On the latest episode of Not Another Golf Show, Ben and Gianni discussed Brandel Chamblee’s recent take on LIV pro Joaquin Niemann and Talor Gooch, where the analyst claimed neither are as good as LIV like to make out.

Check out the conversation below (and listen to the full episode here)

Ben: It’s a rhapsody on a theme with respect to his feelings. His feelings about LIV. So I will just, again, when Brandel speaks, we’ll let Brandel speak, so I’ll read his quote here briefly.

“All those players joined that tour saying they wanted to play less but now, to accrue world ranking points, they’re playing more and all around the world where ranking points are available, the way Joaquin Niemann has done.

“And Niemann, yeah, he’s a good player, but let’s not pretend that he’s as good as they pretend he is. He’s played in 22 majors and never even finished in the top-15. Seven missed cuts.”

“And then he goes on to…reference the performance of Talor Gooch:

“…who, by the way, played in three majors, missed two cuts, and finished 34th in the other. So it turns out he’s not as good as they said he was. So there you go.”

“Thoughts?”

Gianni: This is why Brandel is just brilliant. I mean, when I first read this I was like this is catching strays for Niemann. I was thinking ‘wait, Niemann’s not overhyped. He’s not overrated. He’s a great player.’ And then you read he’s played in 22 majors and never even finished in the top 15, seven missed cuts. And it’s like, yeah, he is overhyped. That’s not a good record.

Ben: Yeah. I would have absolutely thought that that was a false statistic if someone presented that as Niemann’s major record. I, to your point, would have believed he’d performed better.

Gianni: Yeah, that’s awful. There’s no mincing words. That is awful.

Ben:  Yeah. I mean, and this is what say what you will about an agenda, say what you will about choosing to be polemical when he could be otherwise. And I think that those are, Brandel’s always calculated and you know, he knows what’s going to get picked up and put out there. And I think that’s part of what keeps him in the position he’s in in the game. He is the kind of takesmith of professional golf right now. So whether you like it, whether you don’t, you gotta respect it. But he is not just a windbag. He backs it up with data. He’s done his research, you know, when he has an opinion and he puts it out there. He’s not just criticizing them unduly or something. When he brings out the record, it’s tough to refute the numbers.

Gianni: Well, you can’t. It’s factual and it’s true. He is overhyped because that is his record in the majors. They’re the tournaments that matter most. He’s massively underperformed in them. And as for Talor Gooch, Brandel just pretty much destroyed him. Three majors, missed two cuts and finished 34th in the other.

Ben: Yeah, and again, you know, talk about the spin game. I mean, you know, you bring that up to like, if a LIV representative were asked to comment on this, they would likely point to the records of, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, John Rahm, you know, they would.

They would reference the totality of LIV players. But it is certainly true that I think with Niemann in particular, there was a belief that he belongs in the majors because he’s a legitimate major contender. And as those facts point out, the finish is specifically, at this point in his career, he’s not. So, I mean, fair play.

Gianni: Yeah, LIV can talk about Bryson and Brooks’ records all they like, but it doesn’t change the fact that Niemann’s and Talor Gooch’s are pretty awful.

Ben: Yeah, I get that, you know, the perspective that Brandel’s carrying water for the tour, PGA Tour, and, you know, fine if that, you know, but the facts are the facts with respect to these particular players. And he certainly has knocked them down a peg certainly in terms of my perception of future major win probabilities and probably for a lot of folks who I think again just intuitively would have felt that the finishes were better.

Gianni: Yeah, and this is going to be an unpopular take, but I wish Brandel would speak his mind more often.

Ben: I mean, it’s interesting to do the kind of counterfactual of Brandel Chamblee Golf Channel employee, you know, occasional on air analyst, you know, in the current outlets he has versus Brandel Chamblee hosting the Brandel Chamblee podcast, saying whatever he wants to, having a substack, whatever. If he were to go the independent route, I think folks think, again, well, he’s just there to prop up the PGA Tour. I think he’d be really surprised, and he’d be going a lot further in a lot of directions if he was going the independent route.

Gianni:  But it has to be the only major sport where someone as measured as Brandel is can present an opinion with cold hard facts and people lose their mind calling him a hater because he’s criticizing a player.

Listen to the full episode below.