EP: 152 - Akbar Chisti, SEAMUS GOLF

Co-owner of SEAMUS GOLF, Akbar Chisti, steps into the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon and shares how they transitioned their company from making head covers to creating masks. Akbar also talks about why they decided to take this on and discusses what its like to have a product accepted in the golf community,

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon, a production of
I Heart Radio. Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon.
I am your host, Shane Bacon, and hope you guys
are having a solid Friday if you're listening to this

(00:20):
on Friday. If not, you know what, I hope you
had a solo Friday, and I hope you have a
great weekend planned ahead. Uh. We are continuing our mini
series here of just bringing in good people and then
around golf that have been doing good things during obviously
COVID nineteen, the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, we had Sarah
Hoffman on. If you haven't listened to that interview, go

(00:42):
back and listen. Semetric tour player went back to the hospital,
has a nursing degree and basically went back to help
out in Michigan. And her story is great. You will
be a fan of hers instantaneously when you listen to that.
So if you didn't listen to Sarah, I would I
would urge you to pause this, go back, listen to
Sarah's story, then come back to this episode. That's a

(01:04):
lot of me talking, just so you know, but that's
what you've planned to do. That's what you're doing with
your life. I can't I can't fault you for your
decision making. Today we have akbar Chisti from Shamus Golf.
He is a friend of mine. I mean I've been
a friend of his for a number of years. I
go back to two thousand twelve. I was Abandoned Dunes
for the first time. I was there for I think

(01:27):
it was Taylor made Adidas had a it was called
where in the World, and they had a competition where
they brought two people together and it was two guys
and they played golf all around the world and they
had to travel together through all this stuff and the
competition ended. I think it was a competition end that
Abandoned Dunes was their final destination and one of the

(01:50):
two guys basic reward was a full time job, and
they got the job and went there and worked and
and was in Portland and it was cool and so
we were invited to come out there as bloggers and
cover the finale, which I did. And I was in
the pro shop last day of bandon first time a bandoned.
Obviously I've got to buy some stuff, you know. I

(02:12):
was floored by the place and I see this Tartan
head cover and has bandoned on it. It was you know,
it was subtle, but it was. It was on this
little piece of leather on the bottom of the head cover.
And I bought it. And I got back to Phoenix,
and remember I looked up the head cover company and
I sent him a note and said, hey, you guys,
stuff is really cool. I'd love to write a little
thing on you. I do quiver reviews. And a week

(02:34):
later I got a box of about ten head covers,
all different, all Tartan, all beautiful. And I will say,
back in two thousand twelve, I was the envy of
my buddies because I had these interchanging shame as head
covers which I didn't know anything about the company and
didn't know anything about the people. And now they are
I would say, my favorite golf company in the world.
I just I like people that are nice and good,

(02:58):
that are successful because of who they are, and that
is the Schistias in general and the people that work
for them. You know, auk Bar and Megat are great humans.
But they're on here not because of what they've done
with their head cover company. They're on here because of
how they transitioned with their head cover company during the pandemic,
and they have basically ceased head cover operations and started

(03:20):
making masks for first responders. You'll you'll hear the whole
story with Auk Bar when he comes on. But I
just wanted to give you a little bit of a
background on why we are chatting about a head cover
company during a pandemic. And this is why, because they
have they have taken a step towards helping others, even
if that meant costing their company a little bit of money. So, uh,

(03:40):
round of applause to everybody we're having that are on
this little series like I'm talking about. I think we've
got a different guest next week, which will be a
little bit of a different transition, but kind of the same.
It's all positive good you know, feel good. Find people
that are that are making the best of an awful situation.
I hope you out there are staying safe and saying

(04:00):
smart and just following protocol. I mean, that's all we
can do. At this point. Everything is starting to open up.
You're seeing golf courses all around the country. You're out,
You're allowed to go out there and play golf, and
so I just urge you that if they say don't
touch the flagstick, don't touch the flagstick, if they say
don't touch a rake, you know, I mean, just listen.
If we aren't following the rules, then you're putting somebody

(04:21):
else in a position to be in trouble by this.
And I mean that's what I continue to remind myself, right,
I mean, if you're driving your vehicle erratically, you're putting
other people in danger. I mean, and you don't want
to do that. So why would you want to do
that if you're out on a golf course enjoying the
sunshine and the good weather wherever you live. So that's
all I'm gonna say. I am, I'm thinking about all

(04:41):
you out there. I'm thinking about all the people affected
by this as we continue to roll out positive things
done by positive golf people. So let's get to our
guests and we welcome into the clubhouse for the first time.
I say this, I feel like a decent amount and
I mean it most of the time, but I am
surprised that we have never done one of these podcasts before.

