June 13, 2026 • 48 mins
New name, new format, still the same great golf talk with Rich! This episode begins with some insight on why the target line and grip pressure are so crucial to improving your game. Rich then discusses the impact junior golf programs have on our youth, shines a spotlight on Athens Country Club, and fills you in on how to get involved on the show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the reinvented Rich Combell Golf Show is now
we changed the name of it to Off the Fairway
with Rich Conwell. What I'm trying to do with the
show is to promote some more well. Basically, the summary
of the show or the mission statement of the show
is the golf show that educates, entertains, and inspires golf
(00:23):
golfers of all skill levels while showcasing golf in West
Virginia in the Ohio Valley. So that's my whole goal
with this. I've had some great guests over four years.
I will still have guests. It will not it will
not be as in depth with each guest when I
have them. But most of the show, actually all of
(00:44):
the show is about you, you the listener, improving your
golf game, maybe providing a little bit of inspiration to
play more golf, or just showcasing how golf can be
inspirational and a game changer and many instance is a
life changer as well as having a chance to do
(01:06):
some trivia. I'll have some as we progress, I'll have
email addresses. I'll announce the Instagram and Facebook page at
the end of the end of the show today, and
so we can have we can have a little bit
of dialogue, a little bit of interaction. We get some
(01:28):
prizes to give away, kind of give you a reason
to jump in and listen. So yeah, so that's that's
kind of the purpose of this is to actually to
interact with you, the listener, the no matter what your
skill level is, I should be able to provide you
some some really good insight into how to improve your
(01:52):
golf game. As we go down the road, we may
even do a weekly segment of trying to break one hundred,
trying to break nine. I'm not sure. I'm going to
see who best fits that that scope and see if
we can't get get somebody in and work with them
at Parkersburg Country Club where I am the head golf professional,
(02:14):
and see if we can't get them to achieve their
goal break ninety, break one hundred, all sorts of fun
stuff like that. That is the that's the goal. That's
the goal. So let's jump right into it. First segment,
first little bit here, we're going to talk about a
fundamental concept, and that is a thing called target line.
(02:36):
Target line is the line of where your golf ball
is to your target. Really, really really it's not a
difficult concept to get around. But what we need wrap
our head around rather, but what we need to make
sure is we all understand in our golf game that
is the only line that matters. It's the only one
(02:56):
that matters. Target line creates our our alignment. Target line
works on club face, target line also works on path.
We use that for all of things golf swing related,
golf playing related. Target line is so important. If you
(03:21):
watch golf on TV, they'll say, you know, he dropped
it inside or he attacked from the outside. They're talking
about target line. Talking about target line. Outside is the
part away from the player. Inside is the part closer
to the player of the target line. Think of it
in terms of fence line, target line, you know, chalk line,
(03:43):
that's fine, but that that does everything for everybody's golf swing.
It's so important to under to know that to be
familiar with target line. Be familiar with target line. You
have all of the changes that you want to make
in your golf swing. All of the changes that you
(04:03):
want to make in your golf game are related to
target line, all the way down to a three footer,
an eighteen incher to an attempted you know, full swing
drive that you're trying to drive it over a creek
on a part four. All of it has to do
with target line, you know. It's it all comes back
(04:27):
to target line. So do not overlook the importance of
target line. You know, there's a saying that if you
don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.
So if you do not know your target line, if
you do not work off of your target line or
with your target line, and if you work with your
(04:48):
target line as I said, and not against it, not
against it, it's really really that much easier to get
better at this game. You know this just in this
game's so you got to make sure that you got
to make sure that you make it as easy for
(05:08):
you as possible. If a tour player works so hard
on target line, why wouldn't you. And when I say
target line, that does not mean the flight of the
golf ball. It's the line from the golf ball through
the golf ball to the target flight of the golf ball.
Is ballflight. That's a different concept. We'll get into that
(05:30):
in future shows. But you have to understand target line.
That's when I come back. It all ends up there
at target line. Okay, So do yourself a favor, you know,
lend a little gray matter time to that. You know,
see if you're paying the appropriate amount of attention to
(05:51):
that in your golf game. If you are not, that
is one of the major stumbling blocks to improvement. So
do not forget that. Okay, target line. The second area
of instruction I would like to get into today is
(06:13):
grip pressure. I ask this question all the time of
new players and experience and very experienced players, and most
people get it wrong. How hard should you hold or
how tightly should you hold a golf club when you're
(06:35):
using it? And I get really tight more than I
get anything else. I also get super loose, which is wrong.
But the one that people make the mistake with is
that as hard as I can. So let's take take
(07:00):
a second and just say this. Your your grip pressure
allows your muscles to flow. Incorrect grip pressure locks your
muscles uber Relaxed grip pressure removes all control of muscles.
(07:23):
So obviously you want control your muscles active fluid muscles.
So here's a drill that I have numerous people do
numerous people, do you know, take your grip, place your
elbows on your side on the side of your of
your rib cage, your core, and just using just your wrists,
(07:45):
flick the golf club up, not flick, rotate the golf
club up and down using your wrists. If you can
do that easily, you know. And the joke is if
you hit yourself in the face, it's too If it's
too loose, if you can't bend your wrists is too tight.
The fact that the matter is, once you get that going,
your grip pressure will be much much much better. And
(08:07):
that takes ten seconds a day, twenty seconds a day
you do that watching TV. Just enough to control the
weight of the golf club. That's the grip pressure we're
looking for. That just enough to control the weight of
the golf club. Now, if you want to go a
(08:30):
little further, you know, there are different pressure points for
different different fingers, but in general, without looking at you individually,
that drill will allow your grip pressure to be at
the proper level. And so what will happen is you
(08:52):
will start to find your feel and your interaction with
the golf club gets better and better, and your muscles
are more relaxed, so they're in lies. There in lies
the the instruction phase of what we wanted to do today. Okay,
the next thing I want to talk about is I
(09:14):
want to talk about kind of an inspirational aspect of
the game of golf. It's very very very important, uh
tow to everybody, to everybody, and and today we're gonna golf.
Golf is a very very very inspirational game. Golf is
a game that that should inspire people. Not everybody, but
(09:38):
but golf can inspire. There's great stories, there's great comebacks,
there's there's there's all that. But in reality and everyday life,
in everyday life, there is no sport that inspires people
more than the game of golf. H think about what
(10:00):
I just said. In everyday life, daily life, what sport
has a chance to inspire you, motivate, you, make you
proud to be a golfer, to play a sport rather
than golf. None example, nine days ago, we had an
(10:21):
event at nine Days ten Days, an event at Parkersburg
Country Club that raised three hundred thousand dollars for Boys
and Girls Club one day, one hundred and forty four players.
It was awesome. So you can imagine what the Boys
and Girls Club money can do with that. The Boys
(10:42):
and Girls Club money does for the Boys and Girls Club.
They bought it, they bought a vehicle, you know, they
put some new programs into their offerings. It inspires, it inspires.
We have numerous charity outings I could go through, but
(11:04):
I really don't want to talk about that today. That's
not the inspirational part of my of the show today.
The inspirational part of the show today is literally junior golf. Now,
I know I've talked about this before, but I don't care.
It's junior golf. It's really really important to every community
(11:30):
in the United States, every community, wealthy, poor, middle class.
It's very important because we are going to start with
a premise. The premise is there's a heck of a
lot worse places to be for a kid to be
(11:52):
than on a golf course. There's a heck of a
lot of worse places for a kid to be. All
you have to do is turn on TV, turn on
the news, click on your computer, and you'll find examples
of that. Now, I'm not gonna say that the golf
(12:18):
is is the could fix every everything in the world,
because it can't. Because if it could, it would have
done It would have done that. By now, but think
about this for a minute. My son lives in a
place called Navy Yard. Navy Yard is a very very
very nice condominium based community just outside of as he
(12:43):
calls it, the district, the District of Columbia, Washington, d C.
