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But the host of our Dynamic Golf show, It is a Dynamic golf show Utah Golf Radio every Saturday is Paul Pugmyer and he joins us Sunday Friday afternoon Hello, Paul.

How are you, sir?

Doing great spance?

How you doing?

I'm good.

I'm good.

So this will not surprise you.

I've been kind of dialed into football and basketball and it is kind of the officers and in the world of golf right now.

So I just want to ask you what's kind of catching your eye right now?

What are golf fans focused on as we have moved into kind of the quiet time on the PGH Tour.

Yeah, it's the FedEx Fall season right now, the Fall Series they call it, and it is seven tournaments in the Fall that include pardoning that includes the Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert a couple of weeks ago, and those seven tournaments are targeted for the players who are fighting for position outside of the top fifty, fighting for their cards to be into the top one hundred, and so there's a lot of really interesting human stories going on right now of guys fighting for their cards, for their jobs for next year, or trying to improve their status for next year in these FedEx Fall Cup series.

And what's really fun about it is that there are two Utah players that are certainly in that discussion, most certainly Patrick Fishburn, who currently sits at number one four on the FedEx Cup point list.

He needs to play his way into number one hundred in the next this week, in the next two weeks in order to have full status on the tour next year.

And then Zach Blair, who has really taken a hit this year on his FedEx Cup standing.

He's nonetheless playing these tournaments and trying to work his way up into the top one fifty.

For Zach really because he needs that to get conditional status for next year.

He currently sits at one sixty seven.

So those are our guys who are in on this fall series and the stories that are so layered and interesting.

There are dozens of really great stories out there.

The leader of the tournament right now down in Mexico, Nick Dunlop, he is one of these stories.

So that's let's see we've got Well, we're in Cabo.

Why I'd like to be there.

I wouldn't mind covering this event down in Cabo Flied Technology Championship.

I will not try to pronounce the name of the golf course, but tell us about what you know about the track and why we should be paying attention to this event and it looks like there's some big names in there.

I see a Ben Griffin creeping a little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there's names in there that are trying to get themselves into the top sixty.

They've missed down on the moment to make the top fifty.

That window closed with the Tour Championship, but they're trying to get into the top sixty.

And the top sixties still gets you into half of the elevated events.

The signature events next year gets you into the Players Championship if you don't already have a ticket to that, and so there are are big name players looking to do that.

Nick Dunlop is really an interesting name.

He currently leads the tournament, but he comes into it.

And this is the kid who won a couple of years ago as a college junior, as an amateur, he won down in Palm Springs while on the PGA Tour wall and amateur, and so he took the opportunity that was given him to turn pro and to use the status that he gained with that victory.

But he hasn't made much use of it.

He hasn't done very well since he currently comes into the this week ranks number one, forty five, and if he wins, it jumps him all the way to seventy one, which is well within the top one hundred, and secures his card for next year.

So that's kind of interesting.

This golf course is a tiger Woods design.

It is a resort course, and like many resort courses, it's got very wide accepting fairways because it has to be not only a championship facility, but also it's got to be a place where resort travelers can play.

The fairways are wide and accepting, but the green complexes are challenging.

That's the nature of this kind of course.

Nick Dunlop comes into this event the worst driver statistically on the PGA Tour.

He hit every fairway yesterday, shot sixty one and played himself into the lead.

He's currently seven under on today's round.

He's continuing to play well and so he seems to have figured out his driver, at least for a day or two.

See there's a tournament in Abu Dhabi where Tobby fed Would and Shane Lowery are going out it do any of these guys take like weeks and weeks off.

I mean, look, I always.

Hesitate to be the guy like Hey, when I play golf, it's a different thing for us that are normal as opposed to these guys.

But I feel like if I don't swing a club for a couple of weeks, I'm starting over in a way.

So I understand that you want to stay, you know, make sure the swing is taken care of, and you don't want to lose form.

But you know, with all these guys playing these tournaments who ultimately feel like they're kind of solidified with not just their status but big time tournament wins, I mean, do any of these guys just like get gone for a while and take legitimate time off.

Yes, they do, normally in stretches of two maybe three weeks of time, rather than longer than that.

And part of the reason is exactly as you say.

You don't want to be away from it too long or you lose your form.

More especially, you lose the very subtle, nuanced nature of feeling in your fingers for chipping and putting for short shots, and I mean the swings are grooved these guys.

It is staying with really precise control of the club face on little short shots.

The taking longer than that generally you don't see too much of it for this particular week at Abi Dhabi.

