The Spirit of Golf: Community, Champions, and Cutting-Edge Equipment

Speaker 1: 0:45

Hey, tim, welcome back. You know it's been a while since we've been able to have a chat, but it's great to be back.

Speaker 2: 0:52

It is good to be back and seeing your face and talking to our guests. It's going to be a good episode.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Yeah can't wait to get this started. How about you? Yeah, it's going to be great. Let's go ahead and kick it off.

Speaker 3: 1:12

Ladies and gentlemen, golf Week Amateur Tour the podcast Talking about all things Golf Week Amateur Tour, including interviews with tour directors, players and course pros. Now here are your hosts Atlanta Tour Director, tim Newman, and El Paso Las Cruces Director, chris Rocha.

Speaker 1: 1:43

All right, chris, welcome back. Yeah, it's great to be back. I was telling my wife the other day it feels like it's been a month since we've recorded an episode. So it's good to be back and I can't wait to see or, you know, to talk to our guest today.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Yeah, what a lot of people don't know is when we record this. It really kind of depends on our work schedules and our travel schedules and we recorded the previous episode like right after the previous. The other previous episode, uh, went live. So so, so, so we haven't talked in in in two weeks and a lot, a lot's been going on, but hopefully we get back on a on a regular schedule. Uh, we, you know we've got the uh shirt contest, the the March shirt, the March shirt contest. Contestants are now live on facebook. Say that five times fast, see I. I have trouble speaking when it's just like simple one syllable words, let alone you. You put words like that in there.

Speaker 2: 2:39

So it's tough so so make sure you go. You go on facebook and and and vote, and you know we're going to talk about this, this whole thing, because I looked at today I was kind of surprised at where the votes currently are. They came out of the gate real hot.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Yeah, they did Real hot. Yes, they did. You know it's tough for me because I can't vote Yep One. I mean I don't mind voting for my guys, but at the same time it is only one vote. We'll talk with the staff later on that the bosses but two. I got two good front runners in there and if I pick one over the other I'm not going to hear it for the rest of the season and I just really don't want to deal with that. So good luck.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, I'm with you on that too, because you know Shaggy from DC. I love him, he's my guy. He was the one in DC that took care of all the stand-up cancer stuff while we were there. Right, really loves the tour, really loves what we do, is passionate about finding a cure for cancer. I'm pulling for him. But also I got my Atlanta guy, donald Price, in his shirt, so I just kind of sit back and watch and I told them both good luck. You know privately and personally, but you know I don't even really I can't really say anything, right.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Right, it's tough for us. It's going to be interesting come what September when we have to vote the bracket, because we're going to have to be non-biased. But I can't wait to see how this unfolds, and I think it's, you know, as a lot of tours are starting and we're seeing more events happening. We're seeing more interest in this, and that's what we want.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Right, I'll be honest with you, though. If Shaggy or Jordan don't win this one, I'm going to be examine people's brains. But anyway, let's get on to the important stuff on the show. You know our first guest tonight. He's a tour director, but he also won the St Patrick's Day Sea Flight Regional in Myrtle Beach. So let's welcome South Florida tour Director, terry Lawson to the show.

Speaker 4: 4:53

Terry, welcome bud. Hey, good evening Tim.

Speaker 2: 4:57

How you doing, buddy. I'm doing great. It's always good to see your face. Well, at least I've got one that says that you know, I do understand it's made for radio. That's what they say?

Speaker 1: 5:09

Yeah, that's what Tim says all the time.

Speaker 2: 5:11

I also have a voice for silent movies. So you know we're.

Speaker 4: 5:15

My second voice. You guys are looking good to be on with you, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 5:24

It's good to have you. I know you speak with my wife. You know Jennifer on a regular basis and, uh, you know you. You won the regional Myrtle Beach over over St Patrick's Day weekend. You know we weren't there, that's so. I think that's the first regional, chris, that we weren't at. You know to do interviews wow, that's.

Speaker 1: 5:45

That's a crazy stat, because we've been at most of them.

Speaker 2: 5:49

And Jen comes to me and says Tim, you're screwing this up. Already. You're supposed to be going to these regionals and interviewing players. So what do you want me to do? I said well, terry's pretty pissed because you weren't there to interview him. He said he's an old man, finally won a tournament and you weren't there to interview him. I said what am I going to do?

Speaker 4: 6:08

It's true, it's all true, everything she says. It's true super excited man to win the regional. I mean, come on, that's a, that's a big deal.

Speaker 4: 6:17

I don't care if you're a tour director or not, that's, that's a, that's a, that's a major, a major you know, and bottom line that was uh, that was thrill for me, especially after uh, over 10 years of trying to get her done. Big deal. I won some two days. You know I won two days on seniors and or in orlando, seniors and orlando and south florida. I don't think I ever won a two-day on my own tour, but regional that was a big deal for me.

Speaker 2: 6:44

Plus, you know, it was just fun and marty up there, man first class act all the way, he does a good job oh man, what, what a pro really good, really smooth well, we, maybe, maybe we should just call that tournament you know the tour director open, because you know tim sumption won the b flight.

Speaker 4: 7:00

Yep saw that yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 7:02

So so two tour directors won, won two flights. You know that that's always good. I say it's always good. I love it when people have never won, they won. I love it when my friends win, I love it when tour directors win, I love when, I just like when, when people win, because you know it as a tour director. You know you just said you've never won a two-day at your own event, primarily because it's so hard to do that.

Speaker 4: 7:24

Right, it's so hard to run the event and play well it's work and uh, but it's a, it's a labor of love. You know that we all do it we're all freaks party made me feel welcome and I just you know I got lucky. I hit the jackpot. Man, it was school. Made some new friends, man, it was. Uh, it was fun. Played with some old friends, one of your buddies, dj tony james. He was in my oh, I love that guy with me and uh, it's his class act guy too all the boys and friends all the gyms are.

Speaker 4: 7:54

They're good men, they're good guys, good friends.

Speaker 2: 7:57

They come over and play on our tour occasionally as well yeah, and I love getting all of them together and and sit around and you know, having a couple drinks and and tearing it up a little bit.

Speaker 4: 8:06

You might not get to talk much, but you can can sit around and have a couple of drinks. Oh we laugh.

Speaker 2: 8:13

I don't need to talk, I just laugh.

Speaker 4: 8:14

That's right, yeah, they're good guys, man, good family.

Speaker 1: 8:18

We've had them on the podcast, we know.

Speaker 4: 8:20

Oh, exactly, I heard them. I heard them on there talking over each other. Those guys are funny, man, I man, I love them all, them James boys, them TJB, that's what they call them, them James boys.

Speaker 2: 8:33

So let's talk about your round in the regional. You shot 83 in the first round. Yes, sir, on Saturday that's a pretty good score, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4: 8:42

I don't know if you guys ever been to True Blue up in Pawleys Island, but it is not a joke At that top golf course had a plan. I had a plan, had a game plan going in. Our leader, dennis, loves to stretch you out when you get to the bigger tournament, so we were playing at 6300 yards, and I'll tell you what buddy a sea fighter 6300, that's a long way yeah I got a man, had a game plan.

Speaker 4: 9:05

I hit my wedges like darts. Some of my one putts were for par because I was sticking wedges in four or five feet all day. That's awesome. You know, saturday was a good day. Um made a couple good friends man, um gilbert kennedy guy out of richmond, we played both days together, became instant friends. We've been emailing back and forth, you know. And tony james, like I said, he was rooting for me, the guy, even that trent, the young guy out of eastern north carolina tour that was tied with me on the first day, first class gentleman, hit the ball, you know, 280. I was like I'm in trouble. The first hole. I'm like I'm in trouble. We have then stuck to my game plan, stayed down the middle, cut it well, got to uh 17, dunked one in the water. I'm like, oh boy, that was the first peak.

