May 30, 2026 • 48 mins
Rich flies solo this week, and begins with some huge news for the show. He then dives into a recap of the PGA Championship, how to fix a flaw within the PGA of America, and the troubles of Tiger Woods.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Rich Komwall Golf Show. There's been some
big developments in the life of the Golf Show and
I am now Yeah, I am now on three major
markets in all of West Virginia, all iHeartRadio. I was
always on Wheeling, Fox Sports and Wheeling, but I am
(00:23):
now on Radio nine to ten WLTP News Radio nine
ten WLTP in Parkersburg, and I am also in Huntington.
I'm on Fox Sports fourteen twenty. So that is really, really,
really cool. So I want to thank iHeartRadio and all
the listeners for actually tuning in when you do, and
(00:46):
also interestingly enough all those that are following up by
listening to the podcast. But so I wanted to reach
out to all those listeners and say thank you for listening,
and before we get started this week, I didn't want
to take a moment and say thank you. All right,
So now starting this week, this week, oddly enough, I
(01:08):
am I do not have a guest this week. I
had a little bit of a technical difficulty and a
little bit of miscommunication, and so I am flying solo
this week, which is actually okay, I haven't done that,
and I think thirty or thirty or forty shows, So
this is kind of going to be a little bit different.
(01:30):
This is going to be it's going to kind of
cover a lot of different topics in three different segments.
But that's okay because because I'm actually digging deeper into
actually what we want to do with the with the
radio show and with the podcast, because we are in
season four, I want to make sure that I take
(01:51):
this the way that that the audience wants it to
go and give them a reason to listen. So we're
going to start this week by talking about the PGA
Championship that was just concluded, won by Aaron Raie, obviously
a very very very good player. I'm gonna have a
little bit of take on, a little bit of different
take on the PGA Championship this week this year. I mean,
(02:15):
you know, Aaron shoots nine under obviously made like what
probably felt like to him and like looked like on
TV at nine hundred foot Birdie pot. But it was
a signature moment and he's a really interesting story for
a lot of different reasons. But I'm gonna comment this
(02:37):
a little differently. I was I received a phone call
from a family member. I will be honest with my
son Drew, who said that the problem with that PGA
championship is that winner does not have any what he
called aura. I guess maybe I don't know swags, sachet,
whatever fancy term you want to use. And I listened
(02:58):
to him and I'm like, yeah, but you don't understand
how good he is. He goes, no, No, I'm not saying
he's not good. He's unbelievably good. But so I took
I took a look at this historically speaking, and you know,
obviously Aaron Rai will be the PGA Championship, PGA Champion
in twenty twenty six, forever and ever and ever, and
(03:21):
that's awesome. But the flip side of this is, let's
think about all the people that are the PGA champion
or the US Open champion or the Masters champion that
we don't assign aura too. You know, I just quickly
(03:42):
kind of joke my memory. Look at Bobby Nichols won
the PGA Championship in nineteen sixty four, Wayne Grady won
in nineteen ninety. You know, Lou Graham won the US
Open in nineteen seventy five. Jeff Ogilby won it in
two thousand and six, Zach Johnson Masters champion in two
thousand and seven. Ford won the Masters in nineteen fifty seven.
(04:02):
Now you can say that those people are you know
as a young person who say, who, well, those people
are major champions. So I wanted to actually make a
point with this. Thank god, he's gonna make a point, right.
Not all majors are won by top ten players of
all time, nor should they be. What we really need
(04:27):
to do is we need to have and that actually
that viewpoint of they're not won by top ten players
of all time gives you a better idea of exactly
how incredible an effort it is to win a major
championship not positioned as a top ten player of all time.
(04:47):
You know, Jack Nicholas won eighteen professional majors nineteen and
Tigers won fifteen and kept a mister Hogan won nine. Okay,
So it's amazing to me that we tend to discount
(05:14):
when one of those top ten guys don't win a major.
It's it's a lesser known, it's a lesser of a major.
I would argue the other way, the greater accomplishment to
win a major championship from a an underdog position or
a not power position than it is to do it
from a power position. So let's look at Bobby Nichols,
(05:41):
who wins the PG eight in nineteen sixty four. You
know what we don't really, what we don't know a
lot of people don't know, is he was in a
horrific car accident when he was eighteen years old. But
that doesn't really matter. That's not that really not to
remain to my point. My point is he won a
major championship in ninety teen sixty four. Well, that means
(06:03):
he beat Palmer, he beat Nicholas, he beat Gary Player,
look at the players he beat. What an amazing accomplishment
that is, What an amazing accomplishment that is. And so
rather than look down on his accomplishment, I think accomplishment
(06:24):
should be celebrated, maybe more so than the accomplishments of
those who want it from a river, the driver's seat,
or a position of powers that way, the power position.
You know, I'm not saying that it's easy to win
a major championship if your Tiger Woods or Jack Nicholas
or Brooks Koepka or mister Hogan, but I would make
(06:47):
an argument that it's easier to do it from that
position than it is to do it from Aaron Ry's position,
Zach Johnson's position, way way easier. Nicholas said it himself
every major championship. I knew there were a lot of
guys who couldn't win the major championship, so I had
(07:08):
to beat less people. Now, imagine being one of the
guys that won a major championship that he discounted, who
considered whatever you want to call it, discounted as unable
to win a major championship. That's a massive accomplishment. It's
not an upset, it's not an underdog story for the ages.
(07:30):
It's a massive accomplishment. And I think it too often
gets overlooked when a name or a power player doesn't
win a major. Who did win the major? That's incredible
that he did that. That is incredible he did that.
(07:52):
Not only did they win, but who they beat. I mean,
so I flashed back it because I'm an old guy,
asked my son. But I love history. I love the
history of this game. Love the history of this game.
You'll think about this for a man. Lou Graham wins
the US Open in nineteen seventy five. Hey er Win
(08:14):
won in nineteen seventy four, he won three US Opens.
Lee Trevino won in seventy one. He won every major
except for the Masters. Nicholas won in seventy two. He
won every major, every major. Lou Graham beat those guys.
(08:36):
Gary Player won the Grand Slam. Lou grahamt beat him.
He was in that field, Palmer was in that field.
That's amazing accomplishment. Let's not look at it as like
an anomaly. Let's not look at it as an underdog story.
(08:58):
Let's look at it as a massive accomplishment. So I
defend these winners, not on did they win? Not only
did they win? Who they beat? Think about that for
a minute. Are they cool? Do they have aura? Who cares?
(09:22):
Would ratings have been better? Yeah? Who cares? Ratings would
have been better if bros Kopka was chasing down Scotti
Scheffler or Scotti Chefer was chasing now John Kepka. I'm
not arguing that they are forever major champions. And they
(09:46):
took whatever the Gulf world could throw at them that week.
They did. And if you look at it that way
as the major accomplishment, the other thing you start to
look at is Wow, how amazing of accomplished. Is it
to win more than one? Because not only did you
take it from what the world you withstood what the
(10:10):
world of golf had to throw at you, but you
withstood it more than once. You know, think about other sports,
Think about other sports. Omar Marino, centerfielder of Pittsburgh Pirates,
(10:30):
won a World Series in nineteen seventy nine. It's an
amazing accomplishment. Do you know what other center fielders have
won the World Series? Yeah, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio.
This guy won it once. He withstood all that they
(10:52):
hadn't throw at him and did it. So you start
looking at these people and you start looking at it
from that perspective. You know, there's a guy named Bo Bennett.
