who follows you, Shane, I always want to read the comments.

They still don't get it, do they? They really don't get it.

Yeah, there's that little piece of me that can't help trolling.

I love every year. I love when if Carolina goes out before Duke, I love to make the joke.

I don't even know if you call the joke, but that all my Carolina friends are supporting me because we've got such a special rivalry here on tobacco road.

I can't, you know, it's not like anywhere else. Carolina loves Duke loves Carolina and people always fall for it.

Yeah, people get very angry. Other people from different schools say that's not a real rivalry.

So every year like clockwork, I don't know what's wrong with me that I keep making the same joke every year, but clearly it's clearly something's not quite clicking upstairs.

Well, you bathe in others anger. I mean, I think that's what we've concluded, which is just fine.

They're already angry if they're there. You just get them a little bit more incensed.

All right, let me ask you is as we get toward the month of April.

And now here we are and whatever anybody thought about where live would be and if it wouldn't be at all, give me your overall thoughts on the men's landscape.

And like if you were going to make a thought or a prediction or an opinion on where it'll be in a year, what would that be?

So let's start overall. Is it healthy? Is it just still disjointed, but we're still entertained? What's your view on the landscape right now?

I thought the most interesting thing I've heard about the men's landscape came from Brian Rolap, who was talking about really that there's a static chunk of pie or a static pie of money for sports in general.

And that the NFL, which obviously commands the most money of any sport, is about to maybe double what they have from 12 billion to 24 billion or whatever it is.

And that I think is sort of a red alarm for other sports, but especially golf.

And I think right now when you look at golf television contract, you know, $7 billion, it was possibly or maybe definitely overvalued.

And so I think everything that happens in the next year is going to be geared toward what happens when the next TV contract comes up.

It seems like they're almost accepting or at least laying the groundwork for the possibility that it's going to be less.

There's less money for everybody, you know, Tiger Woods is not going to be around anymore on a regular basis and all that kind of stuff.

So I just think it's going to be very interesting to watch what Rolap does.

And he again, he laid out the blueprint for us at the players championship, fewer tournament fewer elite tournaments, fewer signature events, whatever you want to call it.

You know, we're going to try to get into the big markets, all this kind of stuff.

So I liked everything he was saying.

I think what I keep hearing Gary, and I'm sure you've heard it too, is that he doesn't understand how many roadblocks, how many obstacles there are in golf.

He's going to have trouble getting this done.

It seems like there are a lot of people at least interested in the idea that he's not going to be able to make change that it's going to be harder than he thinks it is.

So I think that's the most interesting thing in the next year is Brian Rolap versus the inertia of professional golf as he fights for this vision that will hopefully leave golf with some money when the next TV deal comes up.

So I'm rooting for him, and I think if I had to make a prediction, I think he's going to push a lot of these changes through.

I think enough people know that it's a good and necessary idea.

And so I think that is the biggest, that's the biggest dramatic thing happening over the next year.

You know Shane, it's interesting. I know he spoke last week to a financial network, and he was talking about, you know, you mentioned the pie, and he was talking about basically that the TV pie and the distribution pie as it relates to all the other sporting enterprises that are out there, particularly in this country and the one that he's coming from, which is the monolith.

And that is the National Football League. I think he's best equipped to understand all that in terms of what is left for the rest of us, but you mentioned the word you use the word ideas and everything that we've heard so far or just that, but I think because he's such an effective presenter.

People go, boy, that's, that, that's great. Yeah, it's a great idea. What do you think would be the most impressive thing of the six objectives that he rolled out the week of the players, which one?

Is it the one that also you think is going to be the hardest to get achieved, but which one will you be most impressed by if he gets it accomplished?

Well, Gary, the selfish part of me is saying match play, a match play championship at the end of the year.

Obviously, that's not the biggest priority, but I would love that personally. So Brian, roll up if you're listening and, you know, your main goal is to make me happy.

That would be the way to go. But no, I think Gary, I think the big one by far is the schedule. I think, you know, he talked about 21 to 26 events that counts the majors that counts the Ryder Cup or President Scub, counts the players, but looking, you know,

some track those you're looking at 18 to 20 high level PGA tour events where you mostly have the best players playing.

And then this sub tier of promotion relegation, you know, he's talking about we're going to make that fascinating.

We're going to make it really interesting these, you know, mid level events to see who comes up and down. I don't know if that's possible, but I do think it would be a really, really strong move for him to get it to where we have.

