Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg Podcast. Today's episode is powered by tdum or Trade. Every stroke counts on the scorecard and every penny counts in the market. That's why Tedammeritrade is committed to straightforward pricing with no surprises, so you're free to swing, so you're free to swing with confidence. Visit tedomritrade dot com slash Fried Egg member SIPC. Today, I'm excited We've got the first part of a two
part podcast with Ryan French. If you guys are unfamiliar with Ryan, he is the man behind the popular Monday q info Twitter account that covers all of the Monday qualifiers, all the mini tours, and just kind of he has his pulse on all the obscure stories and golf, all the guys that inches away and bounce here or bounce there away from being on the PGA Tour. So Ryan was more than generous with his time. He came by and we recorded about an hour and a half of
audio here. So we're gonna split this up into two parts. Part one is going to be about Ryan and how he started Monday q Info. I'm for those that don't follow on Twitter yet, I highly recommend there might not be a better run Twitter account on the Internet. It's at a case of the golf one that's at a case of the golf one on Twitter. Monday q info.
So here's part one about how he started Monday q info and his life and a little bit about some of the stories surrounding Monday q info to date, and then part two we kind of zero in on US Open sectional qualifiers and a little bit about some of the guys that you may never have heard of that got through. I think it's the soul of the US Open. So Part two will be up later this week. Here's
Part one. Enjoy I miss a green. For example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball in a fried egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida egg Frida egg, Brian egg Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to.
Run off the you're caddy in the Monday Monday Q at Stonewall.
Or a chart here in Chicago exactly. And uh, We're sitting on the tea with like three groups and I didn't want to interrupt the players or anything or tell them who I was. So I was just like I'm Ryan and CD goes, so tell him what you really do and I was like, I'm the guy who runs the Monday q info Twitter and every player was like, oh my god, and I was like, I just it was very like surreal because I just don't have a way of knowing like the people at Reaches, So it
was like it was crazy. It was pretty crazy.
It's wild when like people know who you are, yes, exactly, yeah, Like you know, you had no intention of this becoming this.
Right, Like I'm just a dude that happened to stay at home and with his son and now I like a very surreal moment was Sean mcchel got through a Monday qualifier and I'm interviewing him in between giving my kids a bath, And I was like, when I started this account, did I ever think that I would be talking to a major champion in between giving my kids a bath? And it was like it was like, there's some surreal moments that's that stands out for sure.
How did it all gets start?
Like why? Where?
What was going on in life?
Why?
Why Monday qualifiers? Like in in many tours.
Yeah. So I've been in the restaurant business my whole my whole life. And our son has some health issues, had a brain surgery, has had two brain surgeries, and so it was it was we lost our long term nanny, and so our new nanny wasn't very good to be quite frank, and I decided to stay home. And uh so from there it was really something to do. So I didn't have to watch cartoons all day. And so I've caddied after college. I caddied on many tours with
my dad. My dad and I used to take a yearly trip or two trips a year and go caddy on a mini tour. So like Canadian Tour, eGolf, Golden Bear Hopped. I mean, there's a bunch. What a tradition with you? It was crazy, Yeah, there was. I mean there's some stories from that, like our tent blew away at a Hooters event. Oh, I mean we had some crazy stories.
How did this tradition start?
So I found a Canadian tour, I was like, hey, Dad, maybe we can caddy on a pro tour. I had no, like, no real understanding of how it worked, and so I can This is pre McKenzie tour. Uh, this is like just a Canadian tour. And so I live I lived in the Detroit area, and so I sent a message to the caddy master at a at a Canadian tour event and they were like instantaneously me bag, He's like, yes, we love it, getting to know, like going there and finding out just like fifteen year old kids and no
one who had any golf knowledge. People were just ecstatic to have anyone who knew like where to stand once the you know, once you pull the flag. So that's how it started, and we just made it a tradition. And I think I've caddied on twelve mini tours. I think, I think I know I've caddied on three that stopped playing players. I know that.
What what was the Uh, who's the most famous guy that UK for before they were famous?
I mean Ryan Yip would be probably. I caddied for Adam Bland, who's a pretty obscure name, but you know plays in Asia and I mean a lot of guys. So I I caddied for Ryan for a for most of those years. Once we got connected. Let's see down in I don't I mean, not anyone really that's made maybe it's Mike Caddy. Oh shit, that now that I look back on that, maybe it's Yeah, maybe it's me. I mean a bunch of but you see a ton of guys, I mean like Joel Damon and all those
guys were out there. I mean everybody was. I mean a lot of really good players came from Canadian Hooters. I mean Hooters. I remember kidding in a Monday qualifier of a Hooters event and the Monday qualifier was like full. I mean it was one hundred players. The Hooters Tour used to be like the thing, the thing, I mean, Chad Campbell gave up a web membership to come back and play for one hundred thousand dollars bonus on the
Hooters Tour. I mean it was unreal. If you look at those money lists, they're crazy.
