From Philly to the Fairways: The Stories Behind the 2026 PGA Championship

WEBVTT 1 - > Jesse Stakes: Hey everybody, welcome to Making Sense of It All. I'm your host, Jesse Stakes, and we are talking all things PGA Championship 2026 today. I've got the 10 Club Club with me. 2 - > Jesse Stakes: Mr.

Blakely, thank you so much for being here. 3 - > Blakely: It's a pleasure. 4 - > Jesse Stakes: Mike Padron, always a pleasure, thanks for joining us. 5 - > Mike Padron: Yes, sir.

Always a good time. 6 - > Jesse Stakes: And Wes, Thank you so much for being a part of this today. 7 - > Wes Altice: Absolutely, looking for another great conversation, boys. 8 - > Jesse Stakes: We've got a couple of people MIA, but they've thrown in their picks, so at the end of the episode, you'll hear some other people and who they're picking, so… 9 - > Jesse Stakes: We invited a new character to the cast this week, but he was unable to join us, so… 10 - > Jesse Stakes: Yet to be… yet to be seen.

Point of contention. 11 - > Wes Altice: He got scared. 12 - > Jesse Stakes: So, as always, let's start with what you drinking, boys. Padron, I'll go to you first.

13 - > Mike Padron: Alright. 14 - > Mike Padron: Gotta show you the bottle, here we go. Dickel. 15 - > Mike Padron: Bottle and bottle of whiskey.

16 - > Blakely: Oh, George. 17 - > Mike Padron: Sorry. 18 - > Jesse Stakes: There we go. There you go.

19 - > Wes Altice: Sure. 20 - > Mike Padron: This is great stuff, man. Dickel's one of my favorite lines of bourbon, man. 21 - > Blakely: I bet.

22 - > Mike Padron: I guess, no, sorry, Tennessee Whiskey. 23 - > Wes Altice: I'm sure you love that. 24 - > Mike Padron: Tennessee Whiskey. Good stuff, man.

25 - > Mike Padron: Dickle makes some great stuff. Dickle 15 is one of my favorites. 26 - > Jesse Stakes: You're like 15-year-old Dickle, huh? 27 - > Mike Padron: do, like, you're on the list!

28 - > Blakely: Man, you're the boss! 29 - > Jesse Stakes: Likely, what are you drinking? 30 - > Mike Padron: Man, I walked into the… 31 - > Blakely: Classic, Buffalo Trace tonight. 32 - > Jesse Stakes: Nice.

33 - > Jesse Stakes: Altus? 34 - > Wes Altice: They got me a little, Weller antique. Oh, no, you can't see it because of my background. Oh, well.

Weller Antique 107. Very, very classy drink. 35 - > Jesse Stakes: Nice. I went clear today, boys, in honor of the tin cup that we just finished.

I'm drinking Wheatley's American Vodka that is actually distilled by Buffalo Trace, so… 36 - > Wes Altice: Yes, sir. 37 - > Jesse Stakes: Cheers! 38 - > Wes Altice: Cheers, gentlemen. 39 - > Jesse Stakes: Alright, so let's start with some news first.

The PGA Tour has made a lot of changes, or they're set to make a lot of changes. I think a lot of it, they're trying to… 40 - > Jesse Stakes: Get the best players together, and try to create an impactful product for their advertisers, for the people that are watching, and to make sure that they are… that from a business perspective, that the product that they're putting out there is the best that it possibly can be. 41 - > Jesse Stakes: when they're on television, or when they are doing a tournament, they want it to be an incredibly impactful product.

I'd love to get y'all's thoughts on it. Wes, what do you… what do you think about some of these changes? What do you think about, like, how does it impact… how does it impact your thoughts on golf, on the professional game, and you just as… just being entertained, period? 42 - > Wes Altice: Yeah, I mean, I'm a golf sicko, so golf is good.

I just… I just never got into… 43 - > Wes Altice: the Live product, but it's definitely a reaction. I like how they're starting to allow the players to post some actual behind-the-scenes stuff, it looks like. 44 - > Wes Altice: I don't know if you guys have seen it yet, but they hired NFL Films to do, like, a make… 45 - > Wes Altice: Road to Sunday, or something like that, that was really cool, like, the caddy stuff, I think we've talked about before, the caddy player interaction, so… 46 - > Wes Altice: I think anything to move golf 47 - > Wes Altice: into more homes is always a good thing, and we know the past couple, commissioners that kind of just rode on Tiger's, you know, coattails and just let him bring in all the money, and now they have to get 48 - > Wes Altice: have to get creative, and have to adjust to a new demographic with people watching stuff on YouTube and social, and people wanting, kind of, highlight packages about 15 minutes, so… I think this is gonna be a good thing for the PGA Tour, if they can get the right products out.

49 - > Jesse Stakes: Blakely, what do you think? 50 - > Blakely: Yeah, you know, I too, I think overall it's a good thing. Anytime you're able to, get your product packaged, on multiple platforms and seen by multiple different people, there's… there's no downside to that, in my opinion. I… 51 - > Blakely: I love watching, you know, golf when it comes on the TV.

I really enjoyed watching Full Sling. I thought that was neat. 52 - > Blakely: I… 53 - > Blakely: am not one of these guys who watches YouTube. Maybe I'm a little behind the times on that, so I didn't even really understand 54 - > Blakely: until, you know, Bryson started talking about it all when he was going to live, that there was such a, issue with being able to post 55 - > Blakely: your content from the tournament, things you're doing leading up to the tournament, other stuff, on YouTube.

I didn't even know about that. I feel like… 56 - > Blakely: changing those rules is great. It doesn't make any sense to me if the stars of your product are trying to put more eyes on your product, whether or not they're making some money off of it. 57 - > Blakely: it's not a bad thing.

