00:00Or just the relationship with the DP World Tour is what you're saying.
00:03I'm saying specifically the top 10 finishers on the race to Dubai
00:07getting promoted to the PGA Tour.
00:09That specific alliance, as far as what I'm reading, expires in 2027.
00:14Obviously dovetails perfectly with the start of this new structure in 2028.
00:18So I'd assume that.
00:20You'd assume that.
00:21Yeah, they'll take the top player to the championship series
00:23and then 2 through 10 will go to the challenger or something.
00:27Yeah.
00:27And that's maybe an episode for another day
00:30because I've seen some posting about this on social media
00:33and writing about this of just where is this place,
00:36the DP World Tour, and the grand ecosystem here?
00:40Their challenger series is what they are.
00:43And are they okay with that?
00:45Are they okay with the optics on that?
00:46I think they kind of have to be, but I think at the same time,
00:49there are a lot of players that are proud of the history of that tour
00:52and what it represents.
00:53And I think net-net going to play those,
00:57sending more guys to play those events in the fall,
00:59it's another thing you and I have talked about for a couple years.
01:02That's intriguing venues, events with history.
01:05We've heard both Rory and Matt Fitzpatrick talk about that
01:07in the past few weeks.
01:08There are some events there that are far more interesting
01:11from a venue perspective and a competition perspective
01:14than some of the events we play in America.
01:15So it's good to do that, but it is interesting that the heartbeat of that tour,
01:20the rank-and-file membership,
01:21less opportunities to play their way on the tour in 2028.
01:25The last thing I'll say on this,
01:26the one thing I wanted to tee you up on this is,
01:28I thought it was interesting hearing Matt McNeely talk about
01:32200-plus members now know their full schedule on January 1st.
01:37Right?
01:38That's a huge, huge detail as a player.
01:41It is, and I think a lot of these players coming from the DP World Tour,
01:47from the Korn Ferry Tour, they get to the PGA Tour and they see,
01:51okay, Aeon, Swing 5, Next 10.
01:53Okay, what does that even mean?
01:56If I play good, do I get into these?
01:59It's like, actually, no.
02:00If you play good enough, you don't get in the first two signature events.
02:04You might get into the third one.
02:05And it's like, okay, and wait, so I played one week
02:10and then I have to sit three weeks off?
02:12That kind of stinks.
02:12This was like, remember Pierce and Cootie at the beginning of the year?
02:15He plays well early, and then they have the two signature events stacked.
02:19It's like, guess what, bud?
02:21Congrats.
02:21You got your PGA Tour card.
02:23You play great.
02:23You have to play six weeks in a row now.
02:25And then decide whether or not you want to play.
02:27He was burnt out, man.
02:28He stopped playing good because he played so much.
02:30You got the weak opera cogs and then right back in the mix in the Florida swing.
02:34Like, that's difficult.
02:35That's really, really difficult.
02:37The other thing, too, that makes me excited for professional golfers
02:41is that it felt like we kept shrinking the amount of opportunities on the PGA Tour.
02:48And the Corn Fairy Tour has gone to less cars coming to the PGA Tour.
02:52It's never been more difficult to get from Q School out to the PGA Tour.
02:57You have the America's Tour, which is probably the most expensive endeavor
03:01of any professional player's life to try to travel to Latin America and Canada
03:06to play that tour to play for a whole lot of nothing.
03:09But now that we look at the entire ecosystem,
03:12we have 120 to 130 possible players playing on the championship series,
03:17playing for the most amount of money.
03:19You have the Challenger Series.
03:21It has 144 potential players, assuming that the Corn Fairy Tour is going to remain intact.
03:29That's around 144 players.
03:32Let's say the America's Tour continues on.
03:35Well, even before that, the DP World Tour,
03:39typically that would be 144 players.
03:42And then you go into the America's Tour, you start to look at it.
03:44It's like, OK, we're getting...
03:46And that's without even mentioning Liv.
03:49That is, who knows if they will continue on.
03:52But if they do, it's another place for professional golfers to make a living,
03:57which I've argued that the Corn Fairy Tour players have not made enough money.
04:03They've had their cards shrunk.
04:05And the pathways to get to the PGA Tour,
04:09you could do it if you were a top-end college player to kind of skip a step,
04:13which has been, I think, a healthy change.
04:16You know, that's not something that was around, you know, seven, eight years ago.
04:20And so that's been good.
04:21We've gotten good young talent on the Tour quicker.
04:25But, you know, now in this system here,
04:28it feels like to me that the Challenger Series, by the way,
04:33seven, I think seven of those weeks throughout the year,
04:37they're going to be up against their track, the Championship Series events.
04:40So you'll have to make a decision which one you want to watch.
04:43And we've talked about this before of, like, hey, if it's, you know,
04:47if it's an interesting storyline at a golf course that you're familiar with,
04:50a venue that you're familiar with, that would be fun to watch.
04:54Now, the other interesting thing, too, is that the Challenger Series,
04:58real quick, is that they will have, I believe,
05:01on some of these off weeks in the Championship Series,
05:03will get bumped up the network.
05:06That's exactly what I was going to say.
05:07Yeah, I'm glad you did it.
05:08That's kind of how I think they juice, you know, this product to, you know,
05:15some of the sponsors or tournaments that want to feel still elevated.
05:20You know, there's plenty of track two events that we already have on our tour.
05:24I mean, John Deere is probably the best example of a golf tournament
05:28that these players love to play in,
05:30but it still has a venue that we're so familiar with.
05:32It's so well-supported, and it'd be great to see it still on, you know, on CBS
05:37or if it's on NBC, whatever it is.
05:40It's that, that's the more important things for sponsors
05:44is that they feel like they're, you know, still making it to that network.
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