Smylie Kaufman Breaks Down Rory McIlroy's Recent Comments

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00:00There are recent comments from Rory McIlroy.

00:06So Kyle Porter used to work for CBS, did some fantastic golf coverage there, recently left,

00:11launched his own newsletter called Normal Sport.

00:13He's written a couple of books just kind of poking fun at the absurdity of the game of

00:17golf and all the situations it puts us in, using that sort of normal sport branding.

00:21It's now branched off to write his own newsletter called Normal Sport.

00:25Worthwhile read, opened up with the Rory McIlroy Q&A and now had a cool one this last week

00:30with Jamie Kennedy, who's produced a lot of stuff for the DP World Tour.

00:34And so as part of that Rory Q&A, near the end of it, Kyle kind of flipped it for Rory

00:39and said, hey, we do a lot of question asking of you.

00:44Is there anything you'd like to ask me or us as a member of the media?

00:48And I don't want to take Rory out of context here, so I'm just going to read you a collection

00:51of his thoughts on this topic.

00:53So Rory says, there's certain people in the game that I would say, how can I put this?

00:56We're all in this together, right?

00:57We're all in the game of golf together.

00:59We all want to push it forward.

01:00And I always wonder why some people in the media ask questions that have a negative connotation

01:04toward golf or make golf look bad or put it in a bad light.

01:08I get it.

01:09I get that it's human nature and negativity sells, and that's why CNN is the way it is.

01:13And that's why Fox News is the way it is and all that stuff.

01:16But if we're all in this together and we all know that we can benefit by raising the game

01:20up, some people in the media, I'd love to ask why their golf coverage is so negative.

01:24And he goes on to clarify that he's not he's not saying you can't critique someone for

01:28playing poorly.

01:29He says, so it messes up and you have to be critical of someone.

01:32Absolutely.

01:33I think that's a part of it.

01:34I think I, more than anyone, understand that.

01:36I know that not saying being critical players, I'm saying being critical of the overall game

01:41of golf.

01:42I think it's more to do with the coverage of, I guess it's true, but viewership's declining

01:46and this is bad and that's bad and they hate the fans and they hate this.

01:49I understand where they're coming from, but surely it's in everyone's best interest to

01:53focus on the positives of the game where recreational golf has never been better.

01:58There's more opportunities to play the game, just stuff like that.

02:01Sometimes I wonder what their incentive is to be so negative at times.

02:06A lot there to break down from Rory, but just, I think you're a perfect person to pose this

02:10to someone who's played on the PGA tour, who has won a PGA tour event, and now it holds

02:16a microphone and works these events on the media side.

02:20What are your initial reactions to what Rory said here?

02:24Well, you know, let's start with just live golf, right?

02:28Like before live golf was here, I think there was probably a way in which the tour was,

02:34they were set too much in their own ways, too much in the traditional golf, not wanting

02:38to really change.

02:40Live golf comes along, it totally bulldozes the traditional golf model.

02:46They've tried to reach an audience that wants change.

02:51They like to see things that are done a little differently.

02:53And so they have found an audience that does like this format, the shotgun start, 54 holes,

03:02everything that we knew about golf in just a different way.

03:06But where are we at right now in this game?

03:08And I think that's just from a network side and somebody that works for a network, we're

03:14just constantly looking at ratings, seeing that those are down.

03:18So naturally, they're trying to find a way it's like, okay, what's the easiest way to

03:23get ratings up?

03:24It's like, well, you try to get the best players playing together.

03:27And so the from a player side, that's what Rory McIlroy, he's trying to do more of he

03:32wants for the schedule to be a little bit more diverse and global.

03:37From a monetary financial standpoint, could be a bit of an issue, the more global you

03:41get, the PGA Tours found a way to have these guys playing for a lot of money.

03:48And that's where I kind of am going to leave this conversation on this is that the players,

03:53they're getting paid more than they ever have.

03:56You can look at it in every bucket.

03:57I think that the live golf players, heck, yeah, they're talking great about the live

04:02golf tour.

04:03You know why?

04:04They're getting paid a lot of money, more double, triple, quadruple more than they've

04:08ever made.

04:10And the ratings don't say that they should be making that much.

04:13So it's a bubble that we're kind of dealing with right now.

04:16We have PGA Tour players that are making absurd amount of money.

04:21And whether you think they should be making that much and that the ratings and what we

04:26should probably judge based off of how many people are actually watching.

04:31And is this sustainable long term as far as what these purses are asking or excuse me,

04:37what these purses are given out to the PGA Tour players and what these sponsors on the

04:43PGA Tour are getting in return to go to say a Wells Fargo and say, you know what, if you're

04:49going to be our title sponsor, we're going to need you've given us $10 million a year,

04:54but this purse actually needs to be 25 now.

04:56And let's say the ones that have been 20 and trying to get that extra $4 million.

05:01And what are you getting?

05:02You're getting the exact same.

05:04There's no value adds besides, you know, just saying that, hey, instead of that Rory

05:10McIlroy wasn't going to be at your event, we can guarantee you that these guys are going

05:14to be there.

05:15But it's still a game that is it's still got a kink in the armors at the professional level.

05:22So I can understand why Rory's like everybody needs to be nicer about where the game of

05:28golf is and that it is a great game.

05:30But we're a podcast.

05:32We get to, we get to talk about how, how feelings are from the fan side and, and that all the

05:39things that do need to get fixed, because guess what they do.

05:44And we're going to keep talking about them.

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