Latest / Let's Go Low / Emily Nowak: Internet Invitational, TGL Season 3 and Q-School (Radio Ep 37)

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Emily Nowak: Internet Invitational, TGL Season 3 and Q-School (Radio Ep 37) · Let's Go Low

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Let's Go Low Show with your host, Jeff Stanislow, and brought to you by Golfers Unite, the show for true lovers of golf. The early tee times, the pure strikes, the clutch putts, and the never ending chase of going lower, where we share your passion, and we're bringing the heat from the first tee to the final putt. This is where golf lives. It's the Let's Go Low Show. Now your host, Jeff Stanislow.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: What up, my golfers? Jeff from Golfers Unite. I am back after a much needed couple weeks vacation hosting the Let's Go Low Radio Show right here on AM 08:20. I hope you guys enjoyed, Mike Hicks, Payne Stewart's former caddy, and Emily Nowak with Golfers Unite and Fairway Fam Club. I heard she did a great job stepping in.
• 0:53
  Thanks again, Emily, for helping out.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Yep. Of course. I had a great time. I was planning on being with with Mike. We had some good guests on.
• 1:00
  It was a great time kinda stepping into your shoes for a couple weeks.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And you do a good job. I'm I'm I'm really excited about direction that we're going here on the radio show and and the the folks in Tampa. You know, part of doing something is doing it consistently and doing it for a long enough time where people, you know, can understand and resonate, you know, with what you're trying to accomplish. You know?
• 1:25
  She's very rarely the one and done success story. So we are almost 40 episodes, forty weeks of our Golfers Unite show, and very excited about that. We're coming into our home stretch of the holiday season. And so this this week, we're gonna talk about some things that are hot right now kind of during the off season of golf and... Which is the Internet Invitational.
• 1:52
  And then we got... We're gonna talk a little bit about the TGL today, which is kinda like filling filling that gap between the golf season and the start of the golf season. So both of those, excuse me, accomplished those tasks. So, Emily, thanks again for joining us, and let's start with kind of, the Internet Invitational. This thing came out of nowhere, a couple years ago and it took the Internet by storm.
• 2:23
  Why don't you tell us, like, who's behind it? You know, your thoughts on it just, like, from a raw perspective. Do you like it? Do you not like it? You know?
• 2:32
  It's okay.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I love it. I think that more people want to see nonprofessionals playing golf. They like seeing those people who just are a little bit better than average, and some of those guys are a lot better than average, They're not professionals, and that's the big thing. I think that that's what people are really into right now.
• 2:49
  There's always kind of been like that argument with the Olympics. They wanna see amateurs against the Olympic athletes. I kind of feel like we're seeing that a little bit. We're seeing these amateur golfers playing, yeah, playing for big money like the the pros. But, yeah, the Internet Invitational was put on by Barstool, and this year's Bob Does Sports is putting it on as well.
• 3:10
  And we have everybody. We have Paige Spironic, Grant Horvath, Wesley Bryan, and then Dave Portnoy, who... I don't if you've seen his golf swing.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Presidente.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Not much of a golfer, but he is the commissioner. And so, yeah, he he obviously keeps things interesting.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: And they got Kisner out there. Right?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yep. They... Yeah. So
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: PGA Pro is kinda doing the rules thing, keeping everybody in check and stuff.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, it's a it's a great event. I guess Caitlin Clark was supposed to play this year.
• 3:41
  I don't know if she's been out there at all, but, yeah, they they were supposed to have her out there this year. Was what I heard, but I haven't seen anything.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: They film it in mid August, and they host it at Big Cedar, which is a fantastic resort. I was blessed to go to Big Cedar this late spring, played Paynes Valley, played Buffalo Ridge. I mean, what a resort that place is. I have a friend, the Slices Right, on social media channels that actually works out there. They make all the employees sign NDAs that are out there when they're doing the actual tournament.
• 4:21
  Right? Because they gotta come back and do production. You know? And Barstool's gotta do their thing. Bobsport's gotta do their things.
• 4:28
  They gotta get it all produced, and then they... It takes a couple months to do that. And that's why we're right in the thick of the season. Right? But we had episode one and episode two hit last week.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Yep. Yep. And, yeah, it's it's fun watching those guys out there. So just to give you a little bit of a rundown, so Grant Horvath is a plus 1.9 handicap. Paige Speranic, I think she's our lowest at plus 2.4.
• 4:53
  So She's that good.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I think she's...
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: She is a player. I mean, I follow her. She has a page on the course page as well, so you can go actually watch her play golf. I mean, played d one college golf. She's a great golfer.
• 5:08
  So I think she might be the low at plus point two four, but they're not playing like a tour course like you said. This is a course that you can just go out and play yourself. It's kind of fun. You can watch the Internet Invitational, go out to the Big Cedar Lodge and go out there and play yourself and kind of see how you stack up against them. This
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: is Jeff Stanisl. You're listening to another great episode of Let's Go Low right here on AM eight twenty, Tampa Bay. We appreciate all the support and love there. This episode is brought to you by Golfers Unite, golfersunite.com. Check it out for the hookups on great golf deals, the down low for rates on golf courses, and the read, which is kind of our aggregated news feed channel where you can go to the read at golfers unite and get all your golf news instead of trying to chase everything down on x and wherever you guys get your news sources.