There, it is a terrific field.

It's a better field, you know, this European Tour DP World Tour event.

Normally PGA Tour events are better fields, but this week, certainly the DP World Tour event over in Abu Dhabe is a much better field.

But a lot of those players candidly probably are getting appearance fees for showing up, especially this time of year.

But whatever works, I'm fine with that.

This is a good field over there.

You've got Fleetwood and Lowry slugging it down at the top.

McElroy was working just a few shots back.

That's fun to watch.

So there's I don't know if it's a report or it's just a potential here, but I'm pulling up the PGA Tour page on eSPI dot com and there's a piece on the potential of Tiger playing on the Champions Tour.

He turns fifty on December thirtieth, and obviously there's a there's a quote from the president of the Champions Store that's like, yeah.

We'd like to have him.

Oh you don't you don't say, sir, you don't you don't say I believe it's Miller Brady, who's the president of the PGA Champions Tour.

You know, I just kind of wonder what you make of this.

As you know, unfortunately Unstrack, I've lost track of how many injuries and surgeries that he's had.

To go through.

The Golf Channel did some sort of like fun little three D thing.

It's something like twenty nine different injuries and surgeries.

So would this be an admission from a guy that is as competitive of an athlete, not just a golfer, as we'd ever seen, that it's time to move into what I call the fall all of his story career.

Yeah, fall is a totally apropos word.

Let's let's go with that.

And it's been an interesting progression and devolution on this particular conversation.

When Tiger was in his forties is when it first came up.

And you know, keep in mind, he was in his forties when he won in twenty nineteen at Augusta, and you look back at those pictures and there's so many things that gets your attention, but one is he was cut.

He was really looking strong, and you know, the talk at the time was there's no possible way Tiger would consider the Champions Tour, it would be a step down, a diminution, It would be demeaning to him.

That conversation has changed.

Tiger has changed in his in his interactions with certainly his peers, he's become more friendly, more collegial, more involved, and certainly with the public as well, he's become more accessible and more interactive.

The other thing that's really at work here is there's two other things.

First of all, exactly what you say, who can even count the surgeries and the injuries.

I can't.

It's just constant, and I think that has changed Tiger's view of mortality, if you will, his view of being a part of everybody else who has aches and pains, and changed his views of what he can and cannot do.

The second thing at work, I really see a progression of him wanting to be involved with his friends, his colleagues, his competitors that he grew up playing with and against.

They're playing on the Champions Tour, and I think the more that he sees good friends like Ernie El's Red Couples, players like that playing on the Champions Tour and them saying come play with us, Tiger, it becomes a little more possible each day.

Plus on the Champions Tour, if a player chooses to, the player has the option of riding in a cart, and that may be simply necessary for Tiger to play in most cases fifty four holes, so three days in a row, and in some cases seventy two holes, so four days in a row.

He might need a cart in order to do it.

And with that he might say, you know, I want to go play with my friends.

I can't wait to see what happens.

Well, there could be worse things to spend your you know, fall and winter of your life than you know, either playing on the Champions Tour or just or just being Tiger Woods.

I mean, he should enjoy, you know, this final portion of his competitive life, no matter how it looks.

Let me let me move over here.

You know, I told you, and I thought you were going to be mad at me.

But I attended a live golf event in Indianapolis this last year.

I went to the one in Vegas this year.

I wanted to see it.

I think that's great.

Yeah, And you know it was at the invitation of Scott O'Neill, who was the president of Madison Square Gardens Sports from two thousand and eight to twenty twelve.

Scott is also a convert to the LDS faith, and my family knows him well, and so I had a chance to speak with him quite a bit, and I tried to take.

My media hat off.

I'm not very good at that, and so I was kind of peppering them a little bit about how committed they are just to stay in the course.

And it's pretty clear that, you know, not only are they looking to remain relevant, they want to grow and they believe in their model.

Now they have made a decision to move the seventy two holes, which aligns them, I believe, with just more of the traditional approach.

Is this a play to get their players back in the World Golf rankings?

Mix or what do you make of the decision by Live to go to seventy two.

It's absolutely a play, a step to get World Golf ranking points.

It's not the step, it's a step, and I'll come back to that in a minute.

It also is a reaction to the marketplace, both the marketplace of you and me out here people who are consuming the product and talking about it, and the marketplace internally.

There's a lot of talk about John Rahm putting a lot of pressure on the Live organization to go to seventy two holes.

Look, we've talked about this before.

Seventy two holes with a hard path to get in and an even harder path to stay in with a cut is the tried and true and proven format that best identifies a champion.