Speaker 4: 9:53

I took it the leaderboard all day and I'm like, okay, all right I doubled that hole and um, I came home I played around the lake on 18th I'm gonna say I chickened out on 18. We had about a three club win on our face and I was about 145 out and I'm like man, I'm gonna have to hammer this or I can just shortcut it over there. And that's what I did. So they told me at that point we can catch you and um, sprint, you know, the second place finisher was right out in the middle. You know, 260 into the wind. He smokes one. He just pulled his a little bit just left to the pin and it went in late.

Speaker 4: 10:31

That's when I let off the gas. I'm like I think I got it cruised on in, got a beautiful trophy. Call my wife, you know, celebrate, god bless her. Good day. Oh, like I said, good day all the way around making a friend out there. Man, you know, with gilly he goes by Gil. I changed it to Gilly by the second day and we were buddies the whole rest of the time.

Speaker 4: 10:54

We had a good time. They were congratulating me at the end. That's what this sport's all about, anyway. That's what golf week's all about, to me at least.

Speaker 2: 11:02

You told us. You know I'll find you haven't missed an episode. How many times has that been said? You times that's been said you know just here on the podcast, and then you know in all your tournaments. You know that's what the guys say. It's about the friendships. It's about, you know, there's golf and there's a competitive golf, but people come back because of the relationships and the friendships that they've, that they've made and built.

Speaker 4: 11:23

Oh yeah, here in South Florida we just call each other fam. You know I got fam in so many tours now, like I said, augusta, damn. You know I got family on so many tours now, like I said Augusta Atlanta, richmond, hilton Head, obviously everybody in Florida you know. I mean I don't know which state has the most tours, but we got to be right there. For us we got five. We have five in the state of Florida, so they're a state with more.

Speaker 2: 11:46

I don't think so.

Speaker 4: 11:47

So, and you know, I've been so lucky. This is our third season, the first season. Robbie robinson. Tom myers from orlando mentor immediately. Ernie paco jack, senior mentor friendship immediately. John syskowski, right ncf. Ex-director jay. Yeah, donnie jacksonville, every one of them checked in. Brother, you know we're here to help you and they did. You know. John Suskowski drove like three hours to meet Mark and I at dinner and stayed there with us for three more hours going over. This is what you need to do. This is Clive. This is what scowlins look like.

Speaker 4: 12:42

This is your trophy guy. This is your blah blah blah. I mean, it's been a fun ride. It's been a ride buddy.

Speaker 2: 12:48

How much fun is John Saskowski.

Speaker 4: 12:50

He's a great guy, I mean, he's a first-class man, he's a gentleman, he's hilarious and he likes to go to the casino once in a while. And I may or may not like to do the same. I.

Speaker 1: 13:03

I'm not saying or denying, I understand. That's my type of guy, right there. That's right, he's a great guy.

Speaker 4: 13:07

He's a great guy. We miss him. He comes around still once in a while. We see him more on senior stops now than anything. But even when I was a player before I even had a tour he'd treat you like a gentleman when you'd go up to his tour he was a gentleman.

Speaker 4: 13:25

He was first class. I was lucky to be able to build my tour by following some of their plans. I guess it is. We're all trying to do the same thing. But I'll tell you once again, marty, up in eastern North Carolina there's a guy that could write the book on how to operate the Golf Week amateur tour. If you see his check-in table, it looked like SportsCenter. There were screens everywhere. There were TVs going here, there were people everywhere. They were handing out stuff. It was awesome. Yeah, he does it right, that's for sure, 100%. I'm about to check one of these out. Oh, awesome. Yeah, he does it right, that's for sure, 100%. I'm about to check on the gigs out. Oh amazing, he's playing it again. Well, chris, you're probably not old enough to play on the senior tour, but they're doing it again in the summer. So no, not yet. We'll get it. I don't know if you guys really covered a senior tour that much, or do you?

Speaker 2: 14:20

We do not as much as we do a golf week right now only because of of schedules. Chris has a has a golf week and a senior tour. I've got golf week and on top of it, you know just the, the, the regular travel schedule, right. So like when, when the regional in in Myrtle beach that you were at that was my opening tournament, on the 16th, you know couldn't be there and Chris had a two day, and on the 16th, you know couldn't be there and chris had a two-day and. And so you know we, we've, we've tried to be, you know, really strategic in um, in in planning when and where we go.

Speaker 4: 14:56

Uh, I know I was here in hilton ed for for the senior in hilton ed just because it was convenient off week also, I saw you. Both of those Made a friend there.

Speaker 2: 15:04

I'm a page man.

Speaker 4: 15:05

He's a gentleman as well. You know, you're a good guy.

Speaker 2: 15:11

Did you know?

Speaker 4: 15:12

who he was before you met him. I didn't either, I didn't either, and I kept saying man, how come I know this guy's name? I? Know, this guy's name and finally, somebody's like bro, you're from the South, you don't?

Speaker 2: 15:28

know, Kevin's page.

Speaker 4: 15:29

I'm sorry that's my bad and I agree it was what a nice guy, man, cool guy.

Speaker 2: 15:32

Yeah, you know I'd like to get down to Sawgrass, but but it's not a good time. You know, my full-time job is I'm a college professor, and so the month of April and the first week of May is it's busier for me than when the semester actually starts or when school year starts, and so that time frame it's just hard for me to get away.

Speaker 4: 15:54

Well, you guys got three full-time jobs. You got your podcast, you got your golf tour and then you got the one that you make a living off of. Right Simple as that. I know about time management, brother. You know where I'm at every week exactly.

Speaker 2: 16:08

I mean you. You travel probably more than anybody I know. You know back and forth, you know up here for work and then back home for to, to see family and and and run the tour and those types of 700 miles to be every week. Geez, that's just go home and go back to work.

Speaker 4: 16:24

So it's just a commute. Only got to commute twice to work, but 350 one way. It's okay, it's life buddy.

Speaker 2: 16:33

Right, well, I do the same thing to Atlanta.

Speaker 4: 16:34

Right, exactly. Yeah, that's a long way from Hilton Head, right. Five hours Right.

Speaker 2: 16:40

But when summer comes, Chris and I are going to be on the road. We're doing back-to-back weekends to Michigan and Louisiana. We've got to figure out some other ones we're going to get to and how we're going to do the Labor Day stuff.

Speaker 4: 16:52

You guys are doing awesome, you guys are doing a hell of a job and I appreciate what you're doing for the Golf Week Tour. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 17:00

It started off, as you know, we wanted to do something fun. It started off, as you know, we wanted to do something fun be able to give back and really kind of share what's going on across the country to everybody. Chris, I'm not going to speak for you on this. I had no idea this was going to take off as quickly and as big as it did.

Speaker 1: 17:15

No, I mean, we talked about this a couple episodes ago, how you know, you called me and just asked me hey, let's do a podcast. Sure, sure, let's just have some fun. And you know, talk every two weeks and have a good time. And now we're doing nationwide contests for the prettiest shirt you can find and we're getting our faces on.

Speaker 1: 17:33

These guys are getting your face time out there too, yeah I mean it, it's, it's insane to to see where it's gone, but uh, it's been fun and I can't wait to see what's next. And then, you know, our road trip hasn't even gotten off the ground yet. For us, and to see those players that go to those events, how excited they'll be that we're there and want to talk and this, and that it's going to be a good time.

Speaker 4: 18:00

Well, you know you can always come down to South Florida for a two-day major and be your guest down here. We don't play very far from the hard rock casino on one of our south southern stops, so I mean you could always cover just a regular one if you're down for it you know what?