(05:05):
Hawkbar CHISTI, as you know from Shamus Golf, a friend
of mine. I mean, I don't know what like eight
nine years at this point? Is that? Is that how
long it goes back? As as long as time? I mean,
it's been a while, but it's the beginning of I mean,
we've had our own podcasts without the recording. Maybe I
don't know. Yeah, So so I was going through, I

(05:27):
was jumping on the internets, buddy, and uh, May six,
two thousand and twelve, is that almost exactly? Is almost exactly?
Eight years ago? I wrote an Eye on Golf Equipment
review of your head Covers with possibly the worst head

(05:50):
headline picture ever taken. Your head covers on my apartment carpet,
and I apparently found the loan part of my carpet
that wasn't dirty at the time the picture, and I'll
attach the link for people that so they get a
chance to look at it. Dude, it doesn't do the
head covers any justice at all. It's a terrible picture.
I apologize for doing this to you. I had been

(06:12):
following your blog for a while and I don't remember
exactly how we connected, but I knew that when I
started me I was very excited because I was like,
this guy's awesome and hilarious because you had that blog,
Dogs Chasing Cars, Dogs that Chase Cars? Was that was
it was now now you're right a little bit because

(06:33):
I couldn't get the u r L Dogs that Chase Cars,
so I had to buy dogs Chasing Cars. For anyone
out there that is thinking of starting a blog or
an internet company, just go with dogs Chasing Cars if
that's the case, because it's really confusing to people when
the headline is different than the u r L. But yeah,
I was. I was writing on that, you know, I
was writing tin posts to day and then I got

(06:54):
the opportunity with Yahoo and then CBS Sports. I went
to Bandon Dunes. There was a Tartan head cover in
the front of the shop. I said, this thing is awesome.
I actually still have that head covered to this day
in my closet. Occasionally will throw it on the three
wood And that was a Shamus head cover. And the
rest is history. It's a company that I've loved from
the start. It is it is to me, one of
the coolest golf companies out there, and it's some It's

(07:17):
a company that now is has has ventured into the
and you've always done this. I mean, you're a you're
a nice guy to begin with, but you have ventured
into the helping out a whole bunch of other people world.
During all this pandemic, you started making mass. Dude, I
saw on the site you guys sent out over thirteen
thousand masks on one single day in late April? Is

(07:39):
that right? No? No, No, that's that's not actually true.
That the total, that's a total that we didn't make.
Your send that in one day, Um, thirteen thousand masses?
Where we were I think we're at like sixteen thousand now,
of which a quarter or so have gone to frontline
and then the rest went out to our supporters at

(08:00):
engaged in that little project. But yeah, it's it's been
a lot of mess, A lot more mass than head covers,
that's for sure. So where did this start? I mean,
I I know you, and I know the company, and
you guys are always trying to do good and help out.
I feel like your business mentality, as we know so
many businesses out there are you know, how can I
help me? I feel like you and your wife have

(08:22):
always been the type of people that are are How
can I help you? And how can I push golf
into a different you know, stratosphere and helping people in
and around get into the game. This obviously has nothing
to do with golf. I mean, this is simply about
helping people stay safe. Where did the idea to make
masks come from? And how did you guys transition the
company from we make head covers to we ming mass?

