Jake Van Ness (00:00)
you

Jake Van Ness (00:10)
Hey everybody, welcome to Divots and Skins. We're back again to talk more golf. I know you're absolutely surprised that we're going to talk about golf. Well, so there's this really, really cool series going on that the DeChambeau has decided to do on YouTube where he's taking 10 golfers and $100,000 and he's putting it on the line. But the cool thing is he he really played up the marketing of this.

Because he put out an announcement earlier this week that said, Hey, I got a really cool announcement coming at noon and I'm coming home. And the internet went nuts talking about the fact is he coming back to the PGA? What's going on with Lyft Golf? Are we doing this? Are we doing that? And they just ran with it. He literally was going home because the series is actually done at his house. If you haven't seen it, he did a series a little while ago where he was trying to make a hole in one.

on his putting green that's actually behind his house and he was actually hitting a club over the house and it makes you cringe because the whole front of his house is glass.

80 some 80 something shots I it

took. Yeah, it took him like eight and then it was it's an un unbelievable series. So he decided to come back home, which is what he posted. Nothing to do with PJ, nothing to do with live, but man, the guy knows how to market. And he's actually bringing

10 YouTube golfers, well, nine YouTube golfers, and some guy that was like, I don't care about YouTube, and I don't care about YouTube golf, but he's there to try to win the hundred thousand dollars. And what they're doing is they're playing two ver like one versus one, and they're basically playing from different spots in his yard to play against each other, and they get eliminated if they don't play as well as the other players. So they've already put out the first, I think.

Two, three days maybe now. But what's really incredible is just the the fun that he's having with this. He everybody is not happy about the whole thing he did with Live Golf. But I will tell you that DeChambeau knows how to play the game when it comes to YouTube golf. He has had an amazing growth on YouTube and he's made a ton of money. But what's cool is he's doing these really awesome, like off-the-wall series at his house. And so the first day.

Couple guys played, whoever didn't shoot the best score, it got eliminated. And the idea is that they keep going until it's the single person left versus the shambeau for that $100,000. And they're gonna play three holes at his house from different areas around the house and see who wins it. The cool thing is if the person from YouTube or the person not from YouTube happens to win, they get the $100,000.

The other thing is if DeChambeau walks away with the win, he's picking one of his subscribers to win that $100,000.

Because God knows he doesn't need the money. We all know that. So what do you think of this idea of somebody taking their career that they're a professional golfer and being on YouTube?

Brett DAS Ep15 (03:19)
I think Bryson DeChambeau's like the PT Barnum of golf. I I hate to say it, like his his show, for lack of a better term, might not be the best thing going.

but he knows how to push it and he knows that any publicity is good p publicity, regardless of whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. people talking about him is what makes him money. he's as Jake said, he's got he's got that whole part down. I I'm not entirely certain.

That the guy is completely vested in being the best professional golfer he can be when he's doing all this sideshow stuff. And that's why I met made the PT Barnum mention.

Because I think he likes the idea of kind of being the circus freak on the PGA tour. obviously he's not on the PGA tour, he's on Live Tour, which makes him even more of a freak, I guess I suppose, in some people's eyes. again, I I think it's all pomp and circumstance. Myself personally, I think it's all pomp and circumstance.

And Jake watches a lot more of the social media interactions with prof, you know, professional golfers and even amateur golfers than I do. I just I'm I guess I'm kind of more of a traditionalist.

I like seeing great golf being played. the President's Cup's going on right now. You know, we're we've both been talking about that. We watched a little bit of it after our round today together. but I I I understand what he's doing. he's got his, you know, his him and his family's best interest at heart.

And I do think the guy is very charitable in that he, you know, he's not hoarding all of his money.

he's not one of these guys that's doing it in strictly his own self-interest all the time. I think the fact that he's willing to, you know, challenge somebody and say, hey, you get the hundred thousand if you beat me. I think it's unlikely unless he picks some really, really good players, it's unlikely that anybody will beat him. especially considering the fact that you want talk about home co home course advantage.

it's literally in his home. You know, it's in his backyard. So it'll it'll be interesting to see. But I again, I think it's a little bit circus freakish.

but we'll see as time goes

by. I might it might be something that kind of gathers my attention a little bit better down the road.

Jake Van Ness (05:15)
Well, it is interesting too. There's a lot of people that have talked about the fact that would he have been able to build his presence on YouTube if he had stayed on PGA tour? And the answer to that to a lot of people is no, because the PGA has a lot more control over what your image is when it comes to social media. With Lib, they gave them a lot more leeway and I don't think

some of the guys took advantage of it as much as they should have. And DeChambeau did. Like he he knows what he's doing on YouTube.