Speaker 1: 18:15

my wife would never? If you ask my wife, she would never say no to florida. Okay, we just have to make a stop in orlando for a.

Speaker 4: 18:23

That's her only concern Perfect the mouse house.

Speaker 1: 18:32

It's there. Yeah, she's going there. So she's a travel agent, so she's going there in a week. Awesome For a conference. It's more just let's have some fun with the girls in the group. Be a member of your tour. She can come down and play around.

Speaker 4: 18:43

So there you go, she told her it's more just, let's have some fun with the girls in the group, but a member of your tour, she can come down, play, play around. So there you go.

Speaker 1: 18:47

She told her she's not she she's not a golfer yet, um, but we got my youngest one a set of clubs, so maybe she'll tag along with us when he starts playing so, terry, tell us what's going on in south florida man, you know we're in season three.

Speaker 4: 19:03

It all happened on a whim, so this is 24. 2021, I guess, was my first season, I don't know, tim.

Speaker 2: 19:12

That's about right.

Speaker 4: 19:13

Coming home from Nationals that year. You know I've been playing on the tour for 10 years now this June it'll be 10 years. I've been a member of the Golf golf week amateur tour and senior amateur tour. So I was old enough 10 years ago you're welcome and uh, I fell in love with it. You know, I've been an athlete my whole life. I've been competitive my whole life. Um, I got to 50 years old. My wife made me retire.

Speaker 4: 19:40

I had a long, uh slow pitch softball career. Traveled all over the nation playing softball, had a great time. You know, first it wasball career. Traveled all over the nation playing softball, had a great time. Now, first it was 40 and over, hey, you were getting a little tired. Over 50 and over, hey, you were getting a little tired. And then she's like no, you're past, a little tired, dude. You see now, walt, you know that I got taken out of shortstop too many times.

Speaker 4: 20:05

So I put my efforts, efforts over into, uh, golf competitive, came with me. I don't remember if I won my first season. I may have got a little taste of it after that. Buddy, it was hook line and sinker, I was gun hooked. So markling a friend of mine from softball. We've known each other for 40 years, I'm guessing we would always ride together back and forth to orlando or jacksonville or wherever we might be playing tampa, and we'd be like man, we just need a tour on our side of state. Just having two hours we're driving, you know turn into a eight ten hour day, not knowing right. Yeah, now it's eight ten hour day is pretty normal uh-huh didn't disagree to.

Speaker 4: 20:47

Let me start the south florida tour. I guess we're kind of like on the northern end of south florida. You know, we're just upon the very top of the tropics, right at the line in the near vera beach, and took off the first year. You know, I think we maybe had 50. Last year we had a little over almost 90. This year we're trying to break into the club. We're at 76, 77. I think I got a couple signed up this week. We're going to get in the club this year.

Speaker 4: 21:13

Buddy, we're working our way a little farther south because we get a lot of support out of the Orlando tour. A lot of guys come over and play with us in Tampa tour. But we're getting more interest the farther south we creep and, uh, we're going to start our marketing in the south, in the south of Florida, west Palm area and surrounding. You know West Palm is a big city so, um, you got to have that base to go off of right. But uh, mark Mark's been right there with me since the beginning. He's a number cruncher. You know he's a smart guy. He's very personable. I'm sure you've met him. We've been running with it. We built a schedule. We had no clue. We got it in October, november of 2020, and Dennis said I go, you know well, next year, you know he's like oh, I know well next year. You know he's like oh, there, no, next year, build a schedule. So we quickly did.

Speaker 4: 22:08

And, um, we've been moving forward. Thank God for um few people. Jennifer Newman couldn't have done it without her. She spent countless, countless hours with us on the phone, on zoom calls, clicking into our computer basically saying see that little thing up there, click on that. See the little thing that looks like a squiggly line, you know, click on that. And I mean she walked us through it and, uh, man, she was a godsend, she was awesome at it, she's. I love her very much. You know that she's, she's a jewel. You're a lucky man and the Golf Week Amateur Tour is lucky to have her on board too, because, man, she's sharp, she's awesome. I'm not just saying it because she's your wife, she's a great friend, she's a great attribute to the tour, she's just a great person. I bet she's a great grandma too. She seems like, oh, she's phenomenal. Yeah, I believe it, she's phenomenal, a great person.

Speaker 2: 23:04

I bet she's a great grandma too.

Speaker 4: 23:05

She seems like she's phenomenal. And then Mark, of course Mark worked so hard. My wife Marae I can't shortcut her because she sets it up, she checks everybody in, she brings the brownies. She'll stay up, you know, till midnight the night before a tournament, making brownies for the guys. And, like I said, dennis has been super cool, jennifer mccormick's been super cool. It's great, it's a good organization.

Speaker 4: 23:30

Susan icky I mean, you can't never run into a bad name, you know. And, like I said, I've met so many tour directors just in florida yourself. Like I said, marty super impressed me over in augusta, super impressed. I play a lot, I played around. You know I'm going to vegas for the senior regional here in july. I'll get to meet those guys out there. And you know, we're always going to be, we're always going to be in a big old house of the south florida boys. Saturday night cookout at nationals and and uh, we're hoping to, we're hoping to have some more fun again. This year we had, we invite everybody. You know, if you're out there you're coming to the cookout. And you saw our shirts that we wore for our picture last year. We just have a ball down South and, uh, get a big old family.

Speaker 4: 24:20

We got some damn good golfers too. I'm sure you know that, daniel, you do. Daniel last year was my champ flight player who picked up his skin at the skins game. You guys had him on the podcast. Robin Gomez throws an ace out there on the last day last year on a flight, I mean, I got some ballers. I had two of my guys win the two-man group, you know. So South Florida, we're coming and we want that team trophy. That's our goal.

Speaker 1: 24:48

We talk about it a lot.

Speaker 4: 24:50

We're gearing up, we're coming for it, we want it.

Speaker 2: 24:53

That's a good one to get. I mean, you only get it when you bring guys right. Yeah, you got to bring 25, 30 guys to have a shot at it and I don't know how many.

Speaker 4: 25:01

I should have kept a little better track of how many I brought to nationals each year. But I mean, looking at the picture you can't really tell, because I've got guys from Orlando. Some of the guys I met they were just like from Michigan, they jumped in the picture and put on their shirts. We're just having fun man, we're always having fun out there. I'm lucky and I'm blessed to be in the situation that I'm in.

Speaker 2: 25:24

What's your favorite course in South Florida that you all play?

Speaker 4: 25:28

Hands down the PGA Golf Club, the PGA Village in Port St Lucie. It is a five-star all the way, from the time you drop your bag off to you hit the driving range to the nine-hole chip and putt course. That's there for your use. To the three courses the watermaker, the die and the rider phenomenal shape we went in last year. We probably had no kidding five or six inches of rain the night before the tournament. We pulled into the gates. We're like, oh man, we're gonna be had pumps running. The guys that played a practice round literally submerged their golf course, coming off the course.

Speaker 1: 26:11

Wow.

Speaker 4: 26:12

We played 90 degree roll the next morning. They had, like I said, unbelievable course, unbelievable design, unbelievable staff. We had people coming from all over the country. Last year, chicago I had I had I can't remember the, remember the roster, but I mean it was up and down Hilton Head Lana. I mean we had guys. You know one of my first year members who's moved up there. I don't know if he's joined your tour yet, but if he hasn't, you need him. His name's Neil Corbett. He moved up up there. He lives in Lake Reynolds now. If he's not on your roster this year, you need to shoot him an email because he's a gentleman. He'd be a good one for you.

Speaker 2: 27:09

Now, he hasn't joined yet.

