The Greatest Golfers

Today, Doug Pike interviews author Michael Arkush about his book "The Golf 100: A Spirited Ranking of the Greatest Players of All Time". 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
You? Remember when social media was truly social? Hey John,
how's it going today? Well, this show is all about you.
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life, and now fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Wednesday edition of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening, Thank you all for sharing your lunch hour,
happy hour, power hour? Do you have a power hour
in your day?

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Will had to bring the mic over lord you describe
as a power hour?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
I don't know. You can define it as you will.
And now, like something some really important part of your
day that you're gonna make, something monumental happen in your life.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
Mmmm.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Hard to predict those, isn't it? Yeah? And they just
kind of up here, they come and go, Yeah, good
ideas come into your head and then they just fall out.
Does that happen to you yet? You think of something amazing?
You wake up from a dream which is amazing idea,
and you think there's no possible way I will forget this.
I'm just gonna put my head back on the pillar

(01:38):
for a few minutes and then I'll get up and
flesh it out on paper. And then you wake up
an hour or two hours later, and it's like, why
did I get that pad out of the drawer. I mean,
that's definitely happened to me before me too. You know.
Sometimes I'll just get up and I'll write it down.
I'm still sitting on something that I've had in my

(02:00):
mind for the past solid ten maybe twelve years and
still hasn't been put out there yet that with the
right technology and the right people behind it could be
a monumental home run to be like out of the

(02:21):
park and out of the county shot. If somebody wants
to talk to me about it and it's willing to
sign an NDA, how much money you got will you
want part of this? I don't know. I want to
hear what the idea is first, not for free. It's
that good. I know it is. I know it is.

(02:44):
Will there's no question in my mind.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Just tell me no, I'm not gonna take it from you.
Oh I know that because I'm not going to tell you.
I can't really because and if I did it on
the air, I'd be a fool because it would.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Be out in six months and then I would miss
out on all of that. This is an opportunity to
secure my family's future, no fooling. It really is. And
I just at some point when I can, when I
can just breathe and have a week or two to
put it in front of the right people, it's gonna
become real. And you'll think, Man, I had the opportunity

(03:19):
back there on April ninth, twenty twenty five to hit
a home run, and I just I dropped my bat,
all right. Moving on anyway, speaking of bats, well bats,
And this is I'll get to it in a minute.
Another first academy, That first class day is what it is.

(03:40):
This is champagne and caviar Weather. This isn't peanuts and
diet coke in a plastic cup. Weather. You get it.
You know what I'm talking about. And I'm very thrilled
for Rod Ryan, whose golf tournament for Texas Adaptive Aquatics
goes off today. Just in fact, they teed off when
we started up out there All Cat Golf Club, just

(04:01):
a little way south of Roli Atte Stadium. Our Market
president's out there by the way. Paul Lambert, he headed
there a little while ago. That guy's got game too.
He kind of downplays himself as a golfer, but for
somebody who doesn't get to play very often because he's
got new and more responsibilities now after he's taken the reins.
He's he's got a lot of pop in his bat,

(04:23):
and he can putt. He's a good guy to have
on a scramble team. And I think the team that
he's on has a legitimate chance. One of the guys
on it, if I'm not mistaken. No, not so much,
but I think the other three can carry him. Maybe
that guy will make a putt. Rob Logan's out there,
and yesterday I gave him four iHeart cigars courtesy of

(04:44):
El Cubano down there in Texas City. He's gonna distribute those.
He's instructed to distribute those to whomever he thinks will
most greatly appreciate them, and then probably buy some cigars
from Manny down there at El Cubana. Best luck, honestly
to everybody out there. Of course, they're not listing now
because they've already started, but especially Roger Randall. He's the

(05:06):
guy who runs Texas Adaptive Aquatics and has for many,
many years. If you're not familiar, THAA gives people with
physical and mental disabilities the chance to go to go
water skiing, sailing, kayaking. They've been around since nineteen eighty nine.
For heaven's sakes, do a fantastic job. If you know
somebody they might be able to help, go to taasports