It just… that doesn't make any sense. So I think it's a good… a good move by them. Maybe I'll start watching a little bit of YouTube now that I… I know it's a thing. 58 - > Wes Altice: Sure.

59 - > Jesse Stakes: Mike, what do you… what are your thoughts? Anything that sticks out to you? 60 - > Mike Padron: No, honestly, I didn't even realize there was all those restrictions. Until they came out with it, I'm like.

61 - > Mike Padron: you know, what was one of the ones, like, produced 3 minutes on-site? I'm like, they were really limiting how many minutes they could do, like… 62 - > Blakely: Yeah, that's crazy. 63 - > Mike Padron: Like, it's crazy. Yeah, I didn't even… cause for me, it's like… 64 - > Mike Padron: any kind of… anything they post is just gonna be better for the PGA TOUR in the long run, so why are you not letting these guys just do what they want to do?

I mean, I don't… 65 - > Mike Padron: I mean, it almost goes back… 66 - > Mike Padron: I guess the argument, and it goes back to kind of, like, the name and likeness of, you know. 67 - > Mike Padron: the college days, not to bring up a whole different other subject, but it kind of goes back to that. It's like, well, you guys are benefiting off of us. You know, it's almost like a reverse scenario of, you know, the PGA Tour saying the players are benefiting off of them, you know, in a way.

68 - > Mike Padron: But I can't imagine this is a bad thing for anybody. It just brings more eyes, it brings everything, and ironically, you know, I think the person that has the biggest impact on this overall is a guy that wasn't even… is not even on the PGA Tour, is Bryson. You know, I think his… 69 - > Jesse Stakes: that? 70 - > Mike Padron: his impact on all of it, and he's not even on the PGA Tour, you know, it's just… he's one of the biggest guys in this world.

71 - > Mike Padron: And he's single-handedly, maybe not single-handedly, but having a huge impact on the social media part of all of it for the PGA Tour, and he's not even on the tour. So… 72 - > Mike Padron: I think it can't be a bad thing for anybody. It's gonna be good for the game of golf. More, for me, like golf said, like Wes said, he's a sicko of it.

I think more golf is always better, I don't care in what platform it is. 73 - > Jesse Stakes: I thought it was incredibly telling, after Bryson gave that interview last week, when he was saying, basically, kind of, he was airing his grievances of saying why he may not go back to the PGA Tour, they almost immediately made a rule change. 74 - > Jesse Stakes: to their… 75 - > Jesse Stakes: like, the way that the players could utilize their own media, or how they could shoot during practice rounds, things like that.

I don't see a world… like, I know we were talking, we had some text messages back and forth, and Wes, I know you had said it from a golf perspective, and so did Mike Shelton at the time, about, like, Jon Rahm being the more attractive person to get back to the PGA Tour from a golf perspective. 76 - > Jesse Stakes: But from a television perspective, from a media perspective, from a YouTube perspective, from just interest in the human being. 77 - > Jesse Stakes: Bryson DeChambeau right now, he's gotta be the most interesting golfer on the planet, doesn't he?

78 - > Wes Altice: Yeah, I think so, and I mean. 79 - > Wes Altice: I don't know if it's him or the people that… 80 - > Wes Altice: on his management side that has done this image change for him, but it's, I mean, brilliant, let's be honest, whoever's ideas these are, and for him to get in front of the camera and buy into it, and… 81 - > Wes Altice: you know. 82 - > Wes Altice: put on the character, or if this is really him, I don't know. It's entertaining, I watch his stuff, and it's cool that he… 83 - > Wes Altice: plays against the other creators, or tries to break, you know, 50 from the front tees with these creators, it gives a light into, one, how good he is compared to these other guys, and two, just… 84 - > Wes Altice: seeing like he's kind of a… just a dude with them, so… I… the more Bryson, as far as it getting out there via YouTube or whatever, is just, I think, just good for golf, like we've said.

85 - > Jesse Stakes: 100%. Well, and like, Blakely, I'll ask you this, like, I've heard PGA Tour guys and some of the guys on the Golf Channel, kind of echoing what Wes just said as far as questioning whether it's really Bryson or it's a character. 86 - > Jesse Stakes: And then they try to almost put him back in the box that they had him in in the PGA Tour, you know, 5 years ago, or whatever it is, acting like he's kind of the villain, or the bad guy. 87 - > Wes Altice: Thank you.

88 - > Jesse Stakes: I mean… 89 - > Jesse Stakes: why in the hell would he want to go back to that? If that's how they're gonna treat him, or if that's what they're gonna do, why in the world would he subject himself to that when he's being so successful outside of their box? 90 - > Blakely: Yeah, I mean, I think if you go back to where he was, like, 5 years ago, I think… 91 - > Blakely: a lot of that was on him. When he, started opening up, doing these little challenges, like he said, getting with the creators and showing out who he actually was.

92 - > Blakely: you started seeing, people, including myself, change their tune. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, he was never my favorite guy. I always thought he was kind of a villain. You know, the PGA Tour… 93 - > Blakely: took that angle, they let Brooks be the, people, the person that people wanted, and made him the villain, and now we've seen his real personality, or… or, if you want to say he's faking it, his fake personality, but I like that one more than the real one.

94 - > Blakely: I think that he has grown, this is me personally, to such a point, like you said, the PGA is making changes the day after he announces some of his grievances. He's grown to a point where people love this guy. 95 - > Blakely: if he goes back to the PGA, they will not be able to pigeonhole him into the villain. It's impossible, and it would be bad for business.