Speaker 4: 27:10

He should be an A-flighter. He may have joined over on his. I know like last year he was an Augusta senior member. I saw him hanging around over there. He'd come down and played with us a couple times. Good guy, good guy to have on your team. You got to reach out to him. I'll shoot you his email. All right, please do, I will. Sorry, that would be the hound's water getting watered down right now after.

Speaker 2: 27:34

It's all good. It's all good, it's all good. Well, terry, thanks so much for spending some time with us tonight. I really appreciate it. I always enjoy talking to you and I know we'll see you soon. I know I'll see you before October, you're going to see me plenty, buddy.

Speaker 4: 27:59

We got some work to do over there at your house so we got to come on in and take a look at it. I'll be in Beaufort county in uh three more days, so just holler at me. I appreciate y'all you got it, man.

Speaker 4: 28:12

It's exciting for me. I can't wait to hear it. I'm, like I said, a voice for a face for radio. That's what they say. Appreciate, y'all come on down and see us time. We'd love to have you. You know we treat you well down here. I'll come on down, hang out with us. Yeah, you know to have you. You know we treat you well down here. Y'all come on down and hang out with us?

Speaker 2: 28:29

Yeah, you know we will, and I know it's your anniversary weekend, so I hope you enjoy it and don't play too much golf. Spend some time with your wife.

Speaker 4: 28:38

I got a stack of blinds sitting over here that need to be put up. So there you. Yeah, that only takes like 10 minutes wait to see the pile. It's a highly due weekend, but you know what? I'm home, I'm happy. Uh, 82 degrees today here, just a little chilly that's beautiful you know, come on with it. We'd love to see y'all. Nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 2: 29:01

Come and see us all right, buddy, you take care we'll talk to you soon. Chris, you know I joke with Terry. You know about him bitching and complaining that we weren't there to interview him when he won the regional. It's all in good fun. Terry is a fun guy. He's doing incredible things. He and Mark are doing incredible things down there in South Florida and it really is good to see that he got that regional win.

Speaker 1: 29:29

St Patrick's Day yeah, it was a great conversation, you know it's. It's fun to to have these conversations with these winners to just the listeners don't get to see, but, uh, we get to see the faces that they have and the excitement and smiles, just to talk about it. Um, and that's what we're here for, you know, for them to be able to relive that moment and hopefully everybody gets to have that chance at least once.

Speaker 2: 29:53

Yeah, you know we, you know, like we said, you know, when we talked to Terry that you know, when we started this it was really just to have a little bit of fun and and try and figure out what's going on across the country in the tour. And it's really kind of grown into what it is and it grew quick. But for me, you know, the fun part is talking to the players and tour directors across the country and hearing their stories and having fun with them, because you know it's not something that we can do regularly. That's it. We're necessarily stuck in our tours but you kind of live in a silo, right, so you don't really get to see what's going on and hear the stories and hear about, you know, the guy who drove his car, I mean drove his golf cart into the puddle and submerged it Right, right, or Cephas last year, you know, setting his golf cart on fire. Or you know, were them James boys? Or you know, pick a story that we've heard from our members. From anybody.

Speaker 2: 30:58

Right, it's one of those things where Seven holes in one, seven holes in one over the course of a year.

Speaker 1: 31:04

Right, it's things that you know, stories that we wanted to bring that everybody gets to hear about, and it's just it's. It's been a great time and we talked about it, you know, in our interview. We can't believe where it's gotten and we just can't wait to see what happens next.

Speaker 2: 31:20

Yeah, last episode we did. We did the first half of the conversation with with Ken Roman from Strixon. You know the club fitter and if you haven't heard that first part, please go back to last episode and listen, because the second part of the conversation it takes a little bit different turn Really starts talking about the Strixon clubs and balls and the technology that goes goes into that.

Speaker 1: 31:48

Yeah, it's, it's something to listen to. It was a great conversation that we got to have. But also since that conversation I've kind of tried different golf balls with Schrick's on and I mean I didn't realize the amount of options they have. It's like a candy store If you haven't looked literally like a candy store. The golf balls are different colors, but it's. It's been fun to kind of figure out. You know how they compare to, uh, what I play now, the title list and, um, it's. It's just a great conversation that we have, especially if you have any thoughts of getting a fitting. This is one way to actually get that ball rolling and get started with that.

Speaker 2: 32:31

So let's go ahead and pick it up where we left off. Tell us about the irons.

Speaker 5: 32:36

The irons are amazing. I mean we've really built quite the following. I think it was at Parkways this year that. So the ZX-7 was the number one model iron out on tour. You know, tile said they were the number one iron but they, you know, they were counting everything, whether it be, you know, guys playing stuff that didn't make any more prototypes. They also offer quite a few models, but you know, you look at our irons. More than 50% of the guys, uh, week in, week out on tour, I think it's something will be on that number. It's somewhere. That range, the, the own contracted guys are using our product.

Speaker 5: 33:14

Um, the irons themselves have just really got an amazing following and one big key, big key piece of technology is the vt soul. So when you look at the bottom of a strict iron, it's something that a lot of the companies have actually started to try and emulate. You look at that secondary leading sole, the scalloping that creates a unique situation as the golf club comes through impact. It allows the club to travel through impact cleaner. It's why Brooks Koepka plays on irons. It's, you know, when you take a look at the major champions, shane lowry, you know when he comes through impact and and he, like many of our tour pros are, are using um, multitude of our models, uh to to optimize their set. So using zx7, zx5s, um as a combination and we designed those clubs to combo out. And the cool thing is so the ZX7 is a one-piece billet forged golf club. We do CNC the mill, the inside of the cavity, which gives us a unique technology in the sense of that we're able to really control the thickness of the face. We do tungsten load all our iron. So tungsten loading is you know when you're able to insert tungsten load all our iron. So tungsten loading is you know when you're able to insert tungsten into an area. It creates stability that a traditional, normal billet forge golf club does not have. You. You take a look at the, the zx7 too, um, you know through the set itself, you know that is a a lower launching uh higher, spinning the. The CG is a little bit higher. That is our true players forging. That is the golf club that is out there and winning majors and being played on tour week in and week out. And then you take a look at the ZX5 and that was a multi-piece forged golf club.

Speaker 5: 35:03

So the face is a mainframe face technology where we forged the face separately. We don't show it to anybody. We, you know a lot of companies are boasting their ai technology. We use enormous amount of ai technology in that base behind. What we can't see is behind under the hood, so to say. We also use sub 10 stainless steel on that face, which is a special steel. It's a 10 20 carbon steel which is used in the zx7 as well. But we put a product in there, the sub 10, which is, uh, it's a palladium, it's a, it's an alloy, it's spring steel. It's what they use to make, uh, locomotive springs and the cool thing is it makes the face springer and but faster, it does it in a consistent way.

Speaker 5: 35:47

A lot of irons and the reason why a lot of folks praise the ZX5, it's probably the most popular golf club. I haven't seen the sales numbers, but I'm willing to bet that the ZX5 is our number one selling golf club. Just when you look at what that is, the look of it, the performance, the feel, but then the forgiveness that comes with it, I think, chris, you're a good example. You know you're telling me you got fit into those. You know you're over 15 handicap, working your way down to a single digit and you're able to jump into an iron like that that has that look and has that performance but still has enough forgiveness that you're able to, you know, grow into that set, which is which is really nice. Um, that, that also too. That there's tungsten waiting in that golf club as well to create extra stability, um, but when you're able to forge that face and then laser weld it onto a forged body and then combine with the loaded tungsten waiting it's, it's a combination that can't be beat. It's. It gives you the best of all worlds where it's going to give you forgiveness, it's going to give you feel it does have a little lower CG. So, especially in the longer irons. That's why the longer irons are so popular, even with our best players in the world.