So he lives there, loves it. He there nice. He's
right down the street from Camden Yards. I'm sorry, not
(13:04):
Camdid Yards. Excuse me, nat Stadium, excuse me, a different city.
That stadium great ballpark values on certain days and there's
parties and picnics and all sorts of stuff going on.
It's great. The day he called me and said, hey,
I'm moving, Like why because because I don't like Navy
(13:26):
Yard anymore, because there are some young people that are
doing some making it very uncomfortable live here. Now. I'm
not going to get into the social socioeconomic status of
all this. I'm not. I'm not gonna talk about who's
in the White House because I'm not. But I'm going
to tell you that that's a young man that absolutely
(13:49):
loved Navy Yard. He was so proud, so proud. Now
he's leaving Navy Yard because of younger people that are
doing some things that make it uncomfortable to live there. Now,
(14:12):
I'm saying we could fix all this, But imagine if
the District of Columbia had a municipal golf program where
those kids could actually take up golf. Now, let's say
there's thirty kids, thirty fifty ninety, one hundred and ten
five seven. I don't know the numbers, but let's just
say that if there's thirty kids and ten of them
(14:33):
took up golf, now there's only twenty that are causing
a problem. We just cut it by a third. Now,
all of a sudden, maybe, just maybe we have a chance.
And I'm not saying that Navy Yard needs restored. I'm
not saying that at all, but maybe it becomes a
(14:55):
little bit more community based. Maybe we have a lot
more in common. Think of the impact that you know,
the golf program like that could have. Think of the
daily daily. Yeah, you could say they could play baseball.
I'm not arguing that. I'm not saying they could play football.
I'm not saying any of that. I'm not saying anything
(15:18):
against any sports. I think all sports are great. But
think about the programs that can they can literally latch
onto kids. And when I come back from this commercial break,
we are going to talk about what I envision golf
could do for a lot of communities in this country.
(15:44):
This is the newly minted Off the Fairway with Rich Conwell.
Welcome back to our newly minted show, our newly created
show Off the Fairway with Rich Conwell. It's a little
different and before, actually it's a lot different than before.
Took a lot of advice from some really really really
(16:05):
smart people and kind of kind of modified the whole program.
So we were just talking about this is our inspiration segment.
We were just talking about junior golf and the impacts
it can have on people kids because it's junior golf.
So I kind of used the Navy Yard as as
(16:27):
in Washington, d C. As an example. But and and
that's a far reaching example, and there's there. I'm sure
there's a lot that goes into what's going on in
these big cities that are causing problems. So there's a
problem in Pittsmark with young people just kind of when
I was when I was a kid, it was called wouding.
I don't think they use that term anymore. But yeah,
(16:49):
so it's just an alternative to doing to being up
to not really good behavior and potentially harmful and damaging
behavior to others into themselves. So you know, why do
(17:09):
I think junior golf is so important and why do
I think it can be so far reaching? Well, it's
pretty easy. What does it teach you? Yes, it teaches
you to hit golf ball. Yes, it teaches you a
grip a golf club right. Yes, you'll learn to stand correctly. Yes,
you learn about target line. Yes, you learn about grip pressure.
(17:29):
You also learn about integrity. You learn about integrity. Hey,
you know what, I incorrectly moved my golf ball. Call
penalty on yourself. I referee high school basketball and I'm
certified in the state of West Virginia and the state
(17:51):
of Pennsylvania, and I've yet to have a kid call
a foul on himself. But I've had golfers do it.
Young golfers too, college kids, newly minted college freshmen. So
(18:13):
what do you think they learned that? They learned that
in the junior golf program. They learned that from their parents.
They learned that from a junior golf program. Yes, I
said it twice, I did. I'm telling you. It teaches integrity,
teaches honesty, it teaches social skills you can You will
(18:37):
never know a person better than playing a round of
golf with them. You will see them in stressful situations.
You will see them in angry, anger, angering situations. You
will see them in elated situations. You will learn more
about yourself and others by playing around the golf with
(19:00):
them or being in a junior golf program with them.
Then you can learn in a month of sundays anywhere else,
anywhere else. It's it's that important, It is that important.
(19:23):
It can do it. It can teach you that, teach
you integrity, teat you honesty, teach you life skills. It
can do all that. So that's why it's so important.
(19:44):
I can tell you right now. It can save lives,
To save lives, To save lives too. You grab on
ahold of a kid that could be in a in
a bad way and maybe going the wrong way, and
he kind of calm them into or drag him into
a junior golf program. All of a sudden he say, hey,
you know what, I'm not so sure that I really
(20:05):
like to be back on that side of those of
that wall. Even if he never plays golf again. What
should be hard pressed to not do once you once,
you do fall in love with it, but you start
to see that there are people out there that act
with integrity and compassion and social skills. And it's not
about how much trouble can I get in. There's better
(20:27):
places to be than here. I have massive, massive amounts
of stories from over in Pittsburgh at the first Tea
Program Bubble Conor Golf Course, Shenley Park, Pennsylvania. I have
some of my own. I had a kid who okay,
(20:50):
I had a kid who in Virginia, who whose father
had died prematurely brain tumor. He contracted it. He was
a government employee in the First Golf War, died very rapidly.
They flew him home. He died within six months of
(21:10):
coming home. This young man's grandmother said, hey, you know what,
can you help me out? So sure? Kid didn't want
to hit golf balls. I'll never tell you who the
kid was. Kid didn't want to hit golf balls, didn't
want to didn't want to get better at golf, wanted
to drive a golf cart, have a candy bar and
a soft drink. So we had candy bar, a soft drink,
(21:33):
drove the golf cart. Then we hit a couple of
golf balls, drove the golf cart, candy bar, soft drink.
So I left that facility, moved back to Pittsburgh. Hey,
a little party for me. His grandmother grabbed me and
gave me a hug and said, if you weren't here,
he'd be dead. So that's not true, souse. Yes, we
(21:59):
found all the EQUI to do that. We found the notes.
So you can sit and listen in your car or
your podcast, the podcast or driving somewhere hear me talk
about this stuff and think that I'm I'm all whatever. Yeah,
(22:24):
I'm not. I have firsthand evidence of it. I have
friends from other facilities that tell me stories. Hey, I'll
be honest with you. We call them rescue stories, and
I have my own. I know it to be true.
I know it to be true. So before you start
(22:48):
to look at elsewhere, just think about that for a minute.
Think about how good of golf, how good golf can be,
how good it could be for communities that are struggling.
And unfortunately, every community is struggling. And that's kind of
(23:11):
what I wanted to use my inspire every time today
for that, is just to talk about that. Just remember
Junior golf could be the most important thing in every community.
It's a game of integrity, honesty, and it is absolutely
(23:36):
absolutely a game you can play for a lifetime. So
moving on from that, I wanted to do your service. Now,
I'm going to outline a golf course that is close
to us, kind of like showcase a golf course that's
(23:59):
close to us. And I think that this could be
a really good part of our our show. I also
think that if you listen at the at the in
the last segment, I'll give you the as I said,
(24:21):
the Facebook page and the the Instagram and the Twitter account.
I guess it's X now to you know, reach out
to me and just say, hey, why don't you profile
this golf course. I'm open to anything. Really really a
lot of fun to do this. I get to talk
to some pretty interesting people. I get to talk about
some pretty interesting history. It's really really really kind of neat.
(24:45):
It's really kind of neat. So this week we are
going to talk highlight showcase Athens Country Club in Athens, Ohio,
home of the Ohio University, not Ohio State University. I
know I did it wrong. It's not it's not the
Ohio University it's the Ohio State University. It's Ohio University
(25:07):
over in Athens. Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow, big Ohio Valley guy,
you know, Cincinnati guy. You know, started at the Ohio
State you know. So he's from Athens, Ohio. So yeah,
we're gonna talk about Athens, Ohio. Okay, unique aspect of
I'll talk you about Athens country Club. Unique aspect of
that golf course. It's nine holes. Nine holes. They have
(25:33):
two sets of teas, so it's eighteen holes. The tea's
are are generally different enough that the holes are different.