So is the trip still going on or is it over?
No?
So my dad's older, he can't.
He doesn't go with the thing. He doesn't do the seventy.
Two, he doesn't do the seventy two anymore.
But it got to get on the minor league, just the one day, yeah, with the cart and just hand it out right.
Yeah, So let's see who did he can't. Oh, he can'ty for J. C. Deacon who just uh just mondayed into the RBC.
SO University of Florida coach.
Yes, pretty crazy crazy Monday. I mean he still plays a lot. He plays on like the Mini tours down in Florida on the off season. But I mean he had a good career, a decent career.
I feel like being a college coach is a great way. Like Mike Small obviously infamous. Like I think his you know, Mike Small's made cut percentage from like a span in the mid two thousands was like second only to Tiger on tour.
Yeah, I mean it has to be. The guy could obviously dominate if he'd just stopped coaching, Like he could go to the senior too and do pretty much whatever he wants.
Guy rolls out of bed and she's sixty he does.
It's like, I mean he had to be so mad that the PGA was moved. I mean yeah, I mean he would have obviously been there and probably made the cut.
So you start this Monday Q, when did you start it a year ago?
One year ago? Because I started it after I Caddy did a Monday qualifier. The guy Caddy four a lot when he comes up and I've hosted a few times. CD Hockersmith was like, dude, you just got us start an account, like you know, there's golf nerds out there. But so one year ago I caddied form and this year last week was the Monday qualifier for the Evans or two weeks ago, I guess.
It was the rest yeah, like about a year ago today, Yes, yeah, because that was always the that was the week after the sectional qualify.
Yes, exactly, because the Monday was always super light, like there was no one here.
That was always I always said that was the best Monday, yes, to play in. So this this web event now yes week was the best Monday to play.
Yes, for sure.
The BMW one they don't have a Monday. Oh yeah, so that's why they moved it.
Yep, that's probably why they moved it, because yeah, well up here, I mean I remember there was seventy first six.
Yes, yeah, I was I like looked at the scores. I was like, I should have played, and trust me, we played with a guy last year that shot eighty six. We were on the range and the guy was like hitting scribblers off the end of the range and we're like, oh, we feel sorry for the whoever's playing with that guy.
We walked up ten and there he was with us.
So it's uh so a year ago, right so, and like has become an Internet sensation, Like.
I mean, it's I really have no I keep saying it, like I have no understanding of what it's become. I know it's growing fast. I know I have a lot of players that reach out to me and people have been super awesome, but uh yeah, it was never intended to get this. That was not I thought if I had three hundred followers, it would be crazy if I had five hundred. I never even I honestly didn't think this far ahead. I've never like I never got to
this point. If I were, and I thought about what the account would become.
It's amazing because he like he you know, going from zero, Like yes, when you get to like five hundred, you're like, oh, imagine what would happen when I have a thousand? Right, and then you get there and then you're all of a suddenly and then like you get your next thousand like at a day.
Right, Yeah, I mean it's like I grow now like the hundred, and I was like I remember being excited about a ten in a four or five days span. You're like, oh, yeah, I'm up to five hundred and twenty five followers, and.
Then you get to ten thousand.
Yeah, Like it's crazy.
It's I think like you've tapped into something. And I I am obviously a big believer in this because I think the fridayk serves golf nerds.
Yeah, different as.
Different realm than what you do.
And I really admire and appreciate like you did something different than everybody else is doing and it's something that golf nerds and I think that you tapped into something like the Internet is built for people to learn, and like in that's it embraced their inner nerd in a way.
Yeah yeah. I mean my brother used to say, like, if you had this much golf knowledge about space travel, you would be on the moon. And I'm like, he's like, but what good does it do you? And so I always send my updates to my brother like Hey, I'm at this many followers or whatever, because I mean I'm a true golf nerd and now I guess I have an outlet for it and people are appreciating it.
So when you were working in the restaurant industry. Were you following all this stuff? Yeah, religious, Yeah, I'm not as quite as religiously obviously.
I mean, obviously it's gotten more religiously now, but I mean through caddying, I just met a bunch of guys, so I'd always check up on them, like where they were playing, what they were doing. Mondays was obviously the most often I'd look at those, But yeah, I mean they I've pettied for guys that are spread out from web to still on the Minor League Tour or Dakota's Tour or whatever, Asia Asia Golden State Tour. Yeah, I
mean they're everywhere. I saw a guy I caddied for a long time ago, that Mitch Tasker who played in a pro am on the austral Asian Tour. That is just like out of the blue. I didn't even know he was playing. Like, I was looking at those things every once in a while, a lot, probably by most people's standards, but not as much as I am now. Obviously I don't have the time to do it now.
