Andrew Buse's Record-Breaking 62, With The Benefits of Membership and the Help of Arccos, You Can Drop 6 Strokes Quickly!

Speaker 1: 0:55

Welcome to the Golf Week Amateur Tour of the podcast. We are your hosts, Tim Newman and Chris Rocha. As the oldest and largest amateur golf tour in the country, we put on individual stroke play golf tournaments that are handicapped by flights in 48 markets across the country. The Golf Week Amateur Tour, where hammers play like pros.

Speaker 2: 1:42

Welcome back, Chris good to see you. Likewise glad to be back. I had a rough couple of weeks, but we'll talk about that later. But it's good to be back on the podcast and having some good guests this week.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Yeah, I'm not going to talk too much about your injury online. We'll talk about that off. You're going to get the dad talk, I think.

Speaker 2: 2:02

It's all good, I know.

Speaker 1: 2:04

So we got good guests this week. Our new sponsor, arcos, is coming and going to talk to us. We're going to talk a little bit about the last two regionals of the year Astral Championship and maybe give you some updates of some stories that we talked about over the last year with some of our golfers and some of the things that they've done.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Yeah, sounds like a plan. Let's get us started, All right so we've got our first guest.

Speaker 1: 2:29

He shot a tour record. The tour has been around for, I think, 28 years and somebody broke a tour record for scoring with a 62.

Speaker 2: 2:39

Wow, that's some good golf, that's impressive.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Yeah, we saw some low scores at last year's Astral Championship. Somebody turned around and she had 62 to beat that. When Dennis told me about it I was shocked. So let's bring in Andrew Booze from the Kentucky Tour. Andrew welcome, bud, welcome Bigger, thank you. So you shot a 62, huh.

Speaker 3: 3:04

Yes, yeah, I was no give-me's.

Speaker 3: 3:06

No give-me's If I had a give-me's, it'd probably be at a 59. All right, okay, but no, it was an incredible day. I'm a high school golf coach, so this time of year I don't get to practice as much, but that week we'd actually had heat indexes in the 114 range so I had to call off practice all week. So I got to practice the entire week before, which I attributed to playing a little bit better golf than what I normally do. Well, I shot a lot better golf than what I normally do.

Speaker 1: 3:37

I'd say so and I think you follow that under. Yes, he's not good for the kids, but older guys go out and swing and it would be just fine and it worked out well for you.

Speaker 3: 3:49

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So what did your students say about it?

Speaker 3: 3:55

Well, most of my team shoots in the mid-80s so they can't really get a true appreciation for that kind of a score. I'll take them out there and play with them sometimes and every now and again, playing from the white T's with them, I'll shoot a 31 or 32 or something like that. But they don't really understand how good it is and how special a day it is and how you can play golf all life, even as a plus-digit handicap, and never touch that kind of competitive score. Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Yes. So let me ask you this During the course of the round, when did you know you were having something special?

Speaker 3: 4:36

Probably. I played that course a bunch of times and I had shot a 63 in the bourbon open. That's played there maybe about 10 years ago before I heard my back. But I haven't shot below 66 in the last five years since I've been back from a back injury. So the first two holes I've already hit some pretty decent putts. They're like okay. Well, the real scoreable holes are in the middle part of that course and so I knew that as I was getting in there, if I can go into some of these par-fives and have some of the scoreable holes on the back, it could really be special.

Speaker 1: 5:15

So did you have any bogeys, or was it all pars and birdies?

Speaker 3: 5:21

No, yeah, it was all pars and birdies. So I was going into the back, I was shot five under on the front. I had about 100 yards on number nine on the ninth hole and just hit a terrible shot. It was about 35 feet away from, I mean, you know, a guy my age when you hit, get 100 yards, you better stick it tight if you're going to play golf. But it was and I hit that putt and then I came into number 10 and birdie. That was a medium length par-five. You know I ended up birdieing that one and you know I just basically just kept birdie.

Speaker 3: 5:55

Basically you threw that round, everything that could go in when he did send, you know everything inside of 12, 14 feet. You know I made every putt, except for on the third hole. I'd left one of the shots short and it checked up and it actually lived out, looked like it was going in. It went down in the cup and kind of came up and sat on the back edge. So I had that hole and then on. Then of course, in the last hole I had a six footer coming down the hill and I don't know what it hit, but it hit something about three inches away from the cup and lived out. It was dead center and actually when I was done I went back and putted the same putt about four times to see if I did something wrong or if I, you know, because everything else had gone in. It was just one of those kind of days that, you know, I hit 17 greens and the only green I missed I lived out the chip on. So you know, it's just kind of a day of perfection, you know.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Chris. So you heard him say he shot a 62 and that's just like anything else Chotted 62, but it should have been a 60. Right.

Speaker 3: 7:04

Yes, absolutely, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 7:06

I shot one of one of five. It should have been 98. You know, so it doesn't really matter what your score is. We always critique ourselves and said it could have been better, could have been better, could have been better. And, andrew, for me it's great to hear that, coming from a player like you, that you still have that it could have been better mentality. It's not just us as high handicappers that think we're better than what we really are.

Speaker 3: 7:33

Yeah, because I mean I've been playing golf my whole life and you know you can see my golf week scores that you know I'm somewhere in between a zero and a plus two. So a 62 is way out of the norm for me, you know, and so you know I play a lot of golf and for things to go right like that on one day probably I don't know I hope to say I have a better round than that, but it probably never be better, you know.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Well, I mean you're getting into. You know rarefied hair seriously for a round. I mean you really can't get much better with you know pros, best round is a 57, 58. So you're only talking. You know four or five strokes difference. Again, like you said, I don't know what could you have done better than those two shots? There would be a 60, but even still, how much better could you really get?

Speaker 3: 8:23

Yeah, you know, and I'm almost 44 years old, so a lot you know. My best golfing days are behind me, lengthwise and all of that. So you know this. To kind of come at this in my 40s is you know I would expect this stuff in my 20s, not my 40s. You know these were playing 7,000 yard courses and that kind of thing you know. So the setups are tough and for the best of golfers, let alone somebody that's a little older with back injury problems- what's your type of game?

Speaker 1: 8:57

Are you more of a you know short game player, or you know a mid-iron game player, or do you bang it off the drive off the tee?

Speaker 3: 9:07

Well, you know, I'm my ball. I fly the ball by 260 yards off the tee, so I did not hit the ball long way. I usually, you know usually I may have a couple penalty strokes throughout my entire season of playing golf. I don't lose golf balls, I don't hit the ball everywhere. I try to hit every fairway and hit every green and then try to make some punts and that's pretty much where my game falls in. You know like on that day in particular, maybe I may have missed one fairway and I missed one green. You know the tournament I played after that. I missed one. I think I missed one fairway and one green, you know. So I try to hit a ton of greens and hit a bunch of fairways, eliminate the penalty strokes and just not try to make dumb errors, you know, by slinging the ball everywhere. And that's how I stay remotely competitive, especially with some of the really long players.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Chris, does that? Does what he just said remind you of anybody else we've talked to recently?

Speaker 2: 10:11

Oh yeah, everybody that's shot low scores in the champ play, that's all they talk about. I mean, I, we try to do it, but you know us hire handicappers can't seem to get the concept of just getting it in the fairway to start and we want to be the long hitters and be the longest drive out there. So I've been trying and it's been paying off, but it's it's what they call boring golf at one point and obviously it works.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Obviously yeah, so. So, andrew. Then. Then last week you turn around shot another 69.