It'd be a dumb move. So, I mean, I think that… 96 - > Blakely: Personally, he is… 97 - > Blakely: in the position of power. I mean, if he wants to come back, he's almost kind of naming his stipulations, you know? He says, oh, I don't like that I can't do this.

PGA said, okay, we're gonna loosen up the reins on that. I wouldn't be surprised if he came back with something else, just to see what he could get. 98 - > Blakely: I think he… I mean, I think he's in a good position to come back if he wants. 99 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah, I mean, Mike, I'll ask you, because you're the resident expert on TGL, since they're one of your employers.

100 - > Jesse Stakes: I mean, like… 101 - > Jesse Stakes: do they bring the Crushers to TGL? Like, I mean, if… I mean, I don't know if they… I don't know if they'd have the naming rights, because he supposedly owns the team, quote-unquote, but I mean, if… if Liv potentially folds, do you see the Crushers enter TGL? 102 - > Mike Padron: Well, I think the last thing you'll see is anything, anything live. 103 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, in… at TGL.

104 - > Mike Padron: I think Tiger's the last person that's gonna start allowing that. I think you see the PGA Tour start to fold and let all that stuff come in. No, I think it's… 105 - > Mike Padron: I think it… I think it just… he… 106 - > Mike Padron: you know, the whole team ownership thing, I think that's completely separate from him. Although he does own it, I think it's just a different scenario.

I think if he comes over, he's gonna have to kind of let that 107 - > Mike Padron: Go. 108 - > Mike Padron: I, I… that's the one thing he's gonna have to try to give up. 109 - > Mike Padron: Whether he's gonna try to hold onto it as much as he can, he's gonna have to, at some point, give in something. 110 - > Mike Padron: But again, like you said.

111 - > Mike Padron: what's his incentive? He has no… he has no incentive to come over. He's doing… he's playing the majors, he's doing what he can do on… on social media, and… 112 - > Mike Padron: You know, he's kind of living his life right now, so what is. 113 - > Jesse Stakes: Well, and I think it bears… I think it bears to acknowledge he's not married, he doesn't have children, so if he wants to fly in his private jet over to Europe or over to Asia and play in events just to get events in and to keep tournament ready, I don't think he'll have a problem with that.

I think he'll be able… 114 - > Mike Padron: Still getting points. 115 - > Jesse Stakes: 100%. 116 - > Wes Altice: Yes. 117 - > Jesse Stakes: Absolutely.

118 - > Jesse Stakes: So… 119 - > Jesse Stakes: Let's just… let's just talk about this, I mean, Liv, right now. Is it dead, or is it changing? 120 - > Mike Padron: I think it's dead. 121 - > Jesse Stakes: Good?

122 - > Mike Padron: I mean, it's dying if it's not dead. I mean, I… I mean, if your number one… 123 - > Mike Padron: money source, unless something has changed recently that I did not figure out, is gone, then it's slowly, if not… it was already… I thought it was already dying, even with that money source. I mean, they were hemorrhaging for how many years now? 124 - > Mike Padron: I mean, I don't even know what the number was, but it was astronomical what they were losing every year.

And then somebody came out with a quote. 125 - > Mike Padron: from PIF, saying, you know, we just need to come up with a business plan. Like, this many years later, you're gonna come up with a business plan? Like, maybe this is something you should have done when you came up… when you started the league.

So, I think it was just a mess in the very beginning. They were trying to do something… 126 - > Mike Padron: That they had no business of doing, and just trying to… 127 - > Mike Padron: buy… literally buy these guys and try to buy the game of golf. And, you know, it worked for about… 128 - > Mike Padron: maybe 6 months, and, you know, it's been dying ever since, and I just can't imagine it going much longer. And I feel bad for some of the guys, but, you know, they're gonna be let… they're eventually gonna be let back in, and, you know, in a few years, it'll all be, hopefully, you know, water under the bridge.

129 - > Jesse Stakes: So let me ask this a different way, Wes. Like… 130 - > Jesse Stakes: Is there a place in the golf ecosystem for Team Golf 131 - > Jesse Stakes: for something that Liv represents, like, you are, like, to your point, Padron, like, they've already spent 5 or 3 billion, whatever the number is that PIF has spent on getting this thing up and running. They have branded something for 4 years, they have got the name Live Golf out there to where everybody knows what it is.

132 - > Jesse Stakes: if, like, it's just like buying any other distressed asset. If somebody's not running a McDonald's well, or if somebody's not running 133 - > Jesse Stakes: kind of business, well. 134 - > Jesse Stakes: somebody can come in, scoop up the assets for pennies on the dollars, and then take that and make a success out of it, potentially. Do you see anything in golf to where maybe in, you know, I don't want to call it silly season, because I don't think it really exists anymore, but something, like, opposite of the PGA Tour in different countries.

I mean, it's been proven to work in Australia, South Africa. 135 - > Jesse Stakes: in Spain, in some of these markets that wasn't getting golf… as much golf as other markets. 136 - > Jesse Stakes: there's a demand for it. People want events.

So, does it exist somewhere else, and it just looks different? You don't have as many stars, but you have a lot of international players? Or is it… or does it go? 137 - > Wes Altice: Yeah, I, I think… 138 - > Wes Altice: If it stays, then I think it would have to be something that's more of a global… 139 - > Wes Altice: to where I can see… 140 - > Jesse Stakes: Agreed.

141 - > Wes Altice: World Tour. 142 - > Wes Altice: and live some kind of merging together, because I don't think DP World Tour has been super stoked on their strategic partnership with the PGA Tour. But it's… I mean, if you're not going to have the top players, it's kind of like, well, what the hell are we watching? Like.