You know. All this information comes from a young man
my named Nick Freimeyer. Nick is the general excuse me,
is the director of golf at Athens Country Club. He's
only been there a month or so month and a half,
(25:59):
so you know, that's kind of like I have a
lot in column with Nick because I've only been a
wheeling country club for eight weeks. So nine weeks, I guess.
So yeah, so Nick, Nick was kind enough to jump
on the phone and kind of give me some insight
as is what he knows about Athens's country Club. Obviously
know more as he gets more, as he grows into
(26:22):
his position. I would tell you that I'm going to
go over and see the facility for myself because I
I want to help him out with this golf operation
as a golf professional, but I also wanted to to
just meet him in person and kind of get familiar
with the facility that I'm going to remotely showcase. But
(26:44):
then the next time I talk about it, I can
be that much more informed and that much more intelligent
to speak intelligently about it. So Athens Country Club is very,
very very old. That's nice. And in nineteen twenty one,
god the named Donald Ross designed nine holes there were
There was golf there before that guy named Sergeant sa
(27:08):
Ar g E n T. But Donald Ross was brought
in two he did. He renovated seven of the nine
redesigned seven to nine holes. Two of Sergeant's holes are
still there, although Ross I believe did alter those as well.
(27:31):
It's about this time that Donald Ross was floating around
central Ohio. For you know, he did Lancaster Country Club
in Lancaster, Ohio. Here's a trivia question for you. The
most famous people from Lancaster, Ohio. General Sherman and his brother.
I don't know his first name, but General Sherman was
(27:53):
obviously graduate in the United States Military Academy and fought
for the Union in the Civil War. Also, his brother
created the Sherman Anti Trust Act. Both those guys are
from Lancaster, Ohio, and then he was also doing Lancaster.
He's also doing Sciota. Syota is where Jack Nicholas grew
up playing. Jack Grout was the head professional there for
(28:16):
ever and he taught Nicholas. So Donald Ross has a
strong history in Ohio. But anyway, this one was, as
I said, is nine holes course record is held by
guy named Arnold Palmer. He shot sixty three. It is
(28:36):
the Athens is the hometown and the home course. First
home course I've got named dal Finsterwald who won the
PGA of America Championship, PJA Championship. So I mean, that's
some pretty cool history. I think. I think it's some
really cool history actually, and that's just the tip of it. Uh.
(29:02):
The the first round of golf that was ever played
with Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer playing in the same
group was that link? What excuse me? Was it? Athens
Country Club? They had a they had a day for
(29:25):
dalfinster Wald after he won the PGA Championship, and they
called the the best player in Ohio and possibly the
best player in the world even then as a student
at the Ohio State University, and that was Jack Nicholas,
(29:46):
and he came down and he played as an amateur,
but that was the first time he ever played with
Arnold Palmer. The fairways and the greens are bent grass,
so they're sweet. Yeah. The thing is they also they
(30:07):
are now doing a t box renovation where they're putting
Bermuda in their tea boxes. So the whole golf course
is in really good shape almost all the time. They
have women's programs, they have men's programs. Nick and I
had a long conversation about some of the things he
should be doing just as a as I'm a thirty
year member of the PGA of America and he's that
(30:27):
young man's trying to work towards his membership, so I
have a little bit more go with that than he does.
You can get on the golf course, you really can.
It's just you would have to have your golf professional
call kind of. It is a private club. There are
ways to They're always to mitigate that. I'm not going
(30:50):
to talk about them on the on the radio. But
there are ways you can certainly call Nick and and
see what they can come up with their talk to
your local golf professional. If you're in Parkersburg, that's me.
And so just just remember, if you can get on
(31:11):
Athens Country Club, please do, please do. It is really
really really worth it. It is it's worth it. You can,
you can. You can go a lot worse get get
get be a lot worse off then than Athens Country Club.
You really really can. There's there's great history, there's great
(31:35):
great players are from there. It's a great community. So
just you know, just remember if you get a chance,
make sure that you jump on that. What I want
to do now is gonna take a commercial break, and
when I come back to the show, we will talk
about one of the more unique things about Athens Country
(31:57):
Club that is really, really really interesting. This is Off
the Fairway with Rich Conwell. Welcome back to Off the
Fairway with Rich Conwell. We left off we were talking
about the uniqueness and the interesting things about Athens Country
Club in Athens, Ohio. And you know, I did want
to give a special thank you to Nick Freimeier. He
(32:19):
is their Athens Country Club Director. Of golf. He is.
It's a nice young man. He took some time out
of his extremely busy schedule to spend some time with
me and on the phone just to kind of tell me,
just to kind of tell me a couple of unique
things about it all I want. I did want to
mention about Athens Country Club. They also do have a
(32:40):
full practice facility with a short game area, and they
are working on creating a simulator room in the clubhouse
for their members. So there's a lot of really good
things hanging happening in Athens Country Club. But one of
the most unique things about Athens Country Club, aside from
it being nine holes, aside from it being Donald Ross
(33:00):
and all of its unique things that I've already mentioned,
is that both the Ohio University men's and women's golf
teams play Athens Country Club and utilize Athens Country Club
as their home golf course, which is absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
(33:25):
It is really really really neat because you guys, nobody
would know this. I want some people would. The energy
that a college program brings to a facility is overwhelming.
One of the first things I did when I got
to the Parkersburg country club. Is I try to figure out
(33:45):
how I could get a Division two and a Division
three tournament there, and I did it. Next spring, we'll
do all three of them, will do three of them,
one men's, one women's Division two and one men's and
women's Division three. So here's my thing, the energy that brings.
And the other thing is the quality of play that brings.
(34:07):
College players are good. Oh use MAC Division one good.
I was. It's it's funny, I was. I was fortunate
enough to run across one of their players last night
who was up in Parkersburg, and and she was just saying,
how like absolutely good. All the kids are in the conference.
(34:34):
Her name is Sailor Worf. I'll have Sailor on at
some point to talk about mental mental game with golf.
But yeah, it's just it's just really really a feather
in their cap that they get to have those kids
on their property, playing their golf course, using their practice facility.
(34:55):
Could you imagine the amount of the amount of junior
stuff that that Nick will end up doing there because
of the interaction with college kids. You know what I've
you know what I learned a long time ago. And
this is this is also another thing that brings, it
brings it really really really home for facilities that can
host college golf programs, much like much like Athens Country Club,
(35:20):
much like willing Country Club did with Willie University. Is
when you get a youngster to see those kids hit
golf balls, they number one can see they could be
that good. The other thing they can do is that
might be the best player they ever see a close
hitting golf balls. It's really a cool thing to stand
(35:41):
beyond a really good, a good college player and watch
them hit shots. It's really cool. And like I said,
the energy and things like that they bring to the
they bring to the table, it's really really really neat
and it just gets a good it gets a good
vibe and a good good flow to Athens Country Club,
(36:03):
which is absolutely phenomenal for Nick and phenomenal for their
for their facility. So I wanted to thank Nick for
his effort. If you get a chance, take a look
at their website and it's Athens Athens country Club dot com.
And the other thing is what you really want to
do is you want to you want to go ahead
(36:25):
and see if you can't gain gain access to that
golf course. If I can help you please let me know,
but but please just just take advantage of it if
you can. Donald Ross was one of the if not
the best architect of all time. So that wraps up
our showcase spotlight, and then we're going to move into
the what I consider to be the toy department of
(36:47):
the of the show, which is mailbag. We're gonna call
this mail bag at this moment. At this time, I'm
just gonna go ahead and talk a little bit about
about what what some of the ways you can get
a hold of me are. It's I have several social
media outlets. The first one would be would be first off,
(37:12):
let's do this. I have I'm on several stations throughout
West Virginia. I'm on Fox Sports fourteen hundred and Wheeling,
one of three point nine FM in Wheeling, in Parkersburg,
I'm on News Talk nine ten WLTP, and Fox Sports
(37:34):
he at Huntington. Those three actually four chan four stations,
but three different cities, and I'm really honored to be
on them. So I just want to make sure that
I give I give you access to to how to listen.