These are the every, you know, maybe two weeks a month or sometimes three weeks a month.

We have these events where we can sit down and know that we have an elite field. It really matters. It's going to be a clear vision of how you get to the top of this pecking order on the PGA tour.

I think that's far and away the most important thing.

I want your thoughts on the John Rom situation. I don't know how closely people in the States have been following.

You know, there's back and forth with him in the DP World Tour. Rory is stepped in, given his, given his thoughts, talking about the balance of the players who would accrued fines and resolve them.

And there is John, a couple of things, Shane, his reverence for Sevy. Sevy wasn't afraid to take on the establishment back in the day.

The other thing is, is part of me is thinking, didn't you think that you would be the change agent when you went to live?

Is it relates to the resolution of live in the PGA tour and that obvious hasn't happened?

And is he thinking he can do this as it relates to the DP World Tour and the Ryder Cup that he can be the change agent that you don't think you can go forward without me?

Is this just early posturing that then when the 11th hour arrives, there's resolution?

Yeah, it's a great question. My guess is, I think as you said, when he went to live, he really obviously thought he was going to be the change agent.

It didn't happen, right? He wasn't as valuable in that sense as he thought.

He made a ton of money from live, so he's probably totally fine. But now when you look at what's happening with the DP World Tour, he's kind of a man on an island.

Everybody else took the deal, the deal being to play six events, a few of which the DP World Tour chooses, and then we'll forgive all your fines.

You can play on the Ryder Cup and all that.

John Rom is the one guy saying, I'm only playing four events. If you make it four, I'll play. Otherwise, I'm going to appeal this.

I'm not going to pay the fines. And so you think, wow, he's really at this point just kind of being stubborn.

Now what's crazy, I thought him dropping the appeal was a complete shock because I thought he was going to fight this and stubbornly do it.

Once you drop the appeal, what are you doing now? It almost seems like he's given up the fight, but at the same time is not still refusing to pay the DP World Tour's fines.

So to your point, Gary, if he thinks he's the guy that's like, you can't go forward without me. I'm too valuable.

I think he's really, really missing the boat on that one because I don't think the DP World Tour is going to budge.

And when you look at the broader picture, they delayed his, you know, what was going to be the hearing last time.

So he and Terrell Hatten could play on the Ryder Cup because they thought they had a very good chance to win at Beth Page.

The Americans are in disarray. They make a crazy captain's pick and all that.

So they said, we can reverse this decade of home teams winning, you know, by blowouts, we can actually do this.

So we need them on the team at any way possible. Rory is saying, get them on the team.

Well, they got what they wanted. They won, but the minute it was over, now Ram is still being stubborn.

And what is Rory saying? Rory saying, well, he can prove that he would pay to be on the team.

You know, everybody's kind of against John Rom now. Now that he's given them what he want, what they wanted.

They're now saying, come on, get back into the fold. They're no longer so supportive.

And so I don't think John Rom has an army behind him. I don't think he has support behind him.

So if he is thinking that the DP World Tour is going to bend the knee eventually or they're going to budge before I do, I think that's really, really misguided.

Let me ask you some Ryder Cup things because like I said, you wrote the book.

You've immersed yourself and not only the history of it, but all aspects of it.

The United States is back in the same position they were in, you know, after Rome.

And that was coming off a loss. That one in Rome was, was, you know, a beating.

This one, a different way, but at home, there's a deep cut to that.

And now they're on this tiger weight again.

And so my question is, how long can they wait? Do you think that resolution comes?

And if he passes for all the things that he's, you know, involved with now as it relates to the restructuring of the tour, who's the first call?

And do you think whoever the first call is that PJ of America makes is the right call?

What are we doing here? Give me a timeline on when you think he's going to tell them, yeah, you're nay.

And then what direction they go in.

I would say by this summer, it would be pretty unprecedented for the US not to have a captain.

So I think, you know, the clock is ticking.

It's tiger woods and we probably has a little bit of a longer line and a longer leash than other people.

Yes.

But yeah, I would think, I would think by the summer, Gary.

And it's, it's so interesting because on the European side, they are treating it like a business.

They've got their CEO, they've got a board behind them, they've got, you know, the stats guy and everything.

They are so just completely in tune with how to win a rider cup at this point.

And then on the other side, you've got sort of disarray.

It's like is even if Tiger says yes, I mean, what does that really give you?

Do you have a system in place to help them succeed?

Or are you kind of throwing into the wolves like you did with Keegan Bradley?

