January 8, 2025 • 48 mins
Rich wraps up Season 2 of the show with a recap of the guests that made the season great. Plus, find out what's in store not just for the show, but for Rich as well.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the rich Komwoll Golf Show. This is the
first week in January of twenty twenty five, so with
the Christmas holiday and the New Year's Eve and New
Year's Day holiday's over, I thought we would take I
would actually announce today that this is the last show
(00:22):
until for the hiatus, probably until March. But I'll get
into the rest of that a little bit later, because
there's been things, things are changing rapidly and all that
fun stuff. But I wanted to take a little while
and talk about what happened in the last year on
this show. This is just a show related, you know,
and hopefully we can we can actually have a ton
(00:47):
of fun kind of looking backwards a little bit, and
then we'll then we'll wrap up the show by looking forward.
I did some quick math. It's starting in mid the
first week in March until the end of December. I
don't know how many weeks that is, but I can
tell you I think it's forty weeks. And I had
(01:07):
thirty two guests on the show, so I only did
six or eight solo shows. Geographically speaking, two of those
guests were from Florida, one was from Colorado, one from Virginia,
one from Indiana, four from Pennsylvania, and one from South Carolina.
(01:27):
And that's not all of them. I just kind of
randomly went through them and and I came up with
those those states that were represented. Interestingly enough, there are
there were three PGA Tour or LPGA Tour winners on
(01:58):
the show, and which is really kind of cool. And I,
you know, it's kind of hard to explain, but I'm
very fortunate in my entire life. I have never been
nervous publicly speaking, except for twice. Once was in front
(02:23):
of a class in college. The other one was in
front of a very large outing because I didn't I
wasn't prepared. On both occasions, I've never been publicly nervous.
But I do have to tell publicly speaking, nervous, nervous
public public speaking. I do have to say that when
I was talking to those guys, it was a little
(02:44):
it was a little nerve wracking. Not nerve wracking. It
was pretty awesome, it was it made me nervous. Also
a couple of the people I did talk to did
make me nervous naturally, because I didn't I and I'll
get into that who those were a little bit later.
(03:06):
But the other thing is is I some of the
interesting facts is that I am amazed. I am amazed
to this to this day that I have only been
turned down once. I asked people to come on the show.
I've only been turned down once. I will not tell
you who turned me down. It is, you know, I was.
(03:31):
I was saddened by it. I really was, and and
and the reason. I still don't know the reason he
did it. I know it wasn't personal another do it
me or anybody who might hear him or her, but yeah,
it was I've only been turned down once. I think
the most amazing thing about this year because this year,
(03:51):
obviously we dove in and try to get more guests
on and go national and try to get a little
bit more of a cross section instead of just me
talking from a western Pennsylvania West Virginia standpoint. The amount
of receptiveness to coming on the show. I mean, I
(04:12):
reached out to PGA Tour winners, LPGA Tour winners, you know.
I reached out to golf coaches. I reached out to
people that had a lot going on in their life
and they were like, sure, I can't do it. Thursday,
I can do it Friday. I can't do it that day,
I can do it this day. They were all very
(04:32):
giving of their time. Interestingly enough, I was surprised that
the most nationally prominent of these people, actually two three
of them actually said to me, you only want me
(04:53):
for twenty minutes or forty minutes, because I was asking
only for a segment or two. And that's when I
started to say, you know what, I'm gonna ask for
the whole hour, and then and not and and and
the only reason I asked for the whole hour because
I wasn't trying to impose on people, but what they
they were like, hey, look i'll talk, but she you know,
I'll talk the whole time. So it made my life
(05:14):
a lot easier because then I just had to come
up with a couple of different inputs or thoughts. I did.
I did have some some really really really good insight
from the people that I spoke with, specifically Kathy Harbin
(05:37):
from from from Texas. I didn't mention that state in
my m I rundown, but she she emailed me or
she texted me. After she listened to it. She was
my God, because you're good at that, and the I
kind of refer to this a lot when I'm when
I'm talking to people on on the show. But it
(05:59):
is they've all said, this is incredibly easy to do this.
You know, everybody has said to me at one point
another how easy they are it is to do this,
which actually has nothing to do with me, actually has
to do with them, because I I just I kind
of you know, I spend some time and I think
to myself, I just open up. I just open up
(06:24):
open ended questions and they talk. I I'm really really
really proud of a couple of questions that I asked.
I'm really really really proud of the honesty that I
heard in the entire year too. I mean, and I
will get into this, you know, the honesty part of it,
(06:48):
you know, a little bit later. But but the other
thing is, along with the amount of recepting this, I
can't believe they want to talk to me. I really,
it still blows my mind that they would they would
take the time and talk to me, and they being
a lot of nationally known people, you know, I mean
case in point. And I'll talk about her a little
(07:08):
bit more later. But Chris Chedd Chris cheddar college friend
was Ben Hogan, I mean father figure. Actually she won
on the OPGA tour. She has children, she she's playing
competitively on the Senior OPGA Tour. She she's like, yeah,
I'll talk, well, whatever you want. I'm like, wow. So
(07:31):
it is just it's really really really phenomenal that they
were people were so willing to do it. It's interesting
to me that when I was, as I said, I
was only turned down once, but the reluctance of for
lack of a better term, local people too to be
(07:55):
a little bit hesitant to get on the show with me.
It's really it's it's just interesting to me. You know,
this is just all of a kind of a stream
of consciousness reflection of twenty twenty four. But it's amazing
to me, like they like the local people, like you
really want to talk to me? I mean really can
you can't find anybody else? I mean I heard that,
you know, like self deprecating that way, but you know,
(08:18):
now you know, and I'll talk you know as I
go through kind of like the highlights that stream through
my head. But you know, there were some local people
like dag right out Will. The other thing is amazing
to me, how many people, how many people want to
make sure that they can let their mom or dad
(08:41):
listen to it, even though they're well into their careers
and well into their adulthood and things like that. I
obviously I don't everybody knows I don't interview kids. I mean,
and yeah, they're like, it's really important for them to
hear that. I mean, And the most famous of them
were like that, which was really really really kind of
need to see, you know, because obviously I would love
(09:03):
to have the opportunity to send my mom or my
dad every one of these, but I can't because they're
not with us anymore. But but but they would be,
they would be really it would. First of all, the
technology of it would blow my parents mind. I mean,
they were like, how can I go on a phone
(09:23):
and hit play? And why are you Why can I
hear you people talking? But I'm not on a phone
call with you. My dad worked for AT and T,
so anything outside of a phone line was the end
of the world. End of the world to him. That
was over the moon technology. That was by the way,
it's pretty awesome technology too, the telephone. But but he was,
(09:46):
he would have been, and he wouldn't have he would
have acted like he understood it. He would have acted
like he invented it, but he would not really have
been comfortable with it. So I'm actually happy when people
say to me, hey, can you send it to me?
I want to make sure my you know, my dad
hears that, or my mom hears that. And case in point,
Will Johnson University of Charleston texted me as soon as
(10:06):
we were done and said, you've got to get me that.
My mom wants to see it, wants to hear it rather.
So you know, that's that's been. That's that's really really
really kind of some of the raw look backs or
takeaways is the big word, the the fact that you know,
(10:34):
people view me as as actually asking pretty good questions.
I think. I think the other thing that is over
riding for all of that is the honesty that I
had from everybody. I mean, they could have said some things.
They could have you know, case in point, you know
(10:56):
Jonathan Sessa, who we had on last week, was it
or two weeks ago, whether it was the word of
Golf project and and and he admittedly said, admittedly said
I have I had PTSD, I had alcohol and drug issues.
(11:17):
You know, golf saved my life I mean, I think
that's that's awesome, you know, and I think that I
think some of the the honesty that that people expressed
to me. I know, when I talked to Tom Trophy,
who's was my really is my really mentor in the
(11:40):
golf business, he literally he literally was just like I
could not believe that I wanted to talk to him,
and he was genuinely so happy to be on the
phone with me, you know. And it's just the overarching
(12:07):
the whole thing is like people say, many I'm a podcast.