So yeah, I think it's just a you know, like you and I were talking, I think it's almost a curse to be very good at a sport, but not Tiger Woods or you know, Phil Mickelson, are those kind of things. I mean, the grind to get to the PGA Tour is something a lot of people just don't know about.
Yeah, it's it's definitely the most undercovered aspect of the game. Yeah, unlike I think in a lot of ways, minor league baseball is a grind that nobody covers really and you know, you don't hear about. And it's similar in a way. I think pitchers and golfers are really similar because, like
the skill sets, they're both non reactionary activities. But at the same time, like if you're a minor league baseball player, they're traveling you around your lodgings, picked up your food, you don't have to do anything like these guys out grinding.
They eat what they kill.
Yeah, exactly. I mean I always tell the story we house CD and Michael Rush and my wife might get mad at me for telling this story, but it's quite funny. So my wife makes them dinner and the chicken had so much salt in it I was inedible, and both these guys are sitting there and eating this, and I was like, hey, guys, you don't have to eat it. We're just gonna get pizza. And they're like, oh no, anything free. I mean, I it. A perfect example is
CD staying at my house last week. I mean he literally stayed in my little pony themed bedroom and that's to save one hundred dollars because you know, the trip's gonna cost him a thousand. If it can cost him eight hundred, then he's gonna do it. I mean, and he literally drove my twenty eleven Hundai at Luntra around that has the check engine light because it's free and he didn't have to run a car. And so I think that's the side that people just don't see. I mean,
Joel Damon is a perfect example. The guy was had some bad results for a long time on some pretty obscure tours and I mean, and now he's a millionaire, but the grind to get there people just don't see. Yeah.
I think that's and I find the guys.
The like the way golf is covered is that the top ten players, top fifteen to twenty players get all the coverage and the rest of the stories kind of are heaped aside unless they win, like Adam Long, perfect example, like nobody knew anything about Adam Long until he won.
Yeah, for the most part, right, I mean, I think you know, I've talked to players before, and what I say is that the group of grinders is endless, right Like, if ten of them got injured today, there's ten more that could replace them that the tour is not going to care about and doesn't have time to market. There's an endless supply of grinders. There's tours all over the world that have awesome players that could easily fill that void.
So they don't care, they don't market them. And these guys are, like Ed Lord said, you know, we're the one percent of the one percent, and but they can fill that vacuum in a in a heartbeat. You know. They're just not part of the tour. They don't make the tour any money. They don't make equipment companies any money. They're they're filling a void. But they're amazing golfers.
Yeah, And it's it's a different situation than a role player on like a team exactly because a role player on their team, like there's only one singular focus of a television coverage right on whether it's baseball, basketball, football, and any fan of that team is going to know the you know, offensive guard for their football team because they see him play all the time. But these are the guys that never no golf fans ever see play unless they're in contention exactly.
And you know, I was. I just sent a message to Justin Huber who's injured, and it's actually the opposite. Whereas in a team sport, people want you to come back, whether you're the twelfth man, you fill some sort of role on a team, whereas Justin Huber or anybody else getting injured actually creates an opportunity for someone that wants
your job. And so it's it's so different than any other sport because you are once you're gone, like Justin Huber, outside of his friends, I'm sure not people are like texting him. He's not part of the CAMARADERI. No teammates are waiting for him to come back. His role has been filled in a heartbeat in a second.
And do they have like a I know with like the PGA tour they have medical leave, Like does the web not have anything?
I don't know if they do. I asked Justin that I've sent him a bunch of questions and he's gonna get back to me. So it was one of my questions because I know the PGA Tour does, but I don't know about the web.
That's it's It's something I don't know either. So that was something that just popped into my mind. So you start this thing and it blows up, like what what is it?
Tracking?
I mean you cover everything like I didn't even know I'm like the biggest golf nerd. I didn't even know the Outlaw Tour existed. Yeah, and yeah, so so you're tracking every like when I say every tour for those that don't don't follow Ryan, like he tracks every tour, like tours you've never even heard of.
Yeah, I mean, I I've even found. I mean, I'm a golf nerd for sure. There's tours that I'm starting to hear about that I didn't know existed. But yeah, I mean I try to cover as many tours that I know of that I can't. Yeah, the Outlaw Tour kind of replace the Gateway Tour. I mean, there's a bunch of tours out out in Scottsdale now, but Outlaw Tour is one of them, and the scores out there are ridiculous. So it makes for good content. I mean,
like Charlie Belgian, you guys know pretty well. I mean shot like sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, that's not exact, but it's something like that. The winner shot twenty seven under in three rounds.