Bo Bennett played professional hockey and want to stay in
the Cup of Pittsburgh Penguins. H He was stood with
(11:16):
the National Hockey League threw in him through an entire
year to win as a team. Now, look at Aaron Raie,
look at Bobby Nichols, look at Wayne Grady. They stood
as an individual with the golf world had to throw
at them that week on golf's biggest stage. That's the
(11:41):
other thing I have massive respect for anybody who who
plays at the highest level, massive respect. But when you
beat the world of golf on golf's highest stay age,
hottest stage, highest stage, brightest light stage, that's a greater
(12:08):
accomplishment from a non power player. When I say power
of me hitting it far, I mean from a non
power position. You know those guys, those multi pole major winners, Yeah,
they had to play well, but they have a little
bit of aura of an aura talking about that word again,
(12:29):
a little bit of a swagger on them about Ben
they're done that, gonna do it again. Aaron Right doesn't
have that. He didn't have that going into that week.
Zach Johnson didn't have it, Doug Ford didn't have it.
Now they do. But think of it in terms of that.
(12:55):
Think of it in terms of that level of accomplishment
and the odds that are kind of stacked against you
to do it. The greatest player of all time said, hey,
I knew most of the field couldn't win the Major.
(13:15):
And for the people I just mentioned, that's who he's
talking about, but they defied that. They threw at it
at they threw back, they punched back, and they won.
It's not an upset. It's an accomplishment. It's not oral less,
(13:36):
it's an accomplishment. I mean there are people like I
was fortunate enough to meet a guy named Bobby Shantz.
Bobby Shantz won World Series of the New York Yankees,
won gold gloves. He told me he was the first one.
(13:57):
Was unbelievable. I didn't. I never thought it would be me.
I promise you that the first major that Bobby Nichols
won was in nineteen sixty four. PJ. I'm quite sure
he thought to himself, I never thought it'd be me.
So when you look at events like this and maybe
(14:19):
it don't make your root for people that aren't in
those power positions. We're going to the US Open in June.
We're going to the US Open in June and not
going physically, but they're playing the US Open in June.
Maybe there's somebody there that wants to look the golf
(14:39):
world in the eye and say, you know what, you
don't think I can do this. I can accomplish this.
Not upset this, not wiggle, not waiver, hang around, make
for a good story. No, I can do this, and
I'm gonna do it, and that's gonna be an accomplishment
(15:01):
for the ages. You know, Jim Nantz won for the
Ages when Tiger wanted the Masters. Yeah, I'd make an
argument that Bobby Nichols, Lou Graham, Jeff Ogilvie, Wayne Grady,
Doug Ford, Zach Johnson, Aaron Rye one for the ages.
That's an accomplishment for the ages. Because the other thing
(15:24):
is Tiger was expected to do that. He lived up
the expectations. Great accomplishment. Those other people I mentioned, they
superseded expectations. They accomplished expectations that nobody assigned to them
other than themselves. And that's why it's an accomplishment. When
(15:48):
we come back, we'll be talking about a different topic
in the world of golf. This is the rich Comwoll
Golf Show. Welcome back to the rich Comwoll Golf Show.
We spent the first episode, episode first segment trying to
kind of put a little bit of a different spin
(16:10):
on first time major winners or one time major winners
being viewed as great accomplishments as opposed to a one
off or a not dramatic exciting event. You know, I
just I just think we should give a little more
(16:30):
credit than we do to one time major winners, but
for that week, that's a magical week for them. It's
a magical week for golf. Could you imagine if the
same person won every time? Could you imagine if the
same person, like nobody ever like stood up and kind
a little bit of you know, David and Goliath and said,
(16:51):
you know what, I can do this. I can do
this because you can make an argument that the David
and Goliath thing was literally the definition of self belief. So,
you know, so hopefully I kind of not I'm going
to change your mind, but hopefully kind of gets you
to look at it a little differently. So in the
(17:13):
second segment, we are going to look at an organize
an association, an organization association that is near and dear
to my heart, and that's the PGA of America. I
absolutely love being a member of the pg of America.
I need to say that right now. Okay, I absolutely
love it. It was a it's a lifetime accomplishment for me.
(17:37):
It is. It's a lifetime accomplishment for me. You know,
it's funny. Obviously, I'm I'm not I'm not egotistical enough
to put my name in the same vein as somebody
like Thomas Jefferson whatever. But you know, they say that
your tombstone should display your proudest accomplishments. Jefferson's was Declaration
(18:01):
of Independence and you know, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom,
not the presidency, but that's what he was proud of stuff.
I'm obviously Jefferson had children, as do I, and I'm
proud of the fact that I've been I'm married, and
i have two children, and they're doing well, and you know,
(18:21):
we have a really good relationship, and I have really
good friends. But like, professionally speaking, my protest accomplishment is
to be a PGA of America member. I mean literally,
you know, my individual story, it was probably not destined
to be that, you know, it really really really wasn't.
(18:46):
I'm not your typical, you know kid that you would
look at and say that guy's going to be a
golf professional. But that makes me very, very proud to
be a PJA of America member. It really does. There's
thirty two thirty four thousand of us in the United
States of America. I mean, I'm so I'm so proud
(19:08):
of it that when I went to see my daughter
in Austria, i tried to find the Austrian PGA to
knock on Doorn, introduced myself and they'll take a picture
with the Austrian PGA logo. Couldn't quite pull that off,
but did stumble into the Austrian tour, which was not
(19:30):
what I was looking for. I was looking for that
the Austrian PGA. But so I just I have to
tell you that I'm super, super, super proud of be
a member of the PGA of America. You know it's
the largest sports association in the United States of America,
but you didn't know that it is. It is. It
(19:57):
is the We are, the members of the PJ of
America are the experts in the game of golf. PG
of America is our flag that we stand under and
we wave to run to declare that we are the
(20:20):
leaders in the game of golf. PG of America is
a tremendous association. PG of America is tremendously broken as well,
and it saddens me to say that, but it's currently broken,
and I'm going to talk about that for a few minutes.
And I want this to be clear. I am not
(20:45):
after any individual. I'm not criticizing any individual. I'm not
criticizing anything. I'm criticizing my association. I love the p
But the PGA of America in traditional as the largest
(21:06):
sports association in the United States, in traditional sense, has
no benefits for its members the traditional sense. We have
no traditional retirement plan, we have no traditional health insurance.
(21:28):
We have no employment security. And that's from the members themselves.
That's like me, I'm the head god Professional Parkers our
country club. I don't have any of that through the
PGA of America. We have. And you can make the argument,
(21:56):
and I would listen to you if you did that.
You know, any job has no employment security and they
could walk in and get ready tomorrow. I know that,
but like there's really, really really we You're the largest
association in the United States, sports Association of the United States.
(22:17):
You would think that if things get a little wonky
your employer, with your employer, you could call somebody and say, hey,
you know, or they could call somebody and say, hey,
we need to talk about this now. They just make
(22:37):
it to change go in a different direction. And the
other problem with that, we'll talk about the employment security
situation for a few minutes, is is the other thing
is is we have thirty two thousand members of the
PGA of America. There are twelve thousand golf courses. So
(23:00):
we're upside down mortgage term, upside down supplying demand. We're
upside down with supplying demand. So when a facility gets
a little uncomfortable or disappointed or thinks things could be
(23:24):
better from their golf professional's office, they don't knock on
the door and say, hey, let's talk about this. No,
they say, there's a lot of people out there looking
for a job. We can we can replace you. And
(23:45):
so that's what I talk about employment security. You know.