You know, my son says, I think we should regulate
the amount of podcast equipment that is in the world
today because every athlete or quasi athlete. Of course he
calls me a quasi athlete because you know, I'm I'm
just a golf professional. But you know, he says, has
the has the ability to get on a podcast, and
(12:27):
you know, and they call himself a star. I never
called myself a star, and I want that clearer because
I'm not. But you know, it's just people were amazed
that that I would want them, I want to talk
to him for for a while. I'm amazed they want
to talk to me. I really am, I really am
I mean, I'm really happy. I'm really, really really happy
(12:52):
with that, I you know. And and so when I
the last segment today, we're going to talk about the
future of of of of this show, and and I'll
explain to you why we have to talk well why
I'm going to talk about it. But the just I couldn't.
(13:12):
I wouldn't be able to do this without those people
because I'm not that interesting. I'm really not. As much
as I convinced myself that I'm you know, what's that
the most interesting man of the world was that? Was
that do Seki's uh commercial right, I'm not. I'm not,
(13:35):
and I know that, but those people are nice enough
to do that, and I think that's just unbelievable to me.
And the amount of just honesty and directness and genuine
happiness to talk it really is weird because I gotta
be honest with you, you know, I mean a little
behind the scenes stuff. We're we're in the non guest
(13:58):
studio in a wheeling today, but when I have the guests,
like I'm I'm in a different room obviously and actually
looks like I know what I'm doing because I have
like a headset and I've got this board and I've
got a TV up there, and I look like I
look like Dan rather more than I look like me.
But the funny thing is when people don't realize when
I'm really when it's going really well, and I have
(14:20):
somebody on who can who really really really likes stuff,
you know, really likes stuff, kind of have at it
with things that I can actually put my feet up,
let people talk. It's not a big deal. It's really
really really neat. There are some, and I'll be honest
with you, because there's always a flip side of all this,
there are some that they're hard to get through. I
(14:44):
am never I will never say who they were, and
I will never say who they are because I you know,
but they they they wouldn't they wouldn't talk. I mean,
like like I ask a question, Yeah that's right, Okay,
wait a minute, we need to I didn't Yep, that's right.
Was not really the answer I thought when I asked
(15:06):
you that question. So it's it's been awesome. This is
the this is the second year I've been doing this,
and this is by far I think I've gotten way
more comfortable. I'm way more aggressive and asking and even
more aggressively happy that how receptive people have been and
(15:30):
the energy they bring to it, because you know, I've
been accused of having far too much energy for any
one person should have, but they they a lot of
the best guests, and all my guests actually for the
most part, match my energy energy pretty well. And so
it's it's been it's been awesome. It's been absolutely awesome.
(15:54):
And so as we go down the road in the
next two segments, we're going to talk about some of
the some of the coolest moments, and then we're gonna
talk about a little bit of the future of this show.
This is the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich combogof Show. Although it's twenty twenty five, we
were doing the twenty twenty four show review and I
(16:16):
rambled on pretty extensively in the first segment about some
of the geography of all this and some of the
different places that I was able to reach to. And
now we're gonna actually have a lot of fun kind
of reliving some of my best moments. And there will
be no obviously there will be no drop in tape
(16:37):
or anything like that or audio or whatever those fancy
terms are. But I gotta tell you that there's a
there's a couple, and I'm gonna do this, and there's
no way, I mean, I could scroll through and give
you like a quote from every or a moment from
(17:01):
every show, which I may do as I'm sitting here,
but I did write down some things and so I
just kind of want to review them a little bit.
Steve Bartkowski is the executive director of the Colorado PGA.
(17:24):
Steve is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet
in your life. And I knew Steve when he was
in Western New York and then you obviously got to
go to Colorado and he spent an hour with me,
and it was it was a mix of future and
(17:49):
past and it was really really, really kind of neat,
and I think he was indicative of the golf story.
For most of my guests, all has to do with
their parents, their mom, their dad, somebody that started them
in the game of golf. But Steve's got a really
cool golf story and and he's He's just Steve's him.
(18:12):
When you come to executive directors of the tri state
not to try state, excuse me, executive director of the
PGA Sections Steve's Steve's him. You know, I don't know
what that means. My son says he's him, but I
don't know what that means. But I think Steve, I
think Steve embodies him. Jay Karen's the CEO of the
(18:33):
of the National Golf Course Owners Association. That guy has passion.
Holy man, he has high energy and passion. He makes
me look like I'm napping. And that's that's that's hard
for me to say out loud, but it is absolutely
just awesome. Two just to hear, you know, his excitement
(19:00):
for golf, his excitement for how it's going to grow,
is really, really, really big. And I could probably spend
two weeks talking to him about legislation around golf. And
because he's in, he's in on that because obviously golf
course owners have to deal with business owners, and they're
multimillion dollars in business. You know, a small one small
(19:25):
golf course. Does you know two million dollars a year?
I mean, and and so think about it. I mean,
let's say there's five hundred, there's ten in each state.
Five hundred times two million, is you know a billion?
I don't know. I can't do the math. But that's
(19:45):
that's how that's how much business is in the golf business,
and and there's endless stats on it. But Jay Jay
actually personalized that it was really kind of cool. Missy
Birdie Audi from Western Pennsylvania, the LPGA Tour winner. Great
honesty about getting out on tour, great honesty about her father,
(20:09):
how much he pushed her and helped her and pushed
her in a positive way, helped her in a really
great way. Really really really neat, like really neat, And
you know that's a person who really likes golf and
(20:29):
really likes helping kids get better at golf. Now that
she's not playing competitively anymore, it's really neat. Chris Cheddar
Chris Cheddar one of the LPGA Tour. Chris Cheddar is
from from South Dakota, went to school in Texas and
lives in Virginia. I've known, not known. I met Chris
(20:55):
almost twenty five years ago. You know, Chris is twenty
years ago. Chris is just an awesome, awesome, awesome person,
really good player, you know, father figure in mister Hogan,
but just genuinely an awesome person and an awesome player,
(21:21):
and a really open and honest interview you know, she
said some things like, you know she played against she
said her most, her most, the best player she ever
played with or against was Carry Webb, which was kind
of a shock because I thought for sure she'd say Anica,
you know, and Chris Chedder finished second to Anica in
(21:43):
the US opened by eight shots. And the best thing
was she was like or six or whatever, six I
won that golf tom, I don't know what she was playing.
That girl playing a different thing. You know. That was
really cool to hear some of those stories. You know.
Chris Smith, Chris Smith, PGA Tour winner won at Westchester,
(22:08):
Great Player, Great Player, Ohio State. Buck Eye, I'm quite
sure he's walking on air today, but really open and
honest about playing the PGA Tour, what it was like,
(22:29):
how he got out there, some of the people he
ran into that were less than helpful and some of
the people that were very helpful. You know, the tiger
story he told the best tiger story. I asked him
his best tiger story. He told me the story about
the wedge from the fringe from Memorial. Oh my god,
(22:52):
He's like when he hit that shot, I was like,
you know what, that guy's different. That guy's different, you know.
That was that was really cool. That was really cool
to hear him, to hear him talk like that. It
was a he told that story like he was sitting
like he was happening in front of him right there,
like that was burned in him. And it was really
(23:13):
really really neat for him to for him to be
that open and honest about playing the PGA Tour. And
also like how expensive it is to play the PGA Tour.
That that I found very interesting. That I found very interesting,
(23:35):
you know, the fact that he that he couldn't it,
not that he couldn't do it, because he did, but
just how expensive everything is, you know, and and just
how much of a difficulty it is to do that
(23:57):
full time. Uh. And you know, obviously he won. That guy,
that guy's that guy's unbelievable. That guy's unbelievable. Player Bob Friend.
Bob Friend from Pittsburgh. His father was a Major League
baseball player. Absolutely, absolutely one of the lines of the year.