(05:28):
dot org and take a look around. Marcu's not sure
which way to turn yet again this morning, up down, left, right.
Last time I looked, just before eleven, we were at
three green and one red among the four I look
at most often. The Nasdaq was up almost a full point.
As a matter of fact, oil was down two fifty
a barrel sitting at about fifty seven bucks. That hurts

(05:52):
for the share basically of EXI and I bought years ago.
It's more than one, but it's less than a lot anyway,
but it'll make I'll make that back with lower gas
prices for the next couple of weeks or a month
or two. Gold on the flip side up more than
one hundred Bucks today and sitting just north of thirty

(06:13):
one hundred dollars announced last time, I looked, well, rather
than go to one of the desks that I will
get to as the program pushes forward. First of all,
by the way, if you like golf at all, if
you're paying attention to the masters at all, if you
appreciate the game of golf in any way, shape or form.
My next guest at the bottom of the hour, not

(06:35):
in the second segment, but in the third, is guy
named Michael Arkush who has written a book called The
Golf one hundred, a spirited ranking of the greatest players
of all time. I've looked at the list. I've looked
at some of the book. They sent me an electronic version,
and I thought about printing it out, but it's three

(06:56):
hundred and sixty four pages, and I don't want to
use up an entire ink car for that. I'm just
reading as I kind of go along. I'll spend some
time reading that down at Moody Gardens this weekend when
I'm am seeing the Fly Fishing Film Festival, which I
hope all of you will consider attending. It's gonna be
a good weekend. It really is. It's gonna be a
fantastic weekend of fly fishing, talk, of fishing talk in general,

(07:19):
and boy, is there some good news going on. I
wish it was Saturday morning almost because i'd tell you
about what my buddy Cliff Web sent me yesterday, as
far as news from down where he fishes in any
event that's going on this weekend, and we've got tons
of stuff to talk about, so on the way out,
will a fun fact to know and tell? All Right,

(07:40):
you're right, you don't even have to pick black pepper
is not actual pepper at all? What is it? I
don't know. I didn't look, but it's not pepper. Okay,
but you're gonna have to go fight. If you're that curious,
you're gonna have to go look it up yourself.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
While I.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Think that's that's so disengenuous, s Doug, you can't.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
I just.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Well, how do I know that's true? Because I told
you no, But you didn't give me any context I
ever lied to you. Well, I found it on the
internet right then and there. It's legitimate source. The source
I use for this kind of stuff is legit. But

(08:26):
that's I didn't bother because I don't have time for
that kind of stuff. He would have taken two seconds. No,
you're the research. You could have told all of us,
you know when you could do it. You could do
it during this break on the way out, will I'll
tell you and everybody else who wants to listen about
ut Health Institute on Aging. This is the group that
I've touted for more than ten years now, I think

(08:49):
it is. And the way they do things is this.
They they, being the people who are involved in the
Institute on Aging, all go back to learn more about
whatever discipline got them the diploma on the wall, got
them the suffix behind their names, what they do in

(09:11):
the medical field. They all went back and got additional
instruction and education and learning about how to apply all
that knowledge all it took to get them that diploma
to seniors. They know that we are different. They recognize
that we are different, and they want to treat us
differently than they might treat younger patients. The people who

(09:33):
don't have that extra credential, that extra training are not
any less doctors than they were than any other doctor. However,
the people who are involved in the Institute on Aging
just have that one little edge over the rest in
that they've gone back and really learned more about what
makes us tick and keeps us ticking. Go to the
website uth dot edu slash aging. Go there, look at

(09:56):
all the resources. They're all free. You can just pick
and choose any thing you want to read. You're gonna
be there a while. You'll get you'll get pulled into it.
It's kind of like it draws you in because there's
so much good information, and you click on one thing,
and then you end up clicking on another, and then
before you know it, you're making an appointment to go
see somebody who knows about you and will help you