Speaker 3: 10:42

Yes, yeah, it was. I was the thing that made me the most upset is I've really been working the last couple months about staying focused in golf rounds when I make a couple birdies, to not to not let up the foot but kind of really really focus on making a lot of birdies in this, eliminating all bogies at all costs. And so I made one bogey in that round, missed about a four foot hard putt and I just kind of as a downhill side hill putt and I just gave up halfway through the putting stroke and I was just really mad. It's still actually makes me mad right now. But you know, I think that's the.

Speaker 3: 11:36

You know for somebody like me, that that I'm not going to make. Usually I don't make a bazillion birdies. I average probably three or four birdies around and really tough courses maybe two or three, and so I can't make a lot of bogies in school. So that that's the. That's the single biggest thing, I think, is just trying to carry that consistency through each round. And then then too it's hard to stay focused when you come out. In the first part of that round I don't think I birdied a hole for six or seven holes, and so I'm like where'd all the birdies go from? From my previous round, you know I couldn't miss a putt and then I couldn't make it Right, yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:16

But you know, if you think about it, let's just say you make three or four birdies around and you don't make bogies. I mean you're, you're in the hunt automatically, right, if you make yeah, absolutely I mean as long as you're hitting. If you're hitting fairways and hitting greens, you said make, make a couple birdies, Don't make, don't make a big number of bogies. And you're right there. You don't really think, right.

Speaker 3: 12:38

That's exactly. And that's if you watch the pros, the, the, you know there are pros that make seven, eight birdies around and that kind of stuff. But the guys that are the most consistent are limiting the bogies. That when you get on tougher setups and as you get to like the nationals and stuff like that, you just really have to limit the number of bogies you make. You can't make enough birdies. That the set ups where they put the pins is extremely tough, that kind of thing you know you can't make enough. If you're slinging the ball out of bounds every other hole, you can't make enough birdies and Eagles to make up for that and keep up with the better players. Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 13:16

Yeah, I'll agree. Some of those pin positions are ridiculous for a national Just target out there, right?

Speaker 3: 13:22

Yeah, I mean, and they are, you know you get. You get green speeds running 12 or 13 and in Bermuda, you know Bermuda greens, bermuda greens for me are really hard to read, so I've traditionally struggled at nationals because everything in Kentucky is bent grass and you know I'm kind of getting more acquainted with it as time goes on. But you know Bermuda is really tough to read anyway and so you don't. You don't usually see I mean, outside of last year we saw some incredible scores from those guys, but outside of last year you don't usually see somebody going that low on Bermuda. Because it's just to me it's a great equalizer. You're not going to make a lot of putts on that kind of set where you're not going to get hot two or three days in a row.

Speaker 1: 14:05

Yeah, yeah, that Hampton Hall course. I mean you really could swing away and you're not going to get in any trouble. It's wide open and you could really bang the ball as far as you want and still have a shot, even if you're offline. And I think that's why you got such low scores there.

Speaker 3: 14:21

Yeah and that's and that's that kind of course. The traditional, the best courses for me are really tight setups, really tight courses, horrors of premium, that kind of stuff is really you know where it's at. Some of those long guys like I played with a couple of long guys down there at Nationals last year and they were, you know, they were 90 yards past me on some you know they're hit the ball. So it's just amazing that you could hit the ball at par.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Yeah Well, you guys are, you know, champs like to playing Jones, rob Trin Jones and Paul Mader dunes this year. So you know, there you're going to get a mix of tight and wide open right. So you know, most of the front nine is pretty tight. Then you get to the back and it's wide open. There's five or six holes and then you come in seven, eight, nine comes back tight again. I mean, excuse me, 16, 17, 18 comes back tight again. So I mean that's, I think that's really going to be kind of a good test for you all as champ players, because you do have that mix.

Speaker 3: 15:17

Yeah, I've seen the course before but I've never played it. So I think the tour director at early or tour director is going to go down there. We're going to go down there a day early or day or two early and go play. A couple of the guys from the tour play it. So this would be the first year I've actually played the course before I've gone out there and played it then, because usually I'll just spend time with family or something like that.

Speaker 1: 15:40

Well, you're in for a real treat, especially when you get to the back nine. You've got a long par five hit right into the ocean, so you're going to have a strong ocean breeze right in your face on that long par five. I think that's whole 10. I think it's all 10. That's a long par five, but it's. It's good. I really like the back nine just because it's so beautiful. I mean it's wide open. You've got the ocean there. It's a really nice course. You're going to treat like it. Thank you, how many? How many more local tournaments do you have before nationals?

Speaker 3: 16:13

We just have our tour championship this weekend or this this coming weekend, so I guess on about a week we have that and then we have, I guess, about a month until the, the national championship. So I've got a couple couple club events, I think, coming up in the next month and then then that'll be kind of the end of my competitive season until next year.

Speaker 1: 16:34

I was going to ask you what you're going to do to stay sharp, because you know most, most of us have like a month in between and you know I say that and again I end up qualifying this all the time. I'm not knocking, you know, high handicappers, deflighters or whatever, but it really seems that you know for Chamflate players to play well, they have to stay sharp.

Speaker 3: 16:55

Yeah, there's just such a fine line between a 74 and a 69, you know, it's really just a couple of putts, it's just a. There's a real fine line for making birdies and bogies for most of the guys there. And so you have to, you have to stay competitive, you have to stay playing. For me, I like, I like playing tournaments, because then when I show up in a play tournament, there's absolutely nothing different. I'm just going out there and playing, talking to guys trying to make birdies. I'm not, I'm not thinking about my swing, I'm not thinking about my putting stroke or anything like that. I you know, because you do it so much during a year. You know, I think maybe last year I may have played 80 tournament rounds or something like that between golf we can KGA and my club, club events and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 17:45

You bring up a really good point that you know when you go out and you play a tournament, you're not thinking about your swing because you, you already know what it is. You're not, you're not out there playing golf, swing Right, Try and try, and you're just playing with what you have and and getting around golf and your ball and trying to get the best score. You're not, you're not just thinking about you, just you're just doing it Like and again composed, as opposed to what most high handicappers do. That's what we spend all of our time thinking about what's going wrong and trying to fix it while we're playing golf, instead of just playing with the swing that we have today and trying to to figure it to low a score possible.

Speaker 3: 18:22

That's right. You know, everything we do in golf is instinctual. So if you doing, you know like I heard somebody, I read a book years ago and they said you know? They said if you took a balance beam and you stuck it six inches off the ground, everybody that you know would just run across, it wouldn't be any big deal. You take it and put it a hundred feet up in the air.

Speaker 3: 18:41

And now we think it's just, it's just big, this big thing, and it isn't the task didn't change, right? So this, it's the same in golf. We're just hitting a golf shot and we're just hitting a golf ball. The circumstances of whether it's a national or it's a state tournament or it's the final putt to win a tournament, that's the only thing that changed. But the the job of hitting the three footer or the job of hitting the fairway didn't change, because we put water down each side. It's the exact same drive, and so you just have to simplify what we're doing out there. We're just hitting the golf ball down the thing, and some days it's going to be bad, some days it's not. But just because you hit 10 balls down the fairway and you hit one in the woods doesn't mean you lost your golf swing.

Speaker 1: 19:24

You just hit a bad shot.

