Quiet Please Golf Podcast Episode 142: YouTube Golf and TGL Put Players in Focus

Kevin Hart getting 50 shots against Grant Horvat gave us plenty to work with on Tuesday’s Quiet Please Golf Podcast. I had watched the match, which reached the 16th hole before Horvat won, and found it thoroughly entertaining. The attraction was watching two very different golfers make that unlikely arrangement work.

That conversation eventually took us to TGL and the opportunity ahead for WTGL. Whether we were talking about a celebrity match or players interacting with spectators at SoFi Center, I kept coming back to how much more interesting golf becomes when we get to know the people playing it.

Episode 142, streamed Oct. 13, was our first live broadcast with Athlon Sports. Allen DePuy, Bob Baldassari, Andy Hydorn and I also worked through the fall calendar, LIV Golf’s proposed next version and a charity scramble that left Bob wondering what a 48 was worth. We had plenty of golf to discuss before anybody reached YouTube.

The Fall Still Carries a Price

I opened the tour discussion with the events in Japan and Utah and the players still working to secure their opportunities for next season. It is easy to stop following closely after the Tour Championship. For golfers trying to maintain their playing position, that is an expensive part of the calendar to overlook.

Tony Finau became the example that held our attention. Andy questioned the distance between Finau’s positive public assessments and the struggles he was seeing, while acknowledging that talking positively can be part of a player’s process. Bob approached it through the swing, discussing how a short, quick motion can become shorter and quicker when a player struggles.

A familiar name does not make a difficult stretch easier to understand.

I am cautious about turning those observations into a diagnosis. A player can describe feeling better without having the results to show it yet, and the rest of us do not have his full picture. What we could discuss was how hard it is to stay near the top, and how uncomfortable it becomes when confidence and performance stop moving together.

The women’s schedule remains busy, too, with the Asian swing leading toward The ANNIKA and the season-ending championship. I also raised Brooks Koepka’s scheduling choices, which prompted a discussion about access, playing opportunities and the difficulty of choosing where to compete. We could weigh those considerations without pretending to know his thinking.

LIV’s Anchor Players and Everyone Behind Them

Our recurring last LIV report acquired another extension. Andy’s discussion of LIV Golf 2.0 centered on the importance of recognizable players to a proposed relaunch. The underlying concern was what a changed league might mean for players with fewer alternatives.

There is a concrete development behind the Jon Rahm discussion. Golf Monthly, citing The Athletic’s court reporting, reported Oct. 7 that Rahm’s attorney said he would not participate in LIV 2.0. That establishes his position on the proposed new league; it does not settle every remaining contract question or where he will play next.

Andy compared a league losing its leading names to a shopping mall losing its anchor stores. The smaller businesses depend on the traffic those anchors generate. Applied to golf, his analogy put the attention on the less prominent players whose next competitive home may be harder to find.

Kevin Hart Makes a Useful Case For YouTube Golf

I watch plenty of YouTube golf, and Hart’s match was one of several examples I brought to the table. LeBron James and Bronny James appearing with Bob Does Sports, and Random Golf Club’s challenges with golfers found off the street, offer very different ways into the game. Their appeal comes from the guests, the conversation and the situation they are playing through.

Andy particularly enjoys the matches between Riggs and his online critics. Bob’s interest runs toward seeing players relaxed enough to reveal something beyond their tournament manner. He compared that access to NFL Films bringing viewers closer to the people inside the helmets.

Giving Hart 50 shots makes the premise clear before the first swing.

That was the kind of creator golf our group preferred to another event trying to look like a conventional tournament. There is room for excellent golf, an uneven matchup and a bad hole that everyone saw coming. Viewers can enjoy the competition while learning whether they actually like spending time with the people on screen.

The TGL Detail That Stayed With Me

My visits to SoFi Center have given me a similar reason to be enthusiastic about TGL. The scoreboard prompts, the crowd interaction and the heartbeat sound as the shot clock runs down are all part of an experience built around an arena. The players still have to hit the shots.

The proximity is what I keep talking about. I described watching players engage with their fan sections and toss balls into the crowd, close enough that the exchange felt immediate. Those moments give spectators something to remember about a player beyond the result of his next swing.

After attending WTGL’s media day, I see an opportunity for LPGA Tour players to make those connections, too. On the show, I tied that directly to our YouTube discussion: a different setting can let fans see personalities that tournament coverage does not always have time to explore. That is the possibility behind my enthusiasm for WTGL.

The men’s expansion supplied another reason to watch. TGL’s Oct. 5 announcement confirmed Jackson Koivun joining Brooks Koepka on Motor City Golf Club’s inaugural 2027 roster. I am particularly interested in seeing what Koivun brings to that environment, while Andy likes having a competitive team format that can develop its own character.

A 48 Looses and Winter Golf Gets Company

Bob’s charity-scramble story took us back to golf that most people can enter. He said his group shot 48 after using the event’s paid extras and finished behind a 43. That sent the discussion into what happens when strings, mulligans and other purchases complicate the competition.

Andy would rather raise the entry fee and simplify the golf. I understand the attraction of giving a fundraiser several ways to collect money, but players should be able to understand how a winning score was produced. Bob’s account alone cannot establish whether another group followed the rules.

He also described new Golfzon simulators and leagues at the Woodford Club as a way to keep golfers together through difficult weather. I previewed a planned media visit to Firefly outside Nashville to see Andrew Green’s course design work. Both were useful departures from the tour discussion, with golf to play rather than another result to debate.

Cole Hammer Gives the Fall Pressure a Face

Andy’s closing thoughts returned us to the cost of a few places on a points list. Cole Hammer finished the Korn Ferry Tour Championship tied for 43rd after a final-round 73 and ended the season No. 22. The top 20 on the season-long points list earned PGA Tour membership for 2027, leaving Hammer two positions outside that route to a card.

Andy described following Hammer’s projected position as it moved during the closing round. That is a difficult way to watch a season end, with a player’s immediate future being recalculated while he is still on the course. The final number can tell us where he finished; it cannot tell us how he will respond.

My own closing contribution concerned a student beginning to accept smaller gains instead of demanding perfection. The instruction I had given him was deliberately modest.

“We’re just looking for a little bit each day.”

PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.