Speaker 5: 36:59

Go out there using them. I think when we talk to the tour guys, usually we hear about 70 plus percent of our pros on all tours are are comboing their sets out. I believe it's somewhere in that range to. I'm sure it changes week in, week out and then you have, um, our zx4 iron is a hollow bodied iron, so it uses that same mainframe face as the zx5, but you use a cast hollow body and tungsten weighting, uh, to create I I like to call a game improvement iron like no other, in the sense of um, you got a, really, you got a real forge face.

Speaker 5: 37:39

People nowadays are stamping forge on a lot of things, that they're just forging a piece and they're saying, oh, it's forged forge, is it what's what makes forged, or the name of forge? It's the feel and the performance that comes from it. The control, the spin. The control, the ball speed, the consistency of of distance is so very important to us and this iron here in the game improvement iron, we really reiterated that where you're going to be able to get a lot of forgiveness, you're going to get a high launch. You're going to be able to get a lot of forgiveness, you're going to get a high launch. You're going to get a mitigated spin and a substantial amount of stability. But in a golf club that feels like a ZX7, so to say, it feels like a forged cavity.

Speaker 5: 38:20

Back, iron, and we've had a lot of success with that. That model has changed. This is the second generation of it and this one. It's funny when people look at it they're like man, it looks so clean. I've had a lot of people they look at it. I can't hit that, I'm not good enough to hit that. I'm like I don't think you realize how forgiving. And then kind of jumping over into our Cleveland brand. We have our new XL ZipCore iron, our Cleveland brand, we have our new XL ZipCore iron. You'll notice, with the Cleveland irons they are not forged but they do have good feel.

Speaker 5: 38:53

The key kind of technologies with the Cleveland irons is you start getting a little bit more game improvement category. You still have a VT sole, so you have that VT sole design. You do have a mainframe face, so it is um made separately and then the golf club is made multiple pieces and then laser welded together. Uh, the xl iron is a little longer from heel to toe and it creates an enormous amount of stability. That golf club I'm probably uh, we just launched that uh in january.

Speaker 5: 39:25

I can't tell you how excited I am about it. I've seen it in the field, I've been using it in the field of fitting events over the last two and three weeks and just blown away by the performance where, when you set it down, how clean it looks. Also too, just the overall performance and feel, performance and feel, but the level of distance, the launch and the, the really kind of mitigated spin um for that iron is. This is hard to find. We're also using our hydro zip on that face, which one thing that you're starting to get into game improving irons. I'm seeing people are having issues with gapping, so we're really cognizant of that. Our hydro zip really controls the spin, really controls the distance control.

Speaker 5: 40:12

Then we get into our XL Halo, which truly is a set of hybrids. Every club in that set is a hybrid. Even the pitching wedge, the gap wedge, is a hybrid. I can tell you that here in Myrtle Beach we got a lot of folks that are retired and so forth the ladies, that golf club there. That thing is popular.

Speaker 5: 40:37

What makes it popular too is the Cleveland line has what they call ascending mass technology. So there is a counterbalance weight that is in the shaft and snake gram weight and every club has it. So every driver, every fairwood, every hybrid, all the irons and what that does is it helps the everyday golfer swing the club faster. And the easiest way.

Speaker 5: 41:01

If you want to know what ascending mass technology does for you, grab your golf club, grab the grip, what ascending mass technology does for you. Grab your golf club, grab the grip, try and swing just with just one hand, feel it, and then go ahead and put the golf club in your hand, where the club head is behind your hand, where you're just swinging the grip of the shaft, you'll notice that you can swing that enormously faster and with enormously a lot more control. And that's what counterbalancing does and it's a unique process. We also own the Zexio brand, which has pioneered the lightweight technology, and we we've kind of taken that from the Zexio brand incorporated into our, our Cleveland brand as well. So we got to we the cool thing about this company we have something for everyone, for all the way to the top to Bob. So from that tour pro, that major champion, male or female, all the way up to that aspiring or just walking into the game golfer.

Speaker 2: 41:59

It's amazing, the technology. And then go back to what you've, what you mentioned about earlier. I was thinking about I can't imagine why these, why clubs, are so expensive. Can't imagine you start. You know, when you hit me with locomotive spring steel, who came up with that? I mean I'm at a loss for words. I mean, where do you be? What kind of brain do you have to have to come up with that idea?

Speaker 5: 42:28

Or a qualified engineer, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5: 42:34

Well, also too I think we have taken with the new Cleveland wire. We've taken an enormous amount of technology from our wedges. We're using the zip-pore technology in there, which is using a product that goes into the heel and that gives us more material to use in the house. And then, um, the hydro zip that we use on the face. That is something that we use on our wedges and that's a dynamic blast. Essentially, imagine sandblasting, but instead of using sand, uh, you're using a, you're using a nanomaterial. You're using a nanomaterial I mean, this is highly complex stuff and create a surface that will last, you know, for hitting thousands and thousands of golf balls. Yeah, it's not just thrown together very quickly.

Speaker 2: 43:19

You just bring up another point. I was going to ask you how often, if you buy a good quality set of clubs like Trixon, you go go get fit. How often should you be replacing them? Because to me I would say, most guys aren't wearing these clubs out yeah, um, that's actually.

Speaker 5: 43:36

Yeah, well, that's our business model. That we're all. You know. Golfers love new toys, um, but uh, you know it comes down to how often you hit golf balls, um, how much you're playing, how much you're practicing, um, and and, frankly, the wear and tear, um, I, I tell folks it's different for every person. Like you know where you play golf to.

Speaker 5: 43:57

If you play in a sandier conditions, like you're in the Southeast, you know, bermuda, there's a lot of like a like a sandy base, turf and so forth. Yeah, bermuda, there's a lot of like a sandy base, turf and so forth. When you're hitting balls, if you wipe the face off between every one and just make sure there's not dirt and sand on there, that really makes a big difference. But the old rule of thumb if you could take your thumbnail and run it down the face of the golf club and if you don't feel that thumbnail grabbing the kind of better answer to your question if you play an enormous amount of golf, you hit a lot of range balls, because range balls are hard. You can use a set of golf clubs two, three years and then you know you're going to have a diminishing results from. You know the, how the, the grooves are working, the spin and so forth. You know those things will be affected All right, Chris, I just helped you out there.

Speaker 1: 44:50

We've got to figure something out. I'm getting close to that three years. We've got to figure some way to get out there.

Speaker 2: 44:55

You've got to tell your wife. You know you got back from vacation two weeks ago. And hey, honey, it's. I just talked to the expert. He says I need new clubs.

Speaker 5: 45:05

I'm using this as an excuse a lot.

Speaker 2: 45:10

Ken said that I need new clubs.

Speaker 1: 45:16

Well, we'll have to see what happens at Nationals, because we may have to make an investment.

Speaker 2: 45:19

Again, going back to the whole technology thing and how things work, you put a lot of research and design into the clubs. You put a lot of research and design into the balls so that they actually work together as well as they do, as opposed to okay, you're over here just working on a ball.

Speaker 2: 45:35

Yeah, over here and the clubs over here, and not, not, and not even thinking about the importance of them working together and and, and the ultimate benefit, it's creativity there to me is, and you know, like, we offer three different tour balls we are Z star, z star, diamonds, is he star XV?

Speaker 5: 45:52

and you know, all three of those golf balls um are going to perform uh slightly differently, but there's a big enough difference there that, like, there's a clear, there would be a clear choice for each golfer that will be bring the best performance. And then also, too, there's times where a golfer will um want to achieve something different. We have some golfers that actually, uh, week in, week out, uh, the XV is and the diamond are most popular on the PGA tour and the diamond and the Z-Star and the LPGA and the Champions Tour and so forth. But you know, different compression, different spin. Also, too, the Diamond and the Z-Star have 6mm covers, so the audible sound is a little softer and folks that are playing with other competitor balls seem to that is the gateway ball, in my opinion, that it's turned into, you know, for easy for folks to get into the Strixon brand.