143 - > Wes Altice: I don't want to watch, you know, I think, as we said before the show starts, XFL. Yeah, great, cool idea, but we didn't know anyone. Like, who… kinda, who cares? 144 - > Wes Altice: I… I don't see it… I think team golf is a cool concept, but when we think team golf, we're thinking Ryder Cup.

Like, all the energy that goes into that, it's… 145 - > Wes Altice: you know, every other year, and it's like, hell yeah, USA, Europe. 146 - > Wes Altice: they have to build something like that if you're gonna have team golf, and if you don't have superstars behind that in doing it, I don't see how it works. 147 - > Jesse Stakes: Okay? So, Blakely, I'll ask you this, and then we'll get off this, we'll get on to the PGA Championship, but as far as the impact that Liv has had on the professional game.

148 - > Jesse Stakes: You think about it, if there's no live, if it doesn't exist, we're not talking about, you know, PGA Tour player media rights, or we're not talking about them having access to do more creator content. 149 - > Jesse Stakes: we're definitely not talking about how much these guys have been making for the last 2 or 3 years. Like… 150 - > Jesse Stakes: what do you feel like, from a… like, if you're looking at it, and I'm asking you to have a little bit of a crystal ball, but what do you see as Liv's impact 5, 10 years from now, when you're looking back on it, what do you think is the major impact that Liv has had on the game of golf?

151 - > Blakely: Yeah, and disclaimer, I'm not a live guy, but… Sure! 152 - > Jesse Stakes: 100%. 153 - > Blakely: I do think that the overall major impact, the way I see it, is that the PGA Tour has to recognize that these players are not just commodities to make them money. 154 - > Blakely: They're, you know, they've branched out, they said, you know what, we're gonna go away from you, we're gonna make our own money, do our own thing, and now you see them start rolling back some of their rules in order to make, 155 - > Blakely: the PGA Tour a more friendly place for the players who are actually out there swinging every day and making the money.

And I think you'll see… we'll see, say, in the next 10 years. 156 - > Blakely: A lot more, restrictions fall. 157 - > Blakely: So that the players can, 158 - > Blakely: be themselves and do more of what they want as they continue to generate a truckload of money for the PGA. I mean, me personally, just like Mike said, I didn't even know they had all these rules and regulations.

159 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah. 160 - > Blakely: And so, it's showing normal people like us 161 - > Blakely: That they exist, and, you know, now that something's in the light, they can't continue to do it that way. 162 - > Jesse Stakes: 100%. I'll tell you, I… the first time it ever dawned on me that the players didn't have access to any of this was when they had the match, when Mickelson and Tiger Woods were playing, or when some of these other matches they had.

163 - > Jesse Stakes: Mickelson had brought it up, and he was saying how much money that they had to pay the PGA Tour to show highlights from the PGA Tour events. And it was… it was un… it was millions of dollars that they had to pay, so it was like, it made it very difficult for them to be profitable doing these productions on TNT Sports. Easy. 164 - > Jesse Stakes: that was the first kind of, like, wow, I didn't… you know, I thought… I thought… I always thought of the PGA Tour as a non-profit.

I thought about it as something for the players, by the players. 165 - > Jesse Stakes: But when you really, like, and it's all public information, when you look at the 990 for the PGA Tour. 166 - > Jesse Stakes: there's a couple of guys on that list of people, like, officers of the PGA Tour, as far as a non-profit, that make significantly more than probably about 90-95% of the players do, and it was… that was. 167 - > Wes Altice: Oh, yeah.

168 - > Jesse Stakes: I mean, looking at that. 169 - > Blakely: we know Sorry to hijack. 170 - > Jesse Stakes: Go ahead. 171 - > Blakely: Do you know how many of the live players, like, the percentage-wise, have actually played on the PGA Tour?

172 - > Wes Altice: Whoa. 173 - > Wes Altice: Very high percentage. A couple of the new ones were out of college. 174 - > Blakely: Yeah.

175 - > Wes Altice: But. 176 - > Blakely: But most of them have been on the tour. 177 - > Wes Altice: I would say it's over 90%. 178 - > Blakely: Okay.

179 - > Wes Altice: it is, like, a lot, because you gotta figure, it's, like, former, you know, your Ian Poulters, your Lee Westwoods, those type of guys that were on the back end of the career, but they're all, like, PGA Tour multi… 180 - > Blakely: Oh, God. 181 - > Wes Altice: Multiple time winners. 182 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah, I mean, the Champions Tour will get a hell of a shot in the arm. If they fold Liv and these guys seem to get out of the Champions Tour, you'll have some great names out there playing with… playing on the Champions Tour.

183 - > Mike Padron: 75 to 85%. 184 - > Wes Altice: Is it really? I thought it'd been more than that. 185 - > Blakely: I mean, I guess my point, too, though, is, hey, I appreciate all they've done for the game of golf, but I don't want to see somebody playing in the league week in and week out that should be on the Champions Tour.

186 - > Blakely: If I want to do that, I watched the Champions Tour, you know? I'm trying to see the best of the best. 187 - > Jesse Stakes: here's my thing, and I think I've said it before on this, like, to all of you guys, I look at it all as professional entertainment. Like, we're paying for… we're either paying for a ticket, or we're paying, you know, to watch it on television, whatever it is, and there's advertisers paying for it.

188 - > Jesse Stakes: I want to be entertained, period. Like, I don't care what the… I mean, if it's the names, if it's the people that I want to see, or if it's the quality of golf, whatever it is, entertain me, and I'll spend my money. If you don't entertain me, if it's boring, I'm gonna flip the channel, I'm gonna find something that is entertaining for me. 189 - > Wes Altice: Yeah.