I also have created social media pages for the show.
In the first one is x or Twitter, which is
(38:00):
which is that is at Conwall Golf Show at Conwell
Golf Show. Facebook is written the is Rich Conwoll Golf Show.
If you just type that in you'll find it uh.
And Instagram is also Rich Conwoll Golf Show the UH.
I will probably end up keeping those, although I changed
the name, but it's just it just seems to be there,
(38:23):
and I'll just kind of kind of just use that.
It's also easier that way than because off the Fairway
with rich Conwall can get to be a little hard
to type in and into your bookmarket. And so we're
just gonna probably stick with that. So I just wanted
to throw those out there again. I would I would
(38:43):
ask you please jump on those those social media's or
or you know, and I will create emails for them
as well. And and what I'm trying to do is
just get more interactive. Just I want to hear what
you want to hear about. I want to I want
to and you know, as I said, I want to educate.
(39:05):
I want to entertain you, maybe inspire. Maybe you have
a great golf story. Maybe you have a great golf story.
I would love to hear about it, you know, because
I don't hear about all of them. I mean, shockingly obviously, No,
I don't hear about all of them. You know, I
want to hear about your your interesting things. I want
to hear about, Hey, you know what my uncle had.
(39:25):
I don't want this to happen any but I had
a stroke, and you know, golf kind of brought them back,
you know, it gave him something to go do and
and things like that, and he's starting to get a
little rehab going and and in golf. Those are inspiring stories.
Those are inspiring stories, and think about yours and how
they can inspire somebody else. I'll share them. You know. Again,
(39:47):
it's it's it's it's incumbent upon me too to make
this as outgoing and incoming as I can. You know.
So it's as I said, Twitter, it's at Commonwall Golf Show.
Facebook it's Rich Combo Golf Show. And Instagram it's for
the Graham is Rich Combo Golf Show. It's just all
right there. And so I will do that every week.
(40:10):
I'll talk about those those outlets every week. I also
throw a little bit of uh, maybe once I get
some some prizes, we can do some some trivia and
do some interaction with that. I think that it would
be see if we can't get something going on. Also,
as I mentioned, uh the at the beginning of the
(40:30):
show or at the top of the show, I am
I am trying to find somebody who's willing to take
some golf lessons and I don't want paid uh and
and and share their story on how to break one hundred.
You're trying to break one hundred, trying to break ninety.
Any of that stuff I can do. You know, if
you have a company out there that has five or
six guys that play golf, and you know, we can
(40:52):
do a iHeartRadio can do a little little uh one
on one or one on five, you know, little group clinic.
You know, half hour full swing and half hour short
game or you know forty ten whatever and uh and
some lunch. Uh. You know they'll they'll uh I Heart
ready will be willing to do that and and and
Parkersburg Country will be willing to host it. So you know,
(41:15):
I just just want to throw out there that that's
it's kind of where we are. I mean, I mean
I I the door is wide open. This is about you,
the listener. I want to I want to give you
a reason. I want to make you feel compelled to
tune into those stations that I talked about, or get
on a podcast service and grab it. I know that,
(41:35):
you know, Parkersburg, Huntington, Wheeling, good sized cities. You know,
not Columbus, I know that, but good sized cities. A
lot of a lot of people into this stuff. So
it's about you, you know. I mean, who am I
to sit here and dictate what you should have to
listen to. I want to give you a reason to listen.
So we're gonna improve your golf game. I'm gonna inspire
you a little bit, do some trivia, maybe get some
(41:57):
interaction going. See if we can't get a uh see
if we can't get a little bit of a prize
pool going and see who we can come up with.
Maybe maybe at some point I will start to highlight
some trips you should make. Maybe I'll talk about some
of some of the places in West Virginia you should visit,
because I said there's a lot of nice ones. I
traveled pretty extensively with the Wheeling University cardinals and and
(42:20):
we saw some good places. Good place is affordable too,
you know. Obviously went to the Greenbriar. That's I don't
know how affordable that is. I don't know what the
definition of affordable it is down there. I know. I
know they don't either, So so my thing is is, yeah,
we can do it. Do some travel, no profile, some
(42:41):
golf courses get a little bit better, you know. See
if you can't see if you can't you know, uh,
pick up a tip I hate to work tip, pick
up a thought, pick up a thought that's going to
help your golf game. Me see how he keeps saying
you're your your right, So he keeps saying you're because
(43:04):
it's about you. You know, I don't have much of
a golf game anymore, and I quld play in pretty much.
And that's my fault too. So maybe maybe maybe that's
part of the saying. Maybe I maybe every week I
I give an update on how I'm doing. I don't know.
But it's it's about what compels you to listen. That's
(43:27):
what we need. What compels you to listen again? You know?
Uh in on Twitter at Connonwall Golf Show, Facebook, Rich
Commonwall Golf Show, Instagram, Rich common Wall Golf Show, reach Out,
hit me up, send me a message where they say
(43:50):
DM me. I'm not hip enough to say that, but
reach out. You know, I'm a Parkersburg country club. You know,
if you want to talk to me, just call me
and Tom talk to me. You know you want to
stop by and see me. You know, Yes, we're private,
so you're I canna throw you on the golf course.
(44:10):
You're not gonna go hit golf balls. But if you
want to come see me, do so. No tell me what,
tell me what's on your mind. I want to hear it,
I really do, so. I will list those when I
get back towards the end of the segment or the
end of the show rather, but I do. I do
(44:31):
want to tell a great golf story. I'm sure all
of you have seen the greatest game ever played. Francis
we met beats Harry Varden and Ted ray Aten whole playoff,
you know, a long time ago. He's an amateur underdog,
all that stuff. You know. He's in Brookline Brookline Country
(44:55):
Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, walks across the street from his
parents to play qualified all that good stuff. So he
had a caddie, a little moon faced kid, You've seen
pictures of it. And his name was Eddie. Lowry. After
Eddie Lowry was done growing up, moved to California and
(45:17):
created became very wealthy with car dealerships, really wealthy, did
quite well for himself and love golf, love golf. He's
a car dealer, love golf, so he used to help
out young players. He would make them salesman and they
(45:38):
wouldn't have to sell cars, but they'd have to go
hit golf balls over the days of those. So so
Eddie Lowry wins his for his guy Francis. We met
in nineteen thirteen the US Open. Later on he gets
to be a pretty big car dealer, starts to help
(45:58):
some people, support some people, bankroll some people, one of
them being a Harvey Ward that never turned professional, you know,
wanted them to get better, always trying to push them,
you know, be the best, be the best, be the best.
So in nineteen sixty four, which would be fifty one
years after, for instance, we met Eddie Lowry had taken
(46:27):
under a young professional who was going through some health
issues with some hand issues and some nerve damage and
bankrolled him to play in the US Open at Congressional
in nineteen sixty four. And I'm going to tell you
that that young professional one. It was Ken Venturie. He's
(46:51):
passed away wing calm. Was we could say was Ken Venturi.
Unbelievably good guy, unbelievably good guy, unbelievably talented, always credited
friends as we met. I mean Eddie Lowry was helping him.
So Eddie Lowry is technically a two time US Open champion,
(47:13):
but at the same time he's not a champion because
he didn't play. But he facilitated two championships. He facilitated
two championships, one in Massachusetts another one from his chair
in California, for ken Venturie to become one of the
(47:35):
most feel good stories of all time. The nineteen sixty
four US Open Ken Venturi champion suffered through heat prostration
for thirty six holes. So again, thank you for listening
to Off the Fairway with Rich Conwell. I look forward
to many many, many great great segments and many great
(47:58):
shows moving forward. But thank you for listening, and have
a great day.