And so I don't know right now.

I'm, Gary, I've gone so radical on the rider cup.

I'm like, they need to remove all leadership.

They need to have a playing captain.

They maybe even need to choose pairings by random drawing or something.

Because Europe has too much of an infrastructure right now.

It stopped being fun for me.

And the problem is, after the Glenn Eagles rider cup in 2014, the US did figure some things out.

People like Davis Love, especially Jim Furek, Steve Stricker.

They kind of figured out what had gone wrong.

And they solved things to the extent that at least they won home rider cups.

And they were getting more and more organized.

Well, after Italy, they completely abandoned that.

So right now, if you're looking at the PGA of America, I think you're looking at a place.

As far as we know, maybe stuff is going on behind the scenes.

But it's a place without a plan.

And I think that's the scariest thing for America, whether you pick Tiger,

whether you call Stuart Sink after, you know, whether Brent Snedeker does it after the president's cup.

Whoever you pick, you've got to have some support for them.

And you've got to have a plan.

And I don't know if they have it right now.

So, you know, you mentioned the playing captain in the United States almost had one this, this time around with Keegan.

Does his anguish in this lingering kind of sorrow and kind of a roast presentation affirm that they shouldn't have done this in the first place?

Because somebody who really has prime years or tread on his tires.

And you knew when you picked him, you picked him and measured some measure because of the way that he is, the way that he feels about it.

So, the loss was going to, was going to hurt even more so when he didn't have to go back.

And I'm not saying the PJ tour champions as frivolous is not.

But he is still, you have so many prime years and all of a sudden, he's got all of this stuff that's still lingering.

Does this affirm that this wasn't the right thing to do in the first place?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I wrote at the time not to pat myself on the back, but I wrote at the time that this was a crazy move.

And probably a move bound for failure because it seemed like Ace.

It seemed like a random spur of the moment decision, like you said, based on, oh, Keegan Bradley loves the rider cup.

He's the perfect guy.

Well, you know, passion doesn't really do the job, right?

That's not really what wins rider cups.

It's like saying, let's get the angriest guy to be the general in our army and he'll charge headlong at the enemy and somehow win the battle.

Things don't work that way, right?

Logistics matters, strategy matters, intelligence matters, all that.

And when I say intelligence, I don't mean Keegan Bradley is not intelligent.

He's just being the sort of collective group intelligence of what it takes to pull one of these things off.

So I thought it was a bad decision on their part.

I, to be fair, I think Keegan Bradley should have had the foresight to turn this down, right?

If you're going to be somebody who's got a foot in both camps, you know, whether you're, you think you might be playing or, or you might be captaining or you've got to make this difficult decision late.

That, of course, is going to be a huge distraction for you and everybody else.

He said later he didn't really know what he was getting into how much of a responsibility it was.

So, you know, people could have told him that I think he should have turned the job down.

But I think the big thing is he never should have been offered it in the first place.

Like you said, Gary, he'd be a great captain, maybe 10 years from now with a solid support system by him.

But yeah, I think it does.

It kind of affirms it.

I think, you know, the results at Beth Page pretty much affirmed it.

I thought, but this probably goes a further way.

And I feel bad for him for feeling bad, but what keeps nagging at me is that this was all so foreseeable that it's hard to be like, wow, I feel so sorry for all these guys.

It's like, no, this was, this was a very likely outcome once these moves were made.

Last thing you had this Jordan speed sat in his watch.

And you, you were moved in one direction or the other in a, in a very, very profound way.

It's almost like shot for shot like, oh my gosh, there's some light.

Oh no, the darkness.

It's like, it's like the guys who are on the Andrea Gale when they see the light all of a sudden.

It's like the darkness is back.

Yeah.

In terms of him stylistically, he had, he was sticky.

People stuck around to watch him play golf.

And there is this, you know, high wire act where it's like being on a roller coaster and you're on quailoods.

I've never done that.

I don't like roller coasters by themselves.

And then when it's over, you, you can't wait for it to be over.

But then you say, can I cut the line and do this again?

If he manages and you tell me, well, what is, what is seeing the light?

Where is the dawn?

Is the dawn him having to win again?

When do you think that we can declare that there is light?

Never Gary.

This is what's great about Jordan speed.

Every time you think you're on the top, you're headed for the bottom.

And every time you're on the bottom, there's still going to be that little ray of hope.

Look, I think you and I are on the same page that in this life.