190 - > Jesse Stakes: Hmm. Alright, boys. 191 - > Mike Padron: So, also, real quick on what Wes said about changing up the match True Team Golf. 192 - > Mike Padron: Real quick, because I'm a sucker for match play, if they made this a true team golf live, they just completely flipped it on its head, and made it true match play, where you're sending out pairings against other teams, and did this like a 3-day event like that.

193 - > Mike Padron: I'd be in… I'd be… I'd be watching that, and you made it… you wouldn't have the same fanfare as a Ryder Cup or President's Cup, I get that, because it's not countries involved, but that would be fun to watch. 194 - > Mike Padron: You made it happen. 195 - > Mike Padron: cr… 196 - > Wes Altice: If they had crushers versus… 197 - > Mike Padron: Crushers vs. Aces are this Thursday, or whatever, and they're gonna play this match, that'd be awesome.

That'd be cool. 198 - > Wes Altice: But that… that scenario… intrigues me, but you still need the players. You gotta have the top dudes. 199 - > Mike Padron: So… 200 - > Jesse Stakes: Alright, boys, on to the PGA Championship.

So, the PGA Championship's being held at Aronomic. It is in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, and for people who don't know where that is, that is right outside of Philly. So, major metropolitan market, you got, you know, fantastic for fans that are coming in, as far as things to do outside of golf. 201 - > Jesse Stakes: You know, love to get y'all's thoughts on Philly as a destination.

202 - > Jesse Stakes: Anybody been there? 203 - > Wes Altice: I'll step aside, I have not been there, unfortunately. 204 - > Wes Altice: I've been… 205 - > Mike Padron: to the airport. Great.

206 - > Mike Padron: Great Philly cheesesteak at the airport. 207 - > Blakely: Yeah, I've never been to Philly. I have Philly and friends up there, but I've never been. 208 - > Jesse Stakes: Alright, I guess I'm standing on this one by myself.

So, I have been to Philly. Philly is an absolutely fantastic market. The food is, like, as far as street food, like, Philly cheesesteaks, absolutely, I mean, that's what they're known for. But you're also talking about the birthplace of this country.

It's a, I mean. 209 - > Wes Altice: America. 210 - > Jesse Stakes: Absolutely, 100%. There's… there's… I mean, it's the… it's… Ben Franklin is buried there, for God's sakes.

Betsy Ross's house is there. If you want to see where the first Congress met, you want to see the Liberty Bell, it's all in this city. So, if you're going out to the tournament this week, not only are you watching fantastic golf, you might be able to catch a Phillies game, but the… but the city is second to none when it comes to tourism, and for you to see, like, a piece of history when it comes to the 211 - > Jesse Stakes: United States of America. I can't recommend it enough.

If you haven't been there, it's, you know, find a hotel room. You can walk the city. So, I mean, your legs might be tired at the end of it, but it's an absolutely fantastic, walkable city, and it's worth going to. 212 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah, so… 213 - > Blakely: The one thing I will say, Jesse, even though I've never been, if you've seen a Philadelphia team play anything.

214 - > Blakely: You've seen that that stadium is always packed. 215 - > Blakely: 100%. Go crazy. So I think it'll be cool to have it in that city, because the locals will definitely be there, and they'll be excited.

216 - > Jesse Stakes: Just don't wear Dallas Cowboys shit while you're there. 217 - > Mike Padron: And they are, the Philadelphia Phillies are away this weekend, by the way, so they're… 218 - > Jesse Stakes: Shot that down, Paul. 219 - > Mike Padron: They're at, they're in Pittsburgh. 220 - > Jesse Stakes: Dynamite drop in there, Padron.

221 - > Mike Padron: Just don't want people trying to get tickets, you know what I'm saying? 222 - > Jesse Stakes: So, Wes, what do you think about the venue itself? Old Donald Ross course? What are your thoughts?

223 - > Wes Altice: I… I'm a sucker for Donald Ross courses, Gail Hands came in and did a redo, or restoration, sorry, not a redo. So, I always love seeing old classic courses, 224 - > Wes Altice: I think the only drawback is they don't transfer very well into the new modern game of how far people are hitting it, but… 225 - > Wes Altice: I think if you, like, set it up properly, I think we could… we could see something good, but I just… yeah, give me Donald Ross's all day long, and I'm gonna be a happy camper.

226 - > Jesse Stakes: Blakely, do you think that there's a certain person, or a certain group of golfers, as far as type goes, that are gonna benefit more? Like, with this kind of being a little bit shorter venue in some cases? I know some of the par 4s are playing pretty short, like 315, 320. 227 - > Blakely: Yeah, I mean, I think it just really brings everybody into play.

With the shorter par 4s, you don't have to be able to bomb it. I think who's really gonna excel at this place is the people who can putt. Like, Donald Ross… the thing I love about the Donald Ross course is those kind of, like. 228 - > Blakely: turtle shell greens, or they're domed, you know?

They're difficult greens. It's, you know, shout out to McQuana, that's a Donald Ross course. Love that place. I think the person who's got the flat stick rolling well is gonna, you know, probably benefit the most.

229 - > Blakely: It is, gonna be cool, though. I like Donald Ross' courses. 230 - > Jesse Stakes: Mike, what do you think? 231 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, I mean, you can't… I love that they're bringing back these old courses.

I love that they're going to the big cities. I think that's also… 232 - > Mike Padron: I think also for the PGA Tour, I know this is PGA of America, but the PGA Tour, down the road, they're also wanting to do this, trying to get to these large, you know, cities down the road. I know that's a big focus of theirs in the future. 233 - > Mike Padron: So this is also good, and you can't get a much better fan base than, the Philly fanbase as far as just sports in general.