• 6:03
  So golfersunite.com. Membership is free. We do have a premium membership if you want access to our special deals. Go to golfersunite.com. It's only $30 for the year.
• 6:15
  If you buy a couple things from us, you'll save that $30 in, you know, an order or two. So, anyways, Emily, back to the Internet Invitational. So this year was kinda heartwarming. And, you know, prior to getting on the air this morning, we were talking about Cody Beef, who was one of the Internet Invitational stars in its first episode. And, unfortunately, he passed away.
• 6:40
  And you had told me you actually... Cody was a mentor. You guys went to the same college. You knew the family, played golf with them. Tell us a little bit about backstory about Cody and who he really was.
• 6:53
  I mean, he seemed like such a a bigger than life character.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And he wasn't faking it on screen. He just, overall, is one of the nicest, most humble, most gracious men I've ever met in my life. I met him in 2016 when I was a freshman at Ferris State University. He was a senior.
• 7:11
  He also was in the PGM program, so he's a PGA professional as well. He was just super inspiring. Even as a senior to us freshmen, he took us under his wing. He was great in front of a crowd. I mean, that guy can public speak like nobody else.
• 7:26
  And his biggest thing that he used to say to us is golf is bigger than me. Golf is bigger than you. Golf is bigger than everybody. Golf is just... It's a huge thing, and and he loved it so much.
• 7:36
  He was a great mentor to so many of us. But after school, I went to Desert Willow Golf Resort out in California where I was an intern, so I learned a lot under him. He was our merchandiser at Desert Willow, he did a great job. So played golf with him, all kinds of stuff. But that man, he knows how to handle every situation with grace, and he's just absolutely amazing.
• 7:59
  Also carried two drivers in the bag. One for driver off the deck, one for driver off the tee. It's just absolutely iconic.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting and they did a great job in memorializing Barstool and Bob Dos Sports brought the family out to Big Cedar and they recognized them And they actually, you know, created a... The the Internet Invitational Trophy now is known as Cody, beef, you know, Frankie trophy. So which is fantastic. You know, these guys... Golfers have big hearts and
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: they love those type
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: of stuff and and what have you. So, you know, kinda moving on to the to the the golf at hand, we have a limited amount of time, and I think we're gonna take this whole segment and just talk about the Internet Invitational. The segment's brought to you by golfersunite.com. And, Emily, you and I are working on something kind of new at Golfers Unite. We're gonna actually create a magazine.
• 9:01
  Right?
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Yep. We are.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Around the November 15, we're creating our our first Golfers Unite magazine. Obviously, you know, printing it and doing that is gonna take quite a bit. So it's gonna be a digital magazine. You can actually find it, and we'll let you know it's golfersunite.com/magazine is where kind of everything's gonna live there. So we're really excited about that.
• 9:26
  Emily from Fairway Fem Club is gonna write content for the LPGA women's golf side of things. I'll write some editorial. It's gonna be focused more so not for the individual golfer, which the rest of the golf magazines are are about, but this one's gonna be about uniting golfers. So things that bring people together, you know, tournaments, events, travel, destinations, you know, trips, and stuff like that. So I'm really excited about that.
• 9:58
  We got, you know, some of our partners like Seymour Putters, some of our... I'm inspired golf. A new partner, Iron Muse Golf is gonna be a part of it. So we're really excited about it. Check it out.
• 10:11
  Golfersunite.com/magazine. It'll be up and live on the November 15, and it's gonna be our holiday issue, so it's gonna capture November and December. And then we plan in season to do a monthly magazine in season, and then we'll take a little bit of time off and maybe do, you know, one or two combined magazines for the fall when it's not so busy. So golfersunite.com/magazine for that. Emily, going back to the Internet Invitational, one thing I did...
• 10:42
  And I forgot about him too. I mean, he's actually a really stick is Brad Dahlke.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I think he's like a plus seven. I mean, that guy is like... He's he's got invited to play on some PGA tour events, recently and and, you know, trying to... But, you know, the Internet world's got a lot of beef. Right?
• 11:05
  They got, you know, or whatever that guy is. The the... He's got the worst swing in golf. He's a terrible golfer. Obviously, they got John Gruden out there.
• 11:15
  John can play, but, you know, he's probably, you know, a 10 handicap or so. And they got some not so great golfers out there. So the Internet... I mean, the golf world's like... You got the lovers and the haters.
• 11:27
  Right? You know? Yeah. The golfers are like, hey, man. I'm a club champion at my club.
• 11:32
  I'm a I'm a plus two. And just because I only have, you know, a few thousand followers, I don't get invited to the Internet Invitational. So, I can see both sides of that. What are your thoughts on, you know, the kind of the influencer world being a part of that versus the good golfer world?
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, obviously, I want to see those who are influencers out there playing, but I just don't know what the route is to get them on our screens, like, how we how we start that. So... But I think that, yeah, it would be... There's so many plus twos, plus fives out there that are just working nine to five jobs who would deserve some some airtime.