(24:23):
Playing the PGA Tour is as much fun as you
can have with your clothes on. I I don't think
as much as I I don't want to think about
that a whole lot. But he did say twice. So
I'm pretty much convinced it must be a lot of
fun to play play the PGA Tour, you know, I
(24:44):
really do. I think that must be incredible. But he was.
He was the first guy to tell me that that
he only needed you know, he would go more segments,
but he would he would do the two that I
asked him, And so that was that was really cool.
Like that's when I started to say, you know what,
these guys don't mind talking about themselves. I'm not the
(25:06):
you know what I mean, talking about golf, talking about
how much they love it and things like that. That
was really neat some of the other ones. Brian DeMarco
Brian de Marco from New Jersey is a PJ professional
in New Jersey. Brian DeMarco was open and honest about
his fight with testicular cancer and his comeback from testicular
(25:28):
cancer and how happy he is and how healthy he
is to be here. Unbelievable story. I mean, BD's a
great guy, and I gotta be honest with you, you
know what you know. And he was nice enough to say, well,
I worked for you and you taught me a lot.
(25:49):
I didn't he did, but I didn't teach him anything.
That guy's that guy's the real deal. That guy's the
real deal. And I was so happy too, you know,
to hear from him, and because you know what, he
was open and honest about a scary, scary, scary thing.
(26:14):
Another one was Ron Skyles, who was a retired school
teacher tried to play the PGA LP the PGA Senior
Tour for ten straight years Open qualifier. Just go round
and round and round and round and around around some
old school lessons. You know, if you learn to play,
you know, if you outwork people, you'll go far. It
(26:36):
was really, really, really a neat, a neat, a neat
moment to hear him talk about how important it was
for him to just to make his way on his own. Now.
One of the most lighthearted ones was was when I
(27:00):
had Randy tantle Or on the tank. Okay for those
of you guys have heard him talk. Okay, Tank's got
some energy, he really does. Tank's crazy, all right, he is,
He's crazy, Okay. And then if you listen to his podcast.
(27:21):
I don't know where he I think he records his
podcast in in a basement on the second floor of
the Moon. I mean it's it's like you hear it.
It's like a million miles away, but like he is,
he's into golf, and he is he's always willing to
help me out and come on this show, and it's
really important to me. You know, I talked to a
(27:42):
couple of golf coaches, you know, Dan Brown from My
Up and Will Johnson University of Charleston. Super open with her,
with their with their with their time and their stories.
You know, Will Will's Will was the one I mentioned
it before. It really wanted me to make sure that
I got his mom. Gotta tay so his mom could
hear it. That was really that was really kind of
(28:03):
neat to hear the genuine connection, you know between that,
I'm sure I'm leaving some people off. Kathy Harbin, Kathy
Harbin from Texas, really really really good, open, honest interview.
(28:26):
You know, Kathy's the definition of whatever you want to
achieve in the golf business, you can achieve. But I
guess maybe, and I'm not ranking them, they're I don't
have a best guess, not best guess whatever. But Bob Ford,
(28:49):
when Bob Ford came on my show and it sounds
so egotistic, was in my show, came on this show
that gave me instant credibility that I might be able
to do this. I'm not I'm not saying I'm good
at it. I'm not saying' great. I'm not saying any
of that, But like if that guy thought enough of
(29:09):
me to come on this show. You know, Bob Ford,
for those of you who do not know, he's the
former head professional Oakemond Country Club, the former head professional
Seminal Golf Club. He's the only PGA professional to have
the seminal job in Florida and a northern job who
is not one of major That's how good he is
at being a golf professional. He is the definition of
(29:34):
the definition of a golf professional. You know, there's there's
Hall of Fame and there's the best in the Hall
of Fame. You know, there's Hall of Fame center fielders
and there's the Maggio. There's Hall of Fame running backs
(29:55):
and there's Jim Brown. You know, there's a lot of
Hall of Fame wide receivers. There's one Jerry Rice. There's
a lot of golf professionals and not a lot. There's
some golf, A lot of golf professionals in the Hall
of Fame. There's only one Bob for it. And and
just just the way that he was he just talked,
(30:17):
just told stories about coming from Philadelphia and meeting people
and growing and low mister Worsham who was the head
professional Oakmont when he first got to Oakmont, you know,
who want a US Open, And how he talked with
reverence over the older golf professionals when he first got
in the Tri State section. The same reverence I have
(30:37):
for him and those guys. And and he said something
to me at the end of it was like, hey,
just keep getting better, keep getting people better rich, which
is what we try to do every day. It was
really really really an honor to have him on with me.
(31:01):
It really was, you know, and it's it's really really
really neat for me. That was like it that was
a that was a dream come true. And that was
like getting to interview. I don't know, I don't know
somebody really wants to interview because I did. You know.
I saw a story the other day about Brendan Shanahan,
(31:23):
who's in the Hockey Hall of Fame, wanting to meet
Bobby Orr. The same way with talking to Bob Ford
same exact way. That guy was just calm, honest, laid
back and just got it done. That guy was just
(31:43):
incredible and and and he and I'll give I'll give
you credit, though, you know what, I don't know how
he did it. He always does it. I've never had
this trait. I've never been able to make every person
in a room, a crowded room, feel like they're the
only person in the room. Arnold Palmer could do that.
Bob Ford can do it too. He's always done it
with me, He's done it with everybody else. But literally,
(32:10):
he was he was probably well, he is the best
golf professional who's ever been invented. That was really cool.
When we come back, I'm gonna send out a bunch
of thank yous. We're gonna talk about some future stuff.
So yeah, that's what we'll do when we come back.
(32:31):
This is the Rich Combog Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich Combo Golf Show. I have spent the first
two segments wrapping up twenty twenty four. I'm gonna talk
a little bit more about twenty twenty four, and we're
gonna talk about twenty twenty five and beyond. There are
some big changes in the world. Some of them are.
Some of them are really personal. It's gonna I'm gonna
(32:54):
get personal here pretty quickly, but not pretty quickly, but
pretty personal on many fronts. So I think I spent
the last segment summarizing a lot of what I what
I accomplished in twenty twenty four with this show. A
lot of the really cool people I got to meet
and talk to, not meet, but talk to and meet
on the show as it were, I am. I do
(33:19):
have to say that of all the thirty two guests,
I had a lot of them I knew prior to
them coming on the show. Some I didn't you know.
Jake Heron I did not know. Jonathan says, I didn't know,
you know, but it was it's really neat. It's really
(33:42):
really neat that that I could, you know, I could
do that. It was really cool. It's really cool. So
I guess the the overarching theme of this show as
I look backwards, and I just I I have to
thank Corey. Corey has produced every one of these There's
(34:06):
seventy two of them, Hey, seventy three others. That's seventy
third one. I had seventy two prior to today, so like
we played seventy two holes and now we're on the
next on the next golf tournament. So so has always
Corey has always made time for me to come in
here and do stuff. And even when I know for
a fact he's not always you know, it's not always
(34:30):
been easy for him to bounce his stuff around. So
thank you, Corey. I appreciate it. Can't cannot tell you.
Obviously I couldn't do this without you, and so thank you.
I would thank Craig Bomber, who is in charge of
all of these radio stations, but I never see him,
so I don't really want to call him out for
(34:51):
his bosses because I know he has one. But you know,
thank god they don't take attendance. That's all I can
tell you is if they took attendance, that dude would
be would like flunk because you know what, you have
to show up, you know, So so I have to
(35:11):
you know, I have to say that out loud. But
thanks to Craig because I asked him if I could
do it, and he's like, yeah, you can do this,
Go ahead and do it. Just give it a shot
and see what happened. So and that was good God,
that was two years ago now, So yeah, So let's
talk about moving forward. First of all, personally speaking, there
(35:35):
are a lot of changes that are that are coming
in my own personal life. You know, my son, who
is a senior at the Ohio State University and has
been on this show with me, has accepted a job
(35:55):
after graduation. He will move to Washington, DC, and he
will he will be working for Fannie May, a very
very very large company. And that's really exciting for him,
really exciting for him because you know, I don't, I don't.