And I do love that somebody like Gilhans comes in and restores a Donald Ross course, because I feel like 234 - > Mike Padron: it's two different things. I mean, you got somebody like Gilhans coming in. I mean, I love… 235 - > Mike Padron: his designs, like, right here in Florida, Stream Song Black, he did, one bucket list course for me, he's a hoopy, he did that one. It's just… 236 - > Mike Padron: to be able to blend two architects like that is just a really cool thing, and to be able to play a course like that would be amazing for me.

237 - > Mike Padron: But, as far as players goes, I mean, I think Blakely nailed it, and I mean, all majors as well, but putting's gonna be huge here, because I think some of the shorter holes are going to… 238 - > Mike Padron: kind of take away some of the long bombers, but then again. 239 - > Mike Padron: you know, some of the long guys are gonna be able to get down there, you know, with some of the shorter clubs, too, so be able to bring some of their accuracy and play. And one thing I just saw here watching, live from.

240 - > Mike Padron: 174 bunkers, only 3 water hazards in this course. So, you know, you're gonna have some guys taking out some drivers, on these shorter holes, and just bombing it. 241 - > Mike Padron: So you get some of these guys that are… 242 - > Mike Padron: you know, driving off the tee like a Rory, that are, you know, strokes gains off the tee, you're looking at that as a, potential, somebody that can just run away with it if they're accurate off the tee to, this weekend.

243 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah, I mean, I feel like that there's gonna be… I mean, as much as there's a premium on putting, I mean, it's gonna be your distance control with your irons in the greens, too. I mean, if you've got… I mean, if… just like on a lot of Donald Ross design courses, if you're underneath the hole and you're putting back up the hill, like, you're in a much better spot than if you're above the hole, or if you're, you know, if you're in a… if you're in a bad spot.

244 - > Jesse Stakes: that you've, you know, as far as having to be very cautious with your first putt, if you can't be aggressive, I mean, I think that that's gonna… that's gonna affect your scores a lot, too. What do you think, Wes? 245 - > Wes Altice: Yeah, I think, whoever's hot with the driver is gonna… 246 - > Wes Altice: I think bring this course to its knees, so I'm just looking at… we're saying, like, a 305 drives, you know, we're looking at 115, 85, 122, 139, like, these guys… 247 - > Wes Altice: Unless this is rough as nuts, and these greens are… 14, you can't hold them.

248 - > Wes Altice: they're gonna run… I think that there's gonna see, like. 249 - > Wes Altice: 20-plus under winning this thing. This is gonna be… it's gonna be interesting. It's gonna come down to the core setup, but just looking at it purely on… 250 - > Wes Altice: distances and aerials, I think this is gonna be a really, really low-scoring PGA Championship.

251 - > Blakely: Well, we talked about something like this before, in terms of, like. 252 - > Blakely: do you want to see people play these courses you never get to go to versus places you've been before? I do think it's kind of cool that this is a Donald Ross course, because he has a lot of courses that are pretty accessible to most people. Like, I've played multiple.

But with what Wes is saying, it being kind of gettable. 253 - > Blakely: Do you enjoy watching a more gettable PGA, or do you want the scores to be, like, minus 4? 254 - > Mike Padron: Get a boy. 255 - > Wes Altice: I would… 256 - > Wes Altice: I would… I personally just… I like… I want to see, like, a good leaderboard, to be honest, but at the same time, if the winning score is, like, in the 20s at a major.

257 - > Wes Altice: It's just like a normal PGA Tour event, I'm sorry. I want to see… 258 - > Wes Altice: In a perfect world, like, 12. 259 - > Wes Altice: like, someone play really well and get to 12, like Augusta does a lot of times. If it's nice out, you'll see 14, 16, maybe?

260 - > Wes Altice: Unless you, you know, soak like DJ did in the COVID one, but… Yeah, if it's a… 261 - > Wes Altice: shootout, and this is why it's my least favorite major. I… 262 - > Wes Altice: It probably won't hold my interest if it gets that low, unless they are just… 263 - > Wes Altice: four guys just birdie after birdie, and they're keeping up with each other, like Phil and Henrik did at the, Open Championship a few years ago. 264 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah, I mean, I… I honestly, I feel like it's, when I watch a major, I want to see the guys be tested.

Like, I don't want to see it be something to where… like you said, I don't want to feel like every other weekend does on the PGA Tour, where it's like, we got a birdie fest. I want to see them… I want to see them have to earn it. I want to see. 265 - > Wes Altice: See the guy.

266 - > Jesse Stakes: But I also want to see him be able to score. Like, you know, that's one thing that's a negative about the US Open sometimes. 267 - > Wes Altice: Agreed. 268 - > Jesse Stakes: Is that… 269 - > Jesse Stakes: if they can't come back, if Sunday can't be exciting, if somebody can't come from behind if they're hot and win it, because it's just too tough, they're having to defend par the whole time, then it's not that fun to watch, like… 270 - > Blakely: Yeah.

271 - > Jesse Stakes: I wanna… I'd like to be able to see somebody on Sunday who's… who's, you know, 3 to 5 strokes back have a shot. If they come out and they shoot a 62 or a 63, they can go out there and grab the cup and win it. 272 - > Blakely: Yeah. 273 - > Wes Altice: Yeah, I think, just to go US Open last year at Oakmont, it was… 274 - > Wes Altice: It was kind of boring until the rain delay.

275 - > Wes Altice: And then all of a sudden, shit got interesting, like, people were making a little bit of runs, the course softened up a little bit, so… I want people to have a chance if they hit a good shot. The worst thing I hate, and this is why US Open frustrates the hell out of me, they hit a good shot, and it's like, they get toasted, because it was… 276 - > Wes Altice: you know, an inch off. Like, I… that's not golf to me, that's just… you hit the shot, and you got kind of lucky that it ended up close.

