As we are live from LIV Golf, play-byplay LIV Golf commentator Arlo White joins the show! Arlo explains why LIV golf is so much better than boring golf and the fierce competition that combines with a Party atmosphere. We discuss Arlo's history voicing epic moments on the pitch and what led him to LIV! Arlo gives us his take on Messi's tenure with Inter Miami and what it means to Soccer in America. Is there any adjustment period between going back and forth between LIV and the Majors?
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00:00Arlo White sitting down with us here.
00:01He is the voice of Live Golf.
00:03Arlo, thanks for the time.
00:03Really appreciate you.
00:04Absolutely.
00:05Thanks for asking.
00:06Pleasure to meet you.
00:07And this is an exciting vibe down here.
00:10For those who are not caught on to Live,
00:13can you give our audience a little explanation
00:15of how the whole team thing works out
00:17and what people can be excited for coming up this weekend?
00:19Well, that's the key point of difference, right,
00:21to any regular golf tour that people might
00:24be used to around the world.
00:26We have 54 players.
00:27We have the shotgun start.
00:29So everyone's off at the same time and out on the course,
00:32which means that it's kind of self-contained the entire day
00:35within a five-hour period, let's say.
00:38And we have two wild card players,
00:40but the other 52 are divided into 13 teams of four.
00:45And that is the key aspect to it.
00:47So John Rahm, I think, was talking the other day
00:49about how special it is to be a part of the team.
00:52And what we've found, and this is our fourth season now.
00:55It's our fourth visit to Trump National here in Doral.
00:57It's kind of like a spiritual home for Live Golf.
01:01What we found is that players and their feedback
01:03is that they spend a lot of time together.
01:05They prepare together.
01:06They practice together.
01:07They travel together.
01:08They eat together, which is unlike any other tour
01:11where usually you might go back to your hotel room
01:13after a bad round and you're kind of on your own.
01:16Maybe you, your caddy, and you may have a coach out there
01:19or a couple of buddies,
01:20but essentially you kind of are on your own.
01:22So what they say as well
01:24is that if you're out of the running individually,
01:26because there is an individual aspect to it as well,
01:28of course, by Saturday, Sunday,
01:30you've still got to show up because your team needs you.
01:33All four scores count towards
01:35the team competition every day.
01:37So you can't just kind of mail it in
01:40if you feel that you don't have it this week
01:43or you're out of contention individually.
01:45Your team still needs you.
01:46So that adds an extra element of excitement to it
01:49and intensity.
01:50I think the favorite part for me is the fact
01:53that if you've ever been to a golf tournament,
01:57you have to look at the list.
01:58You have to see who's teeing off.
02:00You either have to follow them
02:02or see what groups are behind them.
02:05And if you go to live, you can sit in one spot.
02:07You're going to see all of the golfers you want to see.
02:09And that from that one spot, you don't have to move.
02:12So you pick a hole.
02:13You see all the golfer you want.
02:15You see every single player.
02:16I think that is because you get to see everybody.
02:19Like I've been to plenty of golf tournaments
02:22where either one of my golfers was on the morning wave
02:26and one was on the evening wave.
02:28I can either watch one or the other
02:29or I could be there for 12 hours.
02:31Yes.
02:32So that's a really cool thing.
02:34It also has almost like a college feel to it
02:39in that they play tournaments with individual champions
02:43and with team champions.
02:44And sometimes the individual winner,
02:47the team isn't doing well.
02:49And sometimes the opposite.
02:51So yeah, I think it's awesome.
02:54Well, a lot of the guys that did play college golf
02:57say exactly that.
02:58It's a throwback to those days.
02:59And they look back at those days very fondly
03:01because yeah, it's a very individual sport as we know.
03:04But that camaraderie that they had with their teammates
03:07in the college days,
03:09obviously they were younger, a little more carefree
03:11than perhaps they are as professional golfers.
03:13But their feedback is that.
03:15It's that camaraderie they've got.
03:16They don't feel alone out there.
03:18And you look at John Rahm
03:19and Tyrell Hatton for Legion 13,
03:21probably the best one-two punch in the entire league.
03:24The two youngest players in the Live Golf League,
03:27Caleb Surat and McKibben from Northern Ireland,
03:30who's just joined.
03:32They have got this, they've hit the jackpot.
03:35They've got John Rahm to get advice from.
03:38They've got Tyrell Hatton to get advice from.
03:40And John Rahm and Tyrell Hatton are both in a position
03:42where they're happy to give that advice.