(10:16):
with whatever's ailing you. Ut dot edu slash aging, Aged
to Perfection.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
All Right, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks for listening. Certainly,
do appreciate that I did some research. I did the
research because we'll just you didn't bother you didn't You
just trusted me, didn't you? No? I didn't. But I
was going and doing other things. Well, so here's what
I found out. There are there are places where it

(10:50):
says that black pepper is not really pepper, but there's
also that the leading answer is that yes, it is
a pepper. It's actually the dried fruit of a particular
piper something plant, and they grind it up and it
makes black pepper. Now it's not the same as a
chili pepper or a bell pepper or any of that

(11:13):
family of peppers, but hey, it's a pepper. So henceforth
throughout the land, that source that I trusted for so
so long off about out. They're gonna have to do better.
I'm gonna call them out on it. Well, I'm not
gonna write them a note. It's really not that big
a deal. However, to get something as important as pepper

(11:37):
wrong leads me to wonder what else they might be
getting wrong? Will what do you think? What do you think?
So now that they're there, they were batting a thousand
in my estimation up until right now, So now what's
their batan average? Yeah? I think it goes down hard man.

(11:58):
That's a lot of strikeouts to get black pepper wrong. Yeah,
I'm now I'm curious what they were gonna say. If
you click the full story, I'm gonna go back and look.
I don't have time right now during the show, but
when I get back to my desk, I certainly could,
and we may have a follow up report tomorrow or not.

(12:19):
It depends on how it depends on what that story says.
I'm gonna have to click here for full story, I guess,
and figure out what's going on with the Peppers. Back
to more real stuff to talk about from the Tunnel
Vision desk. If you're familiar with the View, and most
of us are by now, it originated back in the

(12:41):
nineteen nineties the late nineties as a product of ABC News,
when Barbara Walters convinced the network brass that people would
watch a television show that included bright, articulate women from
different perspectives discussing politics. That was a plan for the
View from its jump, and that was a good plan.

(13:05):
But fast forwarding and devolving to now, the show is
nothing more than left leaning propaganda doled out by left
leaning women who get away with speaking one blatant lie
after another, frankly, without checks or repercussion. They go through
it so fast, and they talk over each other a lot.

(13:25):
I don't watch a lot of the View, but I've
seen enough of it to know what's going on, and
it's really troubling. Any semblance whatsoever of impartiality of balance
disappeared for good. It seems sometime over the past two
or three years. In twenty twenty four, conservatives were on
the show. How many times will in all of twenty

(13:47):
twenty four on the view? How many conservative guests do
you think they had? Take a honestly, what do you think?

Speaker 5 (13:55):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
No, they had conservatives on the show. I'm talking about
the panel, and the only conservative on the panel has
has been lured over to the other side. I'm talking
about the guests that they invited to come and sit
at the table with them throughout twenty twenty four. How
many conservatives will I don't know. I think it's just thinking, well,

(14:17):
they have a couple of guests today, times five shows
a week, that's ten a week, five hundred and something
guests probably for the year. How many I don't know
how many? How many liberal guests come on to this station.
I'm not I'm saying like I have talked to people
who don't think as I think. I'm talking to one

(14:39):
right now. Yeah, but I'm on the show. Yeah, and well,
you get a chance to guess, you get a chance
to say whatever you want. The number of guests they
had who are conservatives will in the whole year of
twenty twenty four one, the whole year one that seems
somewhat imbound. Well, I think that they there's that's more