It's one of my favorite things is Charlie Belgian, former former PGA Tour winner.
Yeah.
Yeah, and he's now playing this outlaw tour and and he got into he got into what was the opposite.
Field, Puerto Rico. Yeah, Puerto Rico.
In his Twitter profile says former PGA Tour player is armor pro golfer and he's like into crypto now.
Yeah, but yeah, and he made a run last yeah, this weekend sectionals and he I think he's I don't know if he got an alternate spot. He tied for alternate spot, but I don't know where he fell with the playoff. But yeah, he's into bitcoins now.
But so is the US Open and sectional qualifying like the super Bowl of your ear?
I always say the Masters this super Bowl, right right?
Uh, I don't know know, I think like probably the Honda is probably the super Bowl. I mean, he's fallen a little bit different on the schedule but the Honda field was pretty The Honda field for the Monday it is pretty ridiculous. I mean this is like the I mean, the US Open is very exciting, but I if I had to pick a like a super Bowl of Mondays, it would probably be the Honda. The Hondas is pretty outstanding.
I mean, it's too bad that they don't get that qual Monday Q at the Fountains course.
Yes, yeah, right, exactly.
Boy Stevie Lebron, they would even show up.
No, they would just I mean they would play for five for three spots, you know. I mean they would just be like, Okay, Steve's in and then there's.
Maybe Sonny Kim. They might give Sonny Kim a spot. Yeah, I mean the Minor League tour guys might just wipe it clean. You know, what's your what's your favorite, uh favorite of the mini tours to cover?
I mean, the the mini tours are so fractured now. I mean the mini tours used to be really good, you know, the Hooters days, the eGolf days. I mean, you know, I'm following. I'm talking with Matt Ryan, who's on the l A Tour.
I mean, the he had a what was it he had that fling of notoriety a couple of years ago.
I forgot what he did. He did, Yeah, I.
Swear, I remember Matt Ryan was like in the news for something.
I don't know.
My brain works, I remember, I don't know.
I have to I have to find out. I have to ask.
Like ten years ago, something happened with Matt Ryan. It's gonna kill me. We're gonna find it. We'll find out before and then we'll publish this and then.
Yeah, we'll both get messages exactly. So. I mean, he played on the E Golf Tour and he sent me the money list. I mean the money list was four hundred players. And so those those days are over, you know, because of the Canadian, Latin American China. That's changed many tours, many tours are I mean, we might see the end of well, I think we'll definitely see the end of fifty four seventy two whole Mani Tour events. I just
don't think you'll see a lot of West Florida. You know, many minor league tour those kind of things, but it's so regionalized now we'll never see a Hooters. As long as the Latin American Canadian.
It's because of the guaranteed spot.
Yeah, I mean they're all playing for five spots and to skip stages at Q school.
So it's crazy to me that like the top ten doesn't get spots.
Yeah, so they're changing it next year. They're gonna get better status. So the top five gets status now automatically, and then top ten get to final stage and top twenty get to second stage. I think. So the top five has had crappy besides number one, who gets full status, two through five have kind of had crappy status. So
that changes a little bit next year. But back to your original question, my favorite mini tour, I mean the Minor League Tour is pretty tough to I mean there's a lot of name The West Florida Tour is really good. It has a lot of like Danny, you know, Daniel Chopra is down there. They have a lot of names. But many tours are not what they used to be for sure.
Yeah, the Minor League Tour is crazy because like you'll see in the offseason guys PGA Tour players playing these one day events. Yes, and like you'll see guys like like we were talking about before we started recording, John Kuran.
Yep, Yeah, I mean he won a mini tour event. I mean he won a minor league tour event. You'll see like Ben Taylor who won on the on the Web last year and was bored in the offseason, went and played in won an event. You know, like Kevin Twy plays in the two Man like Tory Connors. Yeah, Cory, I mean that feels like got like ten top one hundred FedEx Club points in it. Yeah.
The John Kran think's crazy because two years ago I think he was in a memorial playoffs.
Yeah, I mean he's like That's what kind of started me. As Like I would go to these mini tours and I'd be like, oh my god, he's still playing, or like wow, I didn't know you're still playing, or why I forgot about him or whatever. On top of you know, I mean, I Brian Davis is a perfect example. Brian Davis plays on the Moonlight Tour. The Moonlight Tour literally has is one hundred bucks cash to tee it up, and there's twelve guys, sometimes seven guys, and there's like
Freddie Yakobsen plays, Chris Couch plays, Brian Davis plays. I mean, Brian Davis has over twenty million dollars in career earnings and he's playing on the Moonlight Tour.
