Mellow music plays.

A group of five casually dressed young men walks in slow motion past the front of an apartment complex with a white picket fence.

Speaker [off-screen]: We’re definitely not journalists.

Onscreen text:
Charles Schwab Presents

Speaker [off-screen]: We do our best not to misinform people, but there’s definitely times when we are subjective.

Onscreen text:
The Challengers
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
The ‘No Laying Up’ Guys

One bearded man wearing a baseball cap backwards walks in slow motion.

Onscreen text:
‘Tron’

A second man with shaggy hair and a mustache walks in slow motion.

Onscreen text:
‘Icarito’

Another bearded man walks in slow motion.

Onscreen text:
‘DJ’

A fourth man with a beard and sunglasses walks in slow motion.

Onscreen text:
‘Soly’

A fifth man in sunglasses walks in slow motion.

Onscreen text:
‘Big Randy’

Upbeat music plays.

Big Randy and Icarito sit in chairs on the front porch of a white house.

Big Randy: We’re at the Kill House, Neptune Beach, Florida, United States, Earth.

DJ opens the screen door of the apartment. The hands of a man twirl a golf club.

DJ: The Kill House is kind of an homage to Tiger Woods’ Seals training when he was in the prime of his career and decided to do special forces training and may or may not have blew out his ACL and tore a bunch of stuff. Anyways, we are among the biggest Tiger Woods fans I think on the planet. So, hopefully it’s much more of an homage than a shot.

Tron and DJ are sitting on a staircase in a house, talking.

Tron: We’ve taken this stupid little snippet of some throwaway line from an article of what that place was called. And we’ve turned it into, basically our worldwide headquarters. [laughter]

DJ: Yeah. I think if anything sums up “No Laying Up,” it’s taking the smallest possible minutiae of a joke and blowing it up as big as possible. I think that’s probably what we get our biggest thrill out of doing.

Holding a large microphone fashioned on the end of a shortened golf club, Randy interviews a couple sets of men on a golf course, the second standing in front of a large sculpture of a bull.

Tron [off-screen]: I think the simplest way to explain it is, we try really, really hard to be a reflection of what fans are thinking.

Upbeat music plays.

Carrying a backpack, Icarito walks in front of the white house and then enters through the front door.

Icarito: We started first off as a text thread, and then I got involved and we built a website. So it actually started as a blog, weekly previews, writing about the game. Because we didn’t have a golf outlet that was writing about golf in the way that we talk about it and watch it.

A man’s hands plug a cable into a microphone.

Soly [off-screen]: The question I think we all kind of asked ourselves was, why was everything we watched so different than how we talked about golf?

Onscreen text:
Why was everything we watched so different than how we talked about golf?

Soly is sitting in a leather chair, talking.

Soly: The authenticity was just missing. And that’s kind of where we felt like we could start to at least try to fill a void.

Icarito is sitting on a couch, talking.

Icarito: So then we just started writing it ourselves. Nobody read it for six to twelve months, but I think what kept it going was the fact that like we would all work on these previews together.

Three of the men are sitting around a table talking.

Icarito [off-screen]: Randy would laugh at something I would write, which is validating to me, which makes me want to keep doing it.

Soly checks his phone at a desk, with a microphone and a computer set up to record.

Icarito [off-screen]: And I would laugh at tweets that Soly’s putting out.

Tron and DJ are sitting on a staircase.

DJ: How do we answer a question that somebody’s asking? How do we make each other laugh?

Tron and DJ are sitting on a couch looking at their laptops. Big Randy sits between them looking at his phone.

DJ [off-screen]: What’s a premise that we would tune in to? Once we’ve kinda answered those two questions, it’s like, all right, how do we make it either informative or entertaining or both?

Big Randy: We settled on video for that reason.

Upbeat, folky fiddle music.

High-speed motion of a group of men moving around a golf course. Quick shots of people laughing and smiling, a man riding a motorcycle in a circle around a couple others.

Big Randy [off-screen]: it’s golf, but what it’s really covering is people. Whether it’s “Tourist Sauce” …

Onscreen text:
Tourist Sauce

Big Randy [off-screen] … and the dynamic between the five of us, or local flavor, local people …

Big Randy speaks over a series of quick shots: The No Letting Up guys are playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. A man in an outdoor café gives two thumbs up over a plate of sausage and potatoes. Someone with an iPhone photographs two women and two young men drinking beer in a restaurant booth. Big Randy is sitting on the couch.