• 12:09
  So I think it'd be awesome to see them. I'm talking about these higher handicaps, like Bob does sports, the 10 handicaps. There's a huge range in this Internet Invitational. You said one guy's a plus seven, so we go from plus seven to double digit handicaps. But I think that it would be awesome to see kind of non influencers somehow get in here, kind of have
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: a route between You're to see stuff pop up. Like, Golfers Unite, we had our own Creators Cup. Yeah. You know? So we did that at Tamarac Resort, in late September, and we had 30 golfers come out.
• 12:46
  And they're all different... You know, they were creators, but they're all different types of handicaps. So I can see what kinda where the struggle is. Right? Like, if you just go out and you said, hey.
• 12:55
  I'm gonna bring in the best in the field. Well, you're working towards the PGA. Right? Yeah. Or, you know, if I'm gonna go out and say, I'm just gonna bring the most popular, you know, you're not gonna get the best golf because...
• 13:07
  You know? But they kinda... They spend their time and and invite their... The right people to come out because, you know, not only do you have to have a following, you also have to have be able to golf, know the etiquette, you know, be friendly, kinda be a character out there. And so, you know, it was, it was a it was a, you know, great first week or two.
• 13:31
  Lots of dynamics. I mean, you got, what is it, Big John became a superstar overnight. I mean, I've been following him for a little while, and and, you know, he had the 0.0 chance of getting invited to the Internet Invitational and comes out there and, you know, nails a massive pot with the Reaper. And, yeah, I think he went from, like, 30,000 subscribers on YouTube to a 100,000 last week.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Holy moly.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe, like, you know, we might spend two sessions here on the Internet Invitational because we can dive into kind of the business matters. Like, it was a $4,000,000 purse, Emily.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: I know. Like, we can put three to each winner. Like, it's it's real money. I mean, and stuff that these guys have never played for. You can see Grant Horvatham, if you saw that video of his hands shaking over the putt.
• 14:20
  I mean, this is big money that they are not used to winning. It's a really, really cool event and I'm happy that it's going on and I'm happy that kind of these smaller invitations are popping up. Like, we're... We do ours. Other influencers are starting to kinda do theirs with their groups.
• 14:35
  I think it's a great way to kinda get more people into the game. And I think it's what people have been looking for for a long time.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And we're gonna do a whole... We might do the whole hour on the Internet Invitational because it's the hottest thing in golf right now. You know, just to kinda let you know the amount of viewership, the amount of views for the Internet Invitational on YouTube surpassed the amount of views that the Super Bowl gets.
• 15:00
  So, I mean, it's crazy. It's like, you know, people eat this up. And I think, you know, part of it is people can watch it on their own time. You know what I mean? It launches.
• 15:11
  They watch it. And then the other aspect of it, which is genius, is, like, everybody and their brother is talking about the Internet Invitational.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: So Yeah.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe I should give, John Gruden a call and see if he'll come do our radio show. I know John. And talk about the Internet Invitational. That's a good idea. I'll I'll
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: see if Yeah.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: See see if he wants to come do the... Do our radio show. Anyways, we're gonna come back with Emily Nowak. Emily, I want you to talk a little bit about the ladies and the females inside of the Internet Invitational and who's there, you know, obviously, Paige, and, you know, kind of leading the way. But let's dive in a little bit of that because they're adding a new...
• 15:53
  A newer dynamic to the field. You know? And there's some good golfers that they have too as well. I'm really excited to bring you back after our break here. This is Jeff Stanislaw.
• 16:02
  You're listening to another great episode of Let's Go Low right here on AM eight twenty, the big eight in Tampa Bay. If you wanna listen to this radio show or you wanna tune in live from all over the world, you can just go to golfersunite.com/radio for all the details. Alright, Emily. We'll be back in a few. Don't change that dial.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Alright. Welcome back to the Let's Go Low Show with your host, Jeff Stanislow, brought to you by Golfers Unite. Instruction, stories, competition, equipment, and the mindset it takes to win. This is where golf lives. Now let's get back to the show.
• 16:38
  Here's Jeff Stanislow.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Tampa. This is Jeff Stanislow from Golfers Unite, your host of the Let's Go Low Show right here on AM eight twenty, the big eight in Tampa. Hey. We are getting in season here. You know, we're getting those nice 80 degree days, you know, high sixties in the evening.
• 16:59
  So Florida's about to rock, and we are gonna cover the PGA tour schedule, in an upcoming session here. It's a little early yet. They still got a couple more dates that they're locking down. Emily Nowak is with us once again joining us from the Fairway Fem Club and Golfers Unite, and we're picking up on the hottest topic of golf right now. And a lot of you golf purists probably don't think it's the hottest topic in golf, but it is it is the Internet Invitational, which is being leaked out over the...
• 17:38
  Last week it started. I think this week, they got segments three and four. You know, this is Dave Portnoy's baby from Barstool Sports. We also got, you know, Bob does sports is in it, know, Robbie Burger. You know?
• 17:58
  So we got really, really wonderful, exciting golf. The numbers are there, people. More views of the Internet Invitational so far than the Super Bowl on, views on on YouTube. Now, you know, granted it's, you know, it's trickled out over time. It's four or five hours.