So I think he just hit on something with you know, guys like Brian Davis, Like with the way the tour is now. I think like the youth invasions partly because of technology, like where it's a different game than it used to be for these guys. And I think we're gonna see more and more of this where more and more guys are going to be sitting around from forty two.
To fifty waiting for the Champions.
Tour, and that's where maybe the mini tours have something.
Yeah, yeah, I mean I I definitely you know, to that point you bring up is yeah, I definitely see more veterans out there. They don't have a place to play. They don't really want to play web events because it just really financially doesn't make sense. They have a plenty of money, they want a place to play. So Brian Davis plays in he plays in Monday qualifiers. He's done pretty well this year and he's at home and he
wants a place to play. It's not about money, obviously, because if you win, you win three hundred bucks or four hundred bucks. So it's not about money. He just doesn't want He's not gonna chase a web card. He's gonna wait for the He's gonna try his best on the limited starts he gets, try to Monday qualify and get a top ten and get back in the in the Shuffle, and then when he's not he's gonna be
at home playing the Moonlight Tour. And I mean again, I think I did a stead a long time ago, but it was like a nine player field and there was at the Moonlight Tour, and there's like fifty two million dollars in PJ earnings in the field. Like Chris Kouch has a win, Brian Davis has a European Tour win, Freddy Yakkinson has like two wins. It was like fifty two million in a nine man field or something.
It's nuts.
It is nuts.
I'll never forget.
I've played the Minor League Tour and I got paired up with Derek Fan. Oh yeah, so he finished like two years before the year before he finished third in Q School and and earned his PGA Tour card and then he I mean he he got he was young, and he he made like three cuts.
I guess he was like living the life and yeah, and he.
Was back playing on the Minor League Golf Tour, you know, one year later like this All American, like I think three time All American in Louisville, you know, from PGA Tour back to the minor league Tour and one year. And that's one of the crazy things I think about, is like, you know, a guy can have a bad year on the PGA Tour and have no status.
Yeah, Paul Haley. I use him as an example a lot. He's back on the He's back on the Web dot Com Tour. He won, like I don't know the exact stats, but I think he won twice his first year and had like two top you know, or three more top fives.
He had like an unreal year, went to the PGA Tour and did nothing and finish like below two hundredth then FedEx and he had to go all the way back to first stage and didn't get through first stage and literally went from one of the best Web years in the last ten years to no status at all, virtually had a little Web status. But like so I mean that is again the side of and like kind of what the account is about is like people don't realize. I didn't realize until I like really started digging into
this stuff how quickly your status can go away. I mean you can literally be courtesy cars to minor league tour in a year and a half.
It's not it's the in like you said, this society golf that nobody's nobody's covering and nobody's talking about and and that's like it's kind of everybody points to like tie try On yep, but there there are hundreds of Tai Tryons out there, just they just didn't qualify for the tour at seventeen.
Yep, exactly. I mean there's a there's a guy that got through a sectionals, Andreas Helberson. He turned pro at eighteen and hasn't done anything. I mean he's done pretty well in the LA on the Latin American Tour, but you know, but again, it's such a it becomes like you go out there, you're an amazing He was an amazing amateur, came to the United States like was in a you know, one of these like camps, and he turned pro at eighteen, and he you know, he can't
get through Q school. He's not even close and it's like, you know, it's the Ti Trion. There's a thousand Tai Trion's out there, and they're all very good, and there's already players the ten years priors ty Trion's are already out there, and that's where you have to beat to get your card.
So on my other podcast, a Shatka Start, Brendan and I have a you know, we tend to latch onto some of these mini tour menaces the right legends that just torment many tours, you know, whether it's Steve Lebron Fountains on the Minor League Tour, the Wizard Ted Potter back in the day on the Hooters Tour was just a prolific winner. Yes, who are today some of the most iconic mini tour players that you feel like they're just they're one good breakaway from becoming, you know, a household name.
Yeah, I mean from a domination standpoint. Andre Metzker in the the Dakota's Tour. Now, he's relatively older, he's like thirty four to thirty five, but I mean he wins. I think there's like twelve Dakota's Tours event and he'll win three every year, and he'll have, Like, I mean, he is one of the few guys that can easily make a living playing many tours. Like he's been in the top too or three of the of the Order of Merit for like nine years straight. I mean he
just goes up there and collects checks. I mean I think he has like twelve or thirteen wins in five years.
Did you ever caddy on the Dakota's Tour?
Uh?
Yeah once?
Yeah, that's that's that's one of the mini tours that interest me.
Oh yeah, I mean it and there was I mean it was in I have to look it up, but I mean it was in North Dakota in like the middle of a you know nowhere, and back in those days, that was the good days of many tours. I mean there was like one hundred and fifteen guys, and I mean there's six hotel, six hotels within twenty miles.