Big Randy: … it’s a bunch of happy people doing their passion.

Two young men are sitting in a locker room.

Onscreen text:
Strapped

DJ speaks over a series of quick shots: A man puts a flag in a golf hole. Three men are walking across a small bridge on a pond. A man strikes a golf ball out of a sand trap. Two men chest-bump on a golf course. A man air-drums in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle. A man falls off a short rock-climbing wall. A man rides a scooter in an office hallway. Two men wake up in bed.

DJ [off-screen]: Particularly with “Strapped,” I think that what we’re very cognizant of is, nobody wants to get through an episode and be like, “Wow, they were super comfortable the whole time, and like, what an average experience that was.”

DJ and Tron are sitting on a staircase.

DJ: “Wow, how interesting.” [laughs] You know, people are tuning in to see something that’s outside the ordinary.

DJ speaks over a series of quick shots: A man is walking across a suspension bridge. A man turns upside down on exercise equipment. A man catches a red golf ball tossed to him as he walks. A man runs around a golf hole holding a flag and a golf club. A man does a karate move in front of a store at night. A man plays an acoustic guitar for a gray-haired woman. Icarito, Big Randy, and a young woman walk a large white dog at night. Three men are on a golf course near a body of water. One drives a golf ball. Two men shake hands on a golf course. Two men have their picture taken on a cliffside golf course. Three men are laughing and smiling on a golf course. Two men hug indoors. A man waves inside a restaurant. Men are walking to a small private plane. A man pumps his fist while looking out the window of a small white car that drives away. A man drives a golf ball on a course.

DJ [off-screen]: And to see something that’s a little more uncomfortable. Randy says it’s technically a golf series, but it’s not really about golf; it’s about people. But golf is the vehicle that takes you to all these places and it introduces you all of a sudden to these people that’s like, man, we never would have crossed paths without this stupid golf series that we happen to do.

Tron: There’s a responsibility for us to be authentic, go to the places that we think people should go to, and kind of lift up what’s right in the game.

A man hits a golf ball in a sand trap and gets sand in his face. A man hits a golf ball in a sand trap; it rolls backward.

Big Randy speaks over a series of quick shots: Big Randy holds a yellow 18th-hole flag. Tron pretends to yell excitedly as he drives a car. Icarito hangs his head out the passenger window of a car and looks around. A man sketches a caricature of two men playing golf. Icarito talks and points with verve in a kitchen. Big Randy is eating from a bowl in a kitchen. Tron leaps excitedly in slow motion on a golf course. Men are walking near a monument and pointing. Men sightseeing in a European city.

Big Randy [off-screen]: The beauty of it is, we’re not expert in anything. The only thing that we’re expert in is being able to make fun of ourselves. And I think that’s very important, because if you’re gonna dish it, right, you gotta be able to take it. And I think, because we are the first ones to make fun of ourselves …

Big Randy is sitting on a couch.

Big Randy: … then—our golf games, our appearance, anything, right?—

A man takes a ball out of a cup on a golf course. Men shake hands on the golf course.

Big Randy [off-screen]: I think it invites people in.

Soly speaks over a series of quick shots: Two men high-five on a golf course. Icarito and Big Randy eat donuts on a golf course. Wearing bathrobes in a bathroom, DJ and Soly motion for silence. Icarito dances in the middle of a circle of women. The men sing among a crowd outside a pub. A man drives a golf ball. A man drives a ball on a golf course near a body of water. A man wheels golf bags on a cart as he grins. High-speed motion of seven men moving around a golf hole.

Soly [off-screen]: People saw that we were in it for the love of the game and just like to be goofy and, you know, be dumb at times, and really that’s what people can relate to. The dumbest stuff has been maybe the most successful. It’s not like, hey, I’ve really predicted that this player’s gonna be a great player. And wow, I need to follow those guys. It’s like, no, this bit they have going where Randy thinks Rory is dead is incredible. And that’s what gets people coming back.

Upbeat music plays.

Icarito and Big Randy are walking down an urban street.

Soly is talking into a microphone, recording a podcast.

Soly: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the “No Laying Up” podcast. We’ve got a great show for you today.

Tron and DJ are sitting on a staircase.