It's like it's almost like the cool major in college.
You know, the cool major is whatever it might be,
you know, And I'm just sitting here at a radio board,
so I'm just gonna I'm not gonna single out a major,
(24:05):
but like, you know, maybe your major was speaker because
I see a speaker here in the radio station. And
then then all the universities flood the market with speaker
majors all of a sudden. It's like, hey, you know what,
your income goes down because we can pay you less
because there's more of you it supply and demand. And oh,
(24:25):
by the way, when that speaker doesn't work exactly the
way we want it to. We're not gonna like try
to change the volume. We'll just change speakers. That's what
happens when you flood the market with a major That's
what happens when you flood the golf industry with members.
(24:47):
Twelve thousand versus thirty two thousand. Okay, so even if
every golf facility in the country employed two PGA members,
we would still have more members than positions. And yeah,
you can make the argument, Okay, there's also driving ranges,
(25:09):
and that's fine, I'll give you all that. So there's
twenty thousand, I still have thirty two thousand members. That's
part of the broken problem. So then you have to
ask yourself. And this is where the PGA of America,
(25:32):
in my opinion, and again I love the PGA of
America in my opinion, what we've created, we created we
were upside down the supply and demand, and what we've
done has wed made it too easy to become a member.
So in other words, we want to say we're the
elite and we are the leaders in the golf business,
(25:52):
but we didn't teach anybody to be a leader in
the golf business. We told them, if you just can
do this basic skill. You remember, I would tell you
up until about four years ago, and this is the
way I'm wired. If you put me in a room
(26:13):
of golf professionals, I'd look around and say, you know what,
there's twenty guys in here. I'm probably seventeenth eighteenth, nineteenth
best because those guys are so good. You put me
in a room of twenty golf professionals. Now that switch
not because I got smarter overnight, because our talent pool
(26:37):
is watered down. You know the old saying. If anybody,
if anybody could be a doctor, we'd all be doctors.
If anybody can be an accountant, we'd all be accountants.
If it were easy to become a doctor, we would
(26:59):
all be doctors or accountants or lawyers. It's not you know,
there's a there's a there's a thought process that you
know what. We needed that to have our membership rolls
up and our dues flow and all that. Okay, so
(27:22):
you got people to be members, but you can't get
them jobs, or you can't get them quality, quality, high
paying jobs. So they stay at facilities, and they stay
in their industry. They stay in the game. They maintain
their membership for thirty and forty years. So now, because
(27:50):
I'm not trashing but calling out the truth, how do
we fix it? Well, we become what we call member
first organization. A member first organization, create benefits, you know,
(28:14):
have access to discounts from major companies that only PGA
members have access to. Go to titleist and say, listen,
you know what, he's a PGA member. He gets one
percent off invoices. Does it really really really impact the
(28:35):
member of my club or the end user? Probably not,
But the facility looks at it like, okay, we own
the golf shop and now we have the best price
in going just because Di's bought you know, five hundred
million dozen and I bought five million dozen, they get
a better price. Mean, now they don't. They get the
(28:56):
price that is negotiated through the PGA of America PGA professionals.
So guess what all of a sudden dick starts the
highgolf professionals create a national health healthcare plan, and the
PGA of America is always pushed back with well we
(29:17):
have people in all but fifty states and okay, great, okay,
if you say so, are you gonna tell me that
the American Cancer Society doesn't have a health insurance program.
They're everywhere. You're gonna tell me that places do not
(29:39):
have health care because they're national. Come on, you can
get United Healthcare everywhere in the country. Are you gonna
tell me that that there wouldn't be healthcare companies chomping
at the bit to offer us some sort of discount
to be the official healthcare provider of the p Do
(30:00):
you have America? And then you turn around and say, hey, listen,
we have their health insurance covered. Why wouldn't you hire them?
Why wouldn't you pay them more? Hmm? How about that retirement?
Can't tell me you can't come up with some sort
of national retirement program. And I know the first answer
(30:22):
to be to all this, and I've thrown this at
people in the hierarchy of the PJ of America. Well,
where's the money that come from? How much money you
make on the Ryder Cup? Oh, by the way, we
own the Ryder Cup. To PJ America owns a Ryder Cup.
They also winn the PGA Championship. Don't tell me we
don't have any money. Don't tell me we can't be
a member first, So I'm not trashing the PJ of
(30:49):
America at all. I'm just calling it out and I'm
gonna fix it. You know me sitting here in the
studios in Parkersburg, West Virginia, one PG memory, I'm gonna
fix it. I don't have a lot of help, but
I'm gonna turn us into an association that is the leaders.
(31:12):
It is the ultimate leaders in the golf industry. Not oh,
excuse me, Can I talk to you about something? No,
they have to come talk to me, talk to us,
because we're it. You want to know something, We're it.
(31:34):
We have to make ourselves so highly trained that facilities
can't live without us. We want our association to offer
benefits to our members that we can't refuse. We can't
walk away from it. And we will fix it. I
will fix it, and I will keep you posting. This
(31:55):
is the rich comwoll Golf Show. Welcome back to the
rich Comono Golf Show. I'm flying solo this week. I
did want to make mention of the fact that I
am now on three stations in West Virginia, Wheeling Fox Sports,
Wheeling News Radio nine to ten WLTP in Parkersburg, and
(32:17):
Fox Sports fourteen twenty in Huntington, and I wanted to
welcome all the listeners and I wanted to thank you
for your support. I saw some numbers the other day
from from a station manager's station manager our iHeartRadio station
manager in Wheeling that I've had a download of the podcast,
(32:41):
which obviously this goes from not obviously it goes from
the radio show into a podcast. I had it a
download in the Ukraine. I had a download in Pakistan.
So it's pretty amazing to me that happens. But it's
really cool that I'm on I'm all over West Virginia
(33:05):
because I do work in West Virginia and I live
very close to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. So it's it's
really it's really really kind of cool to have all
that exposure. And I appreciate the faith that they have
in me to do this, and I appreciate everybody listening.
So now get into the meat of the of the
(33:29):
this message for this segment, and we'll conclude the show
this week talking about this. We're going to talk about
Tiger Woods. This is going to get kind of really
human here pretty quickly. But Tiger Woods is I'm not
Tiger Woods. I don't know if you knew that or not,
but I'm not. I will never win fifteen majors. I
will not have that aura. Back to that word again,
(33:52):
I will not have that money. I will not have
that notoriety good and bad. And why do I say
this Because we don't need Tiger Woods to have all
that good and bad. We don't need them to have
that today. What we do need is him around, functioning alive.
(34:23):
Now do I sound dramatic, probably, but let's think about
something from that. He's had a lot of injuries, you know,
spine surgeries, spine two point oh, spine three point oh,
and achilles and that leg. He's got a lot of problems,
a lot of problems. More importantly, he's had three vehicle
(34:46):
involved incidents, rolled over twice in two of them, went
over an embankment and rolled over in a neighborhood. I
don't know if you have rolled over in a car.
I did when I was I guess I would have
turned just eighteen at Schippensburg University. We went to State
(35:09):
College to see a friend of mine and the guy
driving the car was driving too fast. We lost control
of the car, rolled over to an embankment two and
a half times. Nobody died, thankfully at our seatbelts on.