Welcome to the reinvented Rich Combell Golf Show is now
we changed the name of it to Off the Fairway
with Rich Conwell. What I'm trying to do with the
show is to promote some more well. Basically, the summary
of the show or the mission statement of the show
is the golf show that educates, entertains, and inspires golf
(00:23):
golfers of all skill levels while showcasing golf in West
Virginia in the Ohio Valley. So that's my whole goal
with this. I've had some great guests over four years.
I will still have guests. It will not it will
not be as in depth with each guest when I
have them. But most of the show, actually all of
(00:44):
the show is about you, you the listener, improving your
golf game, maybe providing a little bit of inspiration to
play more golf, or just showcasing how golf can be
inspirational and a game changer and many instance is a
life changer as well as having a chance to do
(01:06):
some trivia. I'll have some as we progress, I'll have
email addresses. I'll announce the Instagram and Facebook page at
the end of the end of the show today, and
so we can have we can have a little bit
of dialogue, a little bit of interaction. We get some
(01:28):
prizes to give away, kind of give you a reason
to jump in and listen. So yeah, so that's that's
kind of the purpose of this is to actually to
interact with you, the listener, the no matter what your
skill level is, I should be able to provide you
some some really good insight into how to improve your
(01:52):
golf game. As we go down the road, we may
even do a weekly segment of trying to break one hundred,
trying to break nine. I'm not sure. I'm going to
see who best fits that that scope and see if
we can't get get somebody in and work with them
at Parkersburg Country Club where I am the head golf professional,
(02:14):
and see if we can't get them to achieve their
goal break ninety, break one hundred, all sorts of fun
stuff like that. That is the that's the goal. That's
the goal. So let's jump right into it. First segment,
first little bit here, we're going to talk about a
fundamental concept, and that is a thing called target line.
(02:36):
Target line is the line of where your golf ball
is to your target. Really, really really it's not a
difficult concept to get around. But what we need wrap
our head around rather, but what we need to make
sure is we all understand in our golf game that
is the only line that matters. It's the only one
(02:56):
that matters. Target line creates our our alignment. Target line
works on club face, target line also works on path.
We use that for all of things golf swing related,
golf playing related. Target line is so important. If you
(03:21):
watch golf on TV, they'll say, you know, he dropped
it inside or he attacked from the outside. They're talking
about target line. Talking about target line. Outside is the
part away from the player. Inside is the part closer
to the player of the target line. Think of it
in terms of fence line, target line, you know, chalk line,
(03:43):
that's fine, but that that does everything for everybody's golf swing.
It's so important to under to know that to be
familiar with target line. Be familiar with target line. You
have all of the changes that you want to make
in your golf swing. All of the changes that you
(04:03):
want to make in your golf game are related to
target line, all the way down to a three footer,
an eighteen incher to an attempted you know, full swing
drive that you're trying to drive it over a creek
on a part four. All of it has to do
with target line, you know. It's it all comes back
(04:27):
to target line. So do not overlook the importance of
target line. You know, there's a saying that if you
don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.
So if you do not know your target line, if
you do not work off of your target line or
with your target line, and if you work with your
(04:48):
target line as I said, and not against it, not
against it, it's really really that much easier to get
better at this game. You know this just in this
game's so you got to make sure that you got
to make sure that you make it as easy for
(05:08):
you as possible. If a tour player works so hard
on target line, why wouldn't you. And when I say
target line, that does not mean the flight of the
golf ball. It's the line from the golf ball through
the golf ball to the target flight of the golf ball.
Is ballflight. That's a different concept. We'll get into that
(05:30):
in future shows. But you have to understand target line.
That's when I come back. It all ends up there
at target line. Okay, So do yourself a favor, you know,
lend a little gray matter time to that. You know,
see if you're paying the appropriate amount of attention to
(05:51):
that in your golf game. If you are not, that
is one of the major stumbling blocks to improvement. So
do not forget that. Okay, target line. The second area
of instruction I would like to get into today is
(06:13):
grip pressure. I ask this question all the time of
new players and experience and very experienced players, and most
people get it wrong. How hard should you hold or
how tightly should you hold a golf club when you're
(06:35):
using it? And I get really tight more than I
get anything else. I also get super loose, which is wrong.
But the one that people make the mistake with is
that as hard as I can. So let's take take
(07:00):
a second and just say this. Your your grip pressure
allows your muscles to flow. Incorrect grip pressure locks your
muscles uber Relaxed grip pressure removes all control of muscles.
(07:23):
So obviously you want control your muscles active fluid muscles.
So here's a drill that I have numerous people do
numerous people, do you know, take your grip, place your
elbows on your side on the side of your of
your rib cage, your core, and just using just your wrists,
(07:45):
flick the golf club up, not flick, rotate the golf
club up and down using your wrists. If you can
do that easily, you know. And the joke is if
you hit yourself in the face, it's too If it's
too loose, if you can't bend your wrists is too tight.
The fact that the matter is, once you get that going,
your grip pressure will be much much much better. And
(08:07):
that takes ten seconds a day, twenty seconds a day
you do that watching TV. Just enough to control the
weight of the golf club. That's the grip pressure we're
looking for. That just enough to control the weight of
the golf club. Now, if you want to go a
(08:30):
little further, you know, there are different pressure points for
different different fingers, but in general, without looking at you individually,
that drill will allow your grip pressure to be at
the proper level. And so what will happen is you
(08:52):
will start to find your feel and your interaction with
the golf club gets better and better, and your muscles
are more relaxed, so they're in lies. There in lies
the the instruction phase of what we wanted to do today. Okay,
the next thing I want to talk about is I
(09:14):
want to talk about kind of an inspirational aspect of
the game of golf. It's very very very important, uh
tow to everybody, to everybody, and and today we're gonna golf.
Golf is a very very very inspirational game. Golf is
a game that that should inspire people. Not everybody, but
(09:38):
but golf can inspire. There's great stories, there's great comebacks,
there's there's there's all that. But in reality and everyday life,
in everyday life, there is no sport that inspires people
more than the game of golf. H think about what
(10:00):
I just said. In everyday life, daily life, what sport
has a chance to inspire you, motivate, you, make you
proud to be a golfer, to play a sport rather
than golf. None example, nine days ago, we had an
(10:21):
event at nine Days ten Days, an event at Parkersburg
Country Club that raised three hundred thousand dollars for Boys
and Girls Club one day, one hundred and forty four players.
It was awesome. So you can imagine what the Boys
and Girls Club money can do with that. The Boys
(10:42):
and Girls Club money does for the Boys and Girls Club.
They bought it, they bought a vehicle, you know, they
put some new programs into their offerings. It inspires, it inspires.
We have numerous charity outings I could go through, but
(11:04):
I really don't want to talk about that today. That's
not the inspirational part of my of the show today.
The inspirational part of the show today is literally junior golf. Now,
I know I've talked about this before, but I don't care.
It's junior golf. It's really really important to every community
(11:30):
in the United States, every community, wealthy, poor, middle class.
It's very important because we are going to start with
a premise. The premise is there's a heck of a
lot worse places to be for a kid to be
(11:52):
than on a golf course. There's a heck of a
lot of worse places for a kid to be. All
you have to do is turn on TV, turn on
the news, click on your computer, and you'll find examples
of that. Now, I'm not gonna say that the golf
(12:18):
is is the could fix every everything in the world,
because it can't. Because if it could, it would have
done It would have done that. By now, but think
about this for a minute. My son lives in a
place called Navy Yard. Navy Yard is a very very
very nice condominium based community just outside of as he
(12:43):
calls it, the district, the District of Columbia, Washington, d C.
So he lives there, loves it. He there nice. He's
right down the street from Camden Yards. I'm sorry, not
(13:04):
Camdid Yards. Excuse me, nat Stadium, excuse me, a different city.