Speaker 3: 19:26

You just go back to your, your, your basics of what, what you know, get back into your comfort zone and go hit the ball, Because most people that will be watching this can go out there with their buddies and never miss a drive. And then they step out there in the tournament and then they can't find a drive. And that just you know. If you think about it, it really doesn't make sense. Why is it any different? We're just out there golf week, we're out there playing to have fun. We're out there, you know, playing for a trophy and a gift card or whatever that is, but we're really out there amongst friends.

Speaker 3: 19:59

So you know it shouldn't be that big of a deal. We should be able to hit the ball and have fun, and you know it isn't the end of the world. One way or another, you play golf long enough and you're going to. You're going to choke on tournaments and you're going to and you're going to have some great times in tournaments. And you know you got to. You got to win some loot or you got to lose some to win some, or vice versa, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 20:22

Completely agree. You can tell when you have those fun groups and those are memorable rounds, and then when you have the groups that are real quiet and serious, you know it's hard to kind of get into the game. So I completely agree with you If you go out there and have fun first, your game will come around and maybe you will get a win or two Right.

Speaker 3: 20:38

Yeah, I mean, I mean I've seen, I've seen, even on our local tour one of the players was. I finished my round and went back and watched the A-Flight play and this person hadn't missed a shot all day and and literally just completely fell apart on the last hole and lost the tournament. And I'm in, you know they, I'd seen them play before. I'm like let the, you know the job. It's obvious that they just kind of got out of that moment, but what was going on and you know got into the thing. Just let the, let that get the best of them.

Speaker 1: 21:12

Well, well, thank you so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it and I wish you the best at your last tournament and hope to see you down in the ULTNED.

Speaker 3: 21:36

Thank you very much. It's nice to be with you guys.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Take care. Thanks, andrew. Chris, another great interview with a player. Andrew really kind of you know, gave gave high-handy cap for some really good advice on how to approach a round, which you know with all the players that we've had on over the course of the year. He brought something up that was really kind of interesting in in how people should really approach their rounds.

Speaker 2: 22:00

Yeah, it was. You know we've talked about it before. We've noticed that a bunch of our real low-handicap players that we've had on the podcast have said the same thing. As far as just you know, get the ball in the fairway, get the ball in the green and have a one or two putts and avoid the high bogies. So it just goes to show that it does work. It's just a matter of you know the high handicappers to to kind of get that mindset and being able to to follow that.

Speaker 1: 22:29

Exactly, and I also like to comment about take back injury seriously.

Speaker 2: 22:35

Yes, yes. Well, I'm taking it serious. I know why.

Speaker 1: 22:44

Let's move on to our next guest. You know, for those that don't know, the tour has a brand new partnership with Arcos Golf and that the this technology is really transforming you know how people, how people play golf, track their stats and it really improves while they're actually playing golf.

Speaker 2: 23:07

Yeah, you know I'm glad that we have this guest on. You know I've used their product, I want to say, when it originally came out a couple of years back, it's a great product, but can't wait to actually talk with somebody from the Arcos team.

Speaker 1: 23:23

All right, so let's go ahead and welcome Darren Feeney, the vice president of marketing for Arcos Golf.

Speaker 4: 23:28

Darren, welcome bud, thanks for having me. Tim and Chris, thanks for it. It's nice to be here with you guys. You know it's interesting. You're just heard you talking, chris, about you know how players you know are are are trying to, you know, maybe eliminate some penalty strokes and, you know, maybe try to make some better decisions. And that's really what Arcos is all about. It's all about, you know, making better decisions on the golf course, but it's making better decisions based on actual data for their game, which is such a huge benefit and something that you know most golfers who, unless you're on the PGA tour, don't have access to that Right.

Speaker 2: 24:11

Yeah, I mean you know your sensors on the clubs. I mean I started using you guys before you even had the link for the belt and you had to have your phone in your pocket every time. But just being able to see you know what slug you're using, without having to select it, is just phenomenal. And being able to see you know how many strokes it took you to get somewhere and you know even those times where you forgot that you took an extra stroke here, the, the clubs don't lie. I guess you could say and give you, give you your true score on that whole.

Speaker 4: 24:49

Yeah, that's definitely the case, and maybe what I can do is is give everybody a little bit of an overview on on how Arcos works. You know, there's, there's sensors that twist into the end of a golf club, or you can actually get grips that already have a sensor that's embedded in it, and those sensors they sync with an app. It's called the Arcos Caddy app, and that app, when you start around, will track all of your shots that you take, you know, during during the golf, on the golf course, during the round, and each of those sensors has a specific ID for every single club. So when you go to hit a shot and you pull out your seven iron, the Arcos Caddy app knows that you're using a seven. So the beauty of that is that once you start playing, you don't have to do really anything. There's no, there's no tapping that's required.

Speaker 4: 25:46

It's an automatic shot tracking system and the beauty of that is, you know players can you know, actually just you know start the round and then, once that happens, they really can just you know kind of focus on what they want to do. Whether they're enjoying their friends, they still want to be able to have their you know their data after the round is over or maybe they're. They're playing in a, you know, in a serious match. You know they want to be able to have that information. You know, after the round.

Speaker 1: 26:15

So, Dan, why don't you give us a little bit of history of Arcos and kind of walk us through the changes in technology to where we are today?

Speaker 4: 26:24

Sure, yeah. So our co-founder, sal Syed. He went to Yale Business School and one of the things about Sal is he loves golf pretty much more than anybody that I've ever met and I've been working in the golf industry for over 25 years and Sal, one of the things that he was doing when he was in business school was coming up with an idea for a new product. And he loved golf so much. That's actually why he picked Yale, because he loved the Yale golf course. So Sal is a total passionate golfer, just like a lot of the listeners I'm sure you guys have and the players in the AM tour. But Sal loved it so much and he came up and he was a data jockey he's a statistician, he calls himself as technologist by trade where he was recording all of his stats manually and he came to a realization. He's like there's got to be a better way for this, and that's basically, I'll say, the genesis of what Arcos ended up becoming. And first it started off with sensors and just the app, and it has since evolved so that now you can track your shots in a variety of different ways. One, you can use the phone. Two, you can use Apple Watch, and then a third way to be able to track shots is, as Chris mentioned, there's a wearable device that we have it's called the Link and any of those are ways that golfers can automatically track their shots. So the genesis that's happened over.

Speaker 4: 28:05

The first product came out in 2015. So we're basically at about nine years right now, and I'll say, the transformation of the first shot being captured back then to where we are today, in 2023, where now we have captured over 800 million shots oh, my goodness, wow, which is pretty incredible. If you think about that and let's put that in perspective too when you think about other shot tracking systems Shot Link, which is on the PGA tour a lot of players will think about that and say, oh yeah, I've heard about that. Well, shot Link has tracked somewhere in the 25 to 30 million shots. So when you compare that to 800 million, you'd be able to say, like Arcos is, without a doubt, as the world's largest data set when it comes to on-course shot tracking, wow, yeah, there's a lot of shots that our team is bringing in every single day.

Speaker 2: 29:04

Yeah, it's pretty cool to see and, like you said, on the app, it's a picture, like the GPS app that you're using now. It shows you where you hit it and where you hit your next shot from and where that shot went, because you hit your next shot from the bunker wide left, wide right. So it shows basically your track of that hole on the app, which is pretty cool because then you get to see where your mistakes and what you can do to fix them.

Speaker 4: 29:37

Yeah, and I'll say that the real insight that ends up happening is once you start tracking your stats.

Speaker 4: 29:43

That's really when the Arcos app kind of takes over, because we use machine learning and artificial intelligence to start personalizing insights for every single golfer's game.