But I can still hear the music from the radio
(35:35):
when I when when we stopped, I can still feel
the gasoline dripping because you're upside down, so it was
I don't know if it was gassing. I'm not a
I'm not a mechanic. I can still see the person
pull over on the side of the road up the embankment,
waving telling us that help us on the way. So
(36:01):
it was pretty traumatic. And I'm not exactly I'm not
twenty four years old, so it wasn't like just three
years ago. It was almost almost forty years ago. Now.
Now go back to Tiger Woods. He's rolled over twice
this car once and again. As I said in the neighborhood,
the third incident was he was stopped on the side
(36:23):
of a highway. And let's just be let's just be
really clear. Now, I can't say what the first rollover
accident was. The embankment was. It happened in the morning.
He was not tested heart his leg very very very badly.
He was not tested for anything. To my knowledge. They
(36:45):
don't call me and tell me what they did. But
when he was stopped on the side of the road,
he was obviously impaired. He rolled over in the neighborhood.
Just recently they tested him and he was impaired. So
(37:11):
that's what that's that's the tiger we don't need. We
need him alive in functioning. As I said before, I
would be willing to bet you that it is safe
to say that he has addiction issues. I'm not him.
I don't know how much pain he's in. I don't know.
I don't know how much how much addictive personality is
(37:39):
in him. Definitely safe to say he has judgment issues.
I mean, seriously, let's think about that for a minute.
You know, and you and you're you're lying to yourself.
If he didn't say, you know what, he's not very bright.
If he if he didn't call for me drive him.
(38:00):
They call it impaired for a reason means your judgment
is impaired. He didn't suddenly become stupid. I don't think
he's ever been stupid at all. I think he has
impaired judgment. That's why he drives. Impaired. They're not talking
(38:22):
about they're not talking about your golf swing. When they
say you're impaired. They're not talking about your you know,
your bank account when they say you're impaired, talk about
your judgment and your functioning ability in society. You're impaired.
So what's the ideal outcome? He's healthy and clean, right,
(38:49):
that's the ideal outcome. So that's the idea outcome. And
I started this segment with I am not all the
tiger is. I'm not you know, I don't have the
fifteen majors. I don't have the dollars, I don't have
the oora. I don't have all that. I have the
(39:12):
same addictive problem he does. I've dealt with mine for
a long time. For a long time. He's dealing with his,
(39:32):
relatively speaking in short term kind of recently. I knock
on wood get through every day for a long time.
So I don't have I don't have a relapse to
speak of. I actually don't have a relapse at all.
So I can't speak to anything. I can't speak to that.
(39:54):
And I don't know that he ever had a relapse either,
because I don't think he ever, I don't know that
sat down and said okay, you know what this is it.
I'm powerless over this I'm gonna and for those of
you who have been down the road that I'm talking
about right now, the word powerless is means a lot.
(40:15):
I don't know if he's ever said that. I don't think.
I think it's probably I'm projecting. I think it's probably
really really hard to say that when you are somebody
like that. I mean, how hard would it be to
say that if you were a famous movie star, a
famous athlete, a famous government official. I mean, seriously, your
(40:39):
entire life, you have been on a different plane than
most people. So now all of a sudden, you're gonna
you're gonna you're gonna have to look in a room
or look in the mirror and say, I'm powerless over
I don't know, canna beer, I'm powerless over pain medication.
(40:59):
That's It's a huge step. I've taken that step. It's
a hard step to take. I would think it would
be way more hard for somebody of that scope. So
(41:20):
why do I say all this Because I've been lucky
enough to actually share the same message with other people
who have been impaired addicted in the golf world. No less,
and I think the thing, and I'm sure he'll never
(41:41):
hear this. I hope he does. If anybody knows, anybody,
just you know, ask him to listen. But I've said
it to tour players, I've said it to world class
tour players. You'll be okay, but you got to take
the first up. And the thing of it is is
(42:04):
that first step is the hardest one to take. You know.
I heard a great saying today the road to nowhere,
any any road will take you there. There's only one
road that helps in this one, and that's when you
have to take the first step to say, Okay, I
can't do this. I'm powerless over this. A need help.
(42:32):
So that's that's my view of this. You know, let's
get past let's get past the fact that he's Tiger Woods.
Let's get past the fact that some other people have
(42:53):
come out and said they had they had problems. You know,
let's get past it. Get let's get past that and
and encourage that individual, every individual that we know that
we may have a problem, to take the first step.
(43:20):
And so obviously everybody wishes him well, we want him
walking around, we want him to be that guy. He's
fifty years old now, So like you know, there are
people that look at him as the quote unquote old guy.
But like we want him to be around, to be
the old guy. We wanted to take care of the closet.
(43:41):
So we can just be done with all this, you know,
so we get the best of him, you know, because
there are major winners out there that say they played
this game, they grew to love this game because of him.
So let's make sure that you know, he's around to
get other people inspired, to to encourage other people. You know,
(44:04):
he's got he's got great initiatives, schools and and and
and and the Tiger Woods Foundation and and all those things.
Let's happen around here for a long time. So that's
my that's my good of the good of the world.
Good to the golf world. Message to him and to
(44:27):
anybody that is in the golf world that is struggling.
You know, you're you'll be okay. You're worth it, you know.
And it's funny you think to yourself, you know what,
how can Tiger Woods think he and I'm just picking
on him now, but I'm not picking on him. I'm
just speaking about him. You know, how can how can
(44:47):
he not know he's worth it? Well, when's the last
time he played in a major championship. When's the last
time he completed four rounds in a major championship? It's
two years ago. What's the guy Ben's since he was
six on the Mike Douglas or four or whatever, he's
been that woke up? He's not that anymore? How hard
(45:09):
must that be? Let's think about that for a minute.
How many people do we know? How many stories do
you hear of leaving the National Football Like? And you're
the guy, you're that guy? Then you're not that guy.
You've been that guy since you were eight or nine, ten, twelve, fourteen,
(45:35):
You're not that guy anymore? Wow, Wait a minute? Who
am I? Who am I? You know, I talked to
Steve Weacroft and Steve's a good friend of mine. Steve's really, really,
really really doing great stuff. Great stuff, I mean great stuff.
(46:04):
But you know he would tell you that he was
Steve the golfer, and then when he didn't want to
be Steve the golfer anymore, or he couldn't be Steve
the golfer anymore, he didn't know who he was. And
I'm not minimizing his accomplishments. He still holds records on
the corn Ferry Tour. He's still unbelievable player, unbelievably good guy.
But if that guy couldn't identify, couldn't self identify, how
(46:31):
difficult must it be to be Tiger Woods? How difficult
must it be to be I used to be? Now
you are? Now? You got to be that you are
right now. So that's this is all said to hopefully
(46:55):
maybe I catch somebody with this, you know, And I
know I've been talking about Tiger, and I know I
talked about myself a little bit, but you know what,
I hey, you know what, you'll be? Okay, You're not that,
you know. For a long time I saw myself as
you know, funny drunk guy. I wasn't that. Then I
(47:24):
had to realize what I was. So I'm just hoping
that this message is received well. And I hope if
he ever does hear it. You know, he knows a
lot of people are pulling for him, but we need
him alive around functioning, you know, so we can talk
about what he accomplished and what he is still accomplishing.
(47:49):
And I want to thank before I wrap up this show,
I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to
I want to welcome all the listeners in all those
stations I mentioned, and I want to thank all of
you for supporting the Rich Combogov Show. This is the
Rich Combogov Show.