That stadium great ballpark values on certain days and there's
parties and picnics and all sorts of stuff going on.
It's great. The day he called me and said, hey,
I'm moving, Like why because because I don't like Navy
(13:26):
Yard anymore, because there are some young people that are
doing some making it very uncomfortable live here. Now. I'm
not going to get into the social socioeconomic status of
all this. I'm not. I'm not gonna talk about who's
in the White House because I'm not. But I'm going
to tell you that that's a young man that absolutely
(13:49):
loved Navy Yard. He was so proud, so proud. Now
he's leaving Navy Yard because of younger people that are
doing some things that make it uncomfortable to live there. Now,
(14:12):
I'm saying we could fix all this, But imagine if
the District of Columbia had a municipal golf program where
those kids could actually take up golf. Now, let's say
there's thirty kids, thirty fifty ninety, one hundred and ten
five seven. I don't know the numbers, but let's just
say that if there's thirty kids and ten of them
(14:33):
took up golf, now there's only twenty that are causing
a problem. We just cut it by a third. Now,
all of a sudden, maybe, just maybe we have a chance.
And I'm not saying that Navy Yard needs restored. I'm
not saying that at all, but maybe it becomes a
(14:55):
little bit more community based. Maybe we have a lot
more in common. Think of the impact that you know,
the golf program like that could have. Think of the
daily daily. Yeah, you could say they could play baseball.
I'm not arguing that. I'm not saying they could play football.
I'm not saying any of that. I'm not saying anything
(15:18):
against any sports. I think all sports are great. But
think about the programs that can they can literally latch
onto kids. And when I come back from this commercial break,
we are going to talk about what I envision golf
could do for a lot of communities in this country.
(15:44):
This is the newly minted Off the Fairway with Rich Conwell.
Welcome back to our newly minted show, our newly created
show Off the Fairway with Rich Conwell. It's a little
different and before, actually it's a lot different than before.
Took a lot of advice from some really really really
(16:05):
smart people and kind of kind of modified the whole program.
So we were just talking about this is our inspiration segment.
We were just talking about junior golf and the impacts
it can have on people kids because it's junior golf.
So I kind of used the Navy Yard as as
(16:27):
in Washington, d C. As an example. But and and
that's a far reaching example, and there's there. I'm sure
there's a lot that goes into what's going on in
these big cities that are causing problems. So there's a
problem in Pittsmark with young people just kind of when
I was when I was a kid, it was called wouding.
I don't think they use that term anymore. But yeah,
(16:49):
so it's just an alternative to doing to being up
to not really good behavior and potentially harmful and damaging
behavior to others into themselves. So you know, why do
(17:09):
I think junior golf is so important and why do
I think it can be so far reaching? Well, it's
pretty easy. What does it teach you? Yes, it teaches
you to hit golf ball. Yes, it teaches you a
grip a golf club right. Yes, you'll learn to stand correctly. Yes,
you learn about target line. Yes, you learn about grip pressure.
(17:29):
You also learn about integrity. You learn about integrity. Hey,
you know what, I incorrectly moved my golf ball. Call
penalty on yourself. I referee high school basketball and I'm
certified in the state of West Virginia and the state
(17:51):
of Pennsylvania, and I've yet to have a kid call
a foul on himself. But I've had golfers do it.
Young golfers too, college kids, newly minted college freshmen. So
(18:13):
what do you think they learned that? They learned that
in the junior golf program. They learned that from their parents.
They learned that from a junior golf program. Yes, I
said it twice, I did. I'm telling you. It teaches integrity,
teaches honesty, it teaches social skills you can You will
(18:37):
never know a person better than playing a round of
golf with them. You will see them in stressful situations.
You will see them in angry, anger, angering situations. You
will see them in elated situations. You will learn more
about yourself and others by playing around the golf with
(19:00):
them or being in a junior golf program with them.
Then you can learn in a month of sundays anywhere else,
anywhere else. It's it's that important, It is that important.
(19:23):
It can do it. It can teach you that, teach
you integrity, teat you honesty, teach you life skills. It
can do all that. So that's why it's so important.
(19:44):
I can tell you right now. It can save lives,
To save lives, To save lives too. You grab on
ahold of a kid that could be in a in
a bad way and maybe going the wrong way, and
he kind of calm them into or drag him into
a junior golf program. All of a sudden he say, hey,
you know what, I'm not so sure that I really
(20:05):
like to be back on that side of those of
that wall. Even if he never plays golf again. What
should be hard pressed to not do once you once,
you do fall in love with it, but you start
to see that there are people out there that act
with integrity and compassion and social skills. And it's not
about how much trouble can I get in. There's better
(20:27):
places to be than here. I have massive, massive amounts
of stories from over in Pittsburgh at the first Tea
Program Bubble Conor Golf Course, Shenley Park, Pennsylvania. I have
some of my own. I had a kid who okay,
(20:50):
I had a kid who in Virginia, who whose father
had died prematurely brain tumor. He contracted it. He was
a government employee in the First Golf War, died very rapidly.
They flew him home. He died within six months of
(21:10):
coming home. This young man's grandmother said, hey, you know what,
can you help me out? So sure? Kid didn't want
to hit golf balls. I'll never tell you who the
kid was. Kid didn't want to hit golf balls, didn't
want to didn't want to get better at golf, wanted
to drive a golf cart, have a candy bar and
a soft drink. So we had candy bar, a soft drink,
(21:33):
drove the golf cart. Then we hit a couple of
golf balls, drove the golf cart, candy bar, soft drink.
So I left that facility, moved back to Pittsburgh. Hey,
a little party for me. His grandmother grabbed me and
gave me a hug and said, if you weren't here,
he'd be dead. So that's not true, souse. Yes, we
(21:59):
found all the EQUI to do that. We found the notes.
So you can sit and listen in your car or
your podcast, the podcast or driving somewhere hear me talk
about this stuff and think that I'm I'm all whatever. Yeah,
(22:24):
I'm not. I have firsthand evidence of it. I have
friends from other facilities that tell me stories. Hey, I'll
be honest with you. We call them rescue stories, and
I have my own. I know it to be true.
I know it to be true. So before you start
(22:48):
to look at elsewhere, just think about that for a minute.
Think about how good of golf, how good golf can be,
how good it could be for communities that are struggling.
And unfortunately, every community is struggling. And that's kind of
(23:11):
what I wanted to use my inspire every time today
for that, is just to talk about that. Just remember
Junior golf could be the most important thing in every community.
It's a game of integrity, honesty, and it is absolutely
(23:36):
absolutely a game you can play for a lifetime. So
moving on from that, I wanted to do your service. Now,
I'm going to outline a golf course that is close
to us, kind of like showcase a golf course that's
(23:59):
close to us. And I think that this could be
a really good part of our our show. I also
think that if you listen at the at the in
the last segment, I'll give you the as I said,
(24:21):
the Facebook page and the the Instagram and the Twitter account.
I guess it's X now to you know, reach out
to me and just say, hey, why don't you profile
this golf course. I'm open to anything. Really really a
lot of fun to do this. I get to talk
to some pretty interesting people. I get to talk about
some pretty interesting history. It's really really really kind of neat.
(24:45):
It's really kind of neat. So this week we are
going to talk highlight showcase Athens Country Club in Athens, Ohio,
home of the Ohio University, not Ohio State University. I
know I did it wrong. It's not it's not the
Ohio University it's the Ohio State University. It's Ohio University
(25:07):
over in Athens. Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow, big Ohio Valley guy,
you know, Cincinnati guy. You know, started at the Ohio
State you know. So he's from Athens, Ohio. So yeah,
we're gonna talk about Athens, Ohio. Okay, unique aspect of
I'll talk you about Athens country Club. Unique aspect of
that golf course. It's nine holes. Nine holes. They have
(25:33):
two sets of teas, so it's eighteen holes. The tea's
are are generally different enough that the holes are different.