He has a great presence there. He has a great following there and he knows what he's doing. The $100,000 sounds like a lot of money, but I am really curious what EA Electronic Arts, the gaming company, paid him to do this promotion. Cause it's n it's sponsored. It's sponsored by their game called Golf Clash.

And I think I saw somewhere, I'm not 100%, but I think I saw somewhere that actually built his house into the game.

So he's gotta be making bank. He's gotta have a huge bag when it comes to what he's making to do something like this. So the fact that he's willing to give the hundred thousand dollars away, yes, it's charitable, but I am sure he is walking away with a a definite pocket full of some cash when it comes to this promotion. So

I'm gonna be following it. Like Brett said, I love this stuff when it comes to YouTube golf, social media golf. I I think it's fun. Is it

a circus freakish time type of thing? Yeah, I think it is sometimes 'cause you look at somebody like the Shamble and you look at somebody like Scotty Scheffler, Scotty Scheffler wouldn't be caught dead doing this kind of stuff as far as I'm concerned. He cares too more too much about his golf, his tournaments, his family, other stuff.

The Shamble just likes to have fun, so you know what? I think he actually enjoys being the circus freak.

Brett DAS Ep15 (07:09)
He I he reminds me a lot of John Daly. he's just John Daly with today's technology, it being social media and the internet and you know all the other outlets that he has to kind of show his craft and to show off a little bit at his craft, but also, you know, using it as a fun tool to get the general public involved in the game. And I d as far as that part of it's concerned, the more eyeballs on golf, the more

Jake Van Ness (07:11)
Yes.

Brett DAS Ep15 (07:32)
people on that understand that it the game can be so enjoyable, incredibly frustrating at times. But

It can be so enjoyable and you can make light of it and make fun of it and do all kinds of fun twist of fate type games like he's doing. But as far as the comparison to John Daly, the point I want to make is a lot of pros have said, and Tiger Woods, I believe, said it himself. I could be mistaken, it might not have been him, but they said if he had the work ethic, if he didn't worry about the outside stuff, if he had the work ethic of Tiger Woods,

that John Daly would have surpassed a lot of the stuff that you know some of your greats have done. and I think.

Sometimes myself, you know, DeShambeau has won two majors. so he's made a great career for himself. But I sometimes wonder if he honed in his focus on just golfing against the best players in the world. If he had never left and taken that big fat paycheck from Liv and he had stayed on the PGA tour, because he wasn't con, you know, concerned about the controlling interest of his image and all this stuff that the PGA,

you know, wants to do to guys, I think he would have been better for it. I think he could have, you know, been a much better, you know.

had much better outcomes in in some of the other tournaments as well as, you know, some some of the majors that, you know, he's come close in but didn't win. I I think if his f focus was a little bit better, I think, you know, there's some th outcomes that would have certainly been different.

Jake Van Ness (08:46)
Yeah, that that's a really interesting point and I and I don't disagree. I'd be really curious if that had happened, what what his career could have been and and

granted his career's not over and w we're hearing all this stuff about Lib and and PGA and what's going on and and will we see him back on the PGA tour? I don't know. And and will Liv survive this bankruptcy that they filed? I don't know. So he's kind of in a limbo too, so I can understand where he's like, I'm gonna take advantage of what I'm really good at.

And I'm gonna get my money where I can get my money from. So I get that.

let's talk about what we've been up to ourselves

with golf.

So it's really interesting. We actually both play at scrambles without each other. And that's probably the first time that's happened in quite a while. We hear

Brett DAS Ep15 (10:00)
I don't know if we've ever done a week in which we

both did scrambles that while where we were on separate teams. and they weren't the same scrambles, so

Jake Van Ness (10:05)
Yeah, yeah. Right, right, yeah. We we had different days we're playing. so why don't you talk about yours?

Brett DAS Ep15 (10:12)
so the last Tuesday, there's past Tuesday, I played one with our buddy Tim from North Carolina, who we've spoken about,

with two other guys, Andy and his father. I apologize, Andy's father, I can't remember his last name at the moment, but they were both, you know, guys that get out, you know, very infrequently on the golf course. But we had such a good time. we ended up finishing the day at what did I say, one under, two under something like that. didn't

play particularly well. I hit the ball really well that day. I was really happy with my own swinging and everything. But Tim's a high handicapper and both those guys are

even you know even higher handicapped than Tim would be they're probably you know 35 plus handicaps. but regardless had a great time. It was for the Ronald McDonald House it was done at Highland Golf course right here in Queensbury, New York. as always Highland put on a great tournament great food afterwards had a lot of side prizes and stuff like that. They did a a raffle

for other prizes. So I had a great time.