(36:18):
I don't spend a lot of time talking about Drew.
Sometimes I spend time talking to Drew on this show.
But Drew's looked every every challenge he's ever had in
his life right right in the eye and just barreled
right through it. Uh. And I'm super proud of him
for it. I'm super proud of him for it. I
think every day I tell him that he should wake
(36:40):
up and think as lucky stars he has the mother
he does, because she has, in many instances, has pushed
him through those barriers or those mountains, or those hurdles
or whatever. So that's pretty exciting stuff coming up in
twenty five he still has a national championship to win
at Ohio State University. I'm pretty much convinced he's going
(37:00):
to take all the credit for every win. But that's fine.
That's fine too. But he'll start in DC later this summer.
My daughter, I don't know if everybody knows this or not.
My daughter was married in June of twenty twenty four.
That is, for those of you who have a daughter,
(37:23):
that is the most unbelievably emotional moment after their birth
that you ever have. I tell this story, and it
was the wedding occurred at It took place at Heinz
Chapel Oak on the University Pit's first campus, and I
(37:47):
told her that I was going to ask her a
question before I walked her down the aisle. So everybody,
all the groomsmen in the what are they called, maid
of bridesmaids and all that stuff went down there. So
it was our turn. And I said to her, I said,
I said, listen to me. I needs you to tell
me that you're all in. So because if you're not
all in, I can get you out of here. And
(38:07):
this is no disrespect to her or her husband. I
love the guy, so but you know, if you're an
one hundred percent committed right now, I you know it,
don't make it too late. And she looked at me
and she goes, Dad, I'm all in. And I said okay,
and I looked away, and I heard her say to me, Dad,
(38:31):
we have to go. And I turned back to look
at her, and she was like eight years old all
over again. All her white dress was all over the
place because she was just an light year old girl.
And I walked her down the aisle and bang. So
now we got some news that her husband has been
(38:54):
promoted to a very good job in the steel industry,
but he's on a roteal basis, so less than nine
months after being married, they are emigrating to Austria for
eighteen months. Now. Nobody knows my daughter because you know,
(39:18):
like like I do. But one of the most amazing
things that what people don't know about my daughter is
her full time job. She's a speech pathologist for the
Children's Institute in Pittsburgh. She works with non verbal autistic adults.
It is a hard job. The rewards are small. They
(39:46):
make baby steps look like big footsteps or god'szilla steps
or whatever. And I think the hardest part for her
is going to be to walk away from those kids.
She goes them. All kids are twenty two years old. Someone,
we're twenty one years old. But she's gonna go, And
(40:06):
that's gonna be a sad day because, you know, since
she was born obviously, she grew up in her home,
and she lived in Cleveland. She lived in Columbus when
she did undergrad. Although she may take all the credit
for the games, I don't know if it's her dru
and then, but we're gonna go, you know. And she
lived in Cleveland, she lived in Pittsburgh, went to grad
(40:27):
school in Pittsburgh. Now she's gonna go to Austria. Not Austin, Texas. Not,
She's gonna go to Austria. So I'm really looking forward
to going to see it. I've never been to Austria before,
been to London. What could be an opportunity for me
to see, for me to see uh Normandy when I go.
(40:54):
I'm a big history guy. But that's really really, really
neat for them. So yeah, that's what's going on with
those two. You know. I don't know if I ever
ever mentioned that. I'm sure I have I have an
(41:16):
older brother. I had an older brother, who was born
in nineteen fifty nine on New Year's Eve, and he
passed away in two thousand and seven. And I was
sitting at my house the other night, and I was
watching the football game that was on, and you know,
because I don't go out on New Year's even, don't
(41:39):
go out at all, but I certainly don't go out
on New Year's Even, it occurred to me that he
would have been sixty four years old today that day.
That was really, really, really strange to me. I'm sorry,
sixty five sixty five born in fifty nine, it was
twenty twenty four. That was really strange to me. Back
to me and things, I'm sure that it's it's out
(42:04):
there now. It's been publicly announced the Wheeling Country Club
is closing. It's closed, actually closed on December thirty first,
was our last day of business. So you know that
that that is sad for me for a couple of
different reasons. One, it's it's one hundred and twenty two
(42:24):
years old. That I hate. I hate history. That that
just stops accumulating history. I just that's you know, I'm
it's just too bad it would have been. But I
will tell you that I was able to say goodbye
to the members. I was able to say goodbye to Rich.
(42:45):
Tarilla was the golf professional wheeling country club for thirty
three years. Rich was probably the uh Ford, was the
greatest golf professional bought and Tom Trophy, my mentor, was
a really good golfessonal Rich was a really, really, really
good golf professional. I got to see his widow and
(43:06):
his sons, so that was good, and I got say
good bye to the members, and you know, I'm still
around it. We're still around. We don't tout you up
for a couple more weeks because we're gonna you know,
close up shop and you know, batting down the hatches
as they say in the Navy. But yeah, so that's
going on. So you know, what's what's next for for me?
(43:30):
I have to be honest, I've I've had a couple
of job interviews. I'm pretty optimistic that I can. I
can announce something middle of the next week. So and
that that ties us back into that ties us back
into the future of the show. We're gonna go on
(43:53):
hiatus like we do every year, come back in March.
I have every intension of continuing it. I know there's
more than one way we can do a podcast. There's
a lot of different things we can do, and I
know we can do it. It's going to be It's
(44:15):
gonna be fun. I also have gonna spend the next
month and a half two months, I guess what, January February, right,
So it's two and a half months, right, give or take.
I'm gonna figure out how we can really really really
put this thing on some steroids and really really grow it.
I'm really happy with the followers I have. I'm really
(44:37):
happy with the people who support it. But I think
we can do a lot better, mainly because Cory sits
over there. He can make it a lot better faster,
and but I'm really trying to carve out with whatever
role I take a couple way many more hours per
(44:57):
week to make sure that this happens people, to make
it bigger and better. People don't realize, you know, Like
Bob Ford asked me, he goes, how long did you
prepare for this? And I said about twenty minutes and
he's like, wow, that's pretty good. He goes, you're you're
you're really good at that. I'm like, well, okay, And
(45:21):
I thought to myself, you know, was the wow really genuine?
Like should I have spent many hours figuring it out?
I mean, because I don't want to script it and
things like that, And I do know that it's about
time commitment. I have to If I can commit some time,
I can I can grow it in a positive manner,
a very positive manner. I think that would be great.
(45:45):
I also, you know, I'm looking forward to that. I
do like this. I do like doing the show, and
I like the fact that people every so often will
stop me and go, hey, that was really cool. The
guy you talked to whatever, whoever was X y Z
whatever really cool. So yeah, I mean, that's probably what
(46:09):
the future of the show looks like, although I didn't
really map it out very well. A lot more of
the same, except just bigger and better. Maybe we'll do
maybe if I get really popular. You know, we have
a couple of guests per show. I don't know, but
I think, literally, this guy's the limit it really is.
(46:35):
I have. I know I will always be connected to
Wheeling no matter what role I take. Literally, I mean,
you know, the podcast will continue however we need to
do it, but you know, well, I'll always be connected
to Wheeling Country Club. I never thought I would be
(46:57):
the last PJ Professional Wheeling country Club, but I will always, always,
always love wheeling always. It didn't take me long to
fall in love with it. But I'll tell you what,
it's pretty awesome place. It's a pretty awesome place. And
I know it has his challenges, and I know all
that every place has its challenges, but it's just awesome.
(47:24):
And you know, from a personal standpoint, I'm obligated that.
You know, next year in July will be twenty four
years of sobriety for me. So that's really cool. I
(47:46):
and that's part of my honesty that I mentioned before.
You know, Jonathan Sessa said that to me too. I've
had a lot of people. Corey just said how proud
of of me he is. But I'm I'm really proud
of myself and I'm proud of and I have to
say this on this radio show. I have to thank
(48:06):
my wife because she saved my life because if she
hadn't stuck in there and helped me, I wouldn't be here.