(15:01):
than any Liberals come on to these under these stations. No, no,
that's not true. Actually, I'm on k t r H.
I've heard on and you don't know the politics of
these doctors I talk to. So how can you say that.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
No, I'm not saying I'm talking about political gas.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
I have very few political guests I know. But I'm
not talking about or otherwise.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
I'm talking about all of these stations because what's the
main what's the main flavor of these of kPr.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
C and k t r H. We love America. It's
it's conservative talk radio. Well, because we love America. Well,
I think liberals move on. Well, of course they are.
I have no problem with that. I really don't.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
But I don't think that you can say conservatives can
own loving America.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
I don't know. I never said they did. I just
said we were America lovers.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
But that's not the flavor of these stations. It's conservative
talk radio. Oh yeah, and we may to you if
you do a deep dive. I'm sure, there are very
very very little opposing viewpoints that come onto these stations.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Never said there weren't. But the view purports itself as balanced,
and it's anything. But we we come right out and
tell you what we are right, So you're not balanced? No,
I'm I'm conservative, There's no question about it. I mean,
I get it. But listen, if you you can say
you know dog on well, will you can say anything
you want to me, and I will not judge you

(16:35):
for it.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
I may disagree, but disagree with me, but I'm saying.
I'm just saying that it's it's it is virtually the
same thing.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
And just because I'm older and wiser, I don't I
don't take advantage of that. Will. I don't believe I
believe about half of that? How about that? Oh well,
put you've got it in you? I know you do.
By the way, where is our our weekend activities roster?
Oh well, I've got it? Time? Can we do it? Now?

(17:07):
Hold on, let me pull it up. Let me pull
it up on the spot.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
Betterrupt than out boom boom, talk about something else.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
I'll I pull this up, black pepper, Will, black pepper?
Is you know today? Did you have it yet. Today
is National Unicorn Day, a special day on which we
can celebrate something that's not real. It's totally made up,
Like we don't already have enough of that going on.

(17:42):
It's also name yourself Day. Uh I'll pass. I'm good
with the one I've got, honestly, But if you're not,
this is your day. And it's also Unicorn Day. So
will you celebrate either?

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah? Both. Are you gonna go out and buy a
little like a unicorn cake or something, or a unicorn cookie?
Do they sell those? Probably somewhere it would have to almost.
There's a toy. There's a little toy unicorn. I don't
know if it. I guess it has a name. I
don't know what it's called. But I see them on
commercials on TV show little kiddy shows and stuff when

(18:19):
I'm scrolling through the channels. I ditched about half my channels.
By the way, I just said, enough's enough. I was
paying so much just to get a couple of stations
that I liked. I booted them to the curb yesterday.
I had a long talk with them, and I'm like,
one one more issue with them from just going to

(18:42):
a stick or something like that. Can I get all
the TV I need on sticks and whatnot? Will yes?
Actually yeah, I may talk to you after the show
briefly about that. If you don't want, Yeah, I need
to learn from the Master, from a younger person. It's easy, Okay,
Well I may do that. We are going to take
a little break here. When we get back, I will
talk with Michael R. Kush, the man who wrote the

(19:03):
book boyd. What better week than Master's Week to talk
about a book called the Golf one hundred, a spirited
ranking of the greatest players of all time. We'll do
that when we get back. More fifty plus coming up.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, they sure don't make them like they used to.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his words,
and spring on a fresh code.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
O wax. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
All right, Beck, we are fifty plus twelve thirty three,
It says here on the big clock on the wall.
Thank you for getting back up there, will. Thanks to
everybody for listening. I appreciate it. In this segment, we're
going to talk to a man who's written a book
that outlines the lives and accomplishments of who he believes
to be the one hundred best golfers to ever play
the game, and based on the level of research I

(19:49):
saw that went into all the pages I've read so far,
I'm not going to argue with the guy with that.
I'll bring in Michael Arkush, best selling author of more
than a dozen books, the latest being The Gulf Off
one hundred, a spirited ranking of the greatest players of
all time. Welcome aboard, Michael.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
Hey, how are you doing today?

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I'm doing all right. We have gorgeous weather where we are.
I hope it's the same where you are.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
It is good.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
It seems pretty fitting to talk about golf's best on
the eve of the Masters. How long did it take
you to decide who made the cut for the book
and who would be politely set aside?