I'm never disappointed. I always have expectations walking into a scramble tournament based on who I'm playing with, where I think we should finish. And it's not necessarily, you know, finishing top three, top two in the money, whatever. cause most of these tournaments you're only getting gift certificates for a win anyway, and it's usually gift certificates to golf. so I just like to represent the team I'm on, you know, and have our team represent ourselves well.

both how we behave on the course and also, you know, how how we golfed. And I thought,

you know, considering that we had three really high handicappers and myself all together, I thought, you know, going under par period was was pretty ha I was pretty happy about.

Jake Van Ness (11:43)
Yeah, so I I had a tournament that was actually this week and we played and and we were actually one under as well. One point we were three under. We thought we were doing really well. We got to the last couple holes and we really struggled all of us to make the putts. I or make the chips and the putts. I think part of our issue is we were just not getting it close to the pin.

So those putts were two putts instead of a single putt. But we we had a situation where we we had three of us that were

pretty good golfers and then we had a fourth who didn't golf much at all. And I sometimes that's fun. Sometimes it's fun to to drag a guy out and be like, hey, like we know you're not great at golf, but come have fun with us and have a good time. And he did. He had a blast with us. And we were actually at Cronin's and we've talked about Cronins before. Cronin's knows how to put on a tournament.

They have a great lunch before you start and then they have a steak dinner, which if you've watched previous episodes, you'll know that Brett absolutely loves that steak dinner.

And do not leave a lonely stake, or this man will will snap it up and he will eat it. And so we had a blast. It was a lot of fun. ours was actually for the North Country Ministry. a friend of mine who I go to church with invited me and said, Hey, I want a bunch of guys to go and play this tournament. It was a lot of fun. It

Brett DAS Ep15 (12:45)
Carnivore Heartfolk.

Jake Van Ness (13:00)
it was they raised, I think, close to fifty, sixty thousand dollars, which is amazing that they were able to do that. And yet the thing that was really unique with them is they had

a green that had a bunch of different types of liquor and wine and other stuff and and beer on the green and you had to putt and you had to pick the bottle and you had to say okay I'm going for that bottle and you had to putt and try to get that bottle and that obviously costs a fee to do that. But it was amazing that

they were sneaky. They were super sneaky because they put the expensive stuff right behind some of the holes. And if you went in the hole you got a free

beer you didn't get what was behind the hole.

So there were some of those that you had to like really try to cut to get around that hole and try to tap that bottle or tap that box. Now, the funniest thing was I walked up behind this guy and he's like, I don't know what that bottle is over there. But it was like kind of like flat round with a s a long stem neck.

And he's like, I don't know what's in there, but that's a cool bottle. I'm gonna go for that. And it was all the way on the other side of the green. And he hit it on the first putt. And we were all like, okay, like

That's crazy. And the best part is he's like, I don't even know what it is. And the person brings it over to him and he's like, it's bourbon. I don't drink bourbon. But it's a cool bottle. And of course, I love bourbon and I'm like, I'll take the bourbon part if you don't mind. So yeah, so it was a really cool feature that they had.

the other thing they did it was really interesting, and and I've shared this with my contact for the Conklin Center, which is a big tournament that we do at the beginning of the golf season.

around Memorial Day is they did a first eight kit. And the first eight kit had some stuff that we're used to, which is the mulligans for everybody, that the two two foot string for the gimme putt. But the thing that I thought that was interesting is they gave you a team shot from the red teas.

And so we took advantage of that on a long par five. We're like, okay, we know the red teas are way up on this par five. We're going to play there. So that was a really cool feature that they actually had that I haven't seen anywhere else.

Brett DAS Ep15 (15:06)
I have a quick question for you viewers at home. maybe you could give us a send Jake a message or myself a message, answer this question. it's a little bit of a moral ethical dilemma and when it comes to a prize that happens at a golf course. And that is

Jake Van Ness (15:12)
Yeah.

Brett DAS Ep15 (15:22)
we were at a golf tournament. This happened to somebody we know. there was a par four, and the hole was called the straightest drive hole, and they had a line drawn all the way down the center of the fairway.

And whoever put it closest to it, you put the placard there and that shows you how far away you are. And the w the winner, whoever gets closest to the line, ends up winning that prize, whatever it might be on that on that particular day. what happens if somebody hits it beyond the line onto the green and dead in line with the stick?