• 18:20
  The world is... The content creator world and the golf world taking clips and sharing with everybody, so it's getting huge viral components of it. So you know to compare it to the Super Bowl and just the Internet Invitational as you know mono on mono I don't think it's really fair. It's you know three three hours on one day versus trickled out you know all over the world. And and they probably, you know, there's...
• 18:46
  What do they say? There's lies, damn lies, and statistics. Right? So they massage the viewing statistics to, you know, favor them. But, anyways, let's get back into the heart of it, Emily.
• 19:00
  But before we do, this episode is brought to you by Golfers Unite. I wanted to make a little announcement. We've added two new two new team members to our Golfers Unite team, Emily. Emily is one of them. And so we are adding Travis and Tim, who are local here in Tampa.
• 19:18
  We're going to be doing some great content together. And we're going to start it off on Veterans Day. We're going to go live on Veterans Day from a course. We're going to raise some money for our charity, appreciateyourservice.org. We're looking for sponsors to possibly match what we raise that day.
• 19:35
  So we're going to play some golf, go live, make some content, try to make some noise, try to raise some money for appreciateyourservice.org, which helps out veterans, active military, first responders, appreciateyourservice.org. And I'd like to give a big shout out to, Travis and Tim, joining Golfers Unite. You guys will start seeing more of them. So, Emily, let's talk about the ladies, in the Internet Invitational. The field has grown.
• 20:05
  There was some controversy over, you know, not not them playing, but the tee boxes. So why don't you tell us... Give us a little insight who played, some of the controversy, you know, why someone might have made made that decision, and, let's dive into it.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So we have nine women this year playing in the Internet invite. We only have five five of them still alive. The other four got eliminated.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Alive and playing.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Yes. Alive and playing. Still in the match. So we, of course, have Paige Varonic. She's probably the most famous female golfer influencer right now next to anybody on the LPGA tour.
• 20:44
  And then Maria Wenzler from Good Good Girls is still in the running. Claire Hoggle, Tisha Allen, and then Sabrina from Golf Girl Games, which I expected Hunter Nugent, who is a great player. She actually is Bryson DeShambeau's ex girlfriend, but she's a great player with Golf Girl Games. She's somebody who I definitely expected to see in this field the women grow. We'll see next year if there's some new names in the field.
• 21:13
  But we also had Cassandra Marie who's a World Long Drive champion. Some really cool names. But one of the biggest controversies, obviously, the women wanted their normal lay of the land. They wanted to play a tee box forward, which is normal in a women's game. That's what our handicap is set up for.
• 21:31
  It's set up for the tees that we play. But the rules commissioner, Dave Fortnite, said no. They're all playing from the same tees. And it affects your handicap, but it's not a handicapped event. But I don't know.
• 21:45
  It's... It makes it really tough for the women to be playing from those same tees with no handicap. I think it was kind of a crazy call. We'll see as it evolves if next year they have different tees for them, but, yeah, this isn't really how golf goes. So it's it's an interesting format for sure.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I I don't agree with that. I I know they wanted to, and I think, you know, Dave who's, you know, likes golf and loves golf and, you know, is about the media probably, you know, didn't really, you know, consult with his team to say, you know, hey. They should be playing the forward tees. Yeah.
• 22:20
  Especially, you know, if you're the partner. Right? You know what I mean? And and it makes a big difference. I remember back in the day, I'm friends with, Stacy Slabodnik, who's Michigan State's, women's head golf coach.
• 22:34
  And she played there, and after we got out of college, we would do some golf tournaments and stuff like that. And Stacy always came out, and she could hit the ball really, really, really well. And, like, we would just sit back and let her tee off because, you know, then we would play in from there. But
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah. There's definitely... But, like, yeah, it's great to have a have a woman on your team for events like that. But someone like Paige Faronic, so she's a plus two. She predicts from those tees.
• 23:00
  She's a three or four handicap.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: So,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: yeah, so it makes a really, really big difference. And she's probably one of the longer hitters. I mean, she hits it really well, but you just... At the end of the day, you can't compete. So, yeah, kind of an interesting call.
• 23:15
  I would like to kinda know what's behind that more, if it was fairness, if it's kind of a misunderstanding of the rules. But, yeah, especially with no handicap in there, it's a very, very interesting call.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that... You know, I mean, they've evolved. Like you said, it was a million dollar purse last year. It's a $4,000,000 purse this year.
• 23:34
  It's wildly successful on the Internet, and everybody in golf is talking about it. And, you know, these guys like to chirp with each other. And so I think, you know, they'll go back and probably, hopefully, make the right decision for next year and and have them play a tee up, to... You know, because what you want is, you know, you want the competition. You know what I mean?
• 23:55
  And that's why that's why these things are there. That's why a handicap's established. That's why, you know, there's different yardages, and it... That's the the leveling tools that you have in the game of golf. That what...
• 24:06
  That's what makes it so wonderful. So Yeah. Leverage those tools and and and get it right. So
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: And they're not even they're not even playing, like, mid level tees. They're playing the tips. I mean, they got them back at the championship length. So Yeah. I mean, I played the tips one time in my life, and it was not pretty.
