{"id":271275,"date":"2025-11-04T17:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/271275\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T17:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:06:19","slug":"drafting-golfs-most-popular-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/271275\/","title":{"rendered":"Drafting golf\u2019s most popular players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who are the most popular players in men\u2019s professional golf?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDraft Week\u201d on The Shotgun Start kicked off today with an attempt to answer that question. Prompted by a listener suggestion, Andy, Brendan, and I drafted teams of 15 players to fill the fields of our own hypothetical tournaments. The gist? We have unlimited money to spend on appearance fees in an effort to create the biggest draw for our event. This could mean selecting the best players to make the most competitive tournament, this could mean how to make the most headlines on social media, or it could mean selling the most tickets. In the end, it\u2019s probably a combination of all three.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u200d<\/p>\n<p>Round 1<\/p>\n<p>Pick 1 \u2013 Bryson DeChambeau (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefriedegg.com\/contributors\/brendan-porath\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brendan<\/a>): \u201cNumber one, I have the money, I\u2019m going Bryson DeChambeau.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 2 \u2013 Rory McIlroy (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefriedegg.com\/contributors\/andy-johnson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Andy<\/a>): \u201cI had [Bryson] number two. I\u2019ll pick Rory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 3 \u2013 Tiger Woods (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefriedegg.com\/contributors\/pj-clark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PJ<\/a>): \u201cI would spend all of the budget to have Tiger\u2019s one non-major PGA Tour start. Are you kidding me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he just showed up and did press conferences and got in the booth and talked, is that more valuable than anybody else on this list?\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see at the Hero World Challenge. The only reason why that matters is because Tiger talks on like Tuesday or whatever it is.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Round 2<\/p>\n<p>Pick 4 \u2013 Scottie Scheffler (Brendan): \u201cI&#8217;ve somehow ended up with both Bryson and Scottie Scheffler in my cap. So I&#8217;m going to Scottie Scheffler at four.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 5 \u2013 Phil Mickelson (Andy): \u201cI think Tiger and Phil being this high just shows how important longevity is for the PGA Tour. And you know, when they talk about equipment, when they talk about all these things, what they need to do golf\u2026 if skill is the number one attribute of golf, you will get long careers with generational stars like Tiger, Phil, Ernie, you know, Jim Furyk in there, Vijay Singh. If it becomes. just a game of power, which is what technology is enabling, you&#8217;ll get short careers and you won&#8217;t see as many of these guys that can play for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 6 \u2013 Jon Rahm (PJ): \u201cI think, as we saw a handful of times during this year, especially around the Open, him winning leading into it, down the stretch at the PGA where he was the only other guy to have a chance to win, I still think Jon Rahm is a needle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 3<\/p>\n<p>Pick 7 \u2013 Jordan Spieth (Brendan): \u201cWe&#8217;ve heard from television networks. We&#8217;ve heard from people with the Tour, like he&#8217;s a needle. He changes the ratings when he plays. Kids love him. You have him in your event, it&#8217;s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 8 \u2013 Justin Thomas (Andy): \u201cHonestly, I would say that like, I think actually Justin Thomas on this list is probably the most fun player to watch if you&#8217;re really into golf. There&#8217;s like an error there, he&#8217;s got a little Spieth, where like the driver can give him some foul balls where he has to hit shots. Inside a hundred, which is probably the most exciting aspect of the game of golf to watch in person, in real life, I think he&#8217;s just exceptional. Hits a lot of different shots, changes speeds and tempos with his swing. He&#8217;s an awesome player to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 9 \u2013 Tommy Fleetwood (PJ): \u201cI have this guy ahead of JT, if only because I think as we learned, we have continually maybe underrated this guy&#8217;s popularity, and I feel like it&#8217;s only getting bigger by the day. I&#8217;m going to take Tommy Fleetwood here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 4<\/p>\n<p>Pick 10 \u2013 Sahith Theegala (Brendan): \u201cI might pull a left turn. I&#8217;m going to take Sahith Theegala. On the way back, got the fianc\u00e9e TikTok crowd, that residual interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 11 \u2013 Xander Schauffele (Andy): \u201cHe&#8217;s the only guy with an app himself. Two-time major winner, Xander Schauffele, the X app, the everything app.