Impacts of Brooks Koepka’s PGA Tour return, A new Rolapp era, and Tiger’s 50th Bday party playlist
The Shotgun Start
Fried Egg Golf
4.7 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To paraphrase Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour's Opening Drive is *finally* just about underway! Andy and Brendan are beyond happy to have actual golf back on the Schedule for the Week, even if this is still a Victory Wednesday episode for the Bears. It could also be a Victory Wednesday episode for the PGA Tour, as Brian Rolapp's new Returning Member Program has enabled Brooks Koepka's return at the Farmers Open in just two weeks. Andy and Brendan discuss all the details of the new pathway, open to just four LIV golfers for the next three weeks before LIV's season begins in Riyadh. The two wonder if the financial penalty of "equity coupons" and a donation to charity was enough of a punishment for Brooks, but see this move as an overwhelmingly positive for the Tour and Brian Rolapp's tenure. Things seemingly moved quickly over the weekend and Rolapp gets props from Andy and Brendan for decisively striking while the iron is hot. PJ makes a change to his major picks, awarding Brooks with a fourth PGA Championship, but Brendan is skeptical that Koepka will find himself in major shape in 2026. Brooks will not be at the Sony Open this week, but many PGA Tour stars will be to start the season. This gambling pod makes some picks for the first event of the year, riding with two big names and a podcast favorite. Elsewhere, Rory McIlroy and other European Ryder Cup heroes are in Dubai this week for a DP World Tour event as a tune-up before coming back to the states. Brendan comes in with a real winner for the Event of the Week, Tiger's 50th birthday at the Breakers in Palm Beach. Andy and Brendan toss out some musical acts that would fit the vibe before realizing that Jon Bon Jovi is already enlisted to perform. Lastly, some major LIV news came across the desk on Tuesday morning as the Ironheads and Stingers GC have re-branded! This podcast will continue using the Stingers name, but some potentially-AI press releases reveal the new country-based names of these teams. There's also some LIV hot stove news with a former U.S. Amateur winner seemingly making the jump from the PGA Tour.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Now the shotgun start in golf is full of mathematics. |
| 0:04.0 | There's a lot of setup work that we have to do in order to make a tournament work. |
| 0:09.0 | So I'm going to demonstrate to you just exactly how we do a shotgun start here. |
| 0:14.0 | And here we go. |
| 0:17.0 | All right, all right, all right. |
| 0:27.0 | Gentlemen, start your engine. Greetings and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the shotgun start. |
| 0:43.6 | It is January 14th. |
| 0:46.0 | Andy, how are we doing? |
| 0:47.7 | Brendan! |
| 0:49.0 | I'm doing greatest victory Wednesday. |
| 0:52.9 | What's the victory for? |
| 0:55.0 | I don't know if you heard, but we beat the Packers on Saturday. |
| 0:58.1 | I feel so upbeat despite, despite having my paper mishay ankle fold again on me today. |
| 1:09.4 | Yeah, another ankle injury. |
| 1:11.3 | What happened? |
| 1:17.1 | Were you played pickup hoops by yourself in the cul-de-sack of your street somewhere, |
| 1:19.1 | on the driveway of your street? |
| 1:20.4 | No, no, no. |
| 1:26.0 | I was going for a jog, but really kind of dedicated to some fitness early this year. |
| 1:26.4 | Sure. |
| 1:30.7 | Going for a jog and a dog lunged at me. I made an abrupt, you know, change of direction, stepped in a hole with my right, right ankle, |
| 1:37.2 | which is very weak, you know, just naturally weak from years of basketball injuries. |
... |
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