Speaker 5 (20:24):
I started in nineteen eighty six. No, seriously, it took
me nearly three years. I did not have a life.
I watched every YouTube of every tournament.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
I could find.

Speaker 5 (20:34):
I read every Golf Digest article from nineteen fifty on,
and I read through about eighty to one hundred books,
and just I didn't want to leave anybody out right.
I wanted to this point find everybody possible, male and
female who accomplished great things in this most difficult of games.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
I saw also when I read through the front end
of this thing, it used kind of a point system
to rate the players. Can you explain that briefly? I
don't want to use the hell Show to do that.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I prioritize majors, so two thousand points
for every major victory, five hundred second, two fifty third,
one hundred four fifty fifth, and then I cut also
three hundred points for a tour victory, and also throwing
throwing bonus points for contributions and impact on the game.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Well, well, okay, yeah, that's what I was kind of
wondering if anything outside of on the golf course was
factored in, and that's good. Were there other maybe nuances
and little subtleties that maybe got one player in the
book and nudged out another, Well, I.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
Mean, I gave not There wasn't one player who sort
of edged in that way, but maybe rose up a
few spots like, for instance, Lee Trevino points for beating
Jack Nicholas and the head to head in a couple
of majors when Nicholas was the greatest player in the world.
But you know, there are players that people might be
surprised aren't in there, like Scotti. Scheffler is not in
there number one player in the world. The numbers just

(21:56):
didn't add up, and I had a strict stay by
the numbers. I couldn't let any other object, any other
analysis come in.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Really, now that those Scheffler and his group will come
into a question, I'm going to ask you before we
finish this, are those top one hundred entirely yours? Or
did you make a few phone calls and send a
few emails to get opinions of trusted colleagues.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
I love my friends in the world of golf, but
I trusted nobody.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
That's probably honestly, No.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
I mean it's all me. I mean I really thought
about what the number, what point totals I should put
in there, and what people to look at and know.
And I'm glad I did it that way.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
You know, And I appreciate that too, because otherwise you
have to put by Michael Rkush and all these other guys.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, this is yours.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
Yeah, I mean I had a friend who I talked
to from time to time, sure, just about players who
I interviewed and things I found out, but I'd never
consulted with them about how to rate those players.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Right, Michael arkush here on fifty plus, author of The
Golf one hundred. I love that quote. I saw up
front your notes from Bobby Jones from nineteen fifty three.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
May I read it please?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
I think we must agree that all a man can
do is beat the people who are around at the
same time he is. He cannot win from those who
came before anymore than he can from those who may
come afterward. Just that really opened the door for you
to just go all the way back to golf's beginning,
didn't it.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
Yeah, And not to sit there and go, oh my gosh,
this player didn't have you know, had a lesser field
or not as tough a competition. No. I mean, you
can only do what you can do in that time frame.
I'm not saying a player number who got points at
number forties better would beat a player number eighty head
to head. Just that player got more points.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah, and that's that's the only fair way you can
do it. Really, you can't. You can't just pull stuff
out of the air during during your research, has anything
come to mind that really surprised you about a particular player.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
You know what surprised me an overall theme that so
many of the players that we recognize as being great,
actually you could make an argument they underachieved. And that
concludes Phil Mickelson, and that includes I mean, I'm saying it,
so that includes Tiger Woods. Yes, they were great, but
compared to what we thought was going to go on,
they didn't rise to a certain level. Tiger won his

(24:18):
fourteenth major in two thousand and eight at the age
of thirty two. He only has fifteen right now.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah, that's pretty important. It really is that there was
such great expectation for him to just blow past everybody,
and so did his Did his not winning any more
than that come from on the course failings or off
the course failings?