(08:43):
Because I'm assuming that's not just a snap of the finger.
I don't know. I can stop my fingers all day long,
but it didn't happen like that. Um. You know, I
have a brother, my little brother, Alie, doctor out in Hawaii,
went to UM School for Public Health and his futures
in public health, and he's been applying those skills there

(09:06):
and we talked almost every day just to catch up.
And you know, when this thing started going down, he
he was pretty engaged in it for the state of
a way, and we talked about each other's stuff, and
he's like, what are you gonna do? You guys, You
guys need to start sending some mass up, because like
he had some buddies that were in that category of
like looking at maybe even using you know, garbage bags

(09:29):
or whatever that we're fighting on the front line. Um,
just that went to med school or went to the
public health school, and so he advised us to start
playing around with some designs, and I was like, okay,
I'll start working on that. And not long after that
we had a couple of customers that would ask about it.
Even our bank asked about it, and then the local
institutions asked about it. And while all that was happening,

(09:52):
we'd already begun to work on it. And once we
got to the point where we thought we were getting
a good design, we and out an email to our customers,
only to find that a lot of doctors played golf,
and a lot of doctors that were on the front
line are customers. So you know, as a golf company,
we're always doing things that we think our customers might

(10:16):
like and we hope that's what we're working on. And
in this case, golf was really going away at the
same time. You know, we do a lot of events, tournaments,
tour stop stuff, and and all that stuff started getting
deferred or canceled, and so we started to have an
opportunity to do a lot of mass if that were

(10:38):
the case. So we sent out our an email and
only to find that there was eight hundred inquiries, after
which there were several hundred thousands UM frontline type requests
from both institutions and individuals. Several thousand, you said, so
that was a lot more that that was like, holy crap,

(11:01):
we can't make that. And so we started moving like
we thought we might be able to do some of that,
but at the same time, the frontline requests started to
go away, and so we only had maybe three thousand
or four thousand I can't remember UM frontline requests that
they wanted these mass and our masks are not in
nine masks. They were basically what we could come up

(11:26):
with at the time, which everybody had begun to sell
mass at their house. But the differences that like we've
been basically operating that way through the first few years
of our business and to scale up quick and leverage
our professional seamstress has made a lot of sense. So
with that request, we started ranking them by location, figuring out,

(11:49):
you know, if they're in affected areas. And since a
lot of our employees who are working on golf shop
orders UM didn't have work, we were able to retain
them and they just started engaging in the same customer
service way, but with people who wanted masks. So immediately
we began to send the masks and not really knowing
how much we would be sending, while we were losing

(12:11):
quite a bit of business, and then decided that we
would need to have the help of the rest of
the customers and engaged in a one to one type
of setup where we would approximate five masks for each
frontline request, and then our customers would get there's afterwards,
which has since happened so they would get five as well.

(12:37):
And so we started sending mass and selling masks, and
we're selling masks now and even starting to make head covers,
which is promising. Well, I was gonna ask, I mean,
you're a business. You're making head covers. This is what
you do. This is what pays for, you know, food
for your kiddo and the house you live in. I mean,
if you're not making head covers, I'm assuming you're not

(12:59):
really get any money. So you've got to kind of
swallow that part. I know a lot of companies around
the country and around the world they're struggling because of
this exact thing. Why is it that you felt so
inclined to take this on knowing it was going to
be all the things you said it was going to
be and oh, by the way, you're not really going
to be making any dough. Well we knew we weren't

(13:21):
making any dough anyways, so that was okay. I mean,
we've accepted that because most of the orders we've booked
at the PGA show, whether it deferred or canceled, and
that had a massive impact on our business, really no
different than a restaurant closing, right. But at the same time,

(13:42):
we still have always had this, you know, this commitment
to our customer to come up with stuff that they
would like to use. You know, if my brother hadn't
sent me down the path starting to get working on it,
I wouldn't have necessarily started so early and been in
a position to sip the switch when we needed to.

(14:04):
So there's a lot of things that happened, um that
enabled us to do it, and we just had to
go into it. It's like to hit it and hope,
you know. It's just that's all we've been doing. And
I think that, you know, if you really dug into it,
most businesses right now are pitting it and hoping, you know,
And I think that that's kind of how you have

(14:24):
to be. And you know, if this whole coronavirus thing
were a rope bridge, you don't look down, you look
straight or up and keep moving. So um, we didn't
know when the golf world would return, but with as
much golf was going on, we had to assume that
people are playing golf, that it's going to come back.
It's pretty COVID safe. It's just we didn't know how

(14:47):
how much our business relied on travel because of Bandon
Dune shutdown. What does that do to Shamus Golf? Right? Stuff?
But we're happy with our decision and the people like
the feedback we got, Like every person that we sent
them to was ecstatic, and our customers are like, well,
my sisters and nurse over here, we'll send them to.