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have exclusive coverage on an app. Nobody else has that.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>Pick 12 \u2013 Viktor Hovland (PJ): \u201cI&#8217;m going with the youths. Viktor Hovland is popular on the internet for reasons, maybe not having to do with necessarily on-course play, but, I don&#8217;t care. I&#8217;m going for the impressions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat are you referring to? Women on TikTok think he&#8217;s attractive.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no idea this was a thing and it got brought up to me at the Ryder Cup and it&#8217;s unbelievable. He is like the number one golfer on TikTok that isn&#8217;t actually making content on TikTok.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>Round 5<\/p>\n<p>Pick 13 \u2013 Hideki Matsuyama (Brendan): \u201cStarting to get into fun territory. I&#8217;m going to take Hideki Matsuyama for the international flavor, international appeal. We&#8217;ll take him. I don&#8217;t find Hideki that interesting anymore as a golfer, but I do think he brings a lot to your tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 14 \u2013 Adam Scott (Andy): \u201cHe&#8217;s been doing it for a long time. I just, he&#8217;s recognizable, been doing it forever and, you know, he&#8217;s not the same player he used to be, but I think he still draws a big crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 15 \u2013 Justin Rose (PJ): \u201cIf this is like a sponsor exemption thing, you&#8217;re paying them to be part of the event. I don&#8217;t think anybody&#8217;s going harder than Justin Rose is. You know he&#8217;s going to put in the effort on the tournament operation side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 6<\/p>\n<p>Pick 16 \u2013 Aldrich Potgieter (Brendan): \u201cI&#8217;m going to take a young up and comer, a star, Aldrich Potgieter, a big boy, a burly boy, a big hitter. Absolute carnival act that gets people out to see him in the sixth round.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t think most people even know who he is.\u201d \u2013Andy\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s why you do a little marketing around it and you got him. It&#8217;s great.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is going to be great for the aggregated list when we put it out there.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Pick 17 \u2013 Collin Morikawa (Andy): \u201cI&#8217;ll take two-time major winner and, you know, you turn on Golf Channel, he&#8217;s on basically every commercial, Collin Morikawa.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGood pick. I&#8217;m just telling you, Potgieter\u2019s on his way to be on every commercial. Burly boy, 350 yards. Electric factory every time he takes a swing, could be a duff, Could be a shank, could be a 700 yard drive, could be anything!\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question is when does PJ reach for Cam Young? Because you know he&#8217;s thinking about it every pick from here on out.\u201d -\u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPJ has essentially assembled the European Ryder Cup team.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Pick 18 \u2013 Rickie Fowler (PJ): \u201cAn American, you want to talk about commercialization, I&#8217;m just gonna bite the bullet. I&#8217;ll take Rick. I&#8217;m good. I&#8217;m happy with it. Somebody had to do it. I&#8217;m taking Rickie Fowler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 7<\/p>\n<p>Pick 19 \u2013 Ludvig Aberg (Brendan): \u201cWho knows? He might win multiple majors next year. I&#8217;ll take him. Ludvig, Mercedes brand ambassador, obviously, he draws in the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 20 \u2013 Keegan Bradley (Andy): \u201cI&#8217;m going to take Captain Keegan Bradley. I want the Massholes. He&#8217;s got a region of supporters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got a ton of buzz! Well, as we know, he&#8217;s a fan favorite in New York, Boston, South Florida\u2026\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he might be out on New York after this.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan I just point out something here, because I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re in any way in jeopardy of taking these guys at this point. If you look at Data Golf&#8217;s top point earners, like we&#8217;re 20 picks in. I don&#8217;t think anybody&#8217;s even close to picking J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin, Russell Henley, Harris English, Sepp Straka, or Big Shot Bob. And those are\u2026 those players all inhabit the top 10 players of the world, according to Data Golf. They aren\u2019t even in my purview at this point.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Pick 21 \u2013 Jason Day (PJ): \u201cI mean, his biggest contribution to the zeitgeist this year is the clothes he wears. Is that where you&#8217;re going?