• 24:24
  So... Especially on a championship course like that. Yeah. I mean, I can't... So I can't imagine.
• 24:29
  It's just
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: It's a tough golf course too. So they're playing Ozarks National at Big Cedar, you know, kind of, and it's a fantastic resort. And Ozarks National is probably the toughest course that they have there because they have Buffalo Ridge, Ozarks National. They have Paynes Valley are their their three main courses, and then they have all those fantastic par three courses. It is absolutely epic, beautiful resort.
• 24:58
  If you ever get a chance to do a golf trip to Ozarks National, Big Cedar Lodge, you know, go check it out. It's, you know, it's it's fantastic. So let's kinda dive back into some of the golf. So Luke Kwan was a big, controversy in year one who... He slept through his first tee time, but he made up some redemption by making a a clutch putt, a four footer, stay alive this year so far because, obviously, it's still going on right now.
• 25:26
  And if you wanna check it out, you know, just go to YouTube and search Internet Invitational. You'll find it. You know? Or go to Google and search Internet Invitational. You'll find it.
• 25:37
  And then there's the big John, John Maelstrom controversy with Dave Portnoy. You know what I mean? You know, Dave, like, hates the guy, you know, but, you know, he's... Because I guess he missed a couple flights. He missed his invitation last year.
• 25:52
  And, you know, and he said there's a 0.0 chance of that kid coming out. And he ended up coming out, and he made a, you know, a fantastic, like, 25 foot putt to win his match with this kinda weird putter called the reaper, which is like a putter that's like backwards. Like, the shaft goes on the far side of the ball and the putter blade comes back towards you. So Okay. It's it's crazy.
• 26:17
  So you're listening to Jeff Stanislow here on AM 08:20, the Let's Go Low Show brought to you by Golfers Unite, golfersunite.com. You want some great deals on some partners at Golfers Unite, you can check out the hookup. You want all your golf information in one single source, you can check out the read at golfersunite.com. And, if you wanna see some rates on courses, that are actually published rates, we have, the download. So, great stuff.
• 26:47
  Membership is free, and we have a premium membership if you wanna unlock some special deals with extra extra savings from some of our partners, which include, like, Sunday golf, seed golf balls, found golfballs.com if you're a used golf ball type guy. Great company. Branded bills. We even have some Golfers Unite merch in our store. Check out golfersunite.com.
• 27:15
  So getting back to you, Emily, and getting back to the, Internet Invitational here. You know, what do you think, what do you think just in general, of the of the format. Do you like... You like the format that they got going on so far? We've seen alternate shot.
• 27:36
  Right? And we've seen, was not not low net, but, I think it's scramble, basically.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Mean, I think it's a good format. It's kind of all over the place, but it's fun. I mean, with the no strokes involved, it makes it a little interesting on kinda what you can do. But yeah, I think it's I think it's a good format.
• 28:01
  I do wonder if it's gonna evolve or if they're gonna keep it exactly how it is. But I did see one complaint about the format. But, yeah, I'm I'm a fan of the format. I think it's fun. I think it's good to keep fun
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: You gotta have that mixture in there.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: You know
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: what I mean? It's it's it's like... It's not the PGA tour where you're playing your own ball the whole way through and it is what it is. You know, this is what allows them to film, allows them to chirp, allows the kind of... Well, know, I mean, we're all about uniting.
• 28:31
  Right? So now you have a team event, so they're united. You got the, you know, the blue team, the white team, the red team, and the green team, and they're all cheering for each other. And you can get that great vibe, and that's part of why it's been so successful. You know?
• 28:47
  The Internet Invitational surpassed all of the LIV tour's viewership.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: You know, their total viewership for twenty twenty six for the LIV tour was eclipsed by the Internet Invitational as well.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Wow. That's insane. When it comes to the format, I do wonder if there would ever be, like, a want for specifically mixed gender format or if that would be... I think that that's something that a lot of people are looking for right now. I think people wanna see the men and the women playing together or against each other.
• 29:18
  So, yeah, it'll be interesting for future invites to see if they try to keep the field a little more level gender wise to kinda shoot for something like that.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So you mentioned Caitlin Clark, and Caitlin was invited. You know what I mean? But they're filming it in August, and so that's mid season, you know, for the WNBA. They also invited Kai Trump.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: And I saw that, and they both said yes, but we have yet to see them on the episodes. So you said that those... I mean, we might still see them. They might come out and surprise us, but, yeah, we'll see. And I don't know if you saw, but one of the players who know who Jon Gruden was.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: I think it happened last year as well with Grant Horovat, so kinda funny.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And these guys, you know, to be honest with you, you got... We're coming up to the PGA show towards the end of January. These guys these guys are like celebrities. So these guys are celebrities in themselves.
• 30:15
  Like, they are so popular. Tell us a little bit about, you know, what... Their popularity.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, we've seen just this huge Internet boom in the last, I don't know, two, three years with these influencers. It's so big that even Bryson is looking to maybe leave a tour and just do Internet full time. But this is the gulf I think that people have been waiting for for a long time. With this boom and with golf being kind of the only thing that we could do during COVID, people had time to start these channels and start venturing into the golf influencing side of things.