Welcome to the Rich Komwall Golf Show. There's been some
big developments in the life of the Golf Show and
I am now Yeah, I am now on three major
markets in all of West Virginia, all iHeartRadio. I was
always on Wheeling, Fox Sports and Wheeling, but I am
(00:23):
now on Radio nine to ten WLTP News Radio nine
ten WLTP in Parkersburg, and I am also in Huntington.
I'm on Fox Sports fourteen twenty. So that is really, really,
really cool. So I want to thank iHeartRadio and all
the listeners for actually tuning in when you do, and
(00:46):
also interestingly enough all those that are following up by
listening to the podcast. But so I wanted to reach
out to all those listeners and say thank you for listening,
and before we get started this week, I didn't want
to take a moment and say thank you. All right,
So now starting this week, this week, oddly enough, I
(01:08):
am I do not have a guest this week. I
had a little bit of a technical difficulty and a
little bit of miscommunication, and so I am flying solo
this week, which is actually okay, I haven't done that,
and I think thirty or thirty or forty shows, So
this is kind of going to be a little bit different.
(01:30):
This is going to be it's going to kind of
cover a lot of different topics in three different segments.
But that's okay because because I'm actually digging deeper into
actually what we want to do with the with the
radio show and with the podcast, because we are in
season four, I want to make sure that I take
(01:51):
this the way that that the audience wants it to
go and give them a reason to listen. So we're
going to start this week by talking about the PGA
Championship that was just concluded, won by Aaron Raie, obviously
a very very very good player. I'm gonna have a
little bit of take on, a little bit of different
take on the PGA Championship this week this year. I mean,
(02:15):
you know, Aaron shoots nine under obviously made like what
probably felt like to him and like looked like on
TV at nine hundred foot Birdie pot. But it was
a signature moment and he's a really interesting story for
a lot of different reasons. But I'm gonna comment this
(02:37):
a little differently. I was I received a phone call
from a family member. I will be honest with my
son Drew, who said that the problem with that PGA
championship is that winner does not have any what he
called aura. I guess maybe I don't know swags, sachet,
whatever fancy term you want to use. And I listened
(02:58):
to him and I'm like, yeah, but you don't understand
how good he is. He goes, no, No, I'm not saying
he's not good. He's unbelievably good. But so I took
I took a look at this historically speaking, and you know,
obviously Aaron Rai will be the PGA Championship, PGA Champion
in twenty twenty six, forever and ever and ever, and
(03:21):
that's awesome. But the flip side of this is, let's
think about all the people that are the PGA champion
or the US Open champion or the Masters champion that
we don't assign aura too. You know, I just quickly
(03:42):
kind of joke my memory. Look at Bobby Nichols won
the PGA Championship in nineteen sixty four, Wayne Grady won
in nineteen ninety. You know, Lou Graham won the US
Open in nineteen seventy five. Jeff Ogilby won it in
two thousand and six, Zach Johnson Masters champion in two
thousand and seven. Ford won the Masters in nineteen fifty seven.
(04:02):
Now you can say that those people are you know
as a young person who say, who, well, those people
are major champions. So I wanted to actually make a
point with this. Thank god, he's gonna make a point, right.
Not all majors are won by top ten players of
all time, nor should they be. What we really need
(04:27):
to do is we need to have and that actually
that viewpoint of they're not won by top ten players
of all time gives you a better idea of exactly
how incredible an effort it is to win a major
championship not positioned as a top ten player of all time.
(04:47):
You know, Jack Nicholas won eighteen professional majors nineteen and
Tigers won fifteen and kept a mister Hogan won nine. Okay,
So it's amazing to me that we tend to discount
(05:14):
when one of those top ten guys don't win a major.
It's it's a lesser known, it's a lesser of a major.
I would argue the other way, the greater accomplishment to
win a major championship from a an underdog position or
a not power position than it is to do it
from a power position. So let's look at Bobby Nichols,
(05:41):
who wins the PG eight in nineteen sixty four. You
know what we don't really, what we don't know a
lot of people don't know, is he was in a
horrific car accident when he was eighteen years old. But
that doesn't really matter. That's not that really not to
remain to my point. My point is he won a
major championship in ninety teen sixty four. Well, that means
(06:03):
he beat Palmer, he beat Nicholas, he beat Gary Player,
look at the players he beat. What an amazing accomplishment
that is, What an amazing accomplishment that is. And so
rather than look down on his accomplishment, I think accomplishment
(06:24):
should be celebrated, maybe more so than the accomplishments of
those who want it from a river, the driver's seat,
or a position of powers that way, the power position.
You know, I'm not saying that it's easy to win
a major championship if your Tiger Woods or Jack Nicholas
or Brooks Koepka or mister Hogan, but I would make
(06:47):
an argument that it's easier to do it from that
position than it is to do it from Aaron Ry's position,
Zach Johnson's position, way way easier. Nicholas said it himself
every major championship. I knew there were a lot of
guys who couldn't win the major championship, so I had
(07:08):
to beat less people. Now, imagine being one of the
guys that won a major championship that he discounted, who
considered whatever you want to call it, discounted as unable
to win a major championship. That's a massive accomplishment. It's
not an upset, it's not an underdog story for the ages.
(07:30):
It's a massive accomplishment. And I think it too often
gets overlooked when a name or a power player doesn't
win a major. Who did win the major? That's incredible
that he did that. That is incredible he did that.
(07:52):
Not only did they win, but who they beat. I mean,
so I flashed back it because I'm an old guy,
asked my son. But I love history. I love the
history of this game. Love the history of this game.
You'll think about this for a man. Lou Graham wins
the US Open in nineteen seventy five. Hey er Win
(08:14):
won in nineteen seventy four, he won three US Opens.
Lee Trevino won in seventy one. He won every major
except for the Masters. Nicholas won in seventy two. He
won every major, every major. Lou Graham beat those guys.
(08:36):
Gary Player won the Grand Slam. Lou grahamt beat him.
He was in that field, Palmer was in that field.
That's amazing accomplishment. Let's not look at it as like
an anomaly. Let's not look at it as an underdog story.
(08:58):
Let's look at it as a massive accomplishment. So I
defend these winners, not on did they win? Not only
did they win? Who they beat? Think about that for
a minute. Are they cool? Do they have aura? Who cares?
(09:22):
Would ratings have been better? Yeah? Who cares? Ratings would
have been better if bros Kopka was chasing down Scotti
Scheffler or Scotti Chefer was chasing now John Kepka. I'm
not arguing that they are forever major champions. And they
(09:46):
took whatever the Gulf world could throw at them that week.
They did. And if you look at it that way
as the major accomplishment, the other thing you start to
look at is Wow, how amazing of accomplished. Is it
to win more than one? Because not only did you
take it from what the world you withstood what the
(10:10):
world of golf had to throw at you, but you
withstood it more than once. You know, think about other sports,
Think about other sports. Omar Marino, centerfielder of Pittsburgh Pirates,
(10:30):
won a World Series in nineteen seventy nine. It's an
amazing accomplishment. Do you know what other center fielders have
won the World Series? Yeah, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio.
This guy won it once. He withstood all that they
(10:52):
hadn't throw at him and did it. So you start
looking at these people and you start looking at it
from that perspective. You know, there's a guy named Bo Bennett.