Speaker 5 (24:42):
Oh? I think the injuries played a huge role. He's
had more injury injuries than I can even mention, but
they off the course scandal in two thousand and nine
certainly had its effect. He's a human being. And I
talked to one person I really admire a lot. He said,
Jack never imploded. Tiger did implode, and that affected him,

(25:02):
no doubt. And it's a shame because he really was
on target. To be the greatest golfer of all time.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Looking up and down your list, Michael, who, if anybody,
would you say probably didn't get the recognition they deserved
during their careers.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
During their careers, I think that Gary Player could get
a little more recognition as great as he was. I
think that people because he was in the Yes, he
was part of the Big three with Arnold Palmer and
Jack Nicholas. But he was incredible in his own way,
and I think he could have gotten more coverage. Some
people say Billy Casper. I see the point. He won
fifty one tournaments but only three majors, and a lot

(25:37):
of people feel he's the most underrated. I'm not going
to argue with that totally, but I certainly think Player
was underappreciated.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Among those one hundred on your list, who hit the
greatest golf shot ever?

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Well, the most famous golf shot is Jeane Sarah's in
his shot for two hundred and thirty five yards away
in the final round of the nineteen thirty five Masters
double eagle fifteenth hole him with Craig Wood. He won
the next day. Tom Watson the great pitch on seventeen
in the Open. That was a great shot. There's been
a lot of great shots. Oh young Tom Morris had

(26:11):
a great shot back in the eighteen sixties that people
don't know about. But sarah'sn has to be number.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
One move among today's players, Michael, men and women. Who
who do you think might make the list of the
top one hundred if you decided to start over in
twenty years? Who else is going to be.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
On to start over in twenty years. I'm going to
revise it. I'm going to revise this a little bit
for paperback eviction next year. That's the plan. Nellie Corda
on the LPGA tour, you know she's awesome. A lot
of players on the PGA Tour right on the cusp
by Justin Thomas, Kalamarikawa, John ra Bryson, d Chambeau. I

(26:48):
would say all of them have a really good chance
of rising up to the top one hundred.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah. I can't see right now. I can't see any
of them not making it into that elite field. I
have to ask, is, so who do you like in
the Masters?

Speaker 5 (27:03):
I like Macawa, Yeah, I think he's yeah great iron player.
As long as he's putting pretty decently, he's got a
good chance of course Rory and Scheffler everyone's talking about
for the reason. But I like Marikawa, and you know,
let's not forget about Kopka. I mean, he had a
bad year last year in majors, but once the once

(27:23):
the bell rings, and uh, and he's in a major championship,
he's on target.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Usually.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
That's a very good point. How tough was it comparing
contemporary golfers too greats from feathery balls and all that.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Well, I tried to separate. I try to not think
about the technology and not think about the better balls
and better golf courses, and just I almost felt like
I was implanting myself in a certain time period and
just consume with that time period. I was constantly going
back and forth. I felt like I was in an
episode of Twilight, the Twilight's Owner.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
One moment, I'm watching Rory try to beat d CHAMBAUA.
Next moment, I'm looking back in the nineteen o four
British amateur. I mean, I didn't know where I was
at times. Let me tell you.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
He goes back to that quote from Bobby Jones from
fifty three. Doesn't it just like you got to you
gotta stay where you are stay in that lane when
you're judging people in that lane.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
Absolutely, And you know, the big takeaway from me was
I wish I had seen some of these guys in action.
I wish I had seen Sarazon and Jones and yeah,
what can you do?

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Yeah, doing what they did with the technology they had.
And of course, twenty years from now we'll be saying
the same thing. Look at what Scheffler and de Shambo did. Yeah,
I get it, but with but with softer golf balls?
Huh what do you think about that? Real quick?

Speaker 5 (28:37):
I think I think that's gonna happen. Yeah, I think
we're gonna have that. But I think you know, greatness
clear players who are great in one era, I'm pretty
convinced you put them in another era they would still
be great.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
I would. I would one hundred percent agree with you
that it's not the equipment that makes the greatest players great,
it's their own ability with whatever they get.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
What's between their head, what's between their ears?