• 30:50
  I don't know. It just seems like it scratched that itch that people were looking for. So, like, the last four years, this market has just completely boomed, and people, like, are bigger fans of Grant Horvath than they are of PGA Tour players now. It's it's really crazy. I mean, I think that the younger players might even know more YouTube golfers than PGA Tour players at this point.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: They do. I was actually at the PGA show last year, and, Bubba Watson was there. Okay.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: He's one of my favorites.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: And so Bubba had a good following. Grant Horvach shows up, and it was, like, nuts. The place went nuts. And you can you can tell the the the... You know, because the access to the Internet and access to these influencers, and that's what they are.
• 31:36
  They influence. Right? And it is just... It crosses all all parts of golf. Right?
• 31:41
  So even if you're a nongolfer or if you're a golfer and you like the PGA tour and stuff like that, you still have an affinity for these players. But the Internet also brings... Allows them to build their character. Right? So you know a PGA tour from their play.
• 31:57
  Right? You know a little bit of... You know a little bit about them. You know you know their skill set and their capabilities. But the Internet influencer side of things, they actually build the character itself.
• 32:07
  Right? And you can fall in love with the character. There's villain, you know, Internet golf influencers out there that, you know, do... Like, Big John is famous for, you know, you know, fogging. I won't go into that.
• 32:22
  And and then going for a run and playing golf. But... You know? So it's just... It brings such a a broader dynamic and allows them to create characters.
• 32:30
  Emily, we're gonna have you back for the next episode here on Golfers Unite to finish off, our our our series, for this weekend. And we're gonna talk a little bit more, and we're gonna start talking about the TGL coming up. Right here, this is Jeff Stanislow from Golfers Unite. You're listening to the Let's Go Low Show on AM 08:20, the big eight radio. Don't change that dial.
• 32:53
  We'll be right back.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Let's Go Show with your host, Jeff Stanislow, brought to you by golfers unite. Instruction, stories, competition, equipment, and the mindset it takes to win. This is where golf lives. Now let's get back to the show. Here's Jeff Stanislow.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Tampa Bay. This is Jeff Stanislow, your host of Let's Go Low AM 08:20 right here at the Big 8 on Tampa Bay. We appreciate you tuning in. We're going towards 40 episodes. That's forty weeks of golf content right here at the Big 8.
• 33:28
  We would love to thank Genesis Communications, you know, our host here at the Big Eight Radio Show, AM 08:20, for allowing to do this. I'd like to thank Emily Nowak, who's with Golfers Unite and runs Fairway Femme Club, for joining us here several times. Mike Hicks is actually at Q-School right now. He's working with a young man that he's on the bag with that he thinks has what it takes to get through Q-School and and get on to the PGA tour. I actually had the pleasure of walking Lakewood Ranch on Monday during their practice round.
• 34:08
  And it was really cool just to kind of be the fly on the wall and talk with them and listen to how they... How the caddy and the player, you know, play with each other. A young man named Steven Franken, is the player. He was ACC player of the year, played for the NCU Wolfpack. You know, he was on the Korn Ferry, and he's been working really hard on his game.
• 34:33
  And, you know, hopefully, he gets... Punches ticket to the tour this year. And Mike Hicks, obviously, pain Stewart's caddy believes in him because he doesn't need to be on anybody's bag, you know, right now. And, he really likes this kid, but it was fantastic just to see the experience in my kicks working with this young man, you know, shining through and and talking him through things and and reminding him of, you know, several things during the round, like, you know, pick your pick your, pick your line, you know, pick your intermediate spot, you know, talking over them with the distance and, you know, just the the wealth of knowledge, forty years plus of being on the bag, especially a a poor... A tour player who, you know, caddied for, you know, paying Stewart.
• 35:22
  It was just an incredible experience. I'd to thank Mike Hicks. If you guys are interested, Mike actually has an offering through Golfers Unite where if you want him to speak at a golf tournament or be a guest speaker for something related to that, He has done, you know, special birthday rounds of golf with players. He just came off of one of our Golfers Unite listeners from Tampa Bay. Actually, the wife bought the husband for his seventieth birthday, a trip to Pinehurst, and Mike met him out there, and they played Pinehurst number two together.
• 36:04
  It was quite the experience. You can check out Mike Hicks Golf. Just mikehicksgolf.com for that. Emily, let's dive into... We talked about the Internet Invitational for our first two segments.
• 36:17
  We'll probably pick that up again next week because it's still... Episodes are still coming out. But I wanted... We're, I think TGL starts this weekend, and this is kind of the next, evolution of golf. There's kind of a few things.
• 36:31
  There's the Internet Invitational. There's TGL. There's the the new one that's... I forget the name of it. Like, Short Grass League.
• 36:41
  I think it's kind of a night... Nine hole type league. It's gaining some momentum. And it's short grass league. You can check it out.