277 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah. You guys have any favorite storylines or anything coming into this that… that is, like, stands out in your mind? Is there anything that… that you're excited about? 278 - > Mike Padron: I want to see somebody, you know, I… well, we're gonna talk about that later, but I want to see some of these guys that have never been in this situation be there on Sunday and see them close it out.

279 - > Mike Padron: You know, the guys like a Cam Young, they've never won it before. I want to see… I wanna… not that I'm sick of the Schefflers and the Roar… I love those guys winning, I do. But… 280 - > Mike Padron: I want to see these new guys win their first. I just love seeing those moments.

Those are the storylines I like to see. But then again. 281 - > Mike Padron: On the same note, I don't want to see a nobody win, either. 282 - > Wes Altice: Hell no.

283 - > Mike Padron: Like, no shot here to anybody. I mean, I don't want to see an Aaron Rye win it out of nowhere on a Sunday. Like, I just… I don't want two gloves out there holding a cup. Like, I just… 284 - > Wes Altice: Nothing.

285 - > Mike Padron: Something I want to see. 286 - > Jesse Stakes: Just call the guy out, why don't you? 287 - > Wes Altice: I know who Mike's picking! 288 - > Mike Padron: Walton's picking Aaron Rye.

289 - > Jesse Stakes: I got… 290 - > Mike Padron: That's cool. It's cool to watch. 291 - > Jesse Stakes: So for me, I got two. Like, number one, I mean, I keep waiting for Jordan Speeth to have a day and really play well in the PGA Championship.

I mean, he's got one left to complete the career Grand Slam, and it feels like he could. 292 - > Jesse Stakes: I mean, but it's… but, you know, he hasn't really put together 4 solid days in the Major in a long time now. I mean, we're talking about a decade at this point. 293 - > Jesse Stakes: Like, so that's one… that's one of the ones that I'm really excited about.

And then, you said it, Kim Young, too, I mean, like, this dude really has, I mean, he played incredibly well in the Masters, just came up a bit short, and you can't really argue when you lose to a guy like Rory. And then, what he did at the… what he did as far as… as far as hanging in tough and winning the players this year, and the guy has just played his… 294 - > Jesse Stakes: tail off all year long. So, I mean, he's another one that I just think is… I mean, he's due. I mean, like, you start to look at it, and he's gotta be in your… he's gotta be on that short list of people who are the best golfer not to win a major at this point.

295 - > Jesse Stakes: Yeah. 296 - > Wes Altice: Yeah, for sure. 297 - > Blakely: Excellent. 298 - > Jesse Stakes: Alright, boys, I think with that, I'm gonna turn it over to you, Mike, for your picks.

299 - > Mike Padron: Alright, boy. 300 - > Mike Padron: We're gonna go in reverse snake order, so to give you a little result, a really quick recap from the masters. 301 - > Mike Padron: With my picks, I came in first with 2.8… a little over $2.

8 million with Scheffler and Reed. Blakely was second at $1.5 million, with Rose and Matsuyama. West was third at $731,000.

302 - > Mike Padron: And then, Shelton with $373K with Oberg and Tommy. 303 - > Mike Padron: At, 4th place, and then last place was stakes with Bryson and Fitz. Bryson missing the cut hurt him pretty good there. 304 - > Jesse Stakes: Why don't you?

305 - > Blakely: The last place is actually, Justin, so you're okay. 306 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, so yeah, Justin and Justin are new. 307 - > Jesse Stakes: ghost you speak of. Yeah, some Justin will be… 308 - > Mike Padron: Justin will be picking first, because even though he's not here and he's never made a pick, he gets to pick first, because we're gonna give him a little bit of an advantage to try to catch up, even though he only needs $341,000 to catch up to Justin.

309 - > Mike Padron: So, Justin, Justin's first pick that he texted me, is, Scotty Scheffler, which, no, no shock there. 310 - > Blakely: Of course! 311 - > Mike Padron: So, Jesse, you have the second pick. 312 - > Jesse Stakes: Rory McIlroy.

313 - > Jesse Stakes: Not making that mistake twice. 314 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, nobody picked them last year… for the Masters, which was absolutely shocking to me. 315 - > Wes Altice: That's, crazy. 316 - > Mike Padron: And then Shelton, I've got his, his first two were Scheffler and McElroy, obviously the guns, so he is gonna go Cam Young.

317 - > Mike Padron: That's a great pick for him. 318 - > Jesse Stakes: You just made me root against Cam Young this week. 319 - > Mike Padron: So now we got Wes picking his first pick. 320 - > Wes Altice: I'm gonna go with, maddie Fitz.

321 - > Blakely: like it. 322 - > Mike Padron: Fits. You know what's funny is that that was Shelton's next pick, and he had to put an M next to it, just so I knew it was Matt's. 323 - > Blakely: Yeah.

324 - > Mike Padron: Which is kind of crazy, you had to do that, isn't it? 325 - > Wes Altice: Is Alex in the field? 326 - > Mike Padron: I don't know. I'll… I don't know.

327 - > Mike Padron: It's an absolute crazy story, man. Absolutely amazing. 328 - > Blakely: He's, like, he's… I think he's, like, 50th on the, FedEx. 329 - > Mike Padron: He's top 50 for sure, I'm pretty sure.

330 - > Blakely: I mean, that story's insane. I was talking to my dad about it. 331 - > Blakely: A couple of days ago. That's pretty awesome.