So but that's a lot of stuff in one segment.
That's a lot of stuff in three segments. But mostly
I want to say thank you to everybody who listens,
even for five minutes. And the more words of Craig Bomber.
(48:27):
He heard my show by accident one day. So it's
just thank you for sharing your time with me. And
I will try to make this these as interesting as
possible and keep grabbing on some really solid guests. But
as you started out twenty twenty five, you know, target
your goals and get them done, and I'll be back
(48:48):
in March and we'll see what happens. This is the
rich Comwalllgoff Show.
Welcome to the rich Komwoll Golf Show. This is the
first week in January of twenty twenty five, so with
the Christmas holiday and the New Year's Eve and New
Year's Day holiday's over, I thought we would take I
would actually announce today that this is the last show
(00:22):
until for the hiatus, probably until March. But I'll get
into the rest of that a little bit later, because
there's been things, things are changing rapidly and all that
fun stuff. But I wanted to take a little while
and talk about what happened in the last year on
this show. This is just a show related, you know,
and hopefully we can we can actually have a ton
(00:47):
of fun kind of looking backwards a little bit, and
then we'll then we'll wrap up the show by looking forward.
I did some quick math. It's starting in mid the
first week in March until the end of December. I
don't know how many weeks that is, but I can
tell you I think it's forty weeks. And I had
(01:07):
thirty two guests on the show, so I only did
six or eight solo shows. Geographically speaking, two of those
guests were from Florida, one was from Colorado, one from Virginia,
one from Indiana, four from Pennsylvania, and one from South Carolina.
(01:27):
And that's not all of them. I just kind of
randomly went through them and and I came up with
those those states that were represented. Interestingly enough, there are
there were three PGA Tour or LPGA Tour winners on
(01:58):
the show, and which is really kind of cool. And I,
you know, it's kind of hard to explain, but I'm
very fortunate in my entire life. I have never been
nervous publicly speaking, except for twice. Once was in front
(02:23):
of a class in college. The other one was in
front of a very large outing because I didn't I
wasn't prepared. On both occasions, I've never been publicly nervous.
But I do have to tell publicly speaking, nervous, nervous
public public speaking. I do have to say that when
I was talking to those guys, it was a little
(02:44):
it was a little nerve wracking. Not nerve wracking. It
was pretty awesome, it was it made me nervous. Also
a couple of the people I did talk to did
make me nervous naturally, because I didn't I and I'll
get into that who those were a little bit later.
(03:06):
But the other thing is is I some of the
interesting facts is that I am amazed. I am amazed
to this to this day that I have only been
turned down once. I asked people to come on the show.
I've only been turned down once. I will not tell
you who turned me down. It is, you know, I was.
(03:31):
I was saddened by it. I really was, and and
and the reason. I still don't know the reason he
did it. I know it wasn't personal another do it
me or anybody who might hear him or her, but yeah,
it was I've only been turned down once. I think
the most amazing thing about this year because this year,
(03:51):
obviously we dove in and try to get more guests
on and go national and try to get a little
bit more of a cross section instead of just me
talking from a western Pennsylvania West Virginia standpoint. The amount
of receptiveness to coming on the show. I mean, I
(04:12):
reached out to PGA Tour winners, LPGA Tour winners, you know.
I reached out to golf coaches. I reached out to
people that had a lot going on in their life
and they were like, sure, I can't do it. Thursday,
I can do it Friday. I can't do it that day,
I can do it this day. They were all very
(04:32):
giving of their time. Interestingly enough, I was surprised that
the most nationally prominent of these people, actually two three
of them actually said to me, you only want me
(04:53):
for twenty minutes or forty minutes, because I was asking
only for a segment or two. And that's when I
started to say, you know what, I'm gonna ask for
the whole hour, and then and not and and and
the only reason I asked for the whole hour because
I wasn't trying to impose on people, but what they
they were like, hey, look i'll talk, but she you know,
I'll talk the whole time. So it made my life
(05:14):
a lot easier because then I just had to come
up with a couple of different inputs or thoughts. I did.
I did have some some really really really good insight
from the people that I spoke with, specifically Kathy Harbin
(05:37):
from from from Texas. I didn't mention that state in
my m I rundown, but she she emailed me or
she texted me. After she listened to it. She was
my God, because you're good at that, and the I
kind of refer to this a lot when I'm when
I'm talking to people on on the show. But it
(05:59):
is they've all said, this is incredibly easy to do this.
You know, everybody has said to me at one point
another how easy they are it is to do this,
which actually has nothing to do with me, actually has
to do with them, because I I just I kind
of you know, I spend some time and I think
to myself, I just open up. I just open up
(06:24):
open ended questions and they talk. I I'm really really
really proud of a couple of questions that I asked.
I'm really really really proud of the honesty that I
heard in the entire year too. I mean, and I
will get into this, you know, the honesty part of it,
(06:48):
you know, a little bit later. But but the other
thing is, along with the amount of recepting this, I
can't believe they want to talk to me. I really,
it still blows my mind that they would they would
take the time and talk to me, and they being
a lot of nationally known people, you know, I mean
case in point. And I'll talk about her a little
(07:08):
bit more later. But Chris Chedd Chris cheddar college friend
was Ben Hogan, I mean father figure. Actually she won
on the OPGA tour. She has children, she she's playing
competitively on the Senior OPGA Tour. She she's like, yeah,
I'll talk, well, whatever you want. I'm like, wow. So
(07:31):
it is just it's really really really phenomenal that they
were people were so willing to do it. It's interesting
to me that when I was, as I said, I
was only turned down once, but the reluctance of for
lack of a better term, local people too to be
(07:55):
a little bit hesitant to get on the show with me.
It's really it's it's just interesting to me. You know,
this is just all of a kind of a stream
of consciousness reflection of twenty twenty four. But it's amazing
to me, like they like the local people, like you
really want to talk to me? I mean really can
you can't find anybody else? I mean I heard that,
you know, like self deprecating that way, but you know,
(08:18):
now you know, and I'll talk you know as I
go through kind of like the highlights that stream through
my head. But you know, there were some local people
like dag right out Will. The other thing is amazing
to me, how many people, how many people want to
make sure that they can let their mom or dad
(08:41):
listen to it, even though they're well into their careers
and well into their adulthood and things like that. I
obviously I don't everybody knows I don't interview kids. I mean,
and yeah, they're like, it's really important for them to
hear that. I mean, And the most famous of them
were like that, which was really really really kind of
need to see, you know, because obviously I would love
(09:03):
to have the opportunity to send my mom or my
dad every one of these, but I can't because they're
not with us anymore. But but but they would be,
they would be really it would. First of all, the
technology of it would blow my parents mind. I mean,
they were like, how can I go on a phone
(09:23):
and hit play? And why are you Why can I
hear you people talking? But I'm not on a phone
call with you. My dad worked for AT and T,
so anything outside of a phone line was the end
of the world. End of the world to him. That
was over the moon technology. That was by the way,
it's pretty awesome technology too, the telephone. But but he was,
(09:46):
he would have been, and he wouldn't have he would
have acted like he understood it. He would have acted
like he invented it, but he would not really have
been comfortable with it. So I'm actually happy when people
say to me, hey, can you send it to me?
I want to make sure my you know, my dad
hears that, or my mom hears that. And case in point,
Will Johnson University of Charleston texted me as soon as
(10:06):
we were done and said, you've got to get me that.
My mom wants to see it, wants to hear it rather.
So you know, that's that's been. That's that's really really
really kind of some of the raw look backs or
takeaways is the big word, the the fact that you know,
(10:34):
people view me as as actually asking pretty good questions.
I think. I think the other thing that is over
riding for all of that is the honesty that I
had from everybody. I mean, they could have said some things.