\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy is that a negative contribution?\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you said to Malbon, \u2018give Jason Day the most preposterous scripting possible this week,\u2019 there you go, you win the internet!\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Round 8<\/p>\n<p>Pick 22 \u2013 Dustin Johnson (Brendan): \u201cYou talk about longevity, maybe Paulina comes, you get a little extra attention there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 23 \u2013 Sergio Garcia (Andy): \u201cI&#8217;m looking for controversy at this point. There&#8217;s two players in my opinion on the board that can take a tournament to another level with just their antics. I&#8217;m going to take, I think he&#8217;s a little bit more reliable to get there just because he&#8217;s, he&#8217;ll say something stupid\u2026 I&#8217;m going to take Sergio Garcia. He&#8217;s more recognizable too. He&#8217;s been doing it for a long time, Sergio Garcia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 24 \u2013 Joaquin Niemann (PJ): \u201cWe&#8217;re going to steer into some discourse here. We&#8217;re really, really playing for the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re getting a lens into how a Z views golf? It&#8217;s all about social media. It&#8217;s not about the play on the course.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I mean some people would say this guy&#8217;s a top five player in the world, I&#8217;m taking Joaquin Niemann, let&#8217;s really stir up the discourse.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess you get the South American\u2026 I don\u2019t think he does much.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Round 9<\/p>\n<p>Pick 25 \u2013 Min Woo Lee (Brendan): \u201cI&#8217;m gonna take rich man&#8217;s Joaquin Niemann, Min Woo Lee, Dr. Chipinski. He&#8217;s got tons of nicknames. He&#8217;s got Justin Bieber as a friend. He might not have any game that can translate to more than like one style. I&#8217;ve got Min Woo, the Chipinski chef and all these other things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 26 \u2013 Brooks Koepka (Andy): \u201cI&#8217;m taking Brooks Koepka. He&#8217;s won five majors. I can&#8217;t believe\u2026 this is a huge oversight by everybody involved. I was about to pick somebody else and then I realized he was still there. Brooks is going to use this as a slight. This is PJ&#8217;s favorite, one of his favorite athletes of all time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had him\u2026 I don&#8217;t know what he does for the general public at this point. That was a good pick this late.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a great pick.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe I didn\u2019t need Joaquin Niemann.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m glad you got Joaquin Niemann!\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll post a nice top five nobody cares about and say nothing afterwards.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Pick 27 \u2013 Cameron Young (PJ): \u201cFine, I\u2019ll take Cam Young. I\u2019ll just do it. I\u2019m happy to take him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe&#8217;ll give you a lot of stuff around the tournament. You know the press showings are gonna be incredible.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean he&#8217;s the second-best player on my list, if not the best. I\u2019ll take it, I guess.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich is more damning on the whole appearance fee game than anything, right? I mean, this is just, it&#8217;s a different kind of judgment and rubric.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Round 10<\/p>\n<p>Pick 28 \u2013 Miles Russell (Brendan): \u201cI didn&#8217;t know that we would get this far. I&#8217;m going off the board. This will bring out a different audience, Miles Russell. \u200b\u200bHe&#8217;s a fascinating character to have in your field in the next six months. He is shockingly slight, like amazingly. I&#8217;ve marveled at watching him up close at Oakmont and obviously crushes the ball. Very good player. I&#8217;m going with Miles Russell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 29 \u2013 Patrick Reed (Andy): \u201cI still have the guy that I wanted last round in the round before that on the board. I&#8217;m happy. Something explosive is going to happen at my tournament. I&#8217;m taking Patrick Reed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are just a powder keg of whatever could possibly happen.\u201d \u2013PJ<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are going to talk about the Andy Invitational, I don\u2019t know about you guys.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Pick 30 \u2013 Jackson Koivun (PJ): \u201cIt&#8217;s a little bit earlier than I had him on my list. I just\u2026 I think there is an inherent value to having a guy&#8217;s first PGA Tour win. I think there is a value to that if he could pull out a win at, you know, Spieth at the John Deere kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 11<\/p>\n<p>Pick 31 \u2013 Tyrrell Hatton (Brendan): \u201cExplosiveness, top, legit top 10 player in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe&#8217;s bound to say something that gets aggregated.