• 36:49
  And then, obviously, the PGA Tour and the LPGA, and we got a lot of changes that we're gonna be talking about in those with the championship series versus the challenger series. So a lot of great content coming up in in golf in regards to that. But, thanks again, again, for joining us. Emily Nowak right here on AM eight twenty, the Big eight Radio. So, let's dive into the TGL.
• 37:14
  It's season three. You know? A lot of people didn't think it was gonna work, you know? But obviously, going into season three. So let's talk a little bit about what TGL is.
• 37:25
  You know? What are they trying to do? Obviously, their timing is right because it's the slow side of things for the PGA tour. Take it away, Emily.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, TGL, it's just... It's... I think it's another great way of growing interest in the game, that the Internet Invitational. It's kind of that more relaxed version of golf that people have been looking for for the last decade or so.
• 37:48
  Live Golf tried to come in and kind of do something like this to make the game more fun. It didn't quite work, but I think that TGL, and Internet Invite, they have it going on. They know how to get viewers, they know how to make the money, they know what golfers want. But it's kind of this league, it was four person teams, now it's five person teams, who play this golf on the indoor simulator at the Center and five person teams playing against each other on the simulator. It's what more do you want.
• 38:23
  And they're professional golfers. It's kind of what everybody's looking for. They wanna see the... Them in there just having fun, not playing on the tour for the millions of dollars, paying their bills. But now we're expanding into women.
• 38:35
  This weekend, we have a premiere of the women TGL, which is amazing. I mean, we have huge names. Michelle Wee is back out of retirement. Lydia Ko is playing. Charlie Hole.
• 38:47
  Allison Lee. I mean, we got everybody. So everybody except Nelly. Nelly Corda is not playing. She kind of had her own drama where she wanted...
• 38:57
  I won't call it drama, but she wanted mixed genders. She wanted guy and girl teams, which I think a lot of people want as well. And she said that she's not going to play until we start seeing that. She's really the only big name that we're missing on the roster, but super exciting.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, I mean, one thing that I think, that I really enjoy about the TGL is there's no cancellations. There's no weather. It's indoors. You know?
• 39:22
  I think it's all powered by full swing. You know? Really fantastic equipment. And and, you know, just the ability to see all that data and see something different. Now, you know, last year, they came up with some hokey holes, you know, that they designed, and I don't know if I'm the biggest fan of that, you know, where you're hitting it over volcanoes and, you know, crazy stuff.
• 39:45
  We'll see what they do this year. But you and I are excited because we're both from Michigan. Tell us the big news that's coming out of Michigan.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: Detroit got a TGL team. So they have a men's and women's team now, which is awesome. I mean, we're seeing so much new golf in Michigan. The LPGA tour is starting to come up here. Over in Toledo, we're having the women's US Open.
• 40:05
  So, like, it's just the Midwest is golf right now, big golf right now. Everything seems to be coming up this way, which is awesome. But TTL has a Detroit league now. Brooks Koepka was the first man who was drafted onto the team. And then on the women's team, we have Gino Titicun who is probably gonna give Nelly a pretty good run for her money next year.
• 40:28
  Lexi Thompson, Brooke Henderson, Ronnie Yin, Al Bain, Venezuela. So, I mean, it's a stacked team. Let's see. And for the men's, we have, like I said, Brooks Koepka.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Brooks is leading the the Motor City golf club, so that's exciting.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's cool. The kind of Motor City, they stayed in that Detroit vibe. I think it's really cool. They've been looking to bring something like that to Detroit for a while, so it's cool.
• 40:59
  I mean, we don't really have new sports teams coming to the area. We have very old sports teams. So it's kinda cool getting getting kind of a new sports team and growing the game in Detroit. So maybe I'll make my way over there for one of the matches. Check it out.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That'd be fun. Maybe I'll join you. So the... There's seven teams, five man rosters, 35 players.
• 41:21
  20 of the world's top 50 are playing. I was, like, kinda blown away at that because you kinda think like, okay. Well, you know, that's a significant number. You know? You kinda think this might be, like, for the younger guys, like the Blades Browns, the up and coming guys that this is kind of their avenue to get more exposure into golf and do that stuff, but I was really, really impressed.
• 41:45
  So the fir... It opens up on December 27. I think they start practice rounds this weekend and start playing and getting things dialed in with the the data and the setups and the courses and stuff like that, but it'll be ESPN's on a multiyear extension with the TGL, so they're gonna be around for a while.
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: We had we had another big announcement for who's playing full time for TGL. El Tigre announced his full time schedule, and people thought maybe he was gonna try on tour again, but he just announced that he'll be playing PGL full time. He kicked Kevin Kissner out of his spot.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: There you go. There you go. That's exciting. Yeah. And we'll see.
• 42:28
  I think Tiger comes back for a couple, PGA tournaments to see what he's got in the tank. And
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. I...
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: You know, he's just got that ultra competitiveness to him. And, you know, obviously, I I think, you know, he's gonna give it give it another run when he really feels healthy. I think he came back a little early, tried a couple things, and he still just wasn't hurt... Wasn't right. So, I think after the TGL season that he committed to, he'll probably know if he's if he's got, you know, if he can play or or if it hurts too much.