And they're like fans come out to those Oh yeah, I mean it's again they have the thing that happens in town, right.
Yeah. They have no outlet for golf, like no PGA web anything is going to ever come close to it. And they're like, there's way more fans at a Dakota's Tour event than at most WEB events. I mean I sent out a picture of the of the WEB event here. Uh it was Charlie Seaffert, Campos and somebody else. They're all in the top fifteen in the money list, and they literally had zero fans. I mean literally, not a grandma, not a mom, not a girlfriend, nothing, zero fans.
That's I think one of the problems with the WEB. And I think one of the things you see and you see it with LPGA, you see it with seniors is like going to major metro markets, like there's so
much other stuff to do that people get lost. Yeah, it's like those the smaller tours and even like to a certain extent PGA tour events like coming to Chicago, like you're you're sure you're going to draw, but like like the Solheim Cup when it went to Cedar Rapids, Yep, that was the biggest exactly or was it Des Moines. I think it was Des Moines was the biggest outdoor sporting event.
Like because it's the only thing.
Yeah, it's the biggest thing that's ever got.
So I think that's like something that some of these mini tours hit on, like especially the code of stour and and what web events and like we see it in Idaho.
The Idaho event always has passed.
Right, So back to the original question, is Kevin alw is probably probably the best player that hasn't made it. I just tweeted about him. He's been super helpful with the account. He's gone three months and has not shot a score over par in a competitive event. I mean he's got he sent I think he has twenty four or twenty five, three, two or three day wins. He
doesn't count one day wins like he is. I mean he is and everyone that, like I put the stat out about him, and I probably got the most messages or replies about like that. He just needs the right opportunity, Like if he gets on there, if he gets on the web, he's gonna be fine. He just has to play well in December and October.
How much easier is getting the count? Yeah, I mean definitely running that count. Yeah, definitely becoming easier in some ways easier because people send me stuff a lot. But also like now I'm getting really obscure. I mean one of my most popular tweets was from the Alps tour in Europe.
I mean that is. I mean, I knew of the tour, but that's pretty obscure.
That would be a cool one to go cat.
Yeah, yeah, it would be. Yeah, it would And they always go super low in that tour. Now that I've started to follow it more, I mean they go, that was the one that what the guy was I shot sixty two, sixty two, sixty three and one by one or something like that.
I imagine the way that your account, like what you do has changed dramatically, Mike, just you know, researching score now like you're you you're communicating with all these guys.
Yeah, I mean, uh yeah, Again, it's very surreal of like what this has become. Yet. I mean, guys reach out to me of like try to find Mondays they can't find the Monday or like a contact person uh for the Monday. I used to have to try to track down like the PJA section to help me with information on the playof Now most of them just reach out to me. Is like I have too many people
sending me information from the Monday playoff. Yeah, I mean there's definitely advantages to having it more, but again, there's so much content, you know, It's like now I have to pick through it and people who have followed for a long time who sent me stuff. I was like, yeah, you know, I'll try to get to it. So yeah, I mean it's again, it's crazy that it's got to this point. Crazy. Yeah, it's.
It's really cool.
I mean I'm a big fan of the account and I think you're you're doing something smart. So sponsors exemptions are always like a hot topic. Yes, and I'm curious what if you were if you were the if you were in charge of picking out sponsors exemptions for an event, what what would you how would you fill the four spots?
Yeah, I mean I think exemptions used to used to be and should be, you know, save for guys who uh I'll use it. I just talked to a guy named Tom Wrkmeister who's on the Senior Tour. Was like, had a decorated amateur career and now like gave it up to Yeah, yeah from Michigan. From Michigan. He's from Grand Rapids. Yeah, I mean like won the Michigan Open as an on the Senior Tour. Now yeah, I mean,
well you know he's he's chasing Mondays. He finished like twelfth at final stage, so he gets like into Monday. He doesn't have to do preques.
Let me ask you a real quick question first, somebody told me this, in order to play Monday cues on the Senior do you have to be a professional.
Yes, I think you as an amateur, you can go through pre q, but you can't. You can advance into it, but you can't play Mondays, right, So yeah, Mondays are even Like the Senior Tour is the most closed tour, like we we always say. I always ask like Kyle, look, guys that grounded for a long time. Kyle Thompson ed, Lord, like, hey, are you gonna do it at fifty? And they're like, it's the hardest tour in the world to get onto. There's five spots every year. Yeah, And they don't care.
They don't want people like.
They don't want they don't want Ken Tannegaut, they don't want.