Speaker 4: 29:56

So you'll learn exactly how far you hit all of your clubs. And I think one of the big things that players end up learning is, Chris, if I were to ask a number of players who potentially play on the amateur tour how far they hit their let's say, their seven iron, they may give you a number that says, oh, I hit it about 175 yards, and that very well may be the case one time. But when you're looking at data over the course of many, many rounds of golf, the actual data would probably tell that golfer that they hit their seven iron about 166 yards. So what happens is the majority of players end up being short most of the time on their approach shots because they go back to what we call cognitive bias, which is they remember those that one time where they flushed it, or maybe they had a little wind behind them, and that becomes the number that they end up thinking, that that's how far they hit that club.

Speaker 1: 31:05

That's true for most amateurs, but especially the mid to high handicappers. We think that we hit the ball farther than we do and, like you said, we always end up short. We drop it in the water or we missed the green, missed the par three green, and now we got to chip up and end up at Bowie. If we just grab the right club, maybe we're on.

Speaker 4: 31:27

Yeah, and I think that's when we ask golfers about Arcos and they start saying, okay, well, what are the most valuable features? And I'll go through all of the features. Obviously we talked about automatic shot tracking, understanding your club distances. We call that smart club distances. Then we also have an AI rangefinder. That that would be in the round of golf. Players can actually use this AI rangefinder which adjusts in real time based on the environmental, you know kind of conditions that a player is having. So say they're playing up in Colorado above sea level. The Arcos Cady you know rangefinder will automatically adjust for those yardages and they'll start giving a club recommendation based on those differences. Also adjust based on the wind or the temperature. So there's a lot of things that can end up, you know, adjusting that and it quickly gives the player the answer. So that's the rangefinder. Then we also have AI Cady advice. So as you play a number of rounds of golf you get to right now it's 90 holes. That may change in the future as the technology continues to improve, but once that happens, the system really learns a player's game. So every shot that you step up to, you can ask for Cady advice and the Cady will end up providing you with a recommendation, based on your data, to determine exactly the lowest possible shots to finish the hole. That'll give you a recommendation on which club you should hit on every single shot.

Speaker 4: 33:04

And then the last feature, which we think is, you know, is one of the most valuable features for all golfers, but especially better players, is Strokes Gained Analytics. And what we do is we start digging into Strokes Gained for the entire player's game, so their overall game will start, you know, simplifying something like that which you know some golfers may say ah, strokes Gained, it's a bit much, I don't think I'm not good enough, I don't really understand it, but what we end up doing is we simplify it for them. So we'll give them Strokes Gained data on their overall game and then we'll break it down into the different game facets for driving, approach, short game and putting and you'll get your top insights on things that you need to work on. So when we think about kind of the opportunity for players to improve, they really, you know they want to know what should I work on?

Speaker 4: 34:00

And what the Arcos app will do is it will identify the top three things that you can work on that will give you the biggest impact to lower your scores and your handicap. And it definitely works, because the average improvement that we have for players that use Arcos and in the first year they'll play up to 10 rounds of golf is almost six strokes of improvement. It's 5.71 strokes improvement. So that's a pretty big number for you know, players, to you know, start using the system.

Speaker 1: 34:32

So let me just make sure I'm understanding what you just said. So if a player plays 10 rounds a year, just 10 rounds a year, they're improving by six strokes.

Speaker 4: 34:43

On average. Right, if you've got a single digit handicap player, they're not going to drop six strokes off their game. But in totality, when you look at the system across all of the handicap ranges, if you're a zero to five handicap, on average those players are dropping a stroke off of their handicap. And then as you get higher up the handicaps, the numbers are even higher. So some players who are, you know, over a 20 or 25 handicap, they're losing, you know, more than six or seven shots around. But in totality, all of the players that use the system, you know, on average drop almost six strokes off their handicap.

Speaker 1: 35:22

That's an incredible number and I think that, right there, I mean I'm blown away by that. You know, chris, just think about, you know, the guys that play on tour, so they get on our tour. Our guys are avid golfers so they're playing, you know, anywhere between eight and 15 competitive rounds with us a year. On top of whatever they're playing, you know, at their local clubs, where their buddies what have you. And just think about the improvement that that, if they take advantage of this that they're going to see, you know you can go to the range and bang balls all you want, but if you're grabbing the wrong club and coming up short or or flying over greens or whatever your score is not, you're not going to get much better from a score perspective. Now, if you have the, have the data, think, think of how that's going to transform, you know, the players in these flights and the movement that we're going to see, and then getting better and moving up flights.

Speaker 4: 36:22

I was going to say the things that the players really really dig into in the app. You know I started off with talking about the most important features the smart club distances. That's the first one that I think players will identify because they'll start to say, okay, how far do I actually hit all these clubs? Okay, that's important for me to learn. The thing we also have in the app is we'll give you a stroke gain number for every single club in your bag versus a target handicap. So that's, that's a huge difference, right? So most strokes gains platform will identify versus a tour player. So if I'm a 20 handicap or 15 handicap and I'm looking at stroke gains numbers, it's going to say, okay, you're, you're losing, let's say, between 15 and 16 shots in the different facets of your game, and that's pretty demoralizing. But if you're 15, let's say you want to get to a 12. Now we're going to set your target handicap for 12. So when you go off and play around a golf, you're going to start to identify where you're losing those two or three strokes against a 12 handicap versus against a scratch player. So that smart club distance is is really important for players to learn that. And then I'll say, the even more important thing is to identify what they really need to practice to improve faster.

Speaker 4: 37:42

You know Tim you were mentioning. You know you go to the range and you just start beating balls. That's what most golfers do. They warm up the same way because that's kind of how they've always done it. You just hit driver because that's what they love to hit, and then they don't ever getting better and they and they kind of go.

Speaker 4: 37:58

Well, I guess you know I'm just not that good enough and it's not true it's. It's actually you just need to get some. You know you need some direction and you need some insights to tell you what you have to practice. And once you start working on those, you know it could be. It could be lag putting, like that's. That's something that comes up a lot. It's like a lot of players will end up you know they'll look at their Arco stats and they'll think you know what? I'm really not a good putter and you know we'll end up looking at their data and in reality they might identify it's not necessarily their putting. It actually could be their approach game or even their short game, where you know they step up to every green and they've got a 60 footer. You know, if you get a 60 footer, every single time you step on a green you're going to have a lot of three pots. I don't care who you are. You know and that's the data that will start identifying that for people.

Speaker 1: 38:48

Okay, Chris, and I think that's gonna help you, especially when you come to the national championship.

Speaker 2: 38:53

Yeah, all that data is gonna help completely and keep in mind. Some people might be wondering oh, what kind of use that for a tournament? Well, there is a tournament mode that they have on the app that will make it legal for you to be able to use. So all that stuff, because I know, with me coming from high elevation to sea level, my first year blew my mind how much distance I lost. So being able to see those numbers when you get to national championship might give you more confidence for your round.

Speaker 4: 39:25

Yeah, and I can. There's a couple of things in there, because I think you guys are the national champions is at Paul Meadow Dunes, right and Hilton Head.

Speaker 1: 39:31

Oh it's in Hilton Head. We're on nine different courses. We're out Hilton Head.