332 - > Mike Padron: I gotta see. Your pick, likely. 333 - > Wes Altice: He's in the field. 334 - > Mike Padron: That's all.

335 - > Blakely: Okay, that's so cool. It's, Cam Smith in this field? 336 - > Mike Padron: Sure, I don't know, I don't know. I'm gonna go over.

337 - > Mike Padron: I love it. That was my pick, but alright. 338 - > Mike Padron: Alright, so now that all four of my guys were taken, I got back-to-back picks here. 339 - > Mike Padron: And I cannot take Scheffler or Reed, which I don't care about Reed for this one.

340 - > Mike Padron: Man, I totally would have gone Xander here, but he killed me last week. 341 - > Mike Padron: I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here. Which shouldn't be, but I gotta go, Bryson. 342 - > Mike Padron: I don't know why I'm feeling it.

I'm feeling it this week for him. 343 - > Jesse Stakes: He's gonna have a lot of short chips up at these greens, so he's not a bad pick. 344 - > Wes Altice: If he hits the driver, I… this reminds me of, like, what he did at Wingfoot a little bit. 345 - > Mike Padron: He's gotta get the driver going.

346 - > Wes Altice: Yeah. 347 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, it's gonna be… it's gonna be tough there for them. 348 - > Mike Padron: He's just gotta stay accurate, and he'll be… he should be okay. 349 - > Jesse Stakes: If he wins it, he might be able to name his price to come back.

350 - > Blakely: Yeah. 351 - > Mike Padron: That's true. 352 - > Blakely: I mean, I hope he goes out there and wins it. That was my pick.

353 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, then, 354 - > Mike Padron: Shoot. Alright, so, I'm kind of a loss for words here. Alright, so I'm stalling, as you can tell. 355 - > Mike Padron: So, let's go.

356 - > Jesse Stakes: That's what the edit button's for. 357 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotcha. 358 - > Mike Padron: I'm gonna go, dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it. 359 - > Mike Padron: Because Oberg was my next pick, and that was… that didn't last long.

360 - > Jesse Stakes: Love your preparation. 361 - > Mike Padron: I know, right? I literally had a… 362 - > Wes Altice: I was confident he wasn't gonna go that far. 363 - > Mike Padron: I had 6 guys, and all 6 were the 6 that were just taken.

364 - > Blakely: Guys. 365 - > Mike Padron: Yeah, thanks, man. Bye. 366 - > Mike Padron: Let's go… Let's go, JT.

367 - > Blakely: I'd love for that. 368 - > Blakely: I'mma go with ol' Tommy. 369 - > Blakely: I'm feeling good about him. 370 - > Mike Padron: Tommy's available for you, and he's yours.

371 - > Wes Altice: Mike, who did you take? Sorry, buddy, you broke up. Who'd you take? 372 - > Mike Padron: 50.

373 - > Wes Altice: Okay. 374 - > Mike Padron: It's a risky one, but he's… He's playing well. 375 - > Wes Altice: Alright, well… I'm gonna go… 376 - > Wes Altice: with a bomber here, this, this is gonna bite me in the ass. I'm gonna go Chris Goder up.

377 - > Mike Padron: That was the other one that I was sitting here Thinking of… That's a good pick, man. 378 - > Mike Padron: Alright, so Shelton, let's see if he has anybody left. If not, then you may have to use that edit button again, bud. Oh, he does have somebody left.

So… 379 - > Jesse Stakes: So… 380 - > Mike Padron: So Xander is available for him. 381 - > Mike Padron: Alright. Jesse. 382 - > Jesse Stakes: Is ROM still available?

383 - > Mike Padron: ROM is still available. 384 - > Jesse Stakes: I'm taking dairy. 385 - > Blakely: available. 386 - > Mike Padron: ROM is available, and then, let's see, does anybody left for Justin?

Nope, nobody's left for Justin, so give me one second. 387 - > Blakely: He was texting me earlier about Cam Smith, we could give him that. 388 - > Jesse Stakes: Give him Angel Arroya. 389 - > Wes Altice: Give him the winner of last… er, this last week.

390 - > Mike Padron: Who was… oh, Ray Ten? Ritin? 391 - > Wes Altice: Brayton. Yeah.

392 - > Blakely: And Rayton is rich. 393 - > Wes Altice: He's rich! 394 - > Blakely: I mean, He's rich! 395 - > Mike Padron: By the way, Jake, I was gonna say, he looks just like Jake Knapp, man, and he has the same Penguin shirt and everything, and Jake Knapp just withdrew while we were on this call, by the way.

Did he really? 396 - > Wes Altice: Oh, boy. 397 - > Mike Padron: Fleetwood Rory. 398 - > Mike Padron: Come on, Justin.

399 - > Wes Altice: road. 400 - > Mike Padron: Well, he has the last pick, so I'm gonna… I'm gonna give him somebody, you know. 401 - > Mike Padron: We'll figure it out, because there's nobody… it's not going to affect anybody else, so… We'll, we'll update him on the next, podcast, unless… before we get off here. 402 - > Jesse Stakes: Yep.

Dynamite day… Dynamite debut, Miguel. Dynamite debut. 403 - > Mike Padron: The bubbles are up, so we'll… go ahead, Jesse, we'll keep talking, I'll let you know who he picks. 404 - > Jesse Stakes: Well, I think that wraps us up there, boys.

405 - > Wes Altice: Very nice. 406 - > Jesse Stakes: So here's to a good week, I hope you guys enjoy watching it, and I appreciate you guys for joining and having this conversation. We'll catch you guys down the road. 407 - > Blakely: Good to see you.

408 - > Mike Padron: Alright, man. 409 - > Wes Altice: Cheers, gentlemen. 410 - > Mike Padron: Later.