okay the chip challenge is the decider of who's cooking tonight because we suck I'll
go for you guys are they apart from the people playing in the tournament I'm the best golfer
here we're Lloyd and Mandy husband and wife have been traveling the world as digital Nomads
since 2021.
we've been living in Playa del Carmen Mexico for the past six months and today we're heading
to the opening round of the 2023 live golf season and the first ever tournament held
here in Mexico the three-day tournament is being held just a short drive from Playa Del
Carmen at the Beachside El chameleon golf course which is part of the five-star mayakoba
Resort here in the Riviera Maya not only is this a huge International sporting event for
the region it is somewhat controversial in case you've never heard of live golf here's
a quick rundown live golf is a professional golf tour financed by The Sovereign wealth
fund of Saudi Arabia the name live refers to the Roman numerals of 54.
the score or if every hole on a pass 72 course were birdied and the number of holes to be
played at Live Events journalists and commentators have said the tour is part of efforts by the
Saudi monarchy which has been criticized for its corruption and human rights abuses to
improve its Public Image through Sports the early framework for a new golf tour to rival
the pgo tour became public in 2019 with the announcement of a league known as the premier
Golf League the PGA officially responded by implying that golfers who chose to play in
a new league would be barred from PGA Tour events the premier Golf League held talks
with Saudi investors about a financial partnership but Gulf Saudi a division of the public investment
fund instead funded a new entity in 2020 which made its own plan to establish a global professional
League often referred to as the super Golf League this entity formally launched in October
2021 as live golf Investments with former professional golfer and fellow Australian
Greg Norman named as CEO the league has a whopping prize fund of 405 million dollars
one of the most intriguing Parts about live golf is not only its direct competition with
the PGA but the Staggering amounts of money being offered for players to join the new
tour apparently Dustin Johnson who is a winner of two major championships and a former world
number one was paid 150 million dollars just to play in the live series that does not include
prize money that's just to join the tour Johnson who had previously won 24 PGA events and 74
million dollars since 2008 announced his resignation from the PGA Tour on the 7th of June 2022
saying I chose what's best for me and my family and to be completely honest I don't blame
him but along with the large sums of money comes a lot of controversy human rights groups
have criticized live golf as Sports washing a political strategy by Saudi Arabia to cleanse
its repressive Global image through sport Greg Norman has been accused of aiding the
repressive Saudi government for his own financial gain in 2021 Greg Norman denied that he was
being used for sports washing and said he works for live because of his passion for
the sport live golf has been described as golf but louder with live DJs and events attracting
a younger more party-like atmosphere than the traditional PGA if you're a golf purist
you might not be too happy with what live golf is doing to the sport but today we're
trying to find out if the event lives up to its name and reputation
anticipation is building I can hear the music and the distance
yeah it sounds like there's a party going on so the checking in part was really easy
we heard there was a lot of rules about what you couldn't couldn't bring didn't check anything
so we could have brought whatever we wanted it would have been a good one yeah they said
we had to bring an empty water bottle but I didn't check it so um we're just walking
through this like long track beside a lake and I can hear some music going sounds like
it's going to be party atmosphere pretty Keen to get a beer the tee off time is I think
1 30.