Speaker 5: 46:53

The XV has been popularized by Hideki's Masters win and along with Shane's British Open and then Brooks Koepka's PGA was he was using a diamond golf ball, but we have some, some of our pros are using an XV one week and a diamond another week. You go out on tour, you have one golf course that's. You're playing Harbortown and distance is not that important. But stopping power is really important.

Speaker 5: 47:22

So, it might be worth giving up a five or six yard off the tee and making sure that you know and a couple of yards off the iron, but to make sure that when that that the scent angle and the spin rate is that a little bit higher to have that control compared to then you know you go to a different place. Where you know it's it's more of a distance, is more factor and and and they're going to jump into the XB.

Speaker 2: 47:45

All right so I'm going to ask for a friend here. He has trouble putting. Can you talk about putting, fitting and how you go about doing that?

Speaker 5: 47:58

We have a unique technology with our putters. People that have a hard time putting in most cases are mishitting theter. Uh, on the face, you know you don't have gear effect like on a dryer and so forth. So if you look at the grooves on the cleveland putters and and our three different models, um, the front line, the hp soft two and the mill hp mill all three of those have a unique thing that they contribute together and that's the grooves on the face are designed to where if you hit it a little bit on the toe of the ball, the farther out on the toe you hit it, it's still designed that it's going to roll the ball that same speed. So it's still going to go roughly that same distance and that's important. So, for example, even though you hit it on the toe, if you have a 10 foot putt, it still rolls 10 feet and vice versa, if you go to the heel, it does the same thing. If you look at the technologies with putting, you know our frontline putters there's an enormous amount of stability with those, like, there's a lot of weight that's been redistributed. We're using an aluminum insert. Um, you know we have our most putting technology in that particular line. Um, you get into the, the build line and you know if you're looking for that, that soft carbon steel, build carbon steel face, uh, but you know that that golf club will bring that to you. Hb Softline is actually a very popular line and we have a new putter out called the Retrieve, where it fits inside the hole, picks up the ball. I know there's another company that has something similar that we have to make our own way of doing and the nice thing is ours. I had to give the R&D guys a lot of credit. You don't have to, like you know, really push on the ball hard. You just put the ball, the putter, on top of it and you pull it right out and it comes out. And there has to be something set for consistency. We're also offering in the front lines. We're using that all in shaft. It's the UST shaft and it's graphite and steel and we've seen some really good response from that particular product. So it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 5: 50:17

Big thing when you're getting fit for the putter is you go on our website and you look at all of our putters. Everyone has a stroke preference. They either have a lot of arc or they don't have very little arc at all. Make sure that the putter matches up to the stroke you're trying to make. If you're using like a claw grip and you're not going to want a lot of arc here. If you're cross-handed same thing you're going to want a you know more a straight path putter. But if you are more traditional, where you like the putter to open and close a lot, then you're going to want one with a lot of like a slant neck or so forth, instead of you having to try and figure that out. If you look on the website, like every putter, you look at the bottom right-hand side, it gives you the path that that putter is designed to work with and it makes it a lot easier. That's awesome, chris. Did you write that down?

Speaker 1: 51:13

It sounds like I need to try this out in person.

Speaker 5: 51:17

I think so. He's writing a note to his wife oh, we're going to get new clubs.

Speaker 1: 51:25

You're going to have to start winning some tournaments and saving them.

Speaker 2: 51:28

Yes, there you go, there you go. So, ken, how can, how can guys set up an appointment with you?

Speaker 5: 51:34

one way I could, I could recommend is um, is folks uh, dm me on instagram? It's uh, so it's, it's. It's my name, it's's Kay, and then the last name is Rollman R-O-H-L-M-A-N, the number 74. And if they could just send me a direct message on Instagram, I'll respond back and then also, too, I'll be able to let you know either set up a fitting, the process of setting up a personalized fitting, or one of the fitting events, if you'd like scheduling an appointment at one of the fitting events that we have. Like this time of the year, we have fitting events, you know, four or five days a week, this time from March, april, may and then part of June. We stay very consistent here and I do events from all over Charleston, all the way up to north of Wilmington.

Speaker 5: 52:32

I have a gentleman that I have actually trained my fitting system, danny Bartlett. He's down in Hilton Head, each other at a fitting event years ago and and he just, we were just sitting there talking one day and he's like man, I want to learn how to, how to do this, how do I do it? I said, well, you get to come work for me, how's that sound? So, uh, he's doing a great job and uh, he's, he's really learned how to apply it and and under understand the, the concept and and using it and applying it and providing a result that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 53:05

I can I again. I appreciate you spending some time with us tonight and hopefully we can have you on again as the season goes on.

Speaker 5: 53:12

Yeah, I'd definitely love to do that. I really enjoy talking to you guys and, you know, looking forward to hopefully, maybe one day, working with you in person.

Speaker 2: 53:20

That would be great. Okay, all right, bud, thank you. All right, take care. So that's the second half of the interview with Ken, and you know, as I went back and listened to it, what really amazed me is he's talking about this technology, chris, without looking at notes, without looking at websites. I mean, he's just talking about these things just off the top of his head. So you know that he knows his stuff and he knows what the clubs can do, and that's one of those things that makes him probably, and his system, one of the best fitters in the country.

Speaker 1: 54:00

Oh yeah, he has a passion for it and I mean he's mentioned it before that you know this is something that he really fell in love with and wanted to do and, yeah, if I ever get a chance to meet him which I hope we get to just can't wait to pick his brain and just see what he's able to bring off the top of his head, Because everything that he says is spot on to what I've seen with other fitters. There's um, but just the technology that he's taking with it is just something that is, in my opinion, greater than some other people that you could go to to see if this club's right for you to hear things.

Speaker 2: 54:38

I didn't know that because I don't. I don't follow which clubs the golfers are playing. You know, I follow the golfer. I don't necessarily follow what's in their bag. I had no idea that how many of the best players in the world are using Strixon clubs and balls.

Speaker 1: 54:56

Oh yeah, oh yeah. It's crazy what's out there. Like I said, I'm trying them to see how they feel and they're pretty solid. There's so many options for all golfers that I'm pretty sure you can find something that you're looking for, if you needed to yeah, oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 55:15

And again, you know, like we said in the last episode, you know if you're in the market for new clubs, take the extra time and and get a fitting, because you're. You're spending a lot of money on these things, but make sure you're playing the right clubs for you. Generally shouldn't cost you any more money. Costs a little bit extra time but in the long run you know, for the investment that you're putting into these clubs it's really worth it.

Speaker 1: 55:41

Yeah, it is. It's exactly like you said it's an investment.

Speaker 2: 55:45

I mean, I wouldn't go buy a car if I'm not looking to see what each one has to offer Same concept and even if you're just starting off right, I mean you should do that, because if you just go out and buy clubs that don't fit you and aren't really fit for you, you're going to struggle and get frustrated and give it up. Spend that little bit of extra time and find something that's going to fit you and you'll be much better off in the long run.

Speaker 1: 56:17

Yes, you'll enjoy the game more.

Speaker 2: 56:19

Let's switch gears here for a second, since we last talked. Since we last talked, man, that's kind of how I felt at our first event. Chris, you know I love my guys, they're awesome, you know. But we had our first event a couple weeks ago and it was a comedy of errors all the way, start to finish, top to bottom, left to right, right. Comedy of errors all the way around. To start off, there was a mix-up with start times between and we were at, we were at the, at the private club, at the governor's town club. There was a mix-up in start times, so we started a half an hour late.