(15:08):
You don't need to order anything. And we just did
that and we feel great about it. And we're able
to operate because we went all COVID safe here. Obviously
we have mass for employees and all their families, so
we were able to function through it with the hope
of getting through this period of time. About a break even, Yeah,

(15:29):
I mean, you have a company that I would imagine
has an unbelievable loyalty to it. I'm assuming people that
buy your head covers come back and buy more, and
they buy ball markers, and they bought by pouches and
golf bags and all the stuff that you expanded the
business too. And while you're not you know, making money

(15:51):
because head cover sales are canceled or they're not coming through.
I'm assuming that the loyal customer that you guys have
have loved this, that you know that you guys have
selflessly done this as I have. I mean I've I've
been massively impressed by companies like you and B Dratty
that that have that have kind of suspended business to
help out other people. I mean that's something I feel

(16:12):
like a lot of places would not do. Yeah, I mean, um,
we are just lucky to be in a position to help.
I think there's a lot of businesses that would have
been eager to do something, but we stumbled into an
opportunity where we could make a difference to the people

(16:35):
that we work with in in our circle. And we
will never know how much we really helped other than
we're here. A lot of people were happy, and if
people are happy despite this coronavirus for even a moment,
I think we're doing our job. Damn. One of the
nice things is I know there are some states I
was talking to a buddy yesterday in California, golf courses

(16:55):
are opening, but you're required to wear a mask. Now
you've got like a matching mask, can't cover thing going.
Maybe maybe you can really kind of kind of really
up your look, right he could? I mean, you know,
wool is not very good like tartan. Wool is not
an approved mass material. Um. You know, I think that
it's probably the worst mass material. But yeah, I mean,

(17:17):
you know, our masks are i'd say that pretty cool looking.
I mean, the design is really similar to that of
If you want to watch Mash, I have watched Mash.
You need to go through and watch the first episode
of the pilot. There's this guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt
who's a doctor, swinging it for simmon. Would that is
a handled spirit right there? These guys all where these

(17:39):
are guys are all weird. These masks exactly like ours.
It's just a surgical mask. Ours is actually probably functioning
better because better because those are caught and ours has
some polly and some um moisture resistance in it. Um.
But but in general, you know, I think the style
of it isn't that bad. I think it looks better

(18:01):
than if you're cruising into a hospital, you probably won't
play right. But if you're on the golf course, you know,
this is perfectly fine. I think I think it's a
good idea to wear a mask when you're around close
to people. You know. Yeah, pulled up for a cemon
out and let's go pilot Mash episode. By the way,
did you when you were younger, in high school or
I guess maybe pre high school? Did you ever play

(18:23):
the mash game? Was that a thing where you grew up?
I would totally do it, the Mash game where it
was mansion, apartment, shack, and house, I think. And then
you listed all the things you counted. You didn't play that?
I am. I am now flabbergasted. Did I like this?
This is a martial tennis nah? Man? It probably is. Texas.

(18:44):
Do you guys do stuff different over there? But yeah,
you right down there, I'll show I'll show you after,
I'll show you after we talked. Hey, you mentioned Bannon Dunes.
I want to go back. You worked at Bannon Dunes
before Shamus, I mean you were you, you lived around there,
you worked at Bannon Dunes. Can you just let everybody

(19:04):
listening know how you got into golf, I mean, where
your path to the game started, and how you got
into a pro shop abandoned. Well, um, you can cut
me off or change my telling at any point because
this could take a bit. But I started playing golf
because some family friends played golf, and um, none of

(19:27):
my family golf because from Pakistan and so you know,
my dad played cricket and squash. My mom she just
she didn't play anything, like we didn't do another stuff.
So they came over. My dad came over in six
seven and really didn't have golf in his dna, but
they had family friends, and so we'd go out and