it's about 12 30 now and it's shotgun start which is different to the PGA which basically
means every player tees off at the same time on a different hole which is pretty cool so
no matter what hole you're on um you'll see somebody taking off by the way never been
to a golf live golf tournament have you no first
it's time for everything uh the tickets were reasonably cheap it was like 600 and something
pesos each pretty curious to see how expensive food and beer is though generally these sorts
of things it's like really expensive but maybe because we're in Mexico it might be a bit
cheaper [Music] and we're still walking versus Jordan so this is the Maya Cobra Golf Course
which is apparently like a five-star Resort plus golf course it's meant to be really nice
and this is the first tournament of this season for live golf I think their first season was
last year uh but anyway this is the opening Tournament of this season
[Music] thank you
oh it's pretty full on there's a lot going on here but it's about 10 minutes till the
shotgun tea time so we're going to try and find like any hole any tee off yeah watch
them all tee off we don't want to miss it and then we'll go back and get a beer I think
well this is a hole here oh this is the 18th hole T would be all the way out the other
end there if you walk up there
[Music] we reckon so far it's really cool there's like there's a barber shop you can
get your face painted um so many different bars I feel like almost there's like a theme
park and the golf really doesn't feel like the main attraction yet but uh we'll see what
happens once it starts [Music] [Applause]
[Music]
[Music] thank you Spear and I thought it was going to be like a firing going to like at
the start of a race or something but we just saw Greg Norman ride past and a beach cruiser
that was pretty cool the shark he's looking good he must be [ __ ] old by now and speaking
of sharks we want to say thank you to today's video sponsor surf shark surfshark provides
us with our own VPN while we're on the road and if you don't know what VPN stands for
it stands for virtual private Network having a VPN keeps you safe by basically covering
up everything you do online kind of like wearing a mask when your laptop or phone connects
to the internet all of your information is encrypted so this is really important to us
because we are constantly logging on to free Wi-Fi at hotels airports and at cafes so we
want to make sure that all of our information is kept safe but aside from providing us with
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make sure you hit the link in the description and they do have a 30-day money-back guarantee
so if you do change your mind no worries alright now back to the video the sky we saw was Sergio
Garcia who is a pretty big name probably one of the biggest names in the tournament and
he hit the ball I had no idea where it went did you say it no I didn't do [ __ ] [Music]
oh that's
one hold on man I can't look at the plate 54 holes it's all thin and in PGA it's 72.
that's so much gold you could just stay here and watch every golfer come by which if you're
in the
maybe we can sneak our way in there that'd be pretty cool you just see everyone come
by and Chip and Putt but I think we're gonna have another walk around and see what else
is around here [Music]
so beers are a bit expensive about 110 pesos which is like six bucks us it's expensive
for Mexico we're in Australia it would be 38 a beer probably there's definitely not
enough shade yeah there's definitely this whole area here is like a sick place to hang
out there's a big screen showing all the golf but there's no shade really we're under like
the one umbrella so I think that's why there's no one here we're doing a pattern challenge
Loser tonight yeah okay
[Music] too much curry
Jesus [Music]
Christ [Music] good Cooks tonight then oh thank you
[Music] come on come on you got it you got it
oh that was pretty good
[Music]
what's up
okay
that was amazing okay it's hard to get it soft enough
[Music] you're not here come on come on okay try try again with this one don't worry one
more okay you got it you got it
okay the chip chest cider of who's cooking tonight because we suck I'll go for you guys
are they apart from the people playing in the tournament I'm the best golfer here oh
okay there you go
oh that was pretty good yeah
[Music] cause we suck Uber Eats I guess foreign [Music]
how do they see where the ball goes that's a [ __ ] it looks like there's random people
on the green as well that have just like sunk over the side my girl does not work here they
yelled at full
[Music] at least
so honey where's the beer cup is there one not looking okay surely there's more than
one spot you can get beer I have minor PTSD because the first job I ever got fired from
was a beer cart girl at a golf course and she lost all the money and the beers didn't
it yeah I got too drunk on the job not good because I learned my lesson yeah beer card
would be nice though and like my only um thing I would say so far is like there's not really
many places to sit down or much shade so I guess you're just supposed to walk around
with an umbrella or a hat
[Music]
all right we figured it out this whole sun and walking around thing the big stage where
they have the big screen and the music and the beers and everything there's enough shade
everyone's just pulled their bean bags and we pulled some chairs up and I think we're
just going to sit here for the rest of the day [Music] never mind
foreign
fair for all the golfers to walk through when they're finished and they block it off so
you can't get from the toilets to where the bar is and the stage and everything I've been
standing here for like 20 minutes and everyone's just like freaking out trying to get autographs
on their Titleist hats
they're loving it
I don't understand autographs I don't see the purpose of them but that's just me I didn't
know that was still a thing I bought selfies with the thing yeah [Music]
[Music] all right that's it we're headed home it's about seven o'clock we thought there
was going to be more of like a DJ sort of party happening it seemed like they were setting
up for it but it never really eventuated did it no there was like a few songs that played
and then as soon as it got dark everything shut down so we're heading home early which
is probably best yeah I don't know maybe the last day it might be different holy [ __ ]
that his bat's going through here it still was a lot of fun though I'm really happy that
we went yeah it was fun I can't compare it to PGA because I've never been if you're a
golf fan and um you want to have some fun while you're at the golf I definitely recommend
it
[Music]
foreign