They could have you know, case in point, you know
(10:56):
Jonathan Sessa, who we had on last week, was it
or two weeks ago, whether it was the word of
Golf project and and and he admittedly said, admittedly said
I have I had PTSD, I had alcohol and drug issues.
(11:17):
You know, golf saved my life I mean, I think
that's that's awesome, you know, and I think that I
think some of the the honesty that that people expressed
to me. I know, when I talked to Tom Trophy,
who's was my really is my really mentor in the
(11:40):
golf business, he literally he literally was just like I
could not believe that I wanted to talk to him,
and he was genuinely so happy to be on the
phone with me, you know. And it's just the overarching
(12:07):
the whole thing is like people say, many I'm a podcast.
You know, my son says, I think we should regulate
the amount of podcast equipment that is in the world
today because every athlete or quasi athlete. Of course he
calls me a quasi athlete because you know, I'm I'm
just a golf professional. But you know, he says, has
the has the ability to get on a podcast, and
(12:27):
you know, and they call himself a star. I never
called myself a star, and I want that clearer because
I'm not. But you know, it's just people were amazed
that that I would want them, I want to talk
to him for for a while. I'm amazed they want
to talk to me. I really am, I really am
I mean, I'm really happy. I'm really, really really happy
(12:52):
with that, I you know. And and so when I
the last segment today, we're going to talk about the
future of of of of this show, and and I'll
explain to you why we have to talk well why
I'm going to talk about it. But the just I couldn't.
(13:12):
I wouldn't be able to do this without those people
because I'm not that interesting. I'm really not. As much
as I convinced myself that I'm you know, what's that
the most interesting man of the world was that? Was
that do Seki's uh commercial right, I'm not. I'm not,
(13:35):
and I know that, but those people are nice enough
to do that, and I think that's just unbelievable to me.
And the amount of just honesty and directness and genuine
happiness to talk it really is weird because I gotta
be honest with you, you know, I mean a little
behind the scenes stuff. We're we're in the non guest
(13:58):
studio in a wheeling today, but when I have the guests,
like I'm I'm in a different room obviously and actually
looks like I know what I'm doing because I have
like a headset and I've got this board and I've
got a TV up there, and I look like I
look like Dan rather more than I look like me.
But the funny thing is when people don't realize when
I'm really when it's going really well, and I have
(14:20):
somebody on who can who really really really likes stuff,
you know, really likes stuff, kind of have at it
with things that I can actually put my feet up,
let people talk. It's not a big deal. It's really
really really neat. There are some, and I'll be honest
with you, because there's always a flip side of all this,
there are some that they're hard to get through. I
(14:44):
am never I will never say who they were, and
I will never say who they are because I you know,
but they they they wouldn't they wouldn't talk. I mean,
like like I ask a question, Yeah that's right, Okay,
wait a minute, we need to I didn't Yep, that's right.
Was not really the answer I thought when I asked
(15:06):
you that question. So it's it's been awesome. This is
the this is the second year I've been doing this,
and this is by far I think I've gotten way
more comfortable. I'm way more aggressive and asking and even
more aggressively happy that how receptive people have been and
(15:30):
the energy they bring to it, because you know, I've
been accused of having far too much energy for any
one person should have, but they they a lot of
the best guests, and all my guests actually for the
most part, match my energy energy pretty well. And so
it's it's been it's been awesome. It's been absolutely awesome.
(15:54):
And so as we go down the road in the
next two segments, we're going to talk about some of
the some of the coolest moments, and then we're gonna
talk about a little bit of the future of this show.
This is the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich combogof Show. Although it's twenty twenty five, we
were doing the twenty twenty four show review and I
(16:16):
rambled on pretty extensively in the first segment about some
of the geography of all this and some of the
different places that I was able to reach to. And
now we're gonna actually have a lot of fun kind
of reliving some of my best moments. And there will
be no obviously there will be no drop in tape
(16:37):
or anything like that or audio or whatever those fancy
terms are. But I gotta tell you that there's a
there's a couple, and I'm gonna do this, and there's
no way, I mean, I could scroll through and give
you like a quote from every or a moment from
(17:01):
every show, which I may do as I'm sitting here,
but I did write down some things and so I
just kind of want to review them a little bit.
Steve Bartkowski is the executive director of the Colorado PGA.
(17:24):
Steve is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet
in your life. And I knew Steve when he was
in Western New York and then you obviously got to
go to Colorado and he spent an hour with me,
and it was it was a mix of future and
(17:49):
past and it was really really, really kind of neat,
and I think he was indicative of the golf story.
For most of my guests, all has to do with
their parents, their mom, their dad, somebody that started them
in the game of golf. But Steve's got a really
cool golf story and and he's He's just Steve's him.
(18:12):
When you come to executive directors of the tri state
not to try state, excuse me, executive director of the
PGA Sections Steve's Steve's him. You know, I don't know
what that means. My son says he's him, but I
don't know what that means. But I think Steve, I
think Steve embodies him. Jay Karen's the CEO of the
(18:33):
of the National Golf Course Owners Association. That guy has passion.
Holy man, he has high energy and passion. He makes
me look like I'm napping. And that's that's that's hard
for me to say out loud, but it is absolutely
just awesome. Two just to hear, you know, his excitement
(19:00):
for golf, his excitement for how it's going to grow,
is really, really, really big. And I could probably spend
two weeks talking to him about legislation around golf. And
because he's in, he's in on that because obviously golf
course owners have to deal with business owners, and they're
multimillion dollars in business. You know, a small one small
(19:25):
golf course. Does you know two million dollars a year?
I mean, and and so think about it. I mean,
let's say there's five hundred, there's ten in each state.
Five hundred times two million, is you know a billion?
I don't know. I can't do the math. But that's
(19:45):
that's how that's how much business is in the golf business,
and and there's endless stats on it. But Jay Jay
actually personalized that it was really kind of cool. Missy
Birdie Audi from Western Pennsylvania, the LPGA Tour winner. Great
honesty about getting out on tour, great honesty about her father,
(20:09):
how much he pushed her and helped her and pushed
her in a positive way, helped her in a really
great way. Really really really neat, like really neat, And
you know that's a person who really likes golf and
(20:29):
really likes helping kids get better at golf. Now that
she's not playing competitively anymore, it's really neat. Chris Cheddar
Chris Cheddar one of the LPGA Tour. Chris Cheddar is
from from South Dakota, went to school in Texas and
lives in Virginia. I've known, not known. I met Chris
(20:55):
almost twenty five years ago. You know, Chris is twenty
years ago. Chris is just an awesome, awesome, awesome person,
really good player, you know, father figure in mister Hogan,
but just genuinely an awesome person and an awesome player,
(21:21):
and a really open and honest interview you know, she
said some things like, you know she played against she
said her most, her most, the best player she ever
played with or against was Carry Webb, which was kind
of a shock because I thought for sure she'd say Anica,
you know, and Chris Chedder finished second to Anica in
(21:43):
the US opened by eight shots. And the best thing
was she was like or six or whatever, six I
won that golf tom, I don't know what she was playing.
That girl playing a different thing. You know. That was
really cool to hear some of those stories. You know.
Chris Smith, Chris Smith, PGA Tour winner won at Westchester,
(22:08):
Great Player, Great Player, Ohio State. Buck Eye, I'm quite
sure he's walking on air today, but really open and
honest about playing the PGA Tour, what it was like,
(22:29):
how he got out there, some of the people he
ran into that were less than helpful and some of
the people that were very helpful. You know, the tiger
story he told the best tiger story. I asked him
his best tiger story. He told me the story about
the wedge from the fringe from Memorial. Oh my god,
(22:52):
He's like when he hit that shot, I was like,
you know what, that guy's different. That guy's different, you know.
That was that was really cool. That was really cool
to hear him, to hear him talk like that. It
was a he told that story like he was sitting
like he was happening in front of him right there,
like that was burned in him. And it was really
(23:13):
really really neat for him to for him to be
that open and honest about playing the PGA Tour. And
also like how expensive it is to play the PGA Tour.