(19:48):
go a park and play. And then there was a
little municipal nine course that is now closed that I
learned to play on. And I got into it because
you know, I like nature a lot of kind of
into bird watching. I was nerd for that and and
just anything science. And so this golf course had a
little creek and I thought it was cool. We pick

(20:09):
up crowd ads and that was almost like my draw
of golf. But you know, time went on and I
played more and Bannon Dudes opened up and in Portland
when we heard about Man and Dudes and like the
late nineties, are like, there's this golf course. It's not
going to have a clubhouse that's right on the ocean,
and that sounds cool, and so my family booked a

(20:32):
trip to where we stayed in those Lily Pond cottages
and we played Bannon Dunes as Oregonians. I went it
open for thirty five dollars. I thought it was pretty
dope because I've never played on a rescue. And two
thousand one they opened up Civic Dunes and so again
my family went down. We played it, and I told

(20:55):
the pro I didn't do anything, and he's like, if
you're back here, was like Fridays, you're back here on Monday,
I'll give you a guest services job. I was like, okay.
So we're driving back and I'm just telling my dad
was like, this is this is it? I want to
stay there old summer. He's like, honestly, if I were you,
I would go to but the issue is I don't
think your mom is going to be cool with that.

(21:16):
So he took care of my mother and I went
to Bandon Dudes, and so my Mom came around to
it when she came down, and I played golf and
caddied every day from UH for the summers and saved
up money and stuff. And that was oh one to
oh four or five, butt somebody's down. It was fun.
That was my connection there. Yeah, there's not much about Bannon.

(21:39):
It's not fun. I mean, I mean that that is
exactly what the place breeds, you know. I mean that's
why I think you and I love it. I've I've
I've read your story about the head covers. I know
how the head cover business started, how the idea started
in your head. I go to places now, you know,
You'll go to an elite private club in the Northeast,

(21:59):
or you go to this hidden gym, you know, in
Alabama or Rhode Island or wherever. And I'm always you know,
I I have no steak and Shamus, but I feel
like I've kind of watched the company grows so much
over the years, and it's it's a company that I
am so impressed. And I mean love you, I love Megan,

(22:19):
I mean I love everybody involved in and around the company.
So you know, I always see it and I smile
like I somehow I'm attached to it. What's it like
for you knowing you started this kind of independent company,
small company is focused on one thing, you know, it's
you had the backing of Abandoned Dance, which helped. What's
it like now when you see all of what you've

(22:42):
worked so hard in, you know, being accepted by the
golf community, community, being loved by the golf community, and
being showcased in these places that you and I couldn't
even play, you know, six or seven years ago. I
mean we wouldn't even have been able, We wouldn't even
have known a member to get into. And now you
have and we still can't play some of these places.

(23:03):
There are plenty of places I still have it, places
we can't play. But I would say I've always been
a little bit surprised and a lot of bit flattered
every time I see our stuff in some of these shops.
It's but even more than that is when I see
him on the golf course of these these shops, like

(23:25):
somebody's out there using it. You know, they're having fun
and we're part of that experience. That's when I get
really excited. Because you know, our head covers you can
spot from the other side of the fairway and have
even another fairway. I know it came from Shamus. So
it's like and the cool thing is that, like the

(23:46):
people like I never want to talk to them about
their head covers. I try to chat with them just
generally and always find that these are pretty cool people
that are using Shamus head covers, that have supported us.
Like you say, there's a customer is that come back?
And um, We've been able to develop some great relationships
within the golf community. That makes me feel like, you know,

(24:09):
despite the thing this pandemic and stuff and all this
economy that, you know, so long as we hold on,
will still be able to do this for a long time,
which is all I really wanted to do because I
joy it. We're gonna take a quick break and be
right back. You know, independent golf companies to me, are

(24:38):
you know, continually blowing up. I mean, you know, we
see these things popping up a lot. You see certain
ones kind of you know, move up to another level
and all of a sudden, this hat company or this
talent company or this club cleaning company is all of
a sudden on everybody's bag, right, I mean, head covers
are a thing that we see a lot, and I
know you have a lot of competitors that are coming up.