Speaker 4: 39:36

So, on all the different courses I know Paul Meadow Dunes is one of them, but whatever the course is, you can go into the app and you can actually download the course ahead of time and you can go and you can strategize on how you wanna tackle the course. So before you even get down there you don't have to show up to a golf course and go like, oh, I don't know what this whole does. You'll have the ability in the app because the golf course is every golf course in the world has been mapped and it provides player visibility into every single shot that they'll take. So to have that I'll say that, a little pregame understanding of what you're going to expect, that also helps for a player to get some confidence. And, chris, you mentioned the tournament mode. The only difference in tournament mode, what that does, is it just turns off the adjusted rangefinder numbers. So you would still get a GPS number.

Speaker 4: 40:29

Just like, is USGA legal to use a laser and Arcos is legal to use, completely legal as far as being able to track your game. You can have sensors on your clubs. That's completely legal. It's been used in PGA championship. This year we had a club professional that was using Arcos during his round. They've been used on the Japan Senior Tour by a winner there. They've been used in the US Amateur and the women's US Amateur. They've been used, frankly, all over the world in 162 countries. So there's a lot of usage for Arcos, and what ends up happening is the more you end up using it, the smarter the system becomes and the more people enjoy playing golf, which is kind of why we're all here. Is that right?

Speaker 1: 41:17

So you've got another major partnership that you just announced about a month ago with PGA Tour. But what's that all about?

Speaker 4: 41:24

Yeah, so we're very excited. Our company went through a fundraise over the last number of months and we recently just closed it and it was headlined with an investment from the PGA Tour, as well as paying TaylorMade, cobra and a host of other brands, so it's Callaway was another one Just getting the industry to get behind. I'll say game tracking is a pretty powerful statement as you start trying to understand well what's the future of the game, and we believe that data and tracking is a very important component of that. And specifically the PGA Tour. It's arguably the most well-known name in the game and certainly one that holds a lot of clout, and for us to be associated with the Tour, we'll now be known as the official game tracker of the PGA Tour, which provides a clear path as to what the Tour believes is the future of the game.

Speaker 1: 42:37

I don't know, to me it just seems natural when you talk about tracking and look at some of the other businesses that have come up, like Topgolf or the Shotracker at driving ranges. I don't know how accurate a lot of those things are, but when you go to those places and you look at those numbers, it's one of those things that kind of gets you all fired and amped up. Oh look, I just hit that ball 280 yards, and maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but it's that number or that feeling that you did that gets people excited and coming back.

Speaker 4: 43:16

Yeah, definitely, and I think a lot of things. We end up hearing from our members with hundreds of thousands of members and we'll get stories where they'll start sharing a screen of a round they just played and they'll talk about this incredible, maybe it was a bucket list course, could have been one of the courses out in Band-In or Pinehurst or St Andrews over in Scotland and they birdied a hole or maybe they eagled a hole or they hit a really incredible recovery shot and they have a visual reference and memory of that shot that took place. And that's one of those things where you think about why does everybody play golf? They play golf for the competition, they play golf for the camaraderie, they play golf for the experience and when you have those types of memories, it brings you back to the game and it certainly gives you a reason to want to continue to play.

Speaker 1: 44:18

Absolutely so. Talk about the partnership with the Golf Week Amateur and what are the benefits for tour members.

Speaker 4: 44:29

Yeah, we're really excited about that.

Speaker 4: 44:31

Certainly as the national championship is coming up, players are going to have access to Arcos and what we are offering is they can get free sensors and a free trial, and they can also get 50% off of our link wearable device. They just have to pay shipping and handling for the sensors themselves and they'll get a 45-day trial to the Arcos CADDI platform. That includes all the information we talked about in the app and after the 45-day trial, when that is complete, players hopefully have had a chance to play a number of rounds and get a sense of what the system will bring to their game. Then the annual membership is $12.99 a month. It's $156 a year. So if you think about what it cost, for, let's say, a range fire that you might buy, it's certainly going to cost you more than $150. Or let's say, a couple dozen golf balls that you're probably going to save by choosing the right club a lot more often and not dropping them into the woods or the water. This system basically pays for itself and, chris, you won't have to buy a new putter.

Speaker 2: 45:49

No, that I won't. We've gone past the putting rules that I've had. But just in case anybody was going to look it up, 45 days from now, when we release this podcast, you're going to get through a national championship, so everything we've been talking about you're going to be able to try and see how much it's going to benefit you moving forward and getting you into a better flight, maybe actually winning some events in your current flight. Who knows what could happen? But coming from somebody that uses the product, it gives them more than what we can really talk about over this podcast.

Speaker 1: 46:27

So, darren, thank you so much for taking some time to join us. Are you going to make a trip to Hilton Head for national championship?

Speaker 4: 46:34

Yeah, I think we're going to have somebody for our team that's going to be down there. So we're really excited for that. So certainly it's going to be a great time for you guys. So I know there's a lot of players that will be making the trip down and hopefully they're going to have some great times. And I know at the end of the week you guys will be crowning some national champs and we're hoping that they'll be utilizing ARCOS technology to help them get some insights and, we'll say, an advantage over some of their competitors. So we're excited about the partnership that we have with you guys and we definitely feel like there's a lot of new things that are in the works From an ARCOS standpoint. There's improvements into the ARCOS technology and the app. We're constantly updating the app itself and we do have some kind of exciting new products that we'll be releasing in the next couple of months and into 2024. So I appreciate you guys having us on and definitely look forward to having some players continue to trust their game to ARCOS.

Speaker 1: 47:49

Yeah, I'm sure there's going to be a lot, and I'm hoping that a lot of players pick it up and use it for the national championship and for those that don't win the national championship, maybe that'll be enough to get them to move into it for next season. Anyway, that's great, all right. Dara, again, thanks so much for taking some time with us. I really do appreciate it and look forward to talking to you soon.

Speaker 4: 48:14

Thanks Tim, thanks Chris, no problem, thanks, Dara. Bye-bye.

Speaker 2: 48:20

Man, what a great interview we had with ARCOS. I've used their product before we even got this great deal and it's cool to see what it tracks. If you're somebody who's into numbers, this is what you need for on the course, so I don't have to worry about using an app with their link edition, but it was just great to have them on. I think we're going to have a great partnership moving forward and can't wait to see. If you haven't decided to get it, I would suggest to get it. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Speaker 1: 48:53

Yeah, I think it's great partnership. Not only is it going to help your game, but the advances in technology from today, from even three or four years ago. With this it's night and day and if you used before and didn't like it, it's not the same product, it's better and, trust me, it's better, right, and you're going to love it. I mean, you're not going to have to worry about spending time writing the notes down. It does all that for you and it's really inexpensive. I mean, the sensors are free, based for our partnership, and you just pay the shipping, the shipping and the monthly membership for the access to the data.

Speaker 2: 49:38

Yeah, again, with this you also get that free trial. So definitely for just the amount of shipping these sensors to you, you get to try it for free for a couple of days I think it's 30, 45 days and then, if you like it, you just continue using it, but it does give you all the stats that I bet you you're writing on your scorecard or on another app. It gives it to you as you're just swinging the club, which is great. So I would definitely recommend them. I've used them myself and they're fun to use.

Speaker 1: 50:09

Yeah, so let's talk about TPC.

Speaker 2: 50:14

Yes, let's talk about it. What about it?

Speaker 1: 50:17

So I'm tracking your scores and I see the first day and I'm thinking, wow, you just had a bad day. So I kind of figured you maybe got through nine holes and said, ok, I'm out of it already, I'm just going to try for skins. And then I saw when you load them for the second day you were drawn. So I knew something was wrong. So tell everybody what happened.