There.

It's not an accident that every single major championship of any kind seventy two holes with a cut, hard to get in, harder to stay in.

That's the model that has proved it self.

So Live going to seventy two holes absolutely is a step toward getting World Golf ranking points.

The bigger step will be this whole point of hard to get in, hard to stay in, relegation, a clear pathway to play your way onto the Live Tour, and relegation that which means, to say, a difficult pathway to stay on the tour.

We just at the top of this of this segment, we're talking about all the PGA Tour players and all the interesting stories of players trying to get that top one hundred to get their status for next year so they are not relegated, and Live doesn't have that as much that's one thing they really need to address in order to get their World Golf points World Golf Ranking points.

And then there is another thing that so far O'Neil has said they're just not willing to talk about, and that's the shotgun start.

You can run a championship tournament with some leaders finishing on hoole a other leaders finishing on whole by all at the same time cannot happen.

And until they address the shotguns start, I don't think they will be fully, fully integrated and fully able to get the world ranking points.

But they are taking steps toward that, no doubt, and I do think they're getting a lot of pressure internally from their top players.

Look, John rom has become largely invisible, which is sad and a loss for everybody in the game of golf by every measure.

I miss seeing Jen Ron play week to week.

But they the bed they made.

I think they're trying to climb out of it step by step right now.

You know, as we look back on I don't know what is it four years ago, lived four or five years ago, something like that, and you know when when when it initially came down it listed, it's so much anger from so many people.

And it's simple because so many people love the tour and so many people love golf, and it's like this, and I've only learned this since I started leaning into the coverage over the past few years, just how much this game and this sport means to people.

And it's there's almost like this reverence for it in a way that if you're disruptive of it, people are just going to come at you.

And so of course a lot of people went right at Phil right away.

And then the book came out and it's like, Okay, he's a gambling degenerate that needs the cash to pay off these bookies or whatever.

And I don't think it was taken I'll just speak for myself.

I don't think it was taken seriously as a threat initially.

And then when you really fully.

Understand the power of the purse and the public, you know, the pif for whatever in the Saudi's being involved, and just how deep those pockets are, you started hearing these rumors that it could be this golfer, that golfer.

Then suddenly DJ was the one where I was like, oh, dude, no, they're taking away like golfers that I really like to watch.

And then throughout the course of the you know, ensuing years, it's Brooks Keopka, it's Major Champions, it's John Rahm, and they do have a decent roster of talent at their disposal.

And you know, at the time, and Phil has kind of proven to be correct, he wanted to do this as a direct shot of the PGA Tour so they would make adjustments, and they actually have with these elevated events and bigger purses.

But beyond that, is there anything Live has that you believe is something the PGA Tour should look at.

Is there anything they do that you actually think they get right that the PGA Tour does not.

When I visited the live event in Vegas, one thing that struck me was how absolutely superb, excellent, top notch they were at putting on the event.

It was it was branded, it is decorated, it was signing the sign which was so good everywhere.

The experience for the fans was up there with my previous leader in the clubhouse, which was an NBA All Star Game.

This is at the level of an NBA All Star Game, and they do it every single tournament.

That's one thing.

The other thing that Live really has leaned into and succeeded well at is going to markets, especially international markets that have been just so thirsty for golf and so eager to see top level golf.

And what really comes to mind is what they've done down in Australia.

Now, granted it's a it's a brutal flight from the States to Australia, but nonetheless that is a great market of great golf fans.

There's great golf history in Australia, and Live going there was a very masterful move The PGA Tour should have been doing.

That.

You hear about the possibility of a merger between Live and the DP World Tour.

That's what that will be built on, that international marketing, that international tournament stageing, if that merger comes about, which I think is a distinct possibility.

Those are the two things that Live really got right.

Oh and another one comes to mind as well.

In my mind, the biggest failure of the PGA Tour of ecosystem, which includes all of their developmental tours, is that developmental players can go broke.

They can come away with lifelong debt simply trying to develop themselves as a professional athlete.

No other sport does that.

Minor league baseball players don't get rich, but they do have a salary, they can pay the rent, they can drive a car, they know what they know, They have an income of the year.

The developmental leagues, the minor leagues of golf don't have that, and and Live provides that for the people in their in their league if you're among the very few who are able to be on a team.

So Live got that right as well.

All right, I have a random question for you, and I'm going to catch you off guard a little bit, but I want your knee jerk reaction because I was thinking about this.

I mean, it is the Fall Time Fall Series of the PGA Tour, and you know there are only so many topics we can milk.