We, you know, the older you get, the more simple you want your life to be, right?

The more stable, the more steady.

But this is why we turn to sports, right?

It gives us a little bit of that drama that maybe in the back of our, we talked about being trolls.

Maybe in the back of our troll minds, we crave this volatility.

We crave something that's missing.

So, you know, we go to work.

We do our jobs.

We take care of our family, but then we can turn the TV on and watch Jordan speed.

Just go on this crazy roller coaster ride.

And that's what we like.

And so, I hope he never changes, right?

I mean, well, if you just had a steady Jordan speed at this point, either winning or just somebody who disappeared from golf, I would hate both things.

I want, I want the volatility.

I would like him to be a little bit better though and compete for a, you know, a major at some point.

I think that would be the next.

And I think it's coming.

I think it's slowly but surely coming.

Or at least I tell myself that, but yeah, truly that is the beauty of speed.

Let it never stop.

No, he had, you know, he's had not only some good results.

This past week at a, at a golf course that requires, you know, some precision in terms of greens hitting regulation.

Stroke scanned approach.

His iron plate was excellent.

And he's going to go to a place in a couple of weeks where, you know, he could be in a catatonic state.

And I still think he'll finish in the top 10 with his record at Augusta National speaking, which I look forward to seeing you there chatting with you there.

And thank you as always.

Gary, thank you.

And when Brentley comes on, we talked about Duke.

Remind him what happened to Florida last night.

There we go.

Shane Ryan, golf digest.

And again, I has written some terrific books as well.

Joining me when we continue, I am at colonial site of this year will be the 80th edition of their PGA Tour event.

But they are one of only two facilities in America that hosts both a men's and a women's college golf event.

Mirfield Village being the other.

That is giving access.

We'll talk to Brentley Romine of golf channel golf channel dot com reporter and writer because he is so plugged in to this landscape.

It is thoughts on teams that he think thinks has a chance and also some individuals and I played with somebody yesterday who's already won the Augusta National Women's Amateur.

She did it when she was 16 and a Davis.

So field grade here.

Some thoughts on college golf on a Monday live on golf channel and PJ tour radio channel 92 on the series 6M.

We're back with Brentley right after this.

Welcome back in on a Monday live at colonial country club in Fort Worth, just as we come out to commercial break.

Gust of about 30 miles an hour out of the north.

This golf course under these conditions, which I experienced a little bit of that yesterday and again with the hood blowing off here.

So let me take care of that.

But it's good to be here and college golf on display this week on the women's side.

This got seven of the top 11 in America in the field.

Of course, the NCA's home to the NCA championships here on golf channel and the guy will be front and center.

Yes, Marches for Jay Billis.

May is for Brentley Romine reporter writer golf channel golf channel dot com.

He joins me now, you know, Brentley.

First of all, good morning.

And it is, you know, as we sit here at the end of March, you know, the idea of of professional players trend lines building toward, you know, the first major of the year on the college side of things is I asked you to start on the men's side.

Any cap right now, how many teams you think and again, the vagaries and the finicky nature of match play.

I know this is tricky because you're going to maybe you'll say there are eight that can win because they play match play.

But but realistically, how many teams you think have a lineup that can then get to match play and win three of five matches over the course of a couple of days.

Are there are there eight or there's six.

How many teams do you think have that kind of depth and that kind of personnel to do it?

Well, good morning, Gary. And you know, I thought about this the last couple of weeks.

Because I've gotten this question a lot just from friends and fans of college golf as well.

And on the women's side, right, it's it's Stanford and everyone else, but on the men's, this might be the most parody we've ever seen.

Virginia was number one for most of the season, Auburn, just got in front going into this week's vast park, collegiate, but you could go all the way down to.

I would think maybe number 19 Georgia Tech, they just shared the title their last time out with Tennessee against a really strong field.

And this is Bruce Heppler, the legendary coaches last run to last semester.

We've had a few announced that this will be it for them Chris Hack and Georgia at the end of the season.

Mike McGraw at Baylor, the long time Oklahoma State Coach, he stepped down at the beginning of the spring to take care of his wife.

But how great of a storybook ending would it be for one of those teams?

And you know, maybe even a Georgia Tech at number 19 in the country to walk away with an NCAA title.

I mean, all these teams now, especially in the NIL era, have their one or two guys that could beat anyone on any given day.

And I'll tell you what, that race for eight is going to be hot and heavy once we get to a Costa here in a few weeks.

The, you look at the best players on the men's side over the last couple of years.