Speaker 2: 57:04

Member play um jesus yeah, you know that wasn't really that big of a deal. Um, you know you gotta just kind of roll with it and you know if you're, if you're playing at a private course, you know those things are bound to happen. You know, when members come up, you know it's just kind of right.

Speaker 1: 57:25

Yeah, you kind of just kind of bite the bullet right, just roll with it, right Bite the bullet and just take it, yeah, just roll with it, right?

Speaker 2: 57:32

I mean, what are you going to do, right? So we had, we knew, close to the pin, and I've got, you know, the Hallie mark. There was a tape measure and a clipboard that you clip right to the flagstick. All right, just got a pencil. I put a pencil on it for him and everything. I'm trying to make it easy. Yeah, make it easy as possible. I generally have the same person in the last group every week and, and he picks them up, he takes a picture of it and picks them up for me and sends me the picture so that I can, you know, uh, pay people out if they need to be paid out where they go, right, right. And so he sends me the first one, looks good. He sends me the second one and I glance at it okay, looks okay, he sends me the third one this is Tea Time right.

Speaker 2: 58:19

Yeah, Tea Time event right, and we had 80 guys, that's a long day.

Speaker 2: 58:25

It was a long day, a long, long day. So actually by the time I got the last group off, we had like 20 minutes, maybe half an hour, till the first group came in, okay, so so it was real quick turnaround time. And so he sends me the picture for the third, close to the pin. It's got the same guy's name from the second one. Uh, okay, good for you, just glance at it, you know, didn't look at it too closely. And then the fourth one also had our 50-50 on it for you know, the V Foundation, okay, and I look at that one, and the same guy who was on the two and three had it on four and I said that's very, very unusual, right, right, right. For those of you that aren't really aware, closest to the pin means if you are closer to the pin, you win. And so if you hit it 25 feet and the person who in front of you has written down 24 feet, you're not closer than him.

Speaker 1: 59:36

So don't write your name down right, did you, did you?

Speaker 2: 59:37

speak to this player afterwards, or well, I, I passed it off to to one of our, our members because, um, they've got a nickname for this guy. Okay, can't get right. Oh, no, so it. It was the running joke you know for for the two or three hours before, because two or three hours before he came in it, because the guy who put his name and it was a deflate guy and and so we, we were joking and laughing and playing and and and just having a good time with it, and the guy who, who, who won the 50, 50 that50 that goes to Jimmy V put his name on the wrong close to the pin marker.

Speaker 2: 1:00:17

How? That's a good question, because it's, you know, it's, it's her hole and it's marked. It's clearly marked Right. And he wrote so when you look at the close to the pin marker. So let's just say again, he was 25 feet, he wrote above 24 feet, so if he thought he was writing on the right one, he still wouldn't have won right. So they were all messed up. It was comical. We have another guy. I love our guys, they're fun. You know, we have a great time this one guy about two years ago well, before I even tell that story every tournament. We're looking for something for him, his phone, his clubs, something.

Speaker 1: 1:01:07

Does it really matter?

Speaker 2: 1:01:08

Yeah, I mean it's something with him. A couple years ago he drove to the course in his car, left his keys at home, got out of the car, hold on hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1: 1:01:21

Drove to the course in his car. Yes, left his keys at the oh, yes, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:01:27

So he gets to the course, locks the car, goes to play his golf and he can't get into his car because he doesn't have his keys right.

Speaker 1: 1:01:37

Two hours away oh, what did they do?

Speaker 2: 1:01:44

what do? Oh on, star, can't even start the car, so you can drive home, right, you? Gotta have a key right. His wife got to have a key Right. So his wife had to drive two hours to give him his keys. Oh, I bet you she was pissed. Oh God so. But doesn't the car, tell you hey you're kind of my car beeps, so like if I start getting the car, start it up and get out. It lets me know that the car lets me know that the key is no longer in the car. Wow.

Speaker 1: 1:02:14

You had an eventful weekend. Well, that story happened two years ago, right right, but it's the same guy, though. Same guy that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 1:02:25

So we're sitting in the men's locker room, you know, hanging out having food, you know, drinking drinks as cards are coming in, and he's sitting at a table with a bunch of guys. You know, we're laughing, joking around, having a good time, and all of a sudden he gets up and says have you seen my ball mark? Oh shit, no, I haven't. Sorry, I know I should have been looking for something for you. Had no idea it was a ball marker this week, but no, haven't seen it. It was an Augusta ball marker. You know the little one, you know metal it's. I mean, you've seen them. Right, right, right and I get it. Yeah, I mean, you don't, you don't want to lose. But he starts tearing stuff up I can't find it.

Speaker 4: 1:03:08

I can't find it.

Speaker 2: 1:03:08

I can't find it. 45 minutes later, one of the guys that's sitting at the table with him, who I gave the close to the pin markers to for him to address it with, I can't get right. He says, tim, come here. So I get up, I go over to see him and he says, look down, the ball marker was like would have been like right at the feet where he, where the other guy was sitting, like it, like it just kind of fell out of his pocket Like right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's, he's tearing stuff up. So so this guy's looking for for about an hour. So so the other guy picks it up and says we're not, we're not going to say anything to him for a while. So we're, I mean, we're just, we're just having a good time, right? Yeah, I love, love seeing the guys. We had big field, great course, good competition, two playoffs. It was a good time, just fun. You just gotta get the guys back into understanding that that you know 12 feet is more than 10 feet.

Speaker 1: 1:04:06

Yes, yes so, yes, and I mean you have a tape measure right in front of you that should be able to tell you as well, yeah, which one's closer you with that, that was funny.

Speaker 1: 1:04:19

That's why I got rid of the closest to the pin. I just do total part three. It makes it a whole lot easier. But then on my scorecard I have a little box that says please tally up the yellow squares. Oh, I have a little box that says please tally up the yellow squares for each player. I even color them yellow so they know. And we still get scorecards with their totals in there, like they wrote their total twice, like, for instance, 75, 75. And it's like why would I need that twice?

Speaker 2: 1:04:45

So I'm glad you said that because, yeah, I tried something a little bit different on the first tournament and I got to do it again. So basically I created a pace of play sheet. So each hole you have a certain amount of time to finish, right. So you get 13 minutes for a three, 15 for a four, 17 for a five. Okay, and I told them as soon as you put the time that you finish each hole, the time that you finish each hole, so after you call it hole one, you write the time that you finish. At the end it should equal four and a half hours.

Speaker 2: 1:05:18

Okay, had one group who they weren't paying attention to what they were doing and I'm trying to use this to track who are the slow guys. You know who are the slow groups, right, that sort. And I'm trying to use this to track who are the slow guys. You know who are the slow groups, that sort of thing. He was putting times in that they finished the hole, let's just say hole three. He would put in times that he finished hole three before the group in front of them finished hole three.

Speaker 2: 1:05:45

Huh, I said what am I supposed to do with this? How am I supposed to look at this. He says I don't know, I just wasn't paying attention, really had some guys doing it, like you know the time that they teed off as opposed to finish, right, right, right. And I just try and tell him you know, especially at the private courses here, if you're playing in over four and a half hours, they're not going to have you back here on land. It's just not going to happen. And so we were really, I was really trying to push that and to get them to understand. You know how important pace of play is, you know, in terms of us getting courses and getting good rates Right. I'm looking at some of these things. I'm saying, oh my gosh, it's almost like being back in school sometimes. I just look at them and I start laughing. You know, again, I love the guys, it's all in good fun, but we got to get them trained back up into distances times yeah, I mean it's new to them.

Speaker 1: 1:06:50

You know it's a new season. They're not used to it.