That that I found very interesting. That I found very interesting,
(23:35):
you know, the fact that he that he couldn't it,
not that he couldn't do it, because he did, but
just how expensive everything is, you know, and and just
how much of a difficulty it is to do that
(23:57):
full time. Uh. And you know, obviously he won. That guy,
that guy's that guy's unbelievable. That guy's unbelievable. Player Bob Friend.
Bob Friend from Pittsburgh. His father was a Major League
baseball player. Absolutely, absolutely one of the lines of the year.
(24:23):
Playing the PGA Tour is as much fun as you
can have with your clothes on. I I don't think
as much as I I don't want to think about
that a whole lot. But he did say twice. So
I'm pretty much convinced it must be a lot of
fun to play play the PGA Tour, you know, I
(24:44):
really do. I think that must be incredible. But he was.
He was the first guy to tell me that that
he only needed you know, he would go more segments,
but he would he would do the two that I
asked him, And so that was that was really cool.
Like that's when I started to say, you know what,
these guys don't mind talking about themselves. I'm not the
(25:06):
you know what I mean, talking about golf, talking about
how much they love it and things like that. That
was really neat some of the other ones. Brian DeMarco
Brian de Marco from New Jersey is a PJ professional
in New Jersey. Brian DeMarco was open and honest about
his fight with testicular cancer and his comeback from testicular
(25:28):
cancer and how happy he is and how healthy he
is to be here. Unbelievable story. I mean, BD's a
great guy, and I gotta be honest with you, you
know what you know. And he was nice enough to say, well,
I worked for you and you taught me a lot.
(25:49):
I didn't he did, but I didn't teach him anything.
That guy's that guy's the real deal. That guy's the
real deal. And I was so happy too, you know,
to hear from him, and because you know what, he
was open and honest about a scary, scary, scary thing.
(26:14):
Another one was Ron Skyles, who was a retired school
teacher tried to play the PGA LP the PGA Senior
Tour for ten straight years Open qualifier. Just go round
and round and round and round and around around some
old school lessons. You know, if you learn to play,
you know, if you outwork people, you'll go far. It
(26:36):
was really, really, really a neat, a neat, a neat
moment to hear him talk about how important it was
for him to just to make his way on his own. Now.
One of the most lighthearted ones was was when I
(27:00):
had Randy tantle Or on the tank. Okay for those
of you guys have heard him talk. Okay, Tank's got
some energy, he really does. Tank's crazy, all right, he is,
He's crazy, Okay. And then if you listen to his podcast.
(27:21):
I don't know where he I think he records his
podcast in in a basement on the second floor of
the Moon. I mean it's it's like you hear it.
It's like a million miles away, but like he is,
he's into golf, and he is he's always willing to
help me out and come on this show, and it's
really important to me. You know, I talked to a
(27:42):
couple of golf coaches, you know, Dan Brown from My
Up and Will Johnson University of Charleston. Super open with her,
with their with their with their time and their stories.
You know, Will Will's Will was the one I mentioned
it before. It really wanted me to make sure that
I got his mom. Gotta tay so his mom could
hear it. That was really that was really kind of
(28:03):
neat to hear the genuine connection, you know between that,
I'm sure I'm leaving some people off. Kathy Harbin, Kathy
Harbin from Texas, really really really good, open, honest interview.
(28:26):
You know, Kathy's the definition of whatever you want to
achieve in the golf business, you can achieve. But I
guess maybe, and I'm not ranking them, they're I don't
have a best guess, not best guess whatever. But Bob Ford,
(28:49):
when Bob Ford came on my show and it sounds
so egotistic, was in my show, came on this show
that gave me instant credibility that I might be able
to do this. I'm not I'm not saying I'm good
at it. I'm not saying' great. I'm not saying any
of that, But like if that guy thought enough of
(29:09):
me to come on this show. You know, Bob Ford,
for those of you who do not know, he's the
former head professional Oakemond Country Club, the former head professional
Seminal Golf Club. He's the only PGA professional to have
the seminal job in Florida and a northern job who
is not one of major That's how good he is
at being a golf professional. He is the definition of
(29:34):
the definition of a golf professional. You know, there's there's
Hall of Fame and there's the best in the Hall
of Fame. You know, there's Hall of Fame center fielders
and there's the Maggio. There's Hall of Fame running backs
(29:55):
and there's Jim Brown. You know, there's a lot of
Hall of Fame wide receivers. There's one Jerry Rice. There's
a lot of golf professionals and not a lot. There's
some golf, A lot of golf professionals in the Hall
of Fame. There's only one Bob for it. And and
just just the way that he was he just talked,
(30:17):
just told stories about coming from Philadelphia and meeting people
and growing and low mister Worsham who was the head
professional Oakmont when he first got to Oakmont, you know,
who want a US Open, And how he talked with
reverence over the older golf professionals when he first got
in the Tri State section. The same reverence I have
(30:37):
for him and those guys. And and he said something
to me at the end of it was like, hey,
just keep getting better, keep getting people better rich, which
is what we try to do every day. It was
really really really an honor to have him on with me.
(31:01):
It really was, you know, and it's it's really really
really neat for me. That was like it that was
a that was a dream come true. And that was
like getting to interview. I don't know, I don't know
somebody really wants to interview because I did. You know.
I saw a story the other day about Brendan Shanahan,
(31:23):
who's in the Hockey Hall of Fame, wanting to meet
Bobby Orr. The same way with talking to Bob Ford
same exact way. That guy was just calm, honest, laid
back and just got it done. That guy was just
(31:43):
incredible and and and he and I'll give I'll give
you credit, though, you know what, I don't know how
he did it. He always does it. I've never had
this trait. I've never been able to make every person
in a room, a crowded room, feel like they're the
only person in the room. Arnold Palmer could do that.
Bob Ford can do it too. He's always done it
with me, He's done it with everybody else. But literally,
(32:10):
he was he was probably well, he is the best
golf professional who's ever been invented. That was really cool.
When we come back, I'm gonna send out a bunch
of thank yous. We're gonna talk about some future stuff.
So yeah, that's what we'll do when we come back.
(32:31):
This is the Rich Combog Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich Combo Golf Show. I have spent the first
two segments wrapping up twenty twenty four. I'm gonna talk
a little bit more about twenty twenty four, and we're
gonna talk about twenty twenty five and beyond. There are
some big changes in the world. Some of them are.
Some of them are really personal. It's gonna I'm gonna
(32:54):
get personal here pretty quickly, but not pretty quickly, but
pretty personal on many fronts. So I think I spent
the last segment summarizing a lot of what I what
I accomplished in twenty twenty four with this show. A
lot of the really cool people I got to meet
and talk to, not meet, but talk to and meet
on the show as it were, I am. I do
(33:19):
have to say that of all the thirty two guests,
I had a lot of them I knew prior to
them coming on the show. Some I didn't you know.
Jake Heron I did not know. Jonathan says, I didn't know,
you know, but it was it's really neat. It's really
(33:42):
really neat that that I could, you know, I could
do that. It was really cool. It's really cool. So
I guess the the overarching theme of this show as
I look backwards, and I just I I have to
thank Corey. Corey has produced every one of these There's
(34:06):
seventy two of them, Hey, seventy three others. That's seventy
third one. I had seventy two prior to today, so like
we played seventy two holes and now we're on the
next on the next golf tournament. So so has always
Corey has always made time for me to come in
here and do stuff. And even when I know for
a fact he's not always you know, it's not always
(34:30):
been easy for him to bounce his stuff around. So
thank you, Corey. I appreciate it. Can't cannot tell you.
Obviously I couldn't do this without you, and so thank you.