And by virtue of the advent of PGA tour, you and kind of a little bit more familiar.

You see them getting spot start sponsor exemptions on the PGA tour.

And it's not just that they're getting starts.

They're playing their way into, you know, being on television more and actually having a chance to top five and being on the cusp of literally being in contentionally.

And I say all that because Jackson Coivan embodies all of those things.

And yet here he is tour card in the back pocket, knowing whenever he starts the meter.

He's got the right parking space.

Anybody take all the other awards that he is likely to get away.

Is there a scenario where he doesn't get all the things that come with being the best college player is Ben James.

Is there somebody else that can take the Hogan award is bestowed to a player here, the Haskins award, the Nicholas award.

Is he winning all of them?

You know, right now he's definitely the front runner and the weird thing about college golf too is you essentially have three national player of the year awards.

The Nicholas, the Haskins and the Hogan, but the Hogan is the only one that factors in all competitive golf.

So Amber competition since last year's NCAA professional competition.

So I would say that Jackson Coivan, when you look at the resume and see, oh, he's got three top 11 finishes on the PGA tour.

I think the Hogan is already his salute.

I think, you know, he's going to get that award at colonial country club right where you're at here in a few weeks.

But the Haskins and the Nicholas, I think, are probably less of a boat race right now.

And that's because Ben James has put together just an absolutely great season as well.

He's got six top five finishes.

Only one victory, but there is the scenario, right?

These guys are going to see a lot of each other once we get to regionals and the NCAA championship.

I think Ben James has a chance to, if he wins, ACC championship, regionals in the NCAA championship.

That's definitely a scenario that can see Ben James win the Haskins in Nicholas award is the best player in college golf.

But yeah, I think Jackson Coivan, certainly the front runner, a heavy front runner for the Hogan.

And if he does win the Haskins Gary, he'll be only the fourth guy ever.

You know, guys like Michelson, Crenshaw, so some pretty elusive company there.

No question.

You know, when you look at it in the time that you've been covering the game and with, with NIL, which, which, you know, NIL was, it's still kind of tossed around romantically.

This is sponsorship.

These are, these are salaries.

This is, this is just straight cash in a lot of sports.

I'm not suggesting that's exactly what it is in golf, but has, has NIL and the creation of PGA tour you with platforms.

For, for these guys to have entry points based on performance at the collegiate level.

Is it fortified college golf in a way that maybe even, even someone who knows it as well as you did, wouldn't necessarily have anticipated.

I, you probably did, but the, the money, the opportunities, the sense that, yeah, I can, I can go play professional right now and be fully examined.

I'm going to stay here because I am getting paid to a certain degree.

It's college golf that are all because of all of this.

That's a tricky question, Gary.

I, I think ultimately the, the exposure has gotten more and I don't know if that's necessarily just NIL.

I don't know if it's necessarily just PGA tour you or having the NCAA championships and all these regressies,

these tournaments broadcast on television. I think all together, you're definitely seeing a lot of momentum.

And that's why you look at Texas head coach John Fields, starting that the college or the NCAA college world golf foundation to try to make, you know, this thing bigger than we've ever seen it.

And LaCosta now you have a, you go handsoree design that I think is only going to continue to get better.

We're going to have iconic shots because we're going back to the same place.

But, but yeah, it's interesting because you look at someone like Jackson Coivan and, you know, I get to spend some time with them.

I drove up to Auburn on last Tuesday and, you know, you look at a guy who's probably making easy six figures while still in college.

He has a PGA tour card in hand.

He's essentially a professional right now and everything that he does.

I mean, just walks around. He has that aura about him.

And I just didn't, you didn't see that maybe 10 years ago.

You know, I probably go back to John Ron, being the only guy who probably had that larger than life personality.

But I think about, you know, kind of the number ones in college and Amber golf since then, you know, Maverick McNeely, a bowl hostler.

Those guys, I just, Matt Wolf, they didn't have that larger than life yet.

Jackson Coivan, you look at him and you're like, yeah, this guy is the real deal and I'm excited to see what he does in his career.

But yeah, I think all altogether all that has certainly made college golf more of these guys are more household names now to their average golf fan to maybe even the average sports fan.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

You know, in the aftermath of of Charlie Woods, committing to Florida state, and I saw you, you know, letting people know that that's completely erroneous.

The numbers that can tossed around and he's, he's in a category of one.

But if it is there is there a baseline or a general ballpark of what the rate card is for let's say a top 10 high school senior in America who could play anywhere.