(25:00):
What do you tell you know, somebody that comes to
you and says, I've got an idea for a golf
company or a sports company, or just a company in general,
what do you tell people? Since you know you're a
success story, what do you say to people that come
to you and go, hey, man, what advice do you
have for me? Well? I usually try to get the
normal bit and understand their background, because advice kind of

(25:23):
varies depending on it's a graphic designer or if it
was somebody who's in finance, right, But in general, I've
noticed the same thing about these folks, and they're all
very passionate about goals, and they're still passionate that they
like to spend more time around it. And the best
way to do that is to try to form a

(25:45):
business that allows you to be both working and playing.
You know, I think that it's a beautiful thing if
you're going. I think I try to get people to
you know, cooler jets a little bit focuses on making
the best thing they in and getting it to the
person who's wanted the most. What is your current relationship

(26:06):
with golf because I feel like, you know, the mantra
always was, if you ever want to stop playing golf,
get in the golf industry, what what is your relationship
with golf currently? And maybe not currently, but and let's
say the last year, because you know, we've this last
six eight weeks has been a little weird. What is it?
What is it like for you and golf? You still

(26:27):
love it, you still play all the time? Does it
feel like work? What's golf to you? I think that
I disagree. Like personally, I think that the mantra is
true that if you're in the golf industry, you don't play.
But I think that this is a choice, and I
think that, um my choice is to play golf, and
my choice is to do you know, even a little

(26:49):
bit every day, So putting, chipping, hitting balls, playing three
holes six sols minimals, that's kind of where my golf falls.
And it's because, first of all, golf is a part
of my wellness for sure, and I think it is
for a lot of golf people. Getting out and walking
and playing is really important to me because it makes

(27:12):
me feel good being around friends at the same time. Plus,
um so it's it's really important to me and what
was important to me going into this UM. And I
think that my relationship with golf has only improved because
I I've been able to I mean, I just like

(27:33):
playing more, you know, I don't know, it's it's where
I'm at two. I feel like I go through times
where I think I should probably be doing other stuff,
like is there a hobby I should be picking up?
Or should I be reading more? Or you know, I
don't really play pick up hoops anymore, and so golf

(27:54):
is kind of my loan sport that I still play
at thirty six years of age. But I do I
have times where I don't like it. I'm currently in
a I'm at a point right now where I don't
like golf at all because I'm I can't I can't
get it to come together. You know. I feel like
every round of mine and I and I wonder sometimes
is is my obsession with the end goal ruining my

(28:19):
enjoyment of the four hours I'm out on the golf course.
You know, dude, I stopped keeping score when we had
our daughter seven years ago. I just couldn't like and
it wasn't immediate like she's born not keeping Storymark, I
got really frustrated for a while. No difference than you,
because practicing is really hard to prioritize, and to perform

(28:43):
your best is no longer an achievable goal. So at
least for some it is. But if you're working and
you're trying to balance things, it's not possible. So, you know,
some people just quick playing golf altogether. And I don't
think that's the solution. I think the solution is to
just accept what you work, can wait for the day
and get out and play so you can at least

(29:03):
take the part of golf that's important. Um. I'm sort
of aside my goal as a performance, um, and I
think that I'll get back to it. I really would
like to once my daughter gets but for now, it's
just gets your mind off stuff. Yeah, being on the
golf course is a great place to be. I mean,
I I'm with you, and I I understand, you know,

(29:28):
I understand all of these things. I just have a
hard time turning off the care you know. I wish
I could turn it off a little easier. And I
have day. Why don't we go, let's go. We need
to planet. We're gonna do twelve days and we're gonna
play The Preserve on repeat, seventy two olds of the

(29:51):
Preserve for twelve days straight. You're gonna be like, I
don't care anymore. Listen, if I play The Preserve twelve
days in a row and still don't have a hole
in one to my name, I might let That could
be the end of me. That could be the whole
of ours is to make me enjoy the game. And
if I play the Preserve, like if I make four
Preserve holes and don't make a hole in one, It's like,