• 42:59
  But, the first trade happened in the TGL this year, which is kind of interesting that they can start trading these players, which was which was pretty cool. Shane Lowry went from the Bay, to Boston Common for the number four future pick. So now you're starting to see some interesting dynamics of, like, the NFL and and other leagues start trading and giving away draft picks and doing doing some stuff like that. So that's kind of exciting.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, he's with Rory McElroy now, I'm pretty sure. So they're... I'm pretty sure they're boys. So, hopefully, they have a pretty good team.
• 43:33
  They play well together. But, yeah, I mean, it's it's very, I think, what they were going for, making these teams, kinda making a more fun format. But I think that this is gonna be very successful. I think it's a really fun format, especially with Tiger playing. Everybody wants to see Tiger inside.
• 43:52
  And he won't be walking a bunch because we know in the last few years, just walking the courses have... Has been hard on him. So he's supposed to stand there and swing and look pretty. So, hopefully, Tiger can hold up this year, keep it going, and we'll see him back on tour. I would love that.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. This is Jeff You're listening to another great episode of Let's Go Low right here on AM eight twenty, the big eight. If you wanna... If you're not in market, you go to golfersunite.com/radio. You can stream it from anywhere up on our YouTube channels.
• 44:23
  We post all these episodes up there. Just go to YouTube and search Golfers Unite, and you'll find us. You can listen to all these great episodes with our Caddie's Corner, Mike Hicks, Paine Stewart's former Caddie, Emily, We... Nowak from Fairways Femme and Golfers Unite, plus we have special guests all the time. Come on.
• 44:44
  You know, we have Brittany Linzip come come on the show. We've had Tracy West from the Valspar. I'm gonna try to see if I can get John Gruden to come on. Maybe he'll come on, but, you know, we'll see from there. But, anyway, so the the teams that they have this year is the Atlanta Drive, the Bay, which has gotta be California, Boston Common, Jupiter Links in Florida, the Los Angeles Motor City, which we mentioned is new, and New York.
• 45:14
  So really exciting. I did read that ABC picked up three matches this year, added another one. So they're seeing the value in the TGL, that's growing, which is great.
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: So opening day, they got Jupiter versus LA going on this year, which is last year's final. We got young guns coming in, like we mentioned, the youth movement, Jackson Kovind, Brendan Thorbson, Blades Brown, Ben James, you know, are gonna be part of the next generation of of TGL golf. We also know that Xander, Adam Scott, Kisner, and Glover walked away from the TGL. You know, sometimes I would imagine, you know, some of these players, it's like, you know, they may not like it. Right?
• 46:08
  They don't think it's good for their on grass game. So Yeah. Once they kinda play it, they... You know, not to say that they walked away from it because they didn't like it, but, you know, maybe it doesn't, help their, you know, their their their real life IRL was what everybody calls it in real life games. So...
• 46:26
  And there's gonna be... It's gonna be an exciting season. Emily, I do have to make a quick announcement at Golfers Unite. We've added two new, Uniters who are gonna help lead the charge here in Tampa Bay. We have Golfers Unite Tim and Golfers Unite Travis joining us, which is great because they're here.
• 46:48
  So we're gonna be able to play some golf together. We're gonna some content together, have a lot of fun. I'd like to welcome, Travis and Tim, to Golfers Unite, and we're gonna do our first thing together for Veterans Day. We're gonna play golf on Veterans Day. We're gonna raise some money for appreciateyourservice.org, which is our charity here at Golfers Unite.
• 47:10
  We help put vehicles or put veterans, first responders, active military in... We help them get new vehicles to them. So we've given five cars now. I'm hopefully gonna be doing our sixth before the New Year, and very excited about all the work that we do at appreciateyourservice.org. And if you guys wanna help, go to appreciateyourservice.org, an organization called All Star Travel, which does a lot of travel work and golf trips and stuff like that.
• 47:40
  All Star Travel is gonna be matching dollar for dollar up to $500 just for that day. So we hope you can check it out. Golfersunite.com, or you can check us out on all the socials. You know, basically, x, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, you know, what else?
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: TikTok.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: TikTok. Yeah. That was the one I was looking for, and we do a lot on TikTok. Just search Golfers Unite. You'll find us on that.
• 48:10
  So, Emily, I'm excited about our twenty twenty seven radio show here. I'm doing more work with you, but I just wanted to get a little housecleaning stuff going on. So we're gonna talk more about the Internet Invitational in the weeks coming ahead. We're gonna do... Start diving into the twenty twenty seven PGA tour schedule and the LPGA tour.
• 48:36
  You're gonna be our kind of LPGA correspondent.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: Lots of changes coming, so there's a lot to talk about.
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: Yep. And then we're gonna talk about, like, you know, which players are gonna stay up top, which players do think we're gonna make make moves, either, you know, positive or negative. So we're really excited about the year to come, and thank you, Tampa Bay, for supporting us. And thank you, everyone at Golfers Unite, the Golfers Unite community for joining us. This is another great episode of Let's Go Low right here on AM eight twenty.
• 49:05
  Emily, again, thanks for joining us, and look forward to doing much more.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Jeff.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: Have a great weekend, Tampa.