Speaker 3 (28:57):
PA came into that on that. We'll let it go.
Michael Arkush. The book's name is The Golf one hundred,
A spirited ranking of the greatest players of all time.
Michael thank you a ton for your time.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
Man, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yes, sir audios. All right, Holy cow, that went quickly,
all too quickly. I could have gone on for an
hour with him. Bright guy. He's written a lot of books,
not just about golf either, about a lot of sports.
New York Times bestseller kind of guy. It's fun to
talk to him. All right. We got to take this
last little break of the program. When we get back,
Will and I Will, we'll try to carry on and

(29:32):
see what we can figure out about Pepper and about
rainbows and about I got a lot of stuff to
talk about here. We'll take a little break here. We'll
be right back. More fifty plus on AM nine fifty
k prc.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Old Guy's rule.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
And of course women never get old if you want
to avoid sleeping on the couch.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
H I think that sounds think okay.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Plan fifty plus continues. Here's more with Doug.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Thank you for listening. Certainly, do appreciate it. By the way,
I saw something I told Will about it during the
break earlier on the neighborhood app that I use, And
it's just it's loaded with all kinds of stuff. And
somebody just asked a question on it earlier today. Should
I start hoarding before the tariffs go into a fact? Well,

(30:23):
first of all, the terrafs are there. Second of all,
some stuff's going to be more, some stuff's going to
be less. Third thirdly, once we square up with China,
which may take a little longer because China's bowing up
on us, just like we kind of bowed up on them,
only we were getting the short end of the stick
from day one, and they don't like it that they've

(30:48):
kind of been asked to soften it up on both sides.
Soh that may take a little while. But no, this
is not COVID. You don't have to go out and
buy a thousand rolls of toilet paper. There's no reason
for that. And one by one, and that the line
has already formed outside the Oval Office for sit downs

(31:11):
with President Trump and other world leaders to come up
with something that is fair and equitable on both sides.
Nobody ever said we wouldn't pay tariffs to send stuff
out of here. Resident Trump was just tired of us
paying so much more than the other countries were having

(31:33):
to pay to send their stuff over here. All right, well,
let's move into we already know what today is we'll
go with over the rainbow left behind or let it
go ooh over the rainbow. Isaac Newton Will was the

(31:55):
first person to recognize that the rainbow was divided it
into seven distinct colors. Now that's from the same source
that said black, pepper wood and pepper bear in mind,
so we can't be really sure. But here's my here's
my question on that. What if Actually it was one
of his neighbors who told him over a beer around

(32:19):
a backyard barbecue one night, that's saying that the rainbow
was divided into seven distinct colors. And then Isaac just
runs with it. The next time he's out talking about
rainbows at the pub, and he takes full credit for it.
You gotta click the story. Who has time for this? Will,

(32:39):
I'm telling you, I'll just run with it. It's not
important enough stuff in day to day life that I
need to do a lot of research. If I'm doing
a book like Michael did, then yeah, I'm researching just
like he did for a couple of years. And because
he is, his status is such as it is with
the publishing world, he gets advanced for these books. They

(33:01):
know something really good's gonna come if they'll finance him
to do the research and kind of cover his bills
until the book is done. That's why he has the
ability to do that, and more power to him. But
to figure this out, to figure out whether Isaac Newton
truly was the first person to recognize that or somebody

(33:21):
just told ing, I'm good either way, I'm okay, left behind,
let it go, or looking good? Oh, looking good? Average man?
Well you're an average man, will so am? I? Do
you feel sixty seven percent more confident when you are
wearing a suit or tuxedo? No? I hate. I hate
wearing suits. I don't mind. I don't mind at all.