Bo Bennett played professional hockey and want to stay in
the Cup of Pittsburgh Penguins. H He was stood with
(11:16):
the National Hockey League threw in him through an entire
year to win as a team. Now, look at Aaron Raie,
look at Bobby Nichols, look at Wayne Grady. They stood
as an individual with the golf world had to throw
at them that week on golf's biggest stage. That's the
(11:41):
other thing I have massive respect for anybody who who
plays at the highest level, massive respect. But when you
beat the world of golf on golf's highest stay age,
hottest stage, highest stage, brightest light stage, that's a greater
(12:08):
accomplishment from a non power player. When I say power
of me hitting it far, I mean from a non
power position. You know those guys, those multi pole major winners, Yeah,
they had to play well, but they have a little
bit of aura of an aura talking about that word again,
(12:29):
a little bit of a swagger on them about Ben
they're done that, gonna do it again. Aaron Right doesn't
have that. He didn't have that going into that week.
Zach Johnson didn't have it, Doug Ford didn't have it.
Now they do. But think of it in terms of that.
(12:55):
Think of it in terms of that level of accomplishment
and the odds that are kind of stacked against you
to do it. The greatest player of all time said, hey,
I knew most of the field couldn't win the Major.
(13:15):
And for the people I just mentioned, that's who he's
talking about, but they defied that. They threw at it
at they threw back, they punched back, and they won.
It's not an upset. It's an accomplishment. It's not oral less,
(13:36):
it's an accomplishment. I mean there are people like I
was fortunate enough to meet a guy named Bobby Shantz.
Bobby Shantz won World Series of the New York Yankees,
won gold gloves. He told me he was the first one.
(13:57):
Was unbelievable. I didn't. I never thought it would be me.
I promise you that the first major that Bobby Nichols
won was in nineteen sixty four. PJ. I'm quite sure
he thought to himself, I never thought it'd be me.
So when you look at events like this and maybe
(14:19):
it don't make your root for people that aren't in
those power positions. We're going to the US Open in June.
We're going to the US Open in June and not
going physically, but they're playing the US Open in June.
Maybe there's somebody there that wants to look the golf
(14:39):
world in the eye and say, you know what, you
don't think I can do this. I can accomplish this.
Not upset this, not wiggle, not waiver, hang around, make
for a good story. No, I can do this, and
I'm gonna do it, and that's gonna be an accomplishment
(15:01):
for the ages. You know, Jim Nantz won for the
Ages when Tiger wanted the Masters. Yeah, I'd make an
argument that Bobby Nichols, Lou Graham, Jeff Ogilvie, Wayne Grady,
Doug Ford, Zach Johnson, Aaron Rye one for the ages.
That's an accomplishment for the ages. Because the other thing
(15:24):
is Tiger was expected to do that. He lived up
the expectations. Great accomplishment. Those other people I mentioned, they
superseded expectations. They accomplished expectations that nobody assigned to them
other than themselves. And that's why it's an accomplishment. When
(15:48):
we come back, we'll be talking about a different topic
in the world of golf. This is the rich Comwoll
Golf Show. Welcome back to the rich Comwoll Golf Show.
We spent the first episode, episode first segment trying to
kind of put a little bit of a different spin
(16:10):
on first time major winners or one time major winners
being viewed as great accomplishments as opposed to a one
off or a not dramatic exciting event. You know, I
just I just think we should give a little more
(16:30):
credit than we do to one time major winners, but
for that week, that's a magical week for them. It's
a magical week for golf. Could you imagine if the
same person won every time? Could you imagine if the
same person, like nobody ever like stood up and kind
a little bit of you know, David and Goliath and said,
(16:51):
you know what, I can do this. I can do
this because you can make an argument that the David
and Goliath thing was literally the definition of self belief. So,
you know, so hopefully I kind of not I'm going
to change your mind, but hopefully kind of gets you
to look at it a little differently. So in the
(17:13):
second segment, we are going to look at an organize
an association, an organization association that is near and dear
to my heart, and that's the PGA of America. I
absolutely love being a member of the pg of America.
I need to say that right now. Okay, I absolutely
love it. It was a it's a lifetime accomplishment for me.
(17:37):
It is. It's a lifetime accomplishment for me. You know,
it's funny. Obviously, I'm I'm not I'm not egotistical enough
to put my name in the same vein as somebody
like Thomas Jefferson whatever. But you know, they say that
your tombstone should display your proudest accomplishments. Jefferson's was Declaration
(18:01):
of Independence and you know, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom,
not the presidency, but that's what he was proud of stuff.
I'm obviously Jefferson had children, as do I, and I'm
proud of the fact that I've been I'm married, and
i have two children, and they're doing well, and you know,
(18:21):
we have a really good relationship, and I have really
good friends. But like, professionally speaking, my protest accomplishment is
to be a PGA of America member. I mean literally,
you know, my individual story, it was probably not destined
to be that, you know, it really really really wasn't.
(18:46):
I'm not your typical, you know kid that you would
look at and say that guy's going to be a
golf professional. But that makes me very, very proud to
be a PJA of America member. It really does. There's
thirty two thirty four thousand of us in the United
States of America. I mean, I'm so I'm so proud
(19:08):
of it that when I went to see my daughter
in Austria, i tried to find the Austrian PGA to
knock on Doorn, introduced myself and they'll take a picture
with the Austrian PGA logo. Couldn't quite pull that off,
but did stumble into the Austrian tour, which was not
(19:30):
what I was looking for. I was looking for that
the Austrian PGA. But so I just I have to
tell you that I'm super, super, super proud of be
a member of the PGA of America. You know it's
the largest sports association in the United States of America,
but you didn't know that it is. It is. It
(19:57):
is the We are, the members of the PJ of
America are the experts in the game of golf. PG
of America is our flag that we stand under and
we wave to run to declare that we are the
(20:20):
leaders in the game of golf. PG of America is
a tremendous association. PG of America is tremendously broken as well,
and it saddens me to say that, but it's currently broken,
and I'm going to talk about that for a few minutes.
And I want this to be clear. I am not
(20:45):
after any individual. I'm not criticizing any individual. I'm not
criticizing anything. I'm criticizing my association. I love the p
But the PGA of America in traditional as the largest
(21:06):
sports association in the United States, in traditional sense, has
no benefits for its members the traditional sense. We have
no traditional retirement plan, we have no traditional health insurance.
(21:28):
We have no employment security. And that's from the members themselves.
That's like me, I'm the head god Professional Parkers our
country club. I don't have any of that through the
PGA of America. We have. And you can make the argument,
(21:56):
and I would listen to you if you did that.
You know, any job has no employment security and they
could walk in and get ready tomorrow. I know that,
but like there's really, really really we You're the largest
association in the United States, sports Association of the United States.
(22:17):
You would think that if things get a little wonky
your employer, with your employer, you could call somebody and say, hey,
you know, or they could call somebody and say, hey,
we need to talk about this now. They just make
(22:37):
it to change go in a different direction. And the
other problem with that, we'll talk about the employment security
situation for a few minutes, is is the other thing
is is we have thirty two thousand members of the
PGA of America. There are twelve thousand golf courses. So
(23:00):
we're upside down mortgage term, upside down supplying demand. We're
upside down with supplying demand. So when a facility gets
a little uncomfortable or disappointed or thinks things could be
(23:24):
better from their golf professional's office, they don't knock on
the door and say, hey, let's talk about this. No,
they say, there's a lot of people out there looking
for a job. We can we can replace you. And
(23:45):
so that's what I talk about employment security. You know.