DJ: I think that our biggest strength and our biggest weakness comes from the fact that we do everything.

Tron plays with a camera while DJ lies on a couch in a living room. Soly takes a camera and recording equipment out of the trunk of a car.

Onscreen text:
We do everything

Soly is sitting in the equipment room.

Soly: And it is just the five of us. We are all five producers.

Tron, DJ, and Soly ride in a car driven by a fourth man.

DJ [off-screen]: There’s no cameraman, there’s no audio, there’s nobody directing shots. It is us, in the truest sense, like run and gun. Everybody pick up a camera.

Two men walk through a room of large marble columns. Men are photographing camels in a desert. Tron and DJ are sitting on the stairs inside the apartment.

DJ: It feels, hopefully, a little more relatable, and it feels a little more like, you know, man, that’s what it would look like if me and my friends went and did that.

Tron hits a golf ball on the fairway toward a hole in the distance over some sand traps.

Tron [off-screen]: Golf doesn’t have to be vanilla.

Tron, Big Randy, and DJ are talking on a golf course.

Tron [off-screen]: We may have a different take, but …

Tron is sitting on a couch.

Tron: I feel like we’re all kind of old souls.

Tron and Soly are talking and laughing on a golf course.

Tron [off-screen]: Kinda traditional golfers.

Tron, Soly, and Big Randy are sitting on a couch.

Big Randy: Hopefully, at the basis level, we’re friends.

There is a photograph of the No Laying Up guys posing on a cliff near an ocean.

A man’s hands are typing on a laptop computer covered in stickers.

Big Randy [off-screen]: From that has grown a business relationship. But I think the foundation is friendship.

Fast motion of men going in and out of an RV camper. Icarito lies on a bunkbed in the RV, talking to DJ, who’s seated below him. Tron, Icarito, and Soly are in a living room, working on a podcast.

DJ: It feels like a band. Their main focus is making music together, but there’s a time that comes where they need to have business decisions, they need to have financial decisions.

DJ and Icarito are sitting on a couch in a living room.

DJ: Probably not our favorite part of the job but we have to do those every now and again too. I think we all have slightly different aspirations. For me personally, it’s much more about building a community than it is building a media company.

A golf bag is propped against the wall displaying the No Laying Up logo. There is a black-and-white photo of a man wearing sunglasses and a No Laying Up sun visor.

DJ: And there’s other people who joke about the same stuff, and notice the same stuff, and I think that’s where that sense of community comes in. Golf can be extremely lonely for a lot of people, especially people our age. I’m so lucky I found you guys.

The guys are seated around a table on a tour bus, laughing. A man is walking on a mountaintop near the ocean. Three young men are running on a beach with a small dog on a leash.

Soly laughs lightly. Icarito laughs.

Soly: Success is a difficult thing to gauge in our business. It does not come from download totals; it doesn’t come from view counts.

Two men are shaking hands and hugging on a golf course.

Onscreen text:
“It seems like almost everyone on tour follows them.”
—PGA Tour Pro Zac Blair

Soly [off-screen]: We’ve had some people say, “You guys make me love golf more. You make me wanna go out and play golf. You make me wanna go to the golf course. You make me wanna travel and experience things.”

Two men are riding in a golf cart. Tron tries on an ugly golf sweater.

Onscreen text:
“… A funny and witty alternative to a sometimes subdued golf media”
—GOLFWRX

Big Randy and another man are posing with the Hollywood sign in the background.

Soly: I don’t know how you measure that, but hearing that, it pounds into us that we’re doing at least something right.

Three men are sitting outside the No Laying Up house. One points with a golf club. They laugh, get up, and walk away. The five No Laying Up Guys walk down the street, their backs to the camera.

Upbeat music plays.

Onscreen text:
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo]
Own your tomorrow®

Randy is sitting on the porch of the house.

Big Randy: I don’t show emotion. But yes, it’s very cool and very fun to be able to do what we do.

Big Randy and Icarito are sitting on the porch. Icarito points to his T-shirt with a picture of a bison on it. Big Randy is messing with the tag on the back of Icarito’s shirt.

Icarito [onscreen]: I have a big collection of animal shirts—this is one of them. Plus, it was hot outside.

Onscreen text:
[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo]
The Official Investment Firm

©2020 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0420-05ZY)

Thanks to
The Buck Club

Music ends.

The Challengers

Brendon Thomas

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