No, No, they don't they don't want Ed Lower, No offense to Edd, they just don't want them. They want, you know, the Marco Meras and wait till Tiger turns fifty, and that's how they sell the tour. Like they don't they don't want him. Like a guy that I've caddied for before great Craft, you know, made it. They don't want great Craft.
But ironically, I think it's fascinating that a lot of the guys that didn't have huge success on the PGA Tour have huge success on the senior too.
Yeah, and I think that especially the Champions does not a great job of selling Like what a story Scott Parrell is or Ken you know, like those are crazy stories. I mean, Scott Parrell is the ultimate grinder. They will never I don't think there will be anyone that can last and have this as long as he hasn't had this success that he's had. Now it's insane.
I mean, I guess Lanny was laying into him really on the on the telecast last week because he lost the league. He was like, Oh, he just doesn't know how to win, you know, he's you know, Lanny was pulling the like, oh he's he's not like me card.
Oh, I mean like the guy. I mean it was a computer programmer. But so anyway, back to the Monday qualifiers. Even the Monday qualifiers that Champions are are closed doors, so you have to finish. You have to finish in the top twenty at final stage just to be able to skip preqs, like I mean in prequ's like Ken Duke is in pre pre qualifiers for seniors, no way, Yeah, so it.
Guy shot the best round in me and players, Yes, yes, true.
Yeah, gotta play at pre Q. So good. I think I think it's can do. But I mean, like if you go to a pre Q for champions, there's like plenty of guys that are like, you know, recognizable names because they didn't finish in the top whatever at final stage. So yeah, I mean so Tom Workmeister is a perfect example of like you know, it's a closed door out there. He's like had a decorated amateur career and he's chasing Mondays every Monday and doing his job. He has a
marketing job that he does from the road. That's it.
I mean, that's I think one of the things we'll see with the way that the world's changing is like so many more people are remote with work.
Yeah, I think about it now, Like.
I just moved to the suburbs, like being able, Like now I can actually like not being in the city, I can actually go.
Hit golf balls.
Yeah, It's like I could go hit golf balls every morning and be home and working at eight in the war.
Yep.
And that's like, you know, an unbelievable change. But that's like what remote works can do now for people.
Yep. I agree.
It's so I think we're going to see more and more Scott Perels, more Tan Tanagawa's more workmeisters.
Yeah. I mean, obviously, the thing that slows players down all the time across any is financial. I mean Tom Wrkmeisert's a perfect example, is like he can't afford it. He's got guys from his club that you know, supporting him. So that's always been the avenue that stops most players. It's generally not talent, it's they're running out of money. I mean, you know, to have a full mini tour season, you need a lot of money.
What do you have a gauge on costs of? Like, what's it? And I think this is something that people are always fascinated about. It's like, what's the cost of a guy with no status? What's the cost you know, maybe escalated up?
Yeah, I mean, uh, it depends on what tour you play, but I'll use uh, I'll use Matt Ryan as an example. He said, so there's a fifteen on Latin America he's on Latin America. It's probably the most expensive tour out there. Canada's pretty close. Matt spends two thousand dollars roughly a week to play, and I mean two thousand dollars. You have to finish top fifteen to break even, So I mean he's losing money. The top five guys might make
a little. The rest doesn't even include like insurance. No, no, that that doesn't include rent, like all of your living costs. Yeah, he's taught, he's talking you know, merely getting there, playing a week room, pay a caddy, you know those kind of things. I mean it's two thousand dollars and that's a small part of his seasons, not even half of his season. You have Q School five thousand. You know, generally, a lot of guys that I know that play a
mixture of MANI Tours, Monday Qualifiers. I look around fifty thousand dollars in costs per year, and that doesn't include you know, rent, all those kind of things.
So I generally will say, is that you need one hundred grand to really give it a shot.
Yes, yeah, And and I mean most of these guys don't make even if they cash a big check. They have sponsors, and most of it goes back to their sponsors. So they have some sort of ladder, meaning like if they make less than ten thousand dollars, eighty percent goes back to their sponsors, twenty percent goes to the player. If they make above fifteen you know, seventy thirty, sixty, forty, so on and so forth, and then they have some
sort of multiplier that ends the relationship. So that's there's a lot of different agreements among sponsors, but that's the most popular.
One I've been.
I do these this flashback fridays for shot gonna start. I found some obscure things like Kenny Perry. Yeah, his deal with the guy that gave it back to them the last time he qualified, well, he hadn't qualified, so the guy that backed him.
Was a lipscum.
Oh really, Brad, Yeah, and he he donated like three percent of his career earnings to lipscumb. The deal was like three percent of your earnings go to Lipscomb. You don't pay me back, right, and so like a Kenny Perry scholarship at lipsoh.
He went to all that story.