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Pick 32 \u2013 Michael Kim (Andy): \u201cI will go with someone who&#8217;ll, you know, he&#8217;s going to make a social-friendly diary for every round, Michael Kim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was in consideration. I can&#8217;t believe we&#8217;re not doing that whole group, Spaun, MacIntyre, Henley, English, like still just flying by them.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Pick 33 \u2013 Max Homa (PJ): \u201cWe&#8217;re going to keep going on the Twitter side of things. I&#8217;ll take Max.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 12<\/p>\n<p>Pick 34 \u2013 J.J. Spaun (Brendan): \u201cIf it&#8217;s in the next six months, it&#8217;s literally the reigning U.S. Open champion and an interesting fella, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 35 \u2013 Shane Lowry (Andy): \u201cI&#8217;m happy to get this guy here, Shane Lowry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s a good one. He&#8217;s one of my last few guys on my list.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Pick 36 \u2013 Si Woo Kim (PJ): \u201cHe could do anything on the golf course, but he&#8217;s going to do something that will get clipped for social media, inevitably, good or bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Round 13<\/p>\n<p>Pick 37 \u2013 Bubba Watson (Brendan): \u201cI&#8217;m going with the longevity play. I don&#8217;t have a lot of those. A character, I&#8217;m going with Bubba Watson.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCould say anything, too!\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Pick 38 \u2013 Akshay Bhatia (Andy): \u201cI feel like I got the more popular version of this pick in round 13. Brendan went really early. I&#8217;m taking Akshay Bhatia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 39 \u2013 Cameron Smith (PJ): \u201cIt&#8217;s kind of almost like Brooks in that I have no idea what he actually does at this point, but I know there&#8217;s a group of people that would ride or die for him. I&#8217;ll take Cam Smith. I think people still really like Cam Smith.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho are these people?\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Round 14<\/p>\n<p>Pick 40 \u2013 Chris Gotterup (Brendan): \u201cThis is out of the Potgieter-type mold, but the American Potgieter, Chris Gotterup.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was my next pick.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got a nice following on the interwebs. He\u2019ll tweet with you. He&#8217;ll get in the mix and get the New Jersey crowd following him, and Oklahoma, Chris Gotterup.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou get the New York market.\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, like adding Rutgers to the Big Ten.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Pick 41 \u2013 Lucas Glover (Andy): \u201cI&#8217;m gonna say that my event is in Memphis and it&#8217;s gonna be really hot. He&#8217;s a quote machine with his radio show. I&#8217;m taking Lucas Glover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s an interesting pick.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p>Pick 42 \u2013 Ben Griffin (PJ): \u201cI\u2019m running low\u2026 I&#8217;ll take BG, I guess at this point. You\u2019re playing for the social interactions. He\u2019s a far better player than the majority of my list, so, I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you going to ask him to take extra creatine?\u201d \u2013Andy<\/p>\n<p>Round 15<\/p>\n<p>Pick 43 \u2013 Robert MacIntyre (Brendan): \u201cI will take Big Shot Bobby MacIntyre. He&#8217;s won multiple events. Scottish Open, Canadian Open, Ryder Cupper twice now. Tends to get surly about things. People heckle him about his sunscreen and all these things. He brings attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 44 \u2013 John Daly (Andy): \u201cI don&#8217;t think this guy is going to be able to play the full tournament. I know he won&#8217;t, but he brings a legion of support. He&#8217;ll be out there ripping darts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pick 45 \u2013\u00a0 Tony Finau (PJ): \u201cAgain, like, whatever he is as a golfer at this point, nobody knows. I&#8217;ll take the online presence of the Finau family with the last pick.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s an all hat and no cattle pick, which is what you want at 15.\u201d \u2013Brendan<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/69090555fd7114a45273a07f_Draft Week Appearance Fees.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who are the most popular players in men\u2019s professional golf? \u201cDraft Week\u201d on The Shotgun Start kicked off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-271275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}