Uh, So if I asked you, off the top of your head, give me.

I'm going to say three, because I think five would be a stretch.

Top three golfers in the history of our state either they have ties here, they live here, they played here.

Top three golfers Utah all time.

Oh, Johnny Miller, Billy Casper, and George von ell.

Atally smokes, Okay, then then then I'm going to stretch it to five.

At five, Dan Forsman and Mike Reed.

I don't know who these people are, d d well.

Dan Forsman a four time winner on the PGA Tour and he's an Arizona guy, but he married a Utah woman and settled in Utah.

And Foresman is a fascinating guy.

I've enjoyed so much getting to know him.

He shows up very incognito and follows the final match of the State Am every year, regardless of where it is.

He just walks along and sees these guys play and doesn't make a big deal about it.

But when you talk to him, he says, anybody who makes it this far deserves the respect of me coming to watch him.

And Dan Forsman is a great guy.

Four time winner on the PGA Tour.

Mike Reed was an All American at BYU.

He was a a four or five time winner on the PGA Tour, nearly won the Masters, nearly won the PGA Championship, uh and then ended up winning majors on the Senior Tour.

Very cool, uh is Tony Closer and Closer Absolutely Okay.

The the the all all five of those names I gave you are their their careers are complete.

We know exactly what their whole career is, including especially in the case of my Creed, their senior tournament.

They're there, they're champions tour record.

And in the case of course of Billy Casper and George von Elm uh there they have long since passed away.

Tony Fenow is a young man.

We we don't know what his career in totality will be that even at this young age, he is already on the page for this discussion.

He's won six times on the PGA Tour.

He has not won a major obviously, Von elm Casper and Miller all one majors.

So but yeah, Tony, if you were to raise it to six, Tony is number six.

He's knocking on the door.

Can't wait to see what he does in the next few years.

Man, it's gonna be cool.

Before we find out what is on the show tomorrow, Let's get an update.

Say, and I was texting with Easton Folster about this.

The Ridge, the Ridge golf course in West Valley, you know, the the wing point right out at the airport.

We already lost that course a number of years ago.

And you know I'm on this I'm on this quest a hashtag shrink the game.

I know that I'm alone on this because I'm sick of all of these five hour round six hour rounds and the inability to get tea times.

And when we lost the course out at the airport, it just made the other courses, you know, jam packed in a way that I think the ridge would kind of add the same effect.

We don't need less.

So what's going on here?

And how can our listeners get involved?

They can get involved by letting the City of West Valley, particular, the elected officials in West Valley know that they care and know that they don't want the ridge closed.

The city manager at City of West Valley has decided that the way he will address some budget challenges is to sell the ridge to developers.

And so you know whatever that means, I mean, we know what it likely means.

The ridge is right there in the Mountain View Corridor on the west side, the high growth area, one of the highest growth areas in urban environments around the world, and the land is very valuable.

Yeah it is, well, you know what else is valuable?

Central Park.

Don't sell Central Park the ridge.

The ridge is They are seriously considering they being the elected officials and their management, the leadership of West Valley City are seriously considering selling the ridge to address some budget challenges.

It would be a short term fix to a problem with other things options available, it would be a long term loss, and you are one correct, it would have a damaging effect on golf courses all over the valley.

All right, Paul, before I set you loose, what comes our way.

On another edition of Utah Golf Radio tomorrow.

Morning, we continue our tour through Players of the Year.

It is awards season and so we'll be talking with some of the awards recipients from a Player of the Year awards from the Utah Golf Association.

Plus, we're going to have a conversation been looking forward to this.

We're going to have a conversation with Dave Sedlowski, one of the legendary writers from Golf Digest.

He was at Black Desert, he was there for the Bank of Utah Championship and we're going to get his take from his vantage point on what it was like to be at that tournament on that course.

Paul, thank you, my friend, for the time.

Have a great weekend.

I have a great show and try to get out before these snowfalls.

Okay, I know, right, Thanks, that's right, all right, Paul plugmyer Utah Golf Radio.

We are going to call an audible because Trevor Riley is a real life batman and we don't know where he is.

We hope he's okay.

He's now responding to our phone calls.

We're hoping to have Trevor liven studio during the four o'clock hour, but we will shift gears and talk more Big twelve and Utah football and BYU football will get you ready for Utah Texas Tech with Kevin Reynolds from the Salt Lake Tribune, and maybe we'll hear from Trevor between now and then.

You never know.

Keep it here on ESPN seven hundred