Yeah, and then and then you've got like guys like Ben Silverman. Yeah, I started reading about Ben Silverman. He has a crazy story with like just this random guy. Yeah backed him, like his parents were like skeptical of it.
I mean Luke Kwan is a great story in itself, but he was so he went to Oklahoma, tried it for a year, ran out of money, lost his citizenship, was working as a for Kaddy anyway, had to get his citizenship in New Zealand, got citizenship, started a YouTube channel about golf and found sponsors through a YouTube channel, and then just one on PJ Tour China, like a couple of weeks ago. But so back to the financial part.
It depends. So I used Steve Lebron as a perfect example of how many tours you just can't make it. I mean Steve Lebron won every other event in the Minor League Tour.
I think he's got seventy six career wins, but then he has five co wins.
Yeah, darkness shortened co wins.
Right, Yes, I'm so Steve is a perfect example of so he's staying at home. The Minor League Tour is a tour that you can stay at home. And I interviewed him after his sixty one or sixty two at the final stage the last day, and he said, I'd like to tell you I was making it, but I
wasn't making it. You know, he had credit cards maxed out trying to get to the BGA Tour, and so if he's not making it on the minor league tour, meaning he's not making money, you can understand what all the rest of those guys are going through.
Yeah, and think of it like this is the guy that you'd see in a field in a minor league event and you'll be like, well, like probably gonna finish second if I play the best round of my life.
Yep.
This is the guy like this isn't the best player of your club, this is the best player in South Florida.
Yep. That's not on a major tour exactly. I mean. And you know, he was like, hey, I'd play, you know, I'd win a couple of times, so we'd pay a couple of bills, but then I'd have you know, three events where I had to pay the interro fee and I didn't play well, and I you know, I mean it was kind of it was definitely a wake up call of like if Steve Lebron is not making it on the minor league tour staying at home and dominating, I mean truly dominating. No one is making it on
the tour. So yeah, I mean the cost is ridiculous. I mean Q School's five thousand dollars, so I mean you're looking at fifty thousand dollars, like you said, one hundred thousand dollars to give yourself a chance. It is probably fair. China's actually one of the cheaper ones, is about thousand dollars a week, and the and the money's good. Canada's super expensive and any many I mean Chasing mondays
Ben Griffin has status. So his Monday Q entry fee is only one hundred bucks I believe, and he's like, I spend on thy to twelve hundred every week just to get to a Monday qualifier.
It seems like China and in Asia is a road less traveled, but one that more guys should explore.
Definitely, you know, like.
Barry Henson Yep is a you know, a guy we interviewed on a shotgun start and he he does well over there, like I mean, he lives in Thailand. I mean, but that's the hard thing. You're you're uprooting your whole life.
Yeah, I mean Asia, China. I mean John Caitlin is a is a good, good story. I mean he went over there. He did nothing here. Uh, went over there and played on the developmental Asian Tour, which is underneath the Asian Tour, won twice, got his Asian Tour card one three times last year and now has you know, European status, so uh, I mean, it's definitely a way to go, especially China. China has like really good from the standpoint of like the tour does a good job
of keeping costs down. So you know, Joe Gunnerman, who I like kind of followed through his season, is it's like it's about a thousand bucks a week and the money's better than the prize money is better than Latin American China's. But more and more guys are going over there because the secret's kind of out that it's you know, the best, better way to go.
And uh, what what do you think about?
Like, so obviously a big change with the PGA Tour was going to where a Q school doesn't get you on the tour, but you're a European tour still gets you up to tour, so you know, Q school used to be you get up, you qualify, you get up to the tour, and now you go to the WEB. So European Tour Q school is still structured so that you go straight to the European Tour. You know, is that a trend because of brooks Kepta's success and Peter u Line and you know Sam Horsfeld.
Now, yeah, I'm surprised that more guys don't go over there because of that, you know, I really am. I mean, especially after their success, you know, they cans an other one. Yeah, yeah, I mean, like those guys have had success, and I'm surprised that we don't. You definitely see more, you know, a lot of guys went over and didn't get through this year. Definitely, first stage second stages filled with more Canadians and Americans than I've than I've seen before. Like
Wittenberg went over there. A bunch of guys went over there this year. They just didn't get through. So maybe it's just the fact that they're not playing well. I'm surprised that they second stages match up. So a lot of guys have to make a choice, like Jack McGuire had to make a choice this year. A couple other guys that I can't remember, like got through first stage at both spots, but second stages match up, which I'm surprised they don't separate them, so like you can play both.
All right. That'll do it for Part one with Ryan French from Monday q Info. Tune in for Part two later this week and we will dive more into the US Open and Sectionals and the a little bit more about the obscure players that you'll see next week and their stories. You've been listening to the Egg podcast, we do the digging for you