(33:43):
Dressing up, I don't. I don't have any problem with
it at all. I don't have to do it very
often in my line of work, which that's okay with me.
There was a time, though, when I was kind of
a clotheshound. There really was clothes man. Yeah, I honest
to goodness. There was a custom tailor in the galleria

(34:04):
who had I was kind of on speed dial with him,
and I would call him and say, hey, man, I'm
coming over from I had an office a company that
a partner and I shared had an office down at
fifty nine and six ten, and I would call and say, hey,
I'm coming over. I need I'm looking for maybe a
sport coat and a couple of pair of slacks I

(34:24):
don't know, maybe a shirt or two, and I'll be
there at twelve thirty. And when I would get there
at twelve thirty, he would have four or five jackets
laid out, four or five shirts, four or five pairs
of slacks, and accessories laid out on a table just
for me to figure out which one I wanted. And
then I don't know why, but clothing just didn't. I didn't.

(34:46):
It didn't. It still matters to me, it really does.
It still matters. But in the line of work I'm
in now, it doesn't matter as much that I be
in a jacket unless it's cold where I'm going to
go fish or play golf. Then I'm putting on that.
Did you used to wear bell bottoms?

Speaker 5 (35:04):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (35:05):
Everybody did, dive diamonds, everybody did. Absolutely. I had bell
bottom pants. They're coming back bell bottom, well, they they've
been back. They're probably on their way out again now.
Will at Bell Bottoms had pleated trousers. Those are probably
coming back too, sooner. Or later. I'll bet before you're
thirty five, pleated trousers will be back. There'll be a

(35:27):
thing and everybody will look at these flat front pants like,
what the heck were they thinking bell bottoms with pleated fronts?
And I don't know, Oh oh, you know. What I
did see is coming back for women, the big shoulder
pads from the eighties now shoulder pads in their jackets
and blouses and whatever, which I think is kind of foolish.

(35:48):
Some of that stuff. Just just leave it alone, let it,
let it die natural death. It doesn't look good, it
just doesn't. I saw I saw a video wheell of
a fashion week in Paris and what was coming down
the runways, and it had nothing in the twenty years ago,

(36:10):
even fifteen years ago, even ten years ago. At least,
the people walking down the aisles were in something that
you might see in on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood. You
might see it in New York City, somewhere in Manhattan.
But I'm talking about this was a clown show. It
was the stuff that was going up and down the

(36:30):
aisles was just preposterous. And that I'm being kind when
I say had nothing to do with fashion whatsoever. It
just had to do with eccentricity and insanity. It's like
if I don't know, it was just horrible. It had

(36:52):
nothing to do with fashion. It was terrible. Have you
ever heard of steam punk? Yes? Did you know that?
Down in Galveston the same weekend that we're doing the
Fly Fishing Film Festival, there's also a steampunk group gathering
down there at Moody Gardens. Are you going? Are you
not into that?

Speaker 5 (37:12):
No?

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Oh, okay, do you know people who are? Now, if
you find anybody who is, and just let them all
be down there, and I'd love to meet him and
just talk to them about it. I think it's fascinating.
I'm open to all that kind of stuff. It doesn't
bother me at all. I think it's kind of cool.
You like the steam punk? I didn't say I like steampunk.
I just like the self expression aspect of it, and

(37:35):
that the costuming apparently it goes in there's a lot
of detailing work that goes into all that. I'd never
heard of it until about an hour and a half ago. Wow,
I'm not kidding. Well, I'm somewhat sheltered will from all
of that. You know, young people stuff all right, very quickly,
thirty seconds, thirty second, let it go, ur generation gap,

(37:58):
let it go. There's a list of made up societal
rules people think we should all get rid of, like
having to pretend you loved every gift that would be
so cruel to do to somebody who gave you a gift,
and blessing people when they sneeze, and respecting your elders,
which I still expect from you every single day that
we're in here. Will I'll do it for today. We'll

(38:20):
be back tomorrow. Thank you all so much for listening.
We'll do it again on Thursday. Audios