It's like it's almost like the cool major in college.
You know, the cool major is whatever it might be,
you know, And I'm just sitting here at a radio board,
so I'm just gonna I'm not gonna single out a major,
(24:05):
but like, you know, maybe your major was speaker because
I see a speaker here in the radio station. And
then then all the universities flood the market with speaker
majors all of a sudden. It's like, hey, you know what,
your income goes down because we can pay you less
because there's more of you it supply and demand. And oh,
(24:25):
by the way, when that speaker doesn't work exactly the
way we want it to. We're not gonna like try
to change the volume. We'll just change speakers. That's what
happens when you flood the market with a major That's
what happens when you flood the golf industry with members.
(24:47):
Twelve thousand versus thirty two thousand. Okay, so even if
every golf facility in the country employed two PGA members,
we would still have more members than positions. And yeah,
you can make the argument, Okay, there's also driving ranges,
(25:09):
and that's fine, I'll give you all that. So there's
twenty thousand, I still have thirty two thousand members. That's
part of the broken problem. So then you have to
ask yourself. And this is where the PGA of America,
(25:32):
in my opinion, and again I love the PGA of
America in my opinion, what we've created, we created we
were upside down the supply and demand, and what we've
done has wed made it too easy to become a member.
So in other words, we want to say we're the
elite and we are the leaders in the golf business,
(25:52):
but we didn't teach anybody to be a leader in
the golf business. We told them, if you just can
do this basic skill. You remember, I would tell you
up until about four years ago, and this is the
way I'm wired. If you put me in a room
(26:13):
of golf professionals, I'd look around and say, you know what,
there's twenty guys in here. I'm probably seventeenth eighteenth, nineteenth
best because those guys are so good. You put me
in a room of twenty golf professionals. Now that switch
not because I got smarter overnight, because our talent pool
(26:37):
is watered down. You know the old saying. If anybody,
if anybody could be a doctor, we'd all be doctors.
If anybody can be an accountant, we'd all be accountants.
If it were easy to become a doctor, we would
(26:59):
all be doctors or accountants or lawyers. It's not you know,
there's a there's a there's a thought process that you
know what. We needed that to have our membership rolls
up and our dues flow and all that. Okay, so
(27:22):
you got people to be members, but you can't get
them jobs, or you can't get them quality, quality, high
paying jobs. So they stay at facilities, and they stay
in their industry. They stay in the game. They maintain
their membership for thirty and forty years. So now, because
(27:50):
I'm not trashing but calling out the truth, how do
we fix it? Well, we become what we call member
first organization. A member first organization, create benefits, you know,
(28:14):
have access to discounts from major companies that only PGA
members have access to. Go to titleist and say, listen,
you know what, he's a PGA member. He gets one
percent off invoices. Does it really really really impact the
(28:35):
member of my club or the end user? Probably not,
But the facility looks at it like, okay, we own
the golf shop and now we have the best price
in going just because Di's bought you know, five hundred
million dozen and I bought five million dozen, they get
a better price. Mean, now they don't. They get the
(28:56):
price that is negotiated through the PGA of America PGA professionals.
So guess what all of a sudden dick starts the
highgolf professionals create a national health healthcare plan, and the
PGA of America is always pushed back with well we
(29:17):
have people in all but fifty states and okay, great, okay,
if you say so, are you gonna tell me that
the American Cancer Society doesn't have a health insurance program.
They're everywhere. You're gonna tell me that places do not
(29:39):
have health care because they're national. Come on, you can
get United Healthcare everywhere in the country. Are you gonna
tell me that that there wouldn't be healthcare companies chomping
at the bit to offer us some sort of discount
to be the official healthcare provider of the p Do
(30:00):
you have America? And then you turn around and say, hey, listen,
we have their health insurance covered. Why wouldn't you hire them?
Why wouldn't you pay them more? Hmm? How about that retirement?
Can't tell me you can't come up with some sort
of national retirement program. And I know the first answer
(30:22):
to be to all this, and I've thrown this at
people in the hierarchy of the PJ of America. Well,
where's the money that come from? How much money you
make on the Ryder Cup? Oh, by the way, we
own the Ryder Cup. To PJ America owns a Ryder Cup.
They also winn the PGA Championship. Don't tell me we
don't have any money. Don't tell me we can't be
a member first, So I'm not trashing the PJ of
(30:49):
America at all. I'm just calling it out and I'm
gonna fix it. You know me sitting here in the
studios in Parkersburg, West Virginia, one PG memory, I'm gonna
fix it. I don't have a lot of help, but
I'm gonna turn us into an association that is the leaders.
(31:12):
It is the ultimate leaders in the golf industry. Not oh,
excuse me, Can I talk to you about something? No,
they have to come talk to me, talk to us,
because we're it. You want to know something, We're it.
(31:34):
We have to make ourselves so highly trained that facilities
can't live without us. We want our association to offer
benefits to our members that we can't refuse. We can't
walk away from it. And we will fix it. I
will fix it, and I will keep you posting. This
(31:55):
is the rich comwoll Golf Show. Welcome back to the
rich Comono Golf Show. I'm flying solo this week. I
did want to make mention of the fact that I
am now on three stations in West Virginia, Wheeling Fox Sports,
Wheeling News Radio nine to ten WLTP in Parkersburg, and
(32:17):
Fox Sports fourteen twenty in Huntington, and I wanted to
welcome all the listeners and I wanted to thank you
for your support. I saw some numbers the other day
from from a station manager's station manager our iHeartRadio station
manager in Wheeling that I've had a download of the podcast,
(32:41):
which obviously this goes from not obviously it goes from
the radio show into a podcast. I had it a
download in the Ukraine. I had a download in Pakistan.
So it's pretty amazing to me that happens. But it's
really cool that I'm on I'm all over West Virginia
(33:05):
because I do work in West Virginia and I live
very close to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. So it's it's
really it's really really kind of cool to have all
that exposure. And I appreciate the faith that they have
in me to do this, and I appreciate everybody listening.
So now get into the meat of the of the
(33:29):
this message for this segment, and we'll conclude the show
this week talking about this. We're going to talk about
Tiger Woods. This is going to get kind of really
human here pretty quickly. But Tiger Woods is I'm not
Tiger Woods. I don't know if you knew that or not,
but I'm not. I will never win fifteen majors. I
will not have that aura. Back to that word again,
(33:52):
I will not have that money. I will not have
that notoriety good and bad. And why do I say
this Because we don't need Tiger Woods to have all
that good and bad. We don't need them to have
that today. What we do need is him around, functioning alive.
(34:23):
Now do I sound dramatic, probably, but let's think about
something from that. He's had a lot of injuries, you know,
spine surgeries, spine two point oh, spine three point oh,
and achilles and that leg. He's got a lot of problems,
a lot of problems. More importantly, he's had three vehicle
(34:46):
involved incidents, rolled over twice in two of them, went
over an embankment and rolled over in a neighborhood. I
don't know if you have rolled over in a car.
I did when I was I guess I would have
turned just eighteen at Schippensburg University. We went to State
(35:09):
College to see a friend of mine and the guy
driving the car was driving too fast. We lost control
of the car, rolled over to an embankment two and
a half times. Nobody died, thankfully at our seatbelts on.