You know. All this information comes from a young man
my named Nick Freimeyer. Nick is the general excuse me,
is the director of golf at Athens Country Club. He's
only been there a month or so month and a half,
(25:59):
so you know, that's kind of like I have a
lot in column with Nick because I've only been a
wheeling country club for eight weeks. So nine weeks, I guess.
So yeah, so Nick, Nick was kind enough to jump
on the phone and kind of give me some insight
as is what he knows about Athens's country Club. Obviously
know more as he gets more, as he grows into
(26:22):
his position. I would tell you that I'm going to
go over and see the facility for myself because I
I want to help him out with this golf operation
as a golf professional, but I also wanted to to
just meet him in person and kind of get familiar
with the facility that I'm going to remotely showcase. But
(26:44):
then the next time I talk about it, I can
be that much more informed and that much more intelligent
to speak intelligently about it. So Athens Country Club is very,
very very old. That's nice. And in nineteen twenty one,
god the named Donald Ross designed nine holes there were
There was golf there before that guy named Sergeant sa
(27:08):
Ar g E n T. But Donald Ross was brought
in two he did. He renovated seven of the nine
redesigned seven to nine holes. Two of Sergeant's holes are
still there, although Ross I believe did alter those as well.
(27:31):
It's about this time that Donald Ross was floating around
central Ohio. For you know, he did Lancaster Country Club
in Lancaster, Ohio. Here's a trivia question for you. The
most famous people from Lancaster, Ohio. General Sherman and his brother.
I don't know his first name, but General Sherman was
(27:53):
obviously graduate in the United States Military Academy and fought
for the Union in the Civil War. Also, his brother
created the Sherman Anti Trust Act. Both those guys are
from Lancaster, Ohio, and then he was also doing Lancaster.
He's also doing Sciota. Syota is where Jack Nicholas grew
up playing. Jack Grout was the head professional there for
(28:16):
ever and he taught Nicholas. So Donald Ross has a
strong history in Ohio. But anyway, this one was, as
I said, is nine holes course record is held by
guy named Arnold Palmer. He shot sixty three. It is
(28:36):
the Athens is the hometown and the home course. First
home course I've got named dal Finsterwald who won the
PGA of America Championship, PJA Championship. So I mean, that's
some pretty cool history. I think. I think it's some
really cool history actually, and that's just the tip of it. Uh.
(29:02):
The the first round of golf that was ever played
with Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer playing in the same
group was that link? What excuse me? Was it? Athens
Country Club? They had a they had a day for
(29:25):
dalfinster Wald after he won the PGA Championship, and they
called the the best player in Ohio and possibly the
best player in the world even then as a student
at the Ohio State University, and that was Jack Nicholas,
(29:46):
and he came down and he played as an amateur,
but that was the first time he ever played with
Arnold Palmer. The fairways and the greens are bent grass,
so they're sweet. Yeah. The thing is they also they
(30:07):
are now doing a t box renovation where they're putting
Bermuda in their tea boxes. So the whole golf course
is in really good shape almost all the time. They
have women's programs, they have men's programs. Nick and I
had a long conversation about some of the things he
should be doing just as a as I'm a thirty
year member of the PGA of America and he's that
(30:27):
young man's trying to work towards his membership, so I
have a little bit more go with that than he does.
You can get on the golf course, you really can.
It's just you would have to have your golf professional
call kind of. It is a private club. There are
ways to They're always to mitigate that. I'm not going
(30:50):
to talk about them on the on the radio. But
there are ways you can certainly call Nick and and
see what they can come up with their talk to
your local golf professional. If you're in Parkersburg, that's me.
And so just just remember, if you can get on
(31:11):
Athens Country Club, please do, please do. It is really
really really worth it. It is it's worth it. You can,
you can. You can go a lot worse get get
get be a lot worse off then than Athens Country Club.
You really really can. There's there's great history, there's great
(31:35):
great players are from there. It's a great community. So
just you know, just remember if you get a chance,
make sure that you jump on that. What I want
to do now is gonna take a commercial break, and
when I come back to the show, we will talk
about one of the more unique things about Athens Country
(31:57):
Club that is really, really really interesting. This is Off
the Fairway with Rich Conwell. Welcome back to Off the
Fairway with Rich Conwell. We left off we were talking
about the uniqueness and the interesting things about Athens Country
Club in Athens, Ohio. And you know, I did want
to give a special thank you to Nick Freimeier. He
(32:19):
is their Athens Country Club Director. Of golf. He is.
It's a nice young man. He took some time out
of his extremely busy schedule to spend some time with
me and on the phone just to kind of tell me,
just to kind of tell me a couple of unique
things about it all I want. I did want to
mention about Athens Country Club. They also do have a
(32:40):
full practice facility with a short game area, and they
are working on creating a simulator room in the clubhouse
for their members. So there's a lot of really good
things hanging happening in Athens Country Club. But one of
the most unique things about Athens Country Club, aside from
it being nine holes, aside from it being Donald Ross
(33:00):
and all of its unique things that I've already mentioned,
is that both the Ohio University men's and women's golf
teams play Athens Country Club and utilize Athens Country Club
as their home golf course, which is absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
(33:25):
It is really really really neat because you guys, nobody
would know this. I want some people would. The energy
that a college program brings to a facility is overwhelming.
One of the first things I did when I got
to the Parkersburg country club. Is I try to figure out
(33:45):
how I could get a Division two and a Division
three tournament there, and I did it. Next spring, we'll
do all three of them, will do three of them,
one men's, one women's Division two and one men's and
women's Division three. So here's my thing, the energy that brings.
And the other thing is the quality of play that brings.
(34:07):
College players are good. Oh use MAC Division one good.
I was. It's it's funny, I was. I was fortunate
enough to run across one of their players last night
who was up in Parkersburg, and and she was just saying,
how like absolutely good. All the kids are in the conference.
(34:34):
Her name is Sailor Worf. I'll have Sailor on at
some point to talk about mental mental game with golf.
But yeah, it's just it's just really really a feather
in their cap that they get to have those kids
on their property, playing their golf course, using their practice facility.
(34:55):
Could you imagine the amount of the amount of junior
stuff that that Nick will end up doing there because
of the interaction with college kids. You know what I've
you know what I learned a long time ago. And
this is this is also another thing that brings, it
brings it really really really home for facilities that can
host college golf programs, much like much like Athens Country Club,
(35:20):
much like willing Country Club did with Willie University. Is
when you get a youngster to see those kids hit
golf balls, they number one can see they could be
that good. The other thing they can do is that
might be the best player they ever see a close
hitting golf balls. It's really a cool thing to stand
(35:41):
beyond a really good, a good college player and watch
them hit shots. It's really cool. And like I said,
the energy and things like that they bring to the
they bring to the table, it's really really really neat
and it just gets a good it gets a good
vibe and a good good flow to Athens Country Club,
(36:03):
which is absolutely phenomenal for Nick and phenomenal for their
for their facility. So I wanted to thank Nick for
his effort. If you get a chance, take a look
at their website and it's Athens Athens country Club dot com.
And the other thing is what you really want to
do is you want to you want to go ahead
(36:25):
and see if you can't gain gain access to that
golf course. If I can help you please let me know,
but but please just just take advantage of it if
you can. Donald Ross was one of the if not
the best architect of all time. So that wraps up
our showcase spotlight, and then we're going to move into
the what I consider to be the toy department of
(36:47):
the of the show, which is mailbag. We're gonna call
this mail bag at this moment. At this time, I'm
just gonna go ahead and talk a little bit about
about what what some of the ways you can get
a hold of me are. It's I have several social
media outlets. The first one would be would be first off,
(37:12):
let's do this. I have I'm on several stations throughout
West Virginia. I'm on Fox Sports fourteen hundred and Wheeling,
one of three point nine FM in Wheeling, in Parkersburg,
I'm on News Talk nine ten WLTP, and Fox Sports
(37:34):
he at Huntington. Those three actually four chan four stations,
but three different cities, and I'm really honored to be
on them. So I just want to make sure that
I give I give you access to to how to listen.