Speaker 2: 50:45

Yeah, so usually when I go up there we make it a big golf trip Me and my brother our annual trip and play two rounds Thursday, friday, or one round each Thursday and Friday. Perfectly fine, did my normal morning routine, went to the range I don't know if you've played the stadium course, but the range is a little away from where the carts would be stationed, I guess. But I walked to the range, did my normal routine, everything was fine. Unfortunately, I had to start on number 16, which any golfer would tell you they don't like. Starting on part 3s.

Speaker 2: 51:24

I started there, pulled 9 iron in, pulled my shot and I felt my back tighten up and went over there, tried to chip, got on the green, but when I tried the putt I couldn't even stand up the putt. It hurt that bad. I've had this happen once before and after the first day, after like three or four holes, the pain went away and I ended up winning that tournament by like six or seven strokes. So I figured let's try it again. Maybe I'll get lucky this time. But as I kept swinging, it kept getting worse and worse and worse and I think it was my fifth or sixth hole. I finally said, gave a text with a little emoji waving a white flag and he came and got me and that's all she wrote. Got home, basically stayed in bed for about three days and now I'm feeling a lot better. I'm able to walk normal move. Still a little tender when I try to pick something up, but yeah, that was my 2023 TPC moment.

Speaker 1: 52:31

So that's the case. Why, when I logged into live score on Saturday, did I see Chris Roca's name on the live leaderboard? It's what I'm not understanding here. Because you know, hold on, hold on, hold on, because you and I talked about it right, true text. You and I talked about it through text and I thought the whole idea was you weren't going to play, you're going to wait until your local finals. And then I logged on and I see these scores showing up, but I said it can't possibly be the Chris Roca, I know.

Speaker 2: 53:03

Yeah, I mean it was weird because from one day to the next it felt from maybe 30% to about 95% and the reason I knew that was I had to. I literally jumped out of my bed to turn off my alarm so I wouldn't wake up my kids at six in the morning because then my wife would have chewed me out for that. And it came down to a game time decision when I hit and said let's see what happens, and really no pain. But when I started feeling just slight little bit of it, I was like, no, that's enough, I'm not going to risk it anymore.

Speaker 2: 53:42

So I tried, I was really hopeful but like the conversation we had with Andrew, you know, I'm the type that real stubborn and just wants to get back out there and swing the sticks. And I need to look at the long picture as opposed to the short picture, yeah, which then stings because the guy who won is the guy I'm chasing for points. So it's going to come down to the last tour final to determine even if I get to play to determine who wins. Well.

Speaker 1: 54:14

I would rather have you not win the points championship and be ready to play national championship.

Speaker 2: 54:21

Then I'll be ready. I'll be ready, We'll make it work. I'm telling you it's finding a whole lot better. I'm gonna see what the X-rays show I don't think it's gonna have any bad news and then we'll go from there.

Speaker 1: 54:35

Yeah, I don't want you to be Andrew or my buddy Joey side and not be able to play for three or four years.

Speaker 2: 54:42

Oh yeah, a lot of people have been telling me that. I mean, you know, we've had Gabe on the podcast numerous times and he's had back issues, so he was kind of being my father figure out there and scolding me for even trying to do five holes because he was out for, I think, two years. So, trust me, a lot of people have been scolding me and trying to give me tips and advice, but the clubs are gonna collect us for a little while.

Speaker 1: 55:10

And that's okay.

Speaker 2: 55:11

That way it's okay. I'll just go clean them and pretend like I was able to get ready for an event.

Speaker 1: 55:18

But let's talk about the winners. It had to be shape.

Speaker 2: 55:22

Yeah, definitely. I mean it was fireworks, I think for most of the flights came down to the wire. But in Chamflight Mr Corbin Holt from Alabama took it by three strokes, but day two shot a 67, take the victory.

Speaker 1: 55:42

Yeah, we talked about Corbin a couple of times on the podcast and Corbin's a stick man, he can play. When we I was watching leaderboard and Jen said man, corbin's not having a good day after day one and I said what do you shoot? She said 74. And I said, don't worry, 74. Number one 74 is a good score on the champions course and he's Corbin's gonna be just fine. And obviously he followed that up with 67 on Sunday. 67 doesn't really matter, doesn't really matter where he plays. A good score. So 67 on the same course, that's a really good score.

Speaker 2: 56:26

Oh yeah, and I saw their tee boxes. They weren't easy tee boxes, I'll tell you. The holes that I did see for Elise Putting were in some tough pin positions Tough, I mean. That hole 16 was on the back left corner where when the pros try, you know, they're either going center and if they try and go for that flag, they're going, they're rolling through. So guarantee you, in my group when we all hit, we all would have been booed. So who knows how they hit that 16.

Speaker 1: 56:57

So then we got a flight. You got Bill McKegan from Arizona. He shot 69 on Saturday in the first round, followed that up with a 73 on Sunday for a one stroke victory over Jason Scallari from Arizona, and my guess is that they battle back and forth on a regular basis.

Speaker 2: 57:23

Oh yeah, they're usually up there up top, and I know we were one that were looking at those two and Kurt Resner also from Arizona, cause they them through battling weekend and week out for the points, race for victories, things like that. So that's a good matchup those top three and Bubba from Mississippi out there finishing up that foursome.

Speaker 1: 57:49

Yeah, so just aside, and I know Kurt from his days when he was in Chicago, so it's good to see him up there on the leadboard.

Speaker 2: 57:57

Yeah, it was. It was a good showing out there for them. Now we move on to my flight. We won't talk about my 115, but we had Todd Gibbs from Nashville come out and you know he snuck back in on day two at champions course and they're taking the victory by one stroke and I believe that came down to the last last hole or two.

Speaker 1: 58:21

Yeah, you know, coming from, coming from back, I mean, he shot 84 on day one. I would followed up with a 75. That's a that's pretty good. So so I guess the leader won one day one. Patrick Eaton would shot a 76. So you know, he, todd, was eight strokes back to come back and win that by one as good playing on day two.

Speaker 2: 58:44

And I mean, when we look here, person who took fourth place, stephanie Cissek from my tour, solid 81, 80 for both days. You know she did win the regional up there in California. We're trying to go two regionals this year and I mean, gave them a run for their money. She only lost by two strokes.

Speaker 1: 59:03

So on the sea flight you've got there's an Arizona player finished in top four. So one, two, three and four actually top five, we're all eight flight players. With you know, former tour director Rod Roninbaum finished tied for fifth, but the two day total 172, but the winner shot 169, alan Sather, that's pretty good.

Speaker 2: 59:27

So so one by two, yeah, that's a solid sea flagger right there. You know, jordan Isaac, me and him are real good buddies. He's been working on his craft when 89, 83 to try and take that victory. Rodney's always he's a sneaky golfer. He'll come out of nowhere and get you. So you gotta be careful with him. And then you know, chris Bowman went in and broke that Arizona streak taking Tholo six from El Paso. But I mean he's one of those as well that you know if he's on this game he can go back and get you. So very good showing from both players. Yeah, moving on to D flight, we had a gentleman all the way up from Kansas, mr Bill Yeager 87, 81 for a total of 168 and the three stroke victory which, if I'm not mistaken, he's originally from the Arizona tour and just moved to the Kansas tour this year. So they all know about him up in Arizona.

Speaker 2: 1:00:26

So he was playing off course and how it's yeah, yeah, and I mean that's what you need up there, especially if you're able to play it often, Sometimes knowing where those greens break, because they're tough greens to read as well. They're especially the stadium course. You know you may take it for granted, but these pros and caddies have to be on their A game when they're playing that course.