Jake Van Ness (15:49)
What do you mean somebody?

That was you.

Brett DAS Ep15 (15:50)
what happens? Yeah, it did. I was trying to shut up about it, but

So what happens in in the event that that happens? Should you be penalized for overdriving the fairway and putting it on the green? or if if in our case I was dead in line with the stick, we put it, know, on the line. so we didn't know what to do, but that's what I put. And I want a cooler. I'll be frank with everybody at home about it. But let us know what you think about how that should have transpired.

I took the prize, it was a little igloo cooler, it was nothing super fancy or anything like that.

But I I would like to know what other people's take on it is. but that was that was an interesting interesting one that I had never seen 'cause I don't expect to drive the green on a par four ever. but

Jake Van Ness (16:28)
Well and and we talked about that. Like that was probably not the best hole to put closest to the middle on because it was a short par four. Very, very, very short par four. That's two three. Yeah. And so that

Brett DAS Ep15 (16:39)
Yeah, it was only like two seventy or something like that.

Jake Van Ness (16:42)
that's why you were able to drive the green. Could have been a short par four. So yeah, that that that it was hilarious because we had actually played Cronins a week or two before that and you were really close to driving the green.

Brett DAS Ep15 (16:44)
yeah, I am sh well yeah, I'm not a long hitter, folks.

Jake Van Ness (16:55)
And then you got up there and you're like, wouldn't it be funny if I actually drove the green this time and smacked it and you drove the green? And I just chuckled myself when we got to that hole on Monday because I was like, yep. Now they didn't have closest to the middle on that hole that day. So

I am curious, like leave a comment as to what do you think the right thing is? Like he drove the green. Does he get the prize? Or

does he not get the prize because he wasn't really closest to the middle? That's a crazy one to try to figure out.

Brett DAS Ep15 (17:24)
And just so everybody knows, my guilty conscience was about winning a cooler was superseded by the ice cold beers I was gonna drink out of the cooler afterwards. So I I chose to take the cooler.

Jake Van Ness (17:31)
Over afterwards. So I chose to take the cooler.

I don't think he was too concerned about the cooler. All

right. So let's go into the rule of the day.

Brett DAS Ep15 (18:23)
I got an interesting rule of the day because I bet this has happened to more than just me. This has happened to me before. I didn't know it was a rule until just fairly recently when I started examining some of the nuanced rules of the game. and the I will call it the Angry Golfer rule. it's one of you you're gonna hear the next one on our next podcast, but on this angry golfer rule, I'm sure this has happened to lot of people.

Somebody behind you hits the ball into your group. That happens occasionally.

Somebody hit the drive of their life, hit an iron shot of their life, whatever. it it's completely excusable if the person comes up and apologize to you. they didn't see you, they they didn't think they could hit it that far, whatever. I can deal with it once or you know, once on a course or once in a while over the course of the season. but if the same group hits into you more than once, well,

now now they're just acting like imbeciles and you can get seriously injured or even killed by a flying golf ball. So let's not let that happen. but anyway.

it has happened to me once before that somebody hit into me three times in one course, and on the third occasion that it happened, I turned around and I hit the ball back their direction out of anger. I was I was very upset at that point. come to find out there's a USGA rule about that. That is a two-stroke penalty.

if you ta touch somebody else's ball and hit it back out of you know at them out of anger or whatever.

it doesn't matter where you hit it to or whatever, but if if you disrupt their normal play, essentially you incur a two stroke penalty. So if you're in a tournament, if you're on an amateur tour like us, or you're in a tournament where they're paying attention to all the rules and nuances of the game, then you better be careful about letting your anger get the best of you. had I had I known that, I still would have done it that day.

because it was just a casual round and I was just fed up at that point. and my and my wife was with me and

Jake Van Ness (20:07)
b

Brett DAS Ep15 (20:12)
And I don't remember who the other party was, but I had had enough was enough at that point. and the guy was not did not say anything to me that was defendable. he told me it was our fault because we weren't going any faster. problem is we were going as fast as we could go. The group in front of us was holding us up the entire day. It was a packed Saturday

on a municipal, you know, public golf course. So you can only go so fast, you know, you'd only play as fast as a group in front of you, and that's your only responsibility.

as a group of golfers. So we couldn't let them pass. We were in a two some, they're in a foursome. So anyway, keep that rule in mind. don't let your anger get the bestie and end up incurring that two stroke penalty. Instead, just keep it cool and and smile and keep on moving.

