Over-unders for 2026, Vijay Singh is Back!, PGA leadership changes (not Don)
The Shotgun Start
Fried Egg Golf
4.7 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The content gods have blessed this Friday episode with a piece of news that Andy has called "maybe my favorite thing that's ever happened on the PGA Tour." Vijay Singh, a 62-year-old who did not finish in the Top 20 of the Schwab Cup standings on last year's Champions Tour, has decided to use his career money list exemption for full status for 2026 on the PGA Tour! Brendan and Andy do a bit of a deep dive into Vijay's recent PGA Tour results and Andy applauds him for using this exemption despite calls for scarcity and cuts from the top of the new Tour food chain. Andy even goes as far as to say that he will still be in high spirits if the Bears lose on Saturday because he knows Vijay will tee it up at the Sony next week! In other PGA Tour field news, Scottie Scheffler has committed to the AmEx and WM Phoenix Open, marking the first starts of his 2026 season. With no Sentry, the AmEx has a much better field than in recent years, but Scottie will still likely be three-to-one or less to win the event. Brendan then segues to the biggest news of this week: Derek Sprague's departure from the PGA of America. Sprague stepped down as CEO, leaving an opening in the PGA of America's leadership that could really only be filled by one man. Is this Don's path to permanent relevancy? We'll have to just wait and see. There is also a VERY important Nico Minute in this episode, as a new sponsor has stepped up for a podcast favorite this year. The back half of this episode contains the yearly Over-Under segment, with Brendan, Andy, and PJ making predictions for the rest of the year. Will the major scoring record be broken? How many wins for Rory and Scottie? Can Cameron Young finish in the OWGR Top 10? Will the Bears beat the Packers twice in this calendar year? Listen to find out!
Join us in Chicagoland for an SGS Live Show on Thursday, February 12! We'll be hanging out at SPACE in Evanston, Illinois for a night of Q&A, Champs Tour Minute, and plenty of Bears chatter. General public tickets are on sale at 10 am CT on Friday, January 9. Check out https://www.ticketweb.com/event/the-shotgun-start-space-tickets/14054084?pl=space for more details.
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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 Friday edition of the Shotgun Start. |
| 0:43.7 | It is January 9th. |
| 0:45.8 | Andy, how are we doing? |
| 0:47.7 | Brendan! |
| 0:49.1 | I am doing fantastic. |
| 0:51.3 | I got to say, I have had life breathed into me. Literally, you know, |
| 0:58.2 | maybe my favorite thing this ever happened on the PGA tour happened this week with VJ Singh. |
| 1:05.2 | 62 year old VJ Singh taking his ever, ever to happen happen your favorite thing to ever happen on the |
| 1:12.7 | J tour yeah yeah this is this is just like I love when you have it's just an idiotic rule like |
| 1:19.9 | an idiotic exemption and somebody completely jams you for it 62 year old VJ Singh takes |
| 1:27.3 | his career money exemption, |
| 1:29.3 | an exemption that shouldn't exist. |
| 1:31.9 | He takes it, and he's going to play on the FGA tour this year. |
| 1:35.2 | This is heartwarming stuff. |
| 1:37.4 | I saw it come across my desk to use a term that you frequently use. |
| 1:43.8 | Last night, yesterday after, I was, |
| 1:46.1 | I was like, my reaction was, this is awesome. |
... |
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