What they can expect to make and then in turn, if that player becomes a really good player and he's in all American, you know, what does the cost to retain that for for these universities?

I mean, what we talk about a half a million dollars is more than that.

What are, what are college golfers kind of what are they expecting to make when they get there?

If they want to buy everybody and what is expected of them in order to retain their services, so to speak, if they become one of the best players in the country.

So I wish this is more like coaches salary scaring that we could just, you know, type it in on a website and and be able to look it up.

But no, from, from what I've gathered and you know, I don't get these numbers specifically from guys, some of like Miles Russell, you're talking about a transcendent number one recruit like a Zion Williamson or an AJ debon.

So, you know, one of those guys, you know, Miles Russell is is probably easily getting six figures per year to come to school. However, they round that up and and collect that he is going to man something along those lines.

But most everyone else, you're looking at that 20 to 50 to 70 grand range and it's going down a little bit with this revenue share.

I think what we're finding is golfers are these people who want a sponsor and want to support these college athletes, they identify with these golfers because golf is the business sport, right?

So someone like Charlie Woods, I don't that that number is completely outlandish. I would be surprised that Charlie is getting anything above maybe what's just a standard for a division one recruit outside of, you know, his Austin money and regular scholarship things like that.

But someone like Miles Russell, someone like Ronan Bangerie, even someone like blades Brown to obviously decided to play professional golf. I mean, you're looking at, you know, some pretty high five figure, low six figure and kind of to put this in perspective as well on the women's side.

There was a point when Amari Avery when she was at USC was the third highest in terms of NIL. That was a few years ago before the revshare cap, but she was behind Caleb Williams and then juju on the women's basketball team. So there can be money.

I'm sure Chiara Romero at Oregon's doing just fine as well, but it's not these players aren't making a million dollars.

Okay. Well, we're going to be leaning on you as we head toward the latter part of the spring and right around Memorial Day with the NCAAs and for all college golf coverage. He's got you blanketed golf channel golf channel dot com.

Look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you as always.

Thanks, Gary. Keep an eye on the dookies. They're at colonial. They're sneaky. Yeah, they said right in front of me and they actually see them right next to TCU.

Kind of things since it took TCU of the night before out to the shed in basketball. That is Brent Lee Romine. Again, like I said, college golf. He has everything covered for you at golf channel dot com. We come back some thoughts from me about spending the afternoon not only playing this golf course for the first time after

Gilded, Gild and Jim and their great team did the work here at colonial, but but playing with two of the better players in America, including somebody who's headed back to Augusta National next week. She won the Augusta National Women's Amateur when she was 16 and a Davis.

And just the thoughts about what colonial does for the game of golf at every level. We're back live from here and live on golf channel and PGA tour radio channel 92 on serious 6M. We're back right after this.

Back in on this Monday edition of five clubs live on golf channel and PGA tour radio channel 92 on serious 6M.

This signal brought to by Peter Melar. People all this squared up five clubs logo. This is this pine performance hoodie, which is a great piece. Nice and loose at the bottom and everything you need.

And when it comes to spring, summer, winter, fall, it doesn't matter. Whatever you do in your life, Peter Melar has you covered the premier luxury lifestyle brand. Peter Melar and Peter Melar dot com and just the final couple of minutes here, you know, coming back here. I love this place. I said, you know, first time I came here was 2010, but just a thought about colonial and what they what they do for golf.

They're this will be their 80th edition of their PGA tour event now the Charles Schwab challenge, not to mention hosting a US Open in 1941 when you know the USJ said, yeah, we'll give you a shot, Marvin Leonard and what he created and what they built and they have the US women's open as well.

They actually had the plate. They had the players in 1975 and along with Mirfield Village, they are one of only two places that has not only a men's, but a women's college golf event.

That is allowing kids the access to refine their abilities to reach whatever their ceiling might be in this membership in this club and its history and all that they continue to do.

They embody the idea that yeah, the game gives you a lot. You know what, give something back and they do that and I applaud them.

And I will say this about the skill level of women in this field and playing alongside Anna Davis and Anne Fernandez at Auburn University.

It's so impressive to see it all and to see these teams here, these are the special events. It ain't just the TV show on the weekends.

Now there's a lot of people complaining to them all over the country. Tomorrow, two hours for us at the studio, John Cook, Taylor Zarser, Sean Zach, you will see you on a Thursday. Have a great rest of your day.