Jake Van Ness (20:53)
That's interesting because I did not realize that like and you're right, like if somebody hits into you once, okay, you made a mistake,

you didn't realize we were there or you had a great drive or a great iron shot, you just didn't expect it to go

that far. We can understand that. But it it can get dangerous when it happens several times. And we've both been in situations like the one you're talking about where we have to be like, Hey, like, don't do that, 'cause we don't want somebody to get hurt and

If you've got an issue with our speed or anything, come and talk to us. Don't just hit into us. Like that that's an immature way to deal with

that situation. But I I don't think we see it too much on tour. I think on tour that we've been on, people are super careful about that and said, But it happens. It does. And and you're right, like don't let your anger get the best of you and hit it back at And I didn't realize that that would give you a two-stroke pedal.

Brett DAS Ep15 (21:40)
It does.

Yeah, and we will talk more in future podcasts about some other anger management issues that might also cost you some strokes. So stay tuned.

Jake Van Ness (21:54)
Well, we've seen it on the PGA where they've actually penalized guys who throw clubs, who break clubs, who

yell at fans and stuff like that, where

they're like, Hey, like there there is an etiquette when it comes to playing golf. And that's why, yes, I'm gonna bring them up again. This is probably like the third or fourth podcast and we've talked about But Scotty and you talked about it last time where you were like, Scotty's apologizing to the fans because he's like

Yeah, I don't interact with you because I'm stoic and I am concentrating and I am engaged in the game.

And it's not that I have a problem with you guys. It's just that this is how I play. And I think we can all learn something from that.

Brett DAS Ep15 (22:36)
can if you can just stay within yourself and just keep plotting through for the lack of a better term. I think you're gonna your golf game's gonna be better for it, but also your interaction with the other people around you is gonna be better for it too, because you're not gonna be flying off the wall because you're golfing bad or you're not gonna say or do things that are inappropriate on a golf course because you're having a bad day or a whole bad hole.

Jake Van Ness (22:56)
So

let's talk about the US AM Tour. So the US AM Tour has come to a close for the 2025-2026 season. They just had their nationals this past weekend, and we'll probably bring up some of the winners and stuff maybe next episode. But we are actually resetting now to the 26-27 season of the US AM Tour. And we've got a couple stops coming up in October.

That we're going to be doing. And when that reset happens, and I'll be honest with you, this is our last episode of season one of Divots and Skins. We're going to reset and we're going to start season two in the coming weeks where we talk to players on the tour with us, the director again. we're gonna be doing a bunch of stuff with indoor because again, as we talked about last episode, our season's coming to a close here in upstate New York.

Does that mean that Brett and I are gonna stop playing golf? Hell no. We're gonna continue to play golf indoor and outdoor. Obviously, we're gonna play indoor here at Luxury Box, which is one of our great sponsors that allows us to record these episodes here in one of his bays. But we're also gonna be looking at like, hey, where can we go play a regional tour stop that isn't in the northeast of the United States, that isn't in the snow, that we can go play and continue to play outdoors.

Because the people in the South don't stop playing. They're going to continue to play, even though the north is dealing with snow. So I'm looking forward to that.

Brett DAS Ep15 (24:31)
I am too, and we just found out from Dave here at the Luxury Box, the owner here at the Luxury Box. we found out from him that he has built next door or is building next door a teaching bay. this is gonna be an interactive bay.

it was in formerly in one of the suites, so next to it he's gonna have a putting green with some obstacles that you can put to, not like miniature golf, but you so you can really refine the speed and stuff like that, especially for indoor putting, because it's gonna be the same surface as simulator golf would for putting.

But he's gonna have some objects that you put into and stuff like that. but the big thing is next door to that and the on the actual simulator screen, it's a teaching type of

scenario in which you hit a shot

and the software that he has with it will tell you what you did wrong with your swing and how to fix it. So you can focus on two or three things it told you you did wrong on a on a driver's swing and maybe get those slices, you know, to a little bit, you know, a smaller margin of error.

so you're not hitting the slice quite as heavy and you can work on any part of your game. I'm really looking forward and excited to see Dave complete that. He's getting really, really close to having

the thing done now. So stop in anytime this winter or late fall, I should say even.

You know, we're just now into the first few days of fall. within a couple of weeks he'll have that thing probably all up and running. And it's it's gonna be really exciting for our community here in Queensbury, but I encourage everybody outside of there

to to give it a shot and and try try to f hone their game in a little bit more with with some interactive help.

Jake Van Ness (25:58)
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Divots and Skins podcast. And remember.

Brett DAS Ep15 (26:41)
Never leave a birdie putt short, folks.

Jake Van Ness (26:44)
you