United States Golf Association

Mike McCoy won the senior amateur last year, won the mid-amateur, past Walker Cup captain.

Gene Elliott has won USGA titles.

Got a phenomenal player, Nate Smith, who's just lost in the finals of the playoffs.

U.S. mid-amateur.

I don't think I believe that anymore.

Yeah, I think they're going to readdress it.

It's a blurry line, especially with NIL, but I think there's going to be something a little more concrete because right now it just seems like it's a complete judgment call on whoever gets in front of your app at the USGA.

Listen, I obviously love Colt.

It was basically we would get your practice tee time and such and such and you would just play.

So there wasn't any of that structure per se that was laid out for us so we just had to go and do what we were doing organically ourselves anyway the hardest thing was in Minneapolis in the early August the temperature was hot you know and we unlike the players now where they're exposed to playing in championships around the world we hadn't been exposed really to USGA you know spec course setup He was

just there moaning about the heat, basically.

We were trying to...

So...

nice easy question

sorry no so in terms of in terms of Stuart and I'm not I'm not massive on social media but I did know there was some heat on him but so Stuart I knew Stuart as an amateur because he went to Maynooth and Barry Fennelly who's the head of golf there is a good friend but he also played under me in the Palmer Cup team in 2016 at Formby Stuart didn't the pro life didn't work out for him and I don't know what he accumulated in all the 7 or 8 years that he played as a professional golfer but it wasn't much at all it wasn't much at all so he's came back into the amateur game and he's done well and he's you know the USGA and the R&A are the ones that with amateur status so that's something that I've really I don't really get drawn into commenting on in terms of in terms of in the states now and how how professional all the players are professional but with the nil money now you know players student athletes are getting paid an obscene amount of money an obscene amount of money so where does the amateur and professionals i don't know It's

changed, doesn't it? Because, I mean, there was a world where 50 years ago in the Walker Cup, you know, people would be going back and, you know, Monday they're being a solicitor again or a medic or whatever.

The big leap.

The USGA finally approved steel shafts in 1924, and the RNA follows across the pond in 1930.

And almost overnight, you have models like the 1924 Whistler that was designed by Alan Laird, and it dropped the driver shaft weight down to about 110 grams.

They nearly cut the weight in half.

But this hyper-optimization creates a massive regulatory nightmare.

Oh, I bet.

The governing bodies, the USGA and the R&A, already heavily police equipment to protect the integrity of the game.

For example, they strictly limit the trampoline effect of driver heads.

Mike McCoy won the senior amateur last year, won the mid-amateur, past Walker Cup captain.

Gene Elliott has won USGA titles.

Got a phenomenal player, Nate Smith, who's just lost in the finals of the playoffs.

U.S. mid-amateur.

I don't think I believe that anymore.

Yeah, I think they're going to readdress it.

It's a blurry line, especially with NIL, but I think there's going to be something a little more concrete because right now it just seems like it's a complete judgment call on whoever gets in front of your app at the USGA.

Listen, I obviously love Colt.

It always seems to work out for Augusta National, but they have been truly clairvoyant in terms of identifying places to go, plant a flag, be able to have the branding of the Masters surrounding it.

And let me give equal credit to the Open Championship, the USGA and their participation now with the Latin America Amateur Championship.

But the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship will start later on this week in New Zealand, being played on the south course of Terra Rai, which is a golf course designed by Bill Korn and Ben Crenshaw in New Zealand.

And by every single measure, I know the guys at Friday have done a deep dive on it.

Annika Sorensen is 50 years old.

She hasn't played a USGA championship in 13 years.

13.

She retired back in 2008, had two kids, built a business, and golf went from being her whole entire job to, you know, something she did on the side.

It's a fucking hit and giggle.

The USGA, I said this in a comment the other day, the USGA has their championships, which they're the biggest fucking douchebags in the game about setting up the conditions, looking to embarrassing golfers, enforcing the most minute thing of the rules, which at the US Open, it has to be done.

Filter down, fade out.

No, they go from the absolute douches to the fucking net USGA gin system, which is the biggest hit and giggle laughable system that I've ever seen in my life.

A plus four today would be a two back in the 90s and early 2000s.

It's so ridiculous.

That's fucking hand giggle.

But the voice of golfers are gone.

I'll give you another good example.

Um, There was a test that was done a couple of years ago, and the minimum size that the USGA allows is 1.680 inches.

It can be as big as you want.

It's got to fit in the hole, but it can't be any smaller than 1.68 inches, right? If it falls below that, you get delisted.