Speaker 1: 1:00:50

Yeah, and then you got my buddy, todd Kurtz from Milwaukee came in, came in the money in sixth place, which I'm really happy for Todd. That's a good finish for him. His games really come along as well. So congratulations, buddy. All right, let's move on to the Labor Day regional at French Lick, which I think is gonna be one that I go to next year. I've heard good things from everybody that went that I've talked to. So you know the. The champ flight winner, matt Sander from Cincinnati tour went 74, 68 for you know two day total, 142, even par. And Parker Scarborough from Nashville, 73, 70 for 143,. You know second place, but by one stroke that. You know those two courses. You know when we've heard how tough they are and when you look at some of those other scores and other flights you see how tough they are. You know even par plus one pretty good rounds.

Speaker 2: 1:02:01

Yeah, definitely, and I mean you can see the pattern we had with that in TPC. You know round two took a, took both of our winners having to shoot in the 60s in order to get those victories. So plenty of good golf that was played both days. Now, as we moved to the A flight, that was something that I mean came into a playoff, when we haven't talked about playoff in a long time. But Donna shoulders, from Columbus, ohio, and Tom Burleson, also from Columbus, finished with a 158 total, basically matched both days 77, 81 with Donna or Dana. Do you know what it is? It's Dana, dana shoulder, dana, with Dana taking the victory. So congratulations on that one. You know being able to outlast and extra innings, as we could say.

Speaker 1: 1:02:57

Yeah, I guess my buddy, big Tom, tom Burleson, and Tom's a good player, you know, and I hear Jen kind of chuckling it in the back. You know she talks to Tom on a regular basis but he's a real good player and you know 77, 81 and A flight. That kind of tells you the difficulty of these courses.

Speaker 2: 1:03:20

Yeah, yeah, cause that's almost opposite from what we saw in the champ flight when they went lower rounds and now you know almost having a. Was that a four stroke turnaround? Crazy golf to be seen there.

Speaker 1: 1:03:37

Yeah, and I think we need to go. I keep saying this and I know it's probably not gonna happen because of the TPC one, but you know I think we need to get out there. But you know, onto the B flight we have the Cincinnati Dayton tour. Director Tyler Hudson won the B flight, so congratulations to him when 78, 88, 78, 88. For two day of total 166 and he won by one stroke over Harlan van der Sar from Indianapolis who went 82, 85 for second place.

Speaker 2: 1:04:14

Yeah, that's squeaking out of victory right there, going 88 second day. You know you're having to fight to keep that lead and luckily he was able to complete it yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:04:27

I mean that's a good one to be able to hang on, but as you look through the scores it looks like 85 in the B flight was low round, second day 85. Wow, so again it's a. It's a pre-course.

Speaker 2: 1:04:49

Yeah, because typically that's a mediocre to bad day for the B flighters. So to be able to have that low round and almost get into a playoff is shows, like you said, how difficult it was Exactly Now, as we move to C flight, we're gonna kind of see the same thing that we've been talking about, but J Williams from Arkansas took the victory 82, 92 to win by four strokes over JD Henry from Indiana, western Kentucky.

Speaker 1: 1:05:24

Yeah, you know 92,. It looks like 89 may have been the low round of the day. Yep, yo go out and watch. I don't know if I wanna play.

Speaker 2: 1:05:37

So D flight Chris Campbell from.

Speaker 1: 1:05:39

Indianapolis went 91, 91 for today total 182 and a five stroke victory over a familiar name, terry Cardwell from Kansas. He went 93, 94, you know, for a two day, total 187. And if you remember when we had Terry on, you know, earlier in the year he said he wanted to be known as the Jeff Wong of the D flight and one of his goals was to win a regional. He came really close. Came really close.

Speaker 2: 1:06:16

Yeah, he did. I mean, just look at it, 91, 91 for a winner, 93, 94. So it's, you know, the two or three putts or chips or something that is usually routine for everybody you know is the difference. And good luck to him, you know, if he goes to nationals and the future regionals that he plays, because I can see that goal being accomplished real soon.

Speaker 3: 1:06:44

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:06:45

And it's good to see his name. Well, it's good to see everybody's name up on the leaderboard, but you know it's, you know for me, you know, knowing Terry and knowing what his goals were, to see his name up there, you know it shows that you know he's really, you know, put in the work this year and is getting better come close.

Speaker 2: 1:07:07

Yeah definitely.

Speaker 1: 1:07:11

You know, let's go on that for just a second here. You know this is this time. Last year was our very first episode and so over the last year we've had a lot of great guests on a lot of players you know a lot of, you know a few tour directors and we've had some players that have done some pretty good things this year. You know we had Brian Quackenglish. You know qualify for the US Senior Open. Then we have Joe Jaspers, you know, qualified for the US Senior AM.

Speaker 1: 1:07:45

You know, and we have really talked about how he did. You know he played really well. He did exactly what he needed to get into into match play Nice. Yeah, he had two really good days and but he, but he lost on the first round of the match play. So actually I think he was like three, three or four strokes off of being the medalist. So he, I mean he did really well. And the guy who he got paired up with for match play, he played, that guy played the best out of the three days and Joe played and I hate to say in the worst, but had his worst round of the three days. So he got eliminated in the first round of match play. But again, you know, real, real successful tournament for him because you know you know less than half the field, less than half the field makes it into match play. It's like he said it's the tough part is actually qualifying and you know he was a medalist in qualifying. So you know he did really well and congratulations to him for that.

Speaker 2: 1:08:58

Yeah, that's an awesome accomplishment to be able to make it that far. I mean, we hear the name his name all the time at national, so not surprised to see him be able to do what he was able to do, and I'm pretty sure he'll be back there again to give another shot.

Speaker 1: 1:09:18

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure we just talked about Terry Cardwell and we had David King from the Kansas Tour on a month or so back where he had his lowest round of his life. So we had David King on after his win at the Midwest Regional and he was feeling real good and he was moving up the ranks in the C flight and he actually got bumped to the B flight.

Speaker 2: 1:09:43

Yeah, I've actually heard.

Speaker 1: 1:09:46

Yeah. So again, that's great news and it's good for him. And it kind of goes back to you know what we talk about, you and me both. You know on podcasts and offline how the you know the goal was really to get better and it's not unheard of to get bumped up late in the season. Go to the next flight and do well if you have the right mindset and obviously David had the right mindset and got his first win and want to congratulate him on that too.

Speaker 2: 1:10:16

Yeah, and it's tough to get moved up and win your next event. I mean, that's something that we hardly ever hear. And to be able to do that, he needs to take that and continue to grow on it. Because, yeah, you know, at the end of the season it may not feel good to get moved up right away, especially if you have plans and going to nationals. You know you think you're gonna do well in nationals but you never know what the golf gods are gonna give you or what you're able to play with. So congratulations to him, because I did hear at TPC how he got moved up after his last event and got moved to the B flight.

Speaker 1: 1:10:56

So good morning, congratulations, david, and good luck at your local tour final this coming weekend. And there's another good story. If you remember, it was right about this time last year that we had both Chris and Alex Franklin on one podcast. Do you remember them? Yes, I do. Yeah, so so they're from the upstate tour and Alex was 15 last year and has only been playing for a few years.