Speaker 1: 1:06:52

It's a and let's be real, it takes a little while for us to get back into the grind and remember how to do everything it does, and I'm pretty sure Jen and Jennifer and Susan and now Nicole hate getting messages from us like, hey, how do we log into LiveScore again? How do we log into live score again? How do we do this? But you know it takes us directors, especially the ones that are trying to play. It takes us a little bit longer, intense, to uh figure things out. So it does if they're listening. We apologize. We appreciate your support. It's, it's all in good for that. At the end of the day, you know, once the season's over and we're laughing about these things and we're at nationals and we're laughing about it and having a good time.

Speaker 2: 1:07:32

That's what it's all about and we were laughing about at the time. And actually what I think I'm gonna try and do is jamil I, because I know jamil listens I mean I'm gonna try and get you on the next episode and and get your take on some of some of the characters that we have.

Speaker 1: 1:07:48

that'd be fun, fun, yeah, and you know, I feel for your guy who lost his ball marker, because at one of the events my brother lost a ball marker on one of these holes at the tee box because we made it to the green and you couldn't find it right. So obviously he knows it's from that green to the last green. I'm like, dude, it's a tee marker. Like I mean, it's a ball marker, who cares? Dude, it's a team marker. Like it's a ball marker, who cares? He's like, yeah, but it's one that dad gave me. And I'm like, oh, shoot, here we go. Like now it's got a sentimental value, right, and we still have four holes to go. We don't have time to go back and look. So I'm like, let's just play. You know, I'm pretty sure gabe will let us a card so we can come out and look for your ball marker and like, let's get out of your mind.

Speaker 1: 1:08:26

Right now you're top of leaderboard, let's try to get this round over without having a blow up. Anyways, rounds over, we get. We ask for a cart. We go back to this hole. We're like all right, let's, let's take a look. Like, retrace your steps, it's not that big of a t-box. Let's retrace your steps, look for about 10 minutes and you, finally, you know. All right, I give up, I'm not gonna be able to find it as we're walking to the cart. I shit you not. And if you need to, the ball marker is right by the driver side where he stepped out of the cart. Like that's crazy, but it's just crazy how he parked right there. He could have parked right over it, right, you know. I mean he could have gone too far, like it's just right there and we didn't see it because we were too busy trying to figure out where he was going.

Speaker 1: 1:09:13

So I feel for him. I hope you guys gave him his ball marker back. Oh, we did, we did after he tore up everything. It's these stories that you have for you know the rest of your life that you're able to tell. Like one of our guests said, you know the brothers that we have on. You know they got stories for days, something they can tell on on the podcast, something that they can't. But right, those stories are just every. I'm pretty sure everybody has a handful of stories that they could tell.

Speaker 2: 1:09:43

So we got the the the march shirt contest winners. Voting is now open on Facebook. So so please go to Facebook. Go to the the hashtag GW podcasting shirt challenge 2024 page on Facebook. You'll be able to vote for the the March winners there. Uh, there were. I think there were five entries for March.

Speaker 1: 1:10:08

Sorry, we went from two to one to five Size, so we're building traction.

Speaker 2: 1:10:18

We are, and go ahead and make sure you vote for the March winner, get your shirts in for April. I mean, it's still. We got four weeks left to go in April.

Speaker 1: 1:10:30

April just started, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:10:31

Yeah, make sure you get your shirt entries in. I know we just had our first two-day tournament this past weekend we have. Then we go up to the what I call our mountain swing, our North Georgia mountain swing. There is a regional in April. You've got two tournaments in April, right?

Speaker 1: 1:10:53

I have two tournaments in April. Yeah, Two single-day events, but there are some challenging ones, so great to see what comes out of that one.

Speaker 2: 1:11:04

There are actually two regionals. We got the Florida regional coming up this weekend at Innersbrook and then next weekend is the Smoky Mountain regional.

Speaker 1: 1:11:15

Yep.

Speaker 2: 1:11:17

I mean we're going full bore. So I believe every tour is playing now. So you know 46, 47 tours out there playing. Let's get some shirt entries in.

Speaker 1: 1:11:28

We're only going to see more from here. Yep, let's get some shirt entries in. We're only going to see more from here. Yep, let's do it. It's only going to get harder to be able to pick a great shirt, but this is what we what we were expecting and hoping for, and can't wait to see what happens next. I I'm excited to see who wins this this month. Even though I can't vote, I'm I'm excited to see who wins this month because it's a tough competition Me too.

Speaker 2: 1:11:54

And voting is open, I think until the end of the month.

Speaker 1: 1:11:58

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:11:59

I don't know what we have in the rules there, but I think in April, I think, we'll break it down to like a two-week window, I think.

Speaker 1: 1:12:08

So I think we'll break it down to like a two-week window.

Speaker 2: 1:12:10

I think so. I think having it up for a month or three weeks it's a little bit too much, but I think probably two weeks is probably an appropriate time frame, Especially, you know, once we get into September you're only going to have a week, right, right.

Speaker 1: 1:12:23

And it's crazy how, this month, you know, I had given you an insight on a shirt that was going to be displayed with our pretty faces on it, and halfway across the country, somebody else had the same idea. Yeah, and almost identical shirt. It's just crazy how we think. But uh, because he, we thought it was a for sure win and you didn't get any wind of that one being brought out either. Nope, nope, nope, go check him out. If you haven't seen him, go check him out. There's some good shirts on there. A nice Ryder Cup shirt on there.

Speaker 2: 1:13:00

Master Chief has a shirt up there. Remember Ken Mutzabal from our talk back in last May.

Speaker 1: 1:13:08

Yep, he's got a nice shirt up there and then you have the the shirt with a big face on there. But it'll bring golfers to their knees if they were to see that face lining up a putt. Yes, so, that's a. That's a very good shirt. I just have to make sure I don't wear the same shirt when he does on the golf course, Cause that would just be weird.

Speaker 2: 1:13:32

It would be weird and we would start calling names.

Speaker 1: 1:13:37

Yeah, yeah, we don't need all that, we're just going to. I'll just text and make sure he's not wearing that shirt when we go on trips.

Speaker 2: 1:13:46

Maybe we should send Ed a message and see what kind of shirt he's going to submit.

Speaker 1: 1:13:52

Yeah, he needs to. He hasn't done it yet.

Speaker 2: 1:13:55

No, he hasn't, and actually I know they're kicking off soon here too, but anyway, that's all I've got for this episode. You got anything?

Speaker 1: 1:14:04

else, no Again. Like I said at the beginning, you know it feels like we haven't talked in a while, but it's good to have another conversation, and now we're getting the season started, so we're going to have a lot of great guests the next couple of months. I'll go to the Nationals.

Speaker 2: 1:14:19

Yep, it's going to be great. It'll be great, and you know we're about. We're less than two months away from our next trip.

Speaker 1: 1:14:25

You're telling me.

Speaker 2: 1:14:26

I'm already looking, I'm already looking.

Speaker 1: 1:14:28

I'm excited. I just yeah, me too. You know how it is packing and all that stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:14:33

Yeah, but you don't have a big ass box.

Speaker 1: 1:14:35

I don't, I don't, but I am taking my wife to Louisiana and she packs a big ass box. Well, she's probably listening to you right now talking about that. I'm going to hear it later on, just be careful.

Speaker 2: 1:14:49

Okay, all hopefully alright, my friend, you take care of yourself. Listeners, again, we appreciate you. You tuning in, listening to us. Remember, this podcast is for you, so please let us know if, if you have questions, you want to hear a particular story, you want to hear from a particular person, you know. Please feel free to drop us a line. You can reach me at tim n-A-T-C at AmateurGolfTournet and Chris at El Paso at AmateurGolfTournet.

Speaker 2: 1:15:20

Again, thank you all for all the support for the podcast, thank you for all the support for the tour. And take care and we will talk to you next time. Have a good one, take care you.