(30:12):
what am I even doing out here? How do how
is that even possible? This is a work, This is
a risk work taking. We need to take this risk
and see if we could put it. I'm in, I
I am in, I'm I'm trying to currently organize a
late May early June Bandon trip for the Sheep Ranch opening,
obviously taking into account everything that's going on and travel

(30:35):
and and just priority, but I am trying to sneak
in an opportunity to get to Bannon because I do
always feel like when I leave Bannon Dunes, and this
is not an I had for Bandon Dunes, but I
do feel like when I leave Bandon, I like golf more.
I enjoy the game more. I mean, you've played from

(30:56):
sun up the sundown, and when you get done playing
and you're eating and having a beer, your entire thought processes.
I can't wait to get back to the to the
golf course the next day. And I feel like when
you play and at home in the games, I play
it at home. When I get off the golf course,
all I can think is, is there a lake in
Phoenix close enough where I can throw these damn golf clubs?

(31:19):
That's not anyways, just just for fun, you know. I
have this putter with a cork grip that I've thrown
in the lake and it's just pretty cool. Just yeah
the court you' seeen those cork grips. Yeah, it's just
a great idea. This is my new thing. I'm just
gonna throw my putter in the lake when I'm at
different than the fly rod, I mean, I mean, that's

(31:39):
why these guys are genius. They knew that you were
going to your club in the lake. This way you
can get it back without swimming and digging around. That.
I love the idea. I love the twelve days. I
think these are just these are just brilliant ideas flying around. UM,
you guys with your mass production, are you guys slowing down?
Are you guys done? What's the plan kind of going for?

(32:00):
Refer to the company. UM. When we got into masks,
our plan was to get out of it as fast
as we could. UM. Golf World is definitely returning at
some point and in varying stages of that today. UM,
So we're filling our production queue with a mix of
golf and masks. Because if you think about it, masks

(32:23):
like you mentioned are now part of UM the program
for golf right and so I mentioned Bannon Dunes because
they've been very committed to us. They didn't cancel or
defer any order even though it made it might have
made some sense. They also place a significant order for
masks to get them back up and running. So last

(32:46):
week Megan and I drove down with the first installments
so that they can have those, and then we sent
them out to um Sand Valley and then you know,
our local city programming golf courses they all needed mass.
We made those right after we got done with doing
the frontline and our customers. And so there's a break
there where we didn't even sell any mass to anybody

(33:08):
on the website. And it was during that time that
we were sifting through the various clubs and destinations that
we work with and other organizations like Habitat for Humanity
that we're all needing mass that we've just been filling
those since um and and so you know, I think
that will probably be more golf, barring any other unforeseen circumstances,

(33:34):
in the next couple of months, because um, I think
a lot of these restrictions will continue to lift. But again,
I don't know what the hell is going on as
a pandemic. Listen, listen. Trying to trying to predict anything
at this point is just it just wasting your breath.
You know, You're like, I don't know, man, I got nothing. Uh.

(33:54):
I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate you. I appreciate
what you do. I appreciate what the company has done.
And you guys, as I've said, you guys have always
been a very thoughtful company. And you are a very
thoughtful guy. And your lovely wife is thoughtful and and
I just I I root for you always. I root
for Shamus and uh, and I just want to say

(34:16):
from everybody in and around the golf world. You know,
thanks for thinking of others, because a lot of people don't.
And the whole point of last week's clubhouse and this
one and and the guests I have planned for next
week was to bring on people that kind of looked
at what was going on in and around the world
in our country and decided, hey, I've got an opportunity

(34:39):
to make a difference. And I feel like that's what
you guys did. So I just round of a plus
to you. I'm not gonna clap because that would be
awful it man. I mean, um, I mean, obviously we
got to know each other through all this golf business stuff,
but I still remember the time that I got to
play a few holes with you and your pops out
of band and that was a lot of fun. And

(34:59):
I think if you're serious about coming out for she
Branched and stuff, let's try to plant some time to
either play or hang. I don't think you'll get we'll
get twelve days or the preserves then, but I'd like
to see it. And I appreciate you having something's call
and uh, thank you for the current of comments. Man, Yeah,
what do you think my wife would say if I