But I can still hear the music from the radio
(35:35):
when I when when we stopped, I can still feel
the gasoline dripping because you're upside down, so it was
I don't know if it was gassing. I'm not a
I'm not a mechanic. I can still see the person
pull over on the side of the road up the embankment,
waving telling us that help us on the way. So
(36:01):
it was pretty traumatic. And I'm not exactly I'm not
twenty four years old, so it wasn't like just three
years ago. It was almost almost forty years ago. Now.
Now go back to Tiger Woods. He's rolled over twice
this car once and again. As I said in the neighborhood,
the third incident was he was stopped on the side
(36:23):
of a highway. And let's just be let's just be
really clear. Now, I can't say what the first rollover
accident was. The embankment was. It happened in the morning.
He was not tested heart his leg very very very badly.
He was not tested for anything. To my knowledge. They
(36:45):
don't call me and tell me what they did. But
when he was stopped on the side of the road,
he was obviously impaired. He rolled over in the neighborhood.
Just recently they tested him and he was impaired. So
(37:11):
that's what that's that's the tiger we don't need. We
need him alive in functioning. As I said before, I
would be willing to bet you that it is safe
to say that he has addiction issues. I'm not him.
I don't know how much pain he's in. I don't know.
I don't know how much how much addictive personality is
(37:39):
in him. Definitely safe to say he has judgment issues.
I mean, seriously, let's think about that for a minute.
You know, and you and you're you're lying to yourself.
If he didn't say, you know what, he's not very bright.
If he if he didn't call for me drive him.
(38:00):
They call it impaired for a reason means your judgment
is impaired. He didn't suddenly become stupid. I don't think
he's ever been stupid at all. I think he has
impaired judgment. That's why he drives. Impaired. They're not talking
(38:22):
about they're not talking about your golf swing. When they
say you're impaired. They're not talking about your you know,
your bank account when they say you're impaired, talk about
your judgment and your functioning ability in society. You're impaired.
So what's the ideal outcome? He's healthy and clean, right,
(38:49):
that's the ideal outcome. So that's the idea outcome. And
I started this segment with I am not all the
tiger is. I'm not you know, I don't have the
fifteen majors. I don't have the dollars, I don't have
the oora. I don't have all that. I have the
(39:12):
same addictive problem he does. I've dealt with mine for
a long time. For a long time. He's dealing with his,
(39:32):
relatively speaking in short term kind of recently. I knock
on wood get through every day for a long time.
So I don't have I don't have a relapse to
speak of. I actually don't have a relapse at all.
So I can't speak to anything. I can't speak to that.
(39:54):
And I don't know that he ever had a relapse either,
because I don't think he ever, I don't know that
sat down and said okay, you know what this is it.
I'm powerless over this I'm gonna and for those of
you who have been down the road that I'm talking
about right now, the word powerless is means a lot.
(40:15):
I don't know if he's ever said that. I don't think.
I think it's probably I'm projecting. I think it's probably
really really hard to say that when you are somebody
like that. I mean, how hard would it be to
say that if you were a famous movie star, a
famous athlete, a famous government official. I mean, seriously, your
(40:39):
entire life, you have been on a different plane than
most people. So now all of a sudden, you're gonna
you're gonna you're gonna have to look in a room
or look in the mirror and say, I'm powerless over
I don't know, canna beer, I'm powerless over pain medication.
(40:59):
That's It's a huge step. I've taken that step. It's
a hard step to take. I would think it would
be way more hard for somebody of that scope. So
(41:20):
why do I say all this Because I've been lucky
enough to actually share the same message with other people
who have been impaired addicted in the golf world. No less,
and I think the thing, and I'm sure he'll never
(41:41):
hear this. I hope he does. If anybody knows, anybody,
just you know, ask him to listen. But I've said
it to tour players, I've said it to world class
tour players. You'll be okay, but you got to take
the first up. And the thing of it is is
(42:04):
that first step is the hardest one to take. You know.
I heard a great saying today the road to nowhere,
any any road will take you there. There's only one
road that helps in this one, and that's when you
have to take the first step to say, Okay, I
can't do this. I'm powerless over this. A need help.
(42:32):
So that's that's my view of this. You know, let's
get past let's get past the fact that he's Tiger Woods.
Let's get past the fact that some other people have
(42:53):
come out and said they had they had problems. You know,
let's get past it. Get let's get past that and
and encourage that individual, every individual that we know that
we may have a problem, to take the first step.
(43:20):
And so obviously everybody wishes him well, we want him
walking around, we want him to be that guy. He's
fifty years old now, So like you know, there are
people that look at him as the quote unquote old guy.
But like we want him to be around, to be
the old guy. We wanted to take care of the closet.
(43:41):
So we can just be done with all this, you know,
so we get the best of him, you know, because
there are major winners out there that say they played
this game, they grew to love this game because of him.
So let's make sure that you know, he's around to
get other people inspired, to to encourage other people. You know,
(44:04):
he's got he's got great initiatives, schools and and and
and and the Tiger Woods Foundation and and all those things.
Let's happen around here for a long time. So that's
my that's my good of the good of the world.
Good to the golf world. Message to him and to
(44:27):
anybody that is in the golf world that is struggling.
You know, you're you'll be okay. You're worth it, you know.
And it's funny you think to yourself, you know what,
how can Tiger Woods think he and I'm just picking
on him now, but I'm not picking on him. I'm
just speaking about him. You know, how can how can
(44:47):
he not know he's worth it? Well, when's the last
time he played in a major championship. When's the last
time he completed four rounds in a major championship? It's
two years ago. What's the guy Ben's since he was
six on the Mike Douglas or four or whatever, he's
been that woke up? He's not that anymore? How hard
(45:09):
must that be? Let's think about that for a minute.
How many people do we know? How many stories do
you hear of leaving the National Football Like? And you're
the guy, you're that guy? Then you're not that guy.
You've been that guy since you were eight or nine, ten, twelve, fourteen,
(45:35):
You're not that guy anymore? Wow, Wait a minute? Who
am I? Who am I? You know, I talked to
Steve Weacroft and Steve's a good friend of mine. Steve's really, really,
really really doing great stuff. Great stuff, I mean great stuff.
(46:04):
But you know he would tell you that he was
Steve the golfer, and then when he didn't want to
be Steve the golfer anymore, or he couldn't be Steve
the golfer anymore, he didn't know who he was. And
I'm not minimizing his accomplishments. He still holds records on
the corn Ferry Tour. He's still unbelievable player, unbelievably good guy.
But if that guy couldn't identify, couldn't self identify, how
(46:31):
difficult must it be to be Tiger Woods? How difficult
must it be to be I used to be? Now
you are? Now? You got to be that you are
right now. So that's this is all said to hopefully
(46:55):
maybe I catch somebody with this, you know, And I
know I've been talking about Tiger, and I know I
talked about myself a little bit, but you know what,
I hey, you know what, you'll be? Okay, You're not that,
you know. For a long time I saw myself as
you know, funny drunk guy. I wasn't that. Then I
(47:24):
had to realize what I was. So I'm just hoping
that this message is received well. And I hope if
he ever does hear it. You know, he knows a
lot of people are pulling for him, but we need
him alive around functioning, you know, so we can talk
about what he accomplished and what he is still accomplishing.
(47:49):
And I want to thank before I wrap up this show,
I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to
I want to welcome all the listeners in all those
stations I mentioned, and I want to thank all of
you for supporting the Rich Combogov Show. This is the
Rich Combogov Show.
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