03:44They're happy to help these guys, to mentor these guys,
03:47to make them better players.
03:48So there's that lovely little dynamic in Live Golf,
03:51which we're very proud of
03:53and the players take very seriously.
03:54I like the fact that also that when this all started,
03:58everybody viewed it as, you know, a retirement home.
04:03Like, yeah, you're going here when your career's done
04:06and you just want to grab the money.
04:08But there's been a lot of golfers that come from living
04:11have gone on to win.
04:12Yes.
04:13And I'm talking about winning majors
04:14and winning big events in Europe.
04:17And so like, yeah, I think the fact that they are playing well
04:22is putting pressure on World Golf to do something
04:26because right now you don't have the best.
04:30You don't have all the best golfers.
04:31Some of them are on Live.
04:35I've spent a lot of time around sort of soccer players,
04:39mainly cricketers, international rugby players,
04:43American footballers, NFL guys as well.
04:45I have never met a single sports person in my entire life
04:50that wouldn't want to beat you at a game of pool in the bar,
04:52a game of darts in the bar, anything.
04:55They are just inherently competitive.
04:59And that's what sets professional sports people
05:02aside from the likes of me, you know?
05:06So just because they come to Live Golf
05:08and this perception, this narrative
05:10that was peddled for a while,
05:11that it is a retirement league
05:12and they're not competitive anymore
05:13and it's guaranteed money.
05:15So they're not going to care.
05:16Nonsense.
05:18These are born competitors.
05:21And this is an area where they can compete
05:23against an excellent field.
05:25As a man who calls various sports.
05:28Yeah.
05:29You've, you know, rowdy crowds in the Premier League
05:31and things like that.
05:32How do you change from a golf environment
05:35to hooligans in soccer?
05:38We got some hooligans out there as well.
05:41It's been an interesting transition,
05:43but I didn't just do soccer.
05:45I came through at the BBC on BBC Radio.
05:48So radio is my first love, really.
05:50And from week to week,
05:51I could be at the Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone.
05:55The week after I could be at the Open Championship.
05:57I could be at Wimbledon.
05:58So I was very used to announcing,
06:01but also hosting different sports.
06:04Now, I had a decent knowledge of golf,
06:07but when it comes to the technical aspects of it,
06:11that's David Fertz's job.
06:12That's Jeremy Foltz's job.
06:14And Pat Perez this year has been absolutely amazing.
06:17But when it comes to being the traffic cop
06:19and going from hole to hole
06:20and saying who's playing what and what team they're in
06:22and how that team's doing,
06:24and then the big moments on a Sunday,
06:25that's kind of my role.
06:27And I found that you obviously don't have a 50,000 crowd
06:33to shout over if you're at Liverpool or something like that
06:36with a big moment or Manchester United.
06:38But I found that, you know, I'm here for a reason.
06:41And because of that intensity,
06:42it is a different league.
06:44It is a different feel.
06:46So, you know, I've got license to get a little reason
06:51in the, what would you call it,
06:54in the volume, if you like, in the intensity.
06:56And that's not a problem.
06:57But for the most part,
06:58it's relatively calm compared to a soccer match
07:01because you've got to pace yourself as well.
07:02It's five and a half hours without a break.
07:03That's true.
07:04And this is a lot louder than a normal golf term,
07:08which I like.
07:09I'm like, listen, stop finding I hit a bad shot
07:14because of noise.
07:15Like everything you do in life is noisy, right?
07:17Get over it, concentrate on what you're doing.
07:20So I noticed sudden stuff and stuff like that.
07:22But for the most part,
07:23these guys play and raz each other all the time.
07:26Then all of a sudden, like, yeah.
07:27So I like the fact that there's music, you get used to it.
07:31It shouldn't stop you from being able to go out there
07:33and perform.
07:34We do have a couple of funny moments,
07:35which I've noticed on the monitors
07:37where you've got some pounding dance music going on.
07:39Someone's about to play a shot
07:41and there's a core, sort of a course guy
07:43with a quiet police.
07:44Like, well, who's that exactly?
07:48The DJ or I'm not sure.
07:49But yeah, there's some funny moments like that.
07:52What have you, just to tap into your soccer here
07:54for just a second, Messi,
07:56obviously we're very excited to have him down here,
07:58but he's running rough shot in this MLS.
08:00You've called MLS premier.
08:01Like when we say it's a bit of a soccer noob,
08:05would you say that this is a man amongst boys
08:07still even at his age?
08:09Like, is he toying with it?