(35:21):
told her, as we have an eleven month old baby
that is getting into everything in and around the house,
what do you think her? Do you think her reaction
would just be in an instantaneous curse word at me.
If I said I'm going to a twelve day golf trip,
do you like I'm dude? Would she hit me? I'm
I'm just trying to go through. What would be the

(35:43):
immediate reaction from her If I said I'm I'm gonna go,
I'm gonna go casually play golf for twelve days, Well,
the worst reactions will be just simple silence, because if
they don't say anything, then there's you got nothing. If
they go with the I think if you get the
you know, cuss word with an exclamation point, at least

(36:06):
you have some time for rebut hole conversation going you
kind of conversation, it's just not a good one. Now,
it wouldn't be a great one. I you know what,
I'm gonna do this. You guys are gonna listen to
this on Friday. We're recording Thursday afternoon. I'm gonna present
this to her tonight in a completely serious face, and
I will I will let you all know. I will

(36:28):
know that you're not and you will know. But you
will not be brought into this, buddy, I promise you.
But I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this at Cindy and
I will let people know on social the reaction I
got and say, hey, I got this cool opportunity, twelve
day golf trip. I'm falling back in love with golf.
I really need this, you know, personally, and just see
I just I will let you know. I'll let you

(36:49):
know how it goes. It's gonna go well. I can
promise you that. Um, good luck, Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate you mean you mean I have a second child.
It could be one and done. I agree with you.
That's how it's gonna go. You know I'm one and
done too. It might be that's this guy can just
follow following your footsteps. So I appreciate your follow your dream.

(37:11):
I will. I appreciate I appreciate the mask and uh
and I appreciate you coming on and we will catch
up at some point down the road, hopefully sooner than later.
Thank you, Shane. We're gonna take a quick break and
be right back. A big thanks to off Bar for

(37:34):
jumping on a big thanks to SHANEUS Golf for always
being so kind over the years to me and UH
and just being a cool company. They make cool stuff.
That's all I can say. I'm giving him an endorsement.
Not a sponsor of the podcast, not a sponsor of mine,
just a friend of mine that does great stuff and
has done a great stuff and has done great stuff
during this pandemic. If you guys haven't checked out, Get

(37:56):
a Grip with Maxima and Shane Bacon, that's me. That's
my other podcast with my heart and obviously Max Holme
is a PGA Tour winner and a buddy of mine,
and we roll those out every Monday. If you haven't
checked Get a Grip Out, do me a favorite, Subscribe
to it. It's it's a little different than this. It's
a little bit more normally kind of tour focused because

(38:18):
Max talks about the tour right now. It's a little
bit all over the place, and we try to have
a little bit of fun with it because there's no
golf to talk about. But they we talk a lot
about my golf, and I don't want to talk I
don't want to talk about my golf anymore. I'm not.
My My golf game is awful right now. I don't
hit it well off the t. My iron games trash.
I can't make a putt. I'm hitting these awful bunker

(38:40):
shots on like the top of the toe. It feels
horrible and I hit it. I hate watching it come out,
even if it gets close. I don't even enjoy hit
anyone close. If it like flips over the lip and
rolls twelve feet close to the whole, It's not even
a good feeling, you know what I'm saying. But um, anyway,
I'm ready to get back to talking about actual golf,
which is going to be happening in the next few weeks.

(39:01):
But check out Get a Grip. And then this Saturday,
we've been doing a regripped series where we rewatch old
iconic golf rounds, and this Saturday at five pm Eastern,
we have the two US Open final round at Marion
Max played in that US Open, and we have a
very special guest, might be the guy that one that

(39:23):
US Open is going to join us as well, So
you can check that out on Twitter at Shane Bacon.
Just follow me on Twitter, and that will be broadcasted
live on Social media and then we repurpose those later
on on YouTube. The YouTube subscription is is get a
grip pod. If you go to that, that is where
you can find it on YouTube. Okay, that's enough, have

(39:44):
a great weekend. The Clubhouse with Shane Bacon is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.