I also have created social media pages for the show.
In the first one is x or Twitter, which is
(38:00):
which is that is at Conwall Golf Show at Conwell
Golf Show. Facebook is written the is Rich Conwoll Golf Show.
If you just type that in you'll find it uh.
And Instagram is also Rich Conwoll Golf Show the UH.
I will probably end up keeping those, although I changed
the name, but it's just it just seems to be there,
(38:23):
and I'll just kind of kind of just use that.
It's also easier that way than because off the Fairway
with rich Conwall can get to be a little hard
to type in and into your bookmarket. And so we're
just gonna probably stick with that. So I just wanted
to throw those out there again. I would I would
(38:43):
ask you please jump on those those social media's or
or you know, and I will create emails for them
as well. And and what I'm trying to do is
just get more interactive. Just I want to hear what
you want to hear about. I want to I want
to and you know, as I said, I want to educate.
(39:05):
I want to entertain you, maybe inspire. Maybe you have
a great golf story. Maybe you have a great golf story.
I would love to hear about it, you know, because
I don't hear about all of them. I mean, shockingly obviously, No,
I don't hear about all of them. You know, I
want to hear about your your interesting things. I want
to hear about, Hey, you know what my uncle had.
(39:25):
I don't want this to happen any but I had
a stroke, and you know, golf kind of brought them back,
you know, it gave him something to go do and
and things like that, and he's starting to get a
little rehab going and and in golf. Those are inspiring stories.
Those are inspiring stories, and think about yours and how
they can inspire somebody else. I'll share them. You know. Again,
(39:47):
it's it's it's it's incumbent upon me too to make
this as outgoing and incoming as I can. You know.
So it's as I said, Twitter, it's at Commonwall Golf Show.
Facebook it's Rich Combo Golf Show. And Instagram it's for
the Graham is Rich Combo Golf Show. It's just all
right there. And so I will do that every week.
(40:10):
I'll talk about those those outlets every week. I also
throw a little bit of uh, maybe once I get
some some prizes, we can do some some trivia and
do some interaction with that. I think that it would
be see if we can't get something going on. Also,
as I mentioned, uh the at the beginning of the
(40:30):
show or at the top of the show, I am
I am trying to find somebody who's willing to take
some golf lessons and I don't want paid uh and
and and share their story on how to break one hundred.
You're trying to break one hundred, trying to break ninety.
Any of that stuff I can do. You know, if
you have a company out there that has five or
six guys that play golf, and you know, we can
(40:52):
do a iHeartRadio can do a little little uh one
on one or one on five, you know, little group clinic.
You know, half hour full swing and half hour short
game or you know forty ten whatever and uh and
some lunch. Uh. You know they'll they'll uh I Heart
ready will be willing to do that and and and
Parkersburg Country will be willing to host it. So you know,
(41:15):
I just just want to throw out there that that's
it's kind of where we are. I mean, I mean
I I the door is wide open. This is about you,
the listener. I want to I want to give you
a reason. I want to make you feel compelled to
tune into those stations that I talked about, or get
on a podcast service and grab it. I know that,
(41:35):
you know, Parkersburg, Huntington, Wheeling, good sized cities. You know,
not Columbus, I know that, but good sized cities. A
lot of a lot of people into this stuff. So
it's about you, you know. I mean, who am I
to sit here and dictate what you should have to
listen to. I want to give you a reason to listen.
So we're gonna improve your golf game. I'm gonna inspire
you a little bit, do some trivia, maybe get some
(41:57):
interaction going. See if we can't get a uh see
if we can't get a little bit of a prize
pool going and see who we can come up with.
Maybe maybe at some point I will start to highlight
some trips you should make. Maybe I'll talk about some
of some of the places in West Virginia you should visit,
because I said there's a lot of nice ones. I
traveled pretty extensively with the Wheeling University cardinals and and
(42:20):
we saw some good places. Good place is affordable too,
you know. Obviously went to the Greenbriar. That's I don't
know how affordable that is. I don't know what the
definition of affordable it is down there. I know. I
know they don't either, So so my thing is is, yeah,
we can do it. Do some travel, no profile, some
(42:41):
golf courses get a little bit better, you know. See
if you can't see if you can't you know, uh,
pick up a tip I hate to work tip, pick
up a thought, pick up a thought that's going to
help your golf game. Me see how he keeps saying
you're your your right, So he keeps saying you're because
(43:04):
it's about you. You know, I don't have much of
a golf game anymore, and I quld play in pretty much.
And that's my fault too. So maybe maybe maybe that's
part of the saying. Maybe I maybe every week I
I give an update on how I'm doing. I don't know.
But it's it's about what compels you to listen. That's
(43:27):
what we need. What compels you to listen again? You know?
Uh in on Twitter at Connonwall Golf Show, Facebook, Rich
Commonwall Golf Show, Instagram, Rich common Wall Golf Show, reach Out,
hit me up, send me a message where they say
(43:50):
DM me. I'm not hip enough to say that, but
reach out. You know, I'm a Parkersburg country club. You know,
if you want to talk to me, just call me
and Tom talk to me. You know you want to
stop by and see me. You know, Yes, we're private,
so you're I canna throw you on the golf course.
(44:10):
You're not gonna go hit golf balls. But if you
want to come see me, do so. No tell me what,
tell me what's on your mind. I want to hear it,
I really do, so. I will list those when I
get back towards the end of the segment or the
end of the show rather, but I do. I do
(44:31):
want to tell a great golf story. I'm sure all
of you have seen the greatest game ever played. Francis
we met beats Harry Varden and Ted ray Aten whole playoff,
you know, a long time ago. He's an amateur underdog,
all that stuff. You know. He's in Brookline Brookline Country
(44:55):
Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, walks across the street from his
parents to play qualified all that good stuff. So he
had a caddie, a little moon faced kid, You've seen
pictures of it. And his name was Eddie. Lowry. After
Eddie Lowry was done growing up, moved to California and
(45:17):
created became very wealthy with car dealerships, really wealthy, did
quite well for himself and love golf, love golf. He's
a car dealer, love golf, so he used to help
out young players. He would make them salesman and they
(45:38):
wouldn't have to sell cars, but they'd have to go
hit golf balls over the days of those. So so
Eddie Lowry wins his for his guy Francis. We met
in nineteen thirteen the US Open. Later on he gets
to be a pretty big car dealer, starts to help
(45:58):
some people, support some people, bankroll some people, one of
them being a Harvey Ward that never turned professional, you know,
wanted them to get better, always trying to push them,
you know, be the best, be the best, be the best.
So in nineteen sixty four, which would be fifty one
years after, for instance, we met Eddie Lowry had taken
(46:27):
under a young professional who was going through some health
issues with some hand issues and some nerve damage and
bankrolled him to play in the US Open at Congressional
in nineteen sixty four. And I'm going to tell you
that that young professional one. It was Ken Venturie. He's
(46:51):
passed away wing calm. Was we could say was Ken Venturi.
Unbelievably good guy, unbelievably good guy, unbelievably talented, always credited
friends as we met. I mean Eddie Lowry was helping him.
So Eddie Lowry is technically a two time US Open champion,
(47:13):
but at the same time he's not a champion because
he didn't play. But he facilitated two championships. He facilitated
two championships, one in Massachusetts another one from his chair
in California, for ken Venturie to become one of the
(47:35):
most feel good stories of all time. The nineteen sixty
four US Open Ken Venturi champion suffered through heat prostration
for thirty six holes. So again, thank you for listening
to Off the Fairway with Rich Conwell. I look forward
to many many, many great great segments and many great
(47:58):
shows moving forward. But thank you for listening, and have
a great day.
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