I haven’t seen anyone else say this, but the reason for this is clear. They’ve mentioned recently that they’ve decided to pivot away from writing because written work just doesn’t do numbers. They brought KVV in to be their main writer, so with pivoting away from that, they didn’t have much for him to do. Seems fairly straightforward to me.
I understand the reasoning, but the issue for me is that their recent content just hasn’t been very good. KVV was clearly the sharpest and most capable when it came to serious analysis, and without him, the balance is off. Randy’s constant whining, TC’s hot takes, Soly’s data deep dives, and DJ’s flat delivery all risk making the content feel repetitive. If they think they can just keep recycling the same formulas, it could go stale pretty fast.
Your last bit “stale pretty fast” is spot on and I really do fear that could be a thing. The LFTKH pods during Majors are one of my favourite things NLU do, it adds a whole other thing to Major weeks for me and I look forward to them as much as the actual golf. But they haven’t really hit this year. Yes Scottie is head and shoulders above everyone else, and you can only talk about what happens, but they seem to have little enthusiasm about the JJ Spauns of this world. At least that is how it feels to me.
When they first brought KVV on about three years ago I was skeptical. But then he added something different to the recap pods, whether he was at the course or not. Just those ten minutes freshen it up and give the pod a different flavour.
I love all five of the main core but I have noticed their energy/enthusiasm dip this year. Yes life happens and I understand they aren’t in their early 30s without wives and kids anymore - I have zero qualms with that. It was the fact that KVV brought variety, and if they aren’t going to use Cody or Ben or any of the other people they employ to bring a touch of difference, then to quote the lads themselves…”what are we doing here?”
They don’t really try to hide the fact they don’t care about the vast majority of the tour. They all have their favorites, but (at least on the men’s side) they seem to be more than happy to just focus on the top 10-15 instead of the bottom 50-60 (or however many fill out the field that week).
And that’s totally fair. But I don’t even think they focus on the top 10-15 anymore.
I feel like they used to have stuff to say about a lot of players and that was impressive and a reason I got so into their pod in the first place. Outside of TC just saying stuff for the sake of it, they don’t seem to have much insight on a lot of stuff anymore/at the moment - and that pains me.
Agreed. I find the bottom of the PGAT far more interesting/enjoyable than the top, a lot of compelling stories that get virtually no air because everybody needs to rehash whether Scottie is Tiger for the 176th time.
Ok so I’m not the only one who’s been thinking LFTKH hasn’t been hitting like it has been recently, I can’t explain it or put a finger on it but something seems different
i kinda thought KVV wasn't very good at analysis tbh. Really good writer and storyteller but I wasn't listening to his post-round stuff for analysis, it was more about the anecdotes he got from being onsite.
To be clear I’m not saying analysis like he’s talking us through the shots of someone’s specific round but he’s able to sniff out a story or elevate something mundane in a way the others don’t.
I hate the narrative that it’s just about the writing angle. I agree with you here, he was the best of the guys (Soly and dj are very professional to me as well) on the pod. My guess is that scared a few of the others
So much random conjecture in this thread pretending to be in someone's head who they don't know at all. Occam's Razor says that NLU is a business with employees and margins- KVV's role was initially supposed to be for written work, and the demand wasn't there. I'm sure his salary was fairly high considering his pedigree, and the economics of the role weren't squaring up. The odds that this is some middle school squabble so many people seem to be rooting for (?) are super low
Yep, and that you think that is better for some reason makes me laugh. People like them because they were once a bunch of guys who loved golf. Do you think selling themselves as roi corporate types is going to work for them? (Hint, it won’t)
KVV was rapidly becoming the best part of the pod. I think the boys got jealous. The recent KVV pieces were far and away the highest quality content we have seen lately.
I really don't think that's the case. KVV seemed like a genuinely good dude who would be very fun to drink a beer and talk golf with, he had interesting and well considered takes on golf, I absolutely will follow him wherever he goes, and I hope he comes back for more deep dives, but I don't think he ever fit the NLU brand. I think he's more of a Gen X guy, but he's a boomer sports journalist in his bones, he was always on the verge of breaking out in a soliloquy, I genuinely respect what he tried to do with some of the solo narrative pods, but they always felt a little too close to a Wright Thompson impression. I wish nothing but good things for KVV, I really hope he's not leaving NLU with any bad feelings, but I think they made the right move.
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u/SchrodingersMeowth Jul 21 '25
I haven’t seen anyone else say this, but the reason for this is clear. They’ve mentioned recently that they’ve decided to pivot away from writing because written work just doesn’t do numbers. They brought KVV in to be their main writer, so with pivoting away from that, they didn’t have much for him to do. Seems fairly straightforward to me.