08:09Or do you feel like this is, you know,
08:12you're still seeing him against greatness?
08:14Like how do you venture watching him
08:17in this league right now?
08:18The way, I think the analogy that I would use
08:21would be if Michael Jordan at the age of say 33
08:25went to play in the Greek league, right?
08:28Now the Greek league is good, but it's not the NBA, right?
08:32And he's still got his legs
08:33and he's still got his explosiveness
08:35and he's still got, you know, his physical talents.
08:38He would dominate.
08:40I think it's fair to say, right?
08:41And so Messi is a similar sort of situation.
08:44You get the greatest player
08:46that has ever played the game of soccer,
08:48which is the global sport, if you like,
08:50coming to a league, which is still developing,
08:52still fairly young.
08:53It's only 30 years old as a league,
08:55but is improving year on year on year
08:57in terms of the standard and the infrastructure.
08:59I drove past the new stadium
09:01that they're building for into Miami here the other day.
09:04So it's soccer is here to stay.
09:06MLS is here to stay.
09:07But when you get a play like Lionel Messi coming,
09:09it is no embarrassment to the league.
09:11And it's no comment on the league that he dominates
09:14because he's quite simply the greatest player
09:16ever to walk the planet.
09:17So him being here is phenomenal for the league
09:22and for soccer in America.
09:23And he appears to be enjoying it as well.
09:25We feel like our boy Brooks Koepka, South Florida guy,
09:27do you feel like he's gonna have
09:29the hometown crowd with him this weekend?
09:32I would think so.
09:33Bryson gets a lot of love.
09:34There's a lot of guys that live in Jupiter
09:37and the Palm beaches.
09:38So like it's, they probably could travel from home.
09:41This is their home.
09:43There's a lot of guys that live in Palm Beach
09:46near Jupiter and stuff like that.
09:47So even when they travel all over the world,
09:51especially even Europeans,
09:53a lot of the tour guys, regardless of what tour you play in,
09:58they make Florida home base
09:59simply because they can play all year round
10:01and practice all year.
10:02Yes.
10:03And Brooks, and he's not ashamed to admit it,
10:06and he's quite vocal about it,
10:07is it's all about the majors for him.
10:09Yeah, he wants to win in live golf.
10:11And he's the only man with five live golf league titles.
10:14Wako Neiman got it to four in Singapore last time out.
10:17It was a terrific player as well in great form.
10:20But Brooks, it's major season, isn't it?
10:22The Masters next week.
10:23And this is where Brooks kind of hones his preparation
10:27to peak at these times.
10:30And again, he admits it didn't work last year
10:31and he played poorly by his own admission
10:34in the majors last year.
10:35So we're gonna see how he goes
10:36in the last tournament before the Masters.
10:39I think he's gonna be dialed in this weekend.
10:41You think that extra round,
10:43because you have Thursday, Friday, and you have a cut,
10:48and then you have Saturday, Sunday,
10:49and Saturday says moving day.
10:51And then Sunday, you're all out.
10:53You do what you gotta do, maintain, lead, or whatever.
10:56Where here it's a little different
10:58in that there is no cut.
11:00You have to play every day.
11:02Every day matters.
11:04So do you think there's some getting used to going back
11:08and playing in a major or a big event on the tour?
11:11I don't think so.
11:12You'd have to ask the guys who know way more than me.
11:15But anecdotally, I've heard from them
11:18that just as you said there,
11:19there's a kind of a payoff between three days
11:22at the intensity that we have out here,
11:24because every shot counts.
11:26You gotta play for yourself.
11:27You gotta play for your team,
11:29as opposed to on the odd occasion, you might miss a cut.
11:32These guys are programmed to playing four rounds of golf
11:35in a tournament, aren't they?
11:36And I don't think you lose that ability,
11:39or it doesn't become alien to you that quickly.
11:44And the evidence suggests exactly that.
11:46Bryson won the US Open last year.
11:48Brooks, the PGA Championship the year before that.
11:50So look, we're all rooting for our guys
11:54in the majors this year.
11:57We've got 12 in the masters,
11:58and there's some players that are gonna be playing
12:01at Augusta in very, very good form.
12:02So look, quietly confident that the guys are gonna show up.
12:05All the way, thanks so much for the time.
12:07You guys got Liv.
12:08The tournament gets going tomorrow.
12:09Liv Miami, you'll hear him on the call.
12:11Thank you so much.
12:12Appreciate you stopping by.
12:12Absolutely, anytime.
12:13Enjoy the weekend.