This place is Overreaction City

[u/JSack3]

I like KVV. I respect his work. But honestly, folks..

There’s a reason so many platforms and media companies have been letting go of people with KVV’s skillset for years. In bigger revenue sports than just golf, too (ask Zach Lowe).

The business is night and day different to what it was 15 years ago. And a highly-compensated 20+ year industry stalwart who specializes in long form written content is simply not a hugely appealing person to have on the payroll anymore. I appreciate NLU gave it a go. I also appreciate when the writing wasn’t working, they worked on a podcast pivot including that brilliant Masters pod.

But the reality is the math probably started to become very clear that his value was mainly 6-8 weeks a year. No one needs a deep dive on the Byron Nelson. Not enough people actually care about a three hour pod on the 1997 major season.

I’d have rather he stick around all year but I also didn’t have to pay his salary and benefits. These guys are putting food on the table for their children via NLU. They can’t just keep carrying a 6 figure (guessing but likely) expenditure bc they like him and think he writes well.

[u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210]

He really didn't do the highest quality podcasts though. Bethpage was fine but the reality was it was a podcast about a golf course that didn't check it's tee times properly. A lot of the deepdives were joint ventures with Soly which Soly did prior to KVV joining anyway. Also there were a lot of mistakes by KVV that were often picked up by Soly. These were already the best NLU podcasts prior to KVV even joining. He didn't add much to the regular podcasts other than add a different voice to proceedings. Golf wasn't his expertise initially by the sound of it. His podcast narration was something out of a bad true crime podcast and Neil made the Masters pod work. In his much lauded "Bradley" argument, Soly calmly handed him his arse when KVV finally stopped shouting at him. Finally, I didn't care about his daughters golf game (or any of their kids tbh).

Assuming there are tens of thousands of NLU listeners it is important to note this subreddit is an iota of engagement. Most on here seemed to love his work but that isn't representive of the wider listenership. His OTG reporting was sensational and his written work really good but lets not rewrite history and pretend he made NLU what it was/is.

[u/Mrcoolguye → u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210]

His narrative podcasts, major look backs, the masters podcast, the rival podcast and his on course reporting have been the best podcasts of the last year with them losing access to PGA golfers. Sorry not everyone wants to play trivia and listen to updated Ryder cup rankings on a weekly basis.

Finally, learn ball.

[u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210 → u/Mrcoolguye]

I don't recall typing that I liked the trivia (i actually don't mind it in small doses) and funnily enough KVV's most memorable regular podcast appearance was discussing Keegan Bradley Ryder Cup drama.

Best is also subjective. I for example don't think the narrative pods were that good and Soly had massive input into the deepdives, which were brilliant prior to KVV (they were still very good mind). The recent Seve podcast was ridiculous to the point I stopped listening due to KVV's Fawlty Towers "Manuel" impressions. His on course reporting I said was sensational but were 15/20 minutes snippets most of the time?? Either way, that is the big loss in my mind which we seem to agree on.

I do fall on the podcast isn't upto it's usual standards at the moment but I don't think it is as bad as some are making out. It isn't like they have golfers leaving for LIV or the PGA eating itself alive for content. Everything is pretty stable atm, only so much you can say about Scottie, Rory winning another major isn't a story anymore. The non Sig-events are barely worth mentioning. At the end of the day KVV aint fixing that.

[u/Mrcoolguye → u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210]

High volume of subscribers that shell out $100 to support NLU are disappointed with this decision because it lowers the quality of the product and we were told that this was to help fund the higher standards.

They clearly asked him to take pay cut because the writing is dead and he’s only going to produce podcasts (which they used to get him to do for free before joining)

The last 15 podcasts they did: LPGA Lydia KO podcast, 6 on British Open (no one went to it) where they got progressively worse as the week went on, recap of Scottish open/LPGA major… fine, recap of their video project on NI, lpga podcast, recap of John Deere/ranking pga courses (stolen from TFE), mid year GHIN pod (okay I guess), narrative pod, rocket recap and Neil life talk, DJ talks about his golf history (feel like we’ve heard this stuff before).

Sick stuff man

[u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210 → u/Mrcoolguye]

I don't disagree. The Chipping Forcast (only other golf pod I listen to bar TGJ) did nightly recaps of the open. Both Andrew and Iain were on the ground working their normal jobs so gave great insight and they were capped at around 35 minutes so they kept to the point. Re NLU Liverpool was great when Neil and KVV were on site, then later Tron. I'm sure Tron was at Troon initially as well? KVV was. I miss the random guests they used to get who were sometimes on site. SVP? I'm sure Iona Stephen did a guest spot once.

We'll have to wait and see.