Speaker 1: 1:11:26

The last year at national championship, he finished in third place, nine strokes off the leader of Byron Johnson, and this past weekend he played in a junior event, you know, for one of the national junior tours and of course he played at. A couple of years ago. When he first started playing, his dad said that he shot 115. Okay, wow. And this past weekend he shot back to back, even par 72. So he went 72, 72 as a 16 year old and they were they were playing close to 6700 yards. He finished in third place.

Speaker 1: 1:12:10

So and just kind of keep that you know in mind so he shot back to back even bars. One shot off the lead and the two guys that that finished one under. One guy shot three under yesterday and the other, the other one shot five under and he birdied the 18th hole to get in the playoff. What for for Alex as a 16 year old, you know, you know, we know the kid he's a great kid to to have so much improvement to shoot back to back, even bars at 6700 yards as a 16 year old in competition. That that to me shows incredible growth, the mental get he. Obviously his mental game has gotten a lot better and I'm expecting big things from him at at national championship.

Speaker 2: 1:13:05

Yeah, that's going to be fun to watch. I mean it to be able to change that mindset after having around, like you said, and then going even par even par is a tip of the cap to him, so a lot of players would would be discouraged and not be able to transition as quickly as he did. So kudos to him.

Speaker 1: 1:13:24

Well, well, that that, that 115 they shot. That was a couple of years ago, in that, in that same tournament.

Speaker 2: 1:13:32

Right, but I mean you can still go.

Speaker 3: 1:13:34

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:13:37

But you, some players will still keep it in the back of their mind. You know, I know I do it with with myself with one of the courses out here where I just can't, it just doesn't fit my eye, and I always go into it knowing that I'm not going to play well. And you know, once you already start thinking that then you're not going to play well. So to be able to to turn it around a year later and just go even par, even par, and have a chance, you know, a chance to at least to maybe take the victory, is kudos, kudos to him, yeah, so.

Speaker 1: 1:14:10

So some real proud of him. You know to watch that growth for him and I know how proud his dad is of him and I'm again just looking forward to big things for a while.

Speaker 2: 1:14:21

Yeah, and honestly you know, as we keep saying this throughout the year can't wait to actually say hi to these people at the welcome party. You know if we have anything planned at that point, but to be able to see everybody that we've had on this past year as guests and actually you know get to shake their hand and and have a good time at their nationals is going to be something to look forward to as well.

Speaker 1: 1:14:44

Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a lot of fun and you know I'm glad you bring that up because you know invitations went out and we know people are registering and paying and getting excited for it. So if you got your invitation, that means you're qualified. You need to go ahead and register and pay as soon as you can before the flights fill up.

Speaker 2: 1:15:07

Yeah, you don't want to wait on that. If that's one thing that you're able to do, get that done as quickly as possible, because you don't want to miss it and, you know, give you a chance to prepare now for what's to come at national championship.

Speaker 1: 1:15:22

Exactly, and we're you know, we're 30 days out.

Speaker 2: 1:15:27

Wow, we are 30 days out. Thanks, I didn't even think of it that way.

Speaker 1: 1:15:31

It's calm by really, really quick and October is going to be here before you know it. I know that. You know there's still a number of tours that have their local finals coming up, and yours this weekend or next weekend.

Speaker 2: 1:15:43

My tour final was in two weeks. Yeah, two weeks, oh that's insane.

Speaker 1: 1:15:50

So we played this past week and it was rain short and let's just put it that way, so we had our championship flight finish, but that was it.

Speaker 2: 1:16:00

That stinks.

Speaker 1: 1:16:01

Little disappointing. I thought we were going to make it through the year without any weather related incidents and almost made it, but yeah, I mean that hurts because you try to avoid.

Speaker 2: 1:16:14

You know whether, for any event, you go to and coming close to the end of the season and you get stuck with that. It's unfortunate, trust me. I've been there. I've had a whole season where I battled weather and that was not fun. You know it comes. Luckily I'm not as close to a big body of water like you are, so I don't have to worry about it as much. But when we do go up to the mountains, that's when we get surprised with it.

Speaker 1: 1:16:45

And the one. One of the biggest things for me when we have weather coming in is when the horn goes off to because there's lightning, right. I'm begging you guys to stop playing. It's not worth hitting that one more shot. It's not worth saying well, I'm going to be the one that can make it in. When the horn goes off and says that you have to come in and it says on the GPS you must seek shelter, please, I'm begging you, don't think that you're going to be the one that doesn't get hit, right, yeah, whatever it is that you do, it's not worth it.

Speaker 2: 1:17:24

Yeah, the weather is random and you don't know what's going to happen. I would I completely agree Just take your medicine, get out of there and hope it clears pretty quickly.

Speaker 1: 1:17:39

Yes. So when it came through anytime we get weather delays I'm on the cart and I go and clear the course. Right, I'm making sure our guys are getting off. As I'm driving through the course, there's group play behind our guys I said, look, guys, the horn went off. You got to clear the course. I said, well, we're going to keep playing. I said, well, no, you guys got to clear the course. There's a big storm coming through. I said we're going to keep playing. I said, no, you guys need to clear the course. It's group play. They think they can. They're going to be the ones that don't get hit. And literally 10 seconds after I said that, thunder and lightning went off almost like right over ahead, and I said guys, get off the course. And they jumped in the cart and took off. It's crazy.

Speaker 2: 1:18:29

Yeah, that's the type of roulette I don't want to play. I'll go play roulette in the casino. As opposed to life or death roulette, we're going to pass on that one Exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:18:40

Chris, there's one more thing that I forgot to mention. We got a question from Desmond and I'm not sure which Tori's from, but his question was this In one of the older podcasts there was a tour director that volunteered at the Masters tournament. How can I get information on how to volunteer? There's actually a link on the Masters website to be able to get information on that, and what I'll do is I'll post that that the actual link to volunteer in the show notes. I was actually on the site today and basically, for now, what they're having to do is just submitting your email address and that they will contact you once the application process opens up for the 2024 Masters.

Speaker 2: 1:19:27

Yeah, I mean that's kind of a pretty cool big deal to do if you get to go volunteer at the Masters. I know our director that did it. He did a great job. I believe we did it for numerous years. So if you're able to do it, good luck, enjoy yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:19:48

Phil was on the first tee for years and all the players knew him and God bless him. So if you want to volunteer, get that link and put your application in and, from what I understand, if you've done it before, you're more than likely. If you don't, you're supposed to do you'll be able to do it again If it's your first time. What I understand is kind of like a lottery, just like getting the tickets, yeah, and maybe you'll be selected and maybe you won't. So but give it a shot.

Speaker 2: 1:20:21

Good luck. I just wish I would be able to drive by it. But who knows what would happen if you even try and stop right in front of the gate?

Speaker 1: 1:20:29

Oh no, just you, just keep going, Don't. Don't even think about stopping, just keep driving, just keep going straight. So if anybody else has any questions, you know please email us. You can email me at Tim and ATC at amateur golf tour net or Chris.

Speaker 2: 1:20:48

El Paso at amateur golf tour net. All right, bud. Yeah, I mean it's been a fun one year that we've been doing the podcast and can't wait to see what happens next.

Speaker 1: 1:21:01

Oh, it's only going to get better, I'm sure.

Speaker 2: 1:21:04

Oh yeah, definitely I can't wait. All right, bud.

Speaker 1: 1:21:08

Good luck at your last event and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2: 1:21:12

Definitely, and I'll make sure my back is 110% before I swing again. Exactly, I'll see you later, bud, see you bud.