I would thank Craig Bomber, who is in charge of
all of these radio stations, but I never see him,
so I don't really want to call him out for
(34:51):
his bosses because I know he has one. But you know,
thank god they don't take attendance. That's all I can
tell you is if they took attendance, that dude would
be would like flunk because you know what, you have
to show up, you know, So so I have to
(35:11):
you know, I have to say that out loud. But
thanks to Craig because I asked him if I could
do it, and he's like, yeah, you can do this,
Go ahead and do it. Just give it a shot
and see what happened. So and that was good God,
that was two years ago now, So yeah, So let's
talk about moving forward. First of all, personally speaking, there
(35:35):
are a lot of changes that are that are coming
in my own personal life. You know, my son, who
is a senior at the Ohio State University and has
been on this show with me, has accepted a job
(35:55):
after graduation. He will move to Washington, DC, and he
will he will be working for Fannie May, a very
very very large company. And that's really exciting for him,
really exciting for him because you know, I don't, I don't.
(36:18):
I don't spend a lot of time talking about Drew.
Sometimes I spend time talking to Drew on this show.
But Drew's looked every every challenge he's ever had in
his life right right in the eye and just barreled
right through it. Uh. And I'm super proud of him
for it. I'm super proud of him for it. I
think every day I tell him that he should wake
(36:40):
up and think as lucky stars he has the mother
he does, because she has, in many instances, has pushed
him through those barriers or those mountains, or those hurdles
or whatever. So that's pretty exciting stuff coming up in
twenty five he still has a national championship to win
at Ohio State University. I'm pretty much convinced he's going
(37:00):
to take all the credit for every win. But that's fine.
That's fine too. But he'll start in DC later this summer.
My daughter, I don't know if everybody knows this or not.
My daughter was married in June of twenty twenty four.
That is, for those of you who have a daughter,
(37:23):
that is the most unbelievably emotional moment after their birth
that you ever have. I tell this story, and it
was the wedding occurred at It took place at Heinz
Chapel Oak on the University Pit's first campus, and I
(37:47):
told her that I was going to ask her a
question before I walked her down the aisle. So everybody,
all the groomsmen in the what are they called, maid
of bridesmaids and all that stuff went down there. So
it was our turn. And I said to her, I said,
I said, listen to me. I needs you to tell
me that you're all in. So because if you're not
all in, I can get you out of here. And
(38:07):
this is no disrespect to her or her husband. I
love the guy, so but you know, if you're an
one hundred percent committed right now, I you know it,
don't make it too late. And she looked at me
and she goes, Dad, I'm all in. And I said okay,
and I looked away, and I heard her say to me, Dad,
(38:31):
we have to go. And I turned back to look
at her, and she was like eight years old all
over again. All her white dress was all over the
place because she was just an light year old girl.
And I walked her down the aisle and bang. So
now we got some news that her husband has been
(38:54):
promoted to a very good job in the steel industry,
but he's on a roteal basis, so less than nine
months after being married, they are emigrating to Austria for
eighteen months. Now. Nobody knows my daughter because you know,
(39:18):
like like I do. But one of the most amazing
things that what people don't know about my daughter is
her full time job. She's a speech pathologist for the
Children's Institute in Pittsburgh. She works with non verbal autistic adults.
It is a hard job. The rewards are small. They
(39:46):
make baby steps look like big footsteps or god'szilla steps
or whatever. And I think the hardest part for her
is going to be to walk away from those kids.
She goes them. All kids are twenty two years old. Someone,
we're twenty one years old. But she's gonna go, And
(40:06):
that's gonna be a sad day because, you know, since
she was born obviously, she grew up in her home,
and she lived in Cleveland. She lived in Columbus when
she did undergrad. Although she may take all the credit
for the games, I don't know if it's her dru
and then, but we're gonna go, you know. And she
lived in Cleveland, she lived in Pittsburgh, went to grad
(40:27):
school in Pittsburgh. Now she's gonna go to Austria. Not Austin, Texas. Not,
She's gonna go to Austria. So I'm really looking forward
to going to see it. I've never been to Austria before,
been to London. What could be an opportunity for me
to see, for me to see uh Normandy when I go.
(40:54):
I'm a big history guy. But that's really really, really
neat for them. So yeah, that's what's going on with
those two. You know. I don't know if I ever
ever mentioned that. I'm sure I have I have an
(41:16):
older brother. I had an older brother, who was born
in nineteen fifty nine on New Year's Eve, and he
passed away in two thousand and seven. And I was
sitting at my house the other night, and I was
watching the football game that was on, and you know,
because I don't go out on New Year's even, don't
(41:39):
go out at all, but I certainly don't go out
on New Year's Even, it occurred to me that he
would have been sixty four years old today that day.
That was really, really, really strange to me. I'm sorry,
sixty five sixty five born in fifty nine, it was
twenty twenty four. That was really strange to me. Back
to me and things, I'm sure that it's it's out
(42:04):
there now. It's been publicly announced the Wheeling Country Club
is closing. It's closed, actually closed on December thirty first,
was our last day of business. So you know that
that that is sad for me for a couple of
different reasons. One, it's it's one hundred and twenty two
(42:24):
years old. That I hate. I hate history. That that
just stops accumulating history. I just that's you know, I'm
it's just too bad it would have been. But I
will tell you that I was able to say goodbye
to the members. I was able to say goodbye to Rich.
(42:45):
Tarilla was the golf professional wheeling country club for thirty
three years. Rich was probably the uh Ford, was the
greatest golf professional bought and Tom Trophy, my mentor, was
a really good golfessonal Rich was a really, really, really
good golf professional. I got to see his widow and
(43:06):
his sons, so that was good, and I got say
good bye to the members, and you know, I'm still
around it. We're still around. We don't tout you up
for a couple more weeks because we're gonna you know,
close up shop and you know, batting down the hatches
as they say in the Navy. But yeah, so that's
going on. So you know, what's what's next for for me?
(43:30):
I have to be honest, I've I've had a couple
of job interviews. I'm pretty optimistic that I can. I
can announce something middle of the next week. So and
that that ties us back into that ties us back
into the future of the show. We're gonna go on
(43:53):
hiatus like we do every year, come back in March.
I have every intension of continuing it. I know there's
more than one way we can do a podcast. There's
a lot of different things we can do, and I
know we can do it. It's going to be It's
(44:15):
gonna be fun. I also have gonna spend the next
month and a half two months, I guess what, January February, right,
So it's two and a half months, right, give or take.
I'm gonna figure out how we can really really really
put this thing on some steroids and really really grow it.
I'm really happy with the followers I have. I'm really
(44:37):
happy with the people who support it. But I think
we can do a lot better, mainly because Cory sits
over there. He can make it a lot better faster,
and but I'm really trying to carve out with whatever
role I take a couple way many more hours per
(44:57):
week to make sure that this happens people, to make
it bigger and better. People don't realize, you know, Like
Bob Ford asked me, he goes, how long did you
prepare for this? And I said about twenty minutes and
he's like, wow, that's pretty good. He goes, you're you're
you're really good at that. I'm like, well, okay, And
(45:21):
I thought to myself, you know, was the wow really genuine?
Like should I have spent many hours figuring it out?
I mean, because I don't want to script it and
things like that, And I do know that it's about
time commitment. I have to If I can commit some time,
I can I can grow it in a positive manner,
a very positive manner. I think that would be great.
(45:45):
I also, you know, I'm looking forward to that. I
do like this. I do like doing the show, and
I like the fact that people every so often will
stop me and go, hey, that was really cool. The
guy you talked to whatever, whoever was X y Z
whatever really cool. So yeah, I mean, that's probably what
(46:09):
the future of the show looks like, although I didn't
really map it out very well. A lot more of
the same, except just bigger and better. Maybe we'll do
maybe if I get really popular. You know, we have
a couple of guests per show. I don't know, but
I think, literally, this guy's the limit it really is.
(46:35):
I have. I know I will always be connected to
Wheeling no matter what role I take. Literally, I mean,
you know, the podcast will continue however we need to
do it, but you know, well, I'll always be connected
to Wheeling Country Club. I never thought I would be
(46:57):
the last PJ Professional Wheeling country Club, but I will always, always,
always love wheeling always. It didn't take me long to
fall in love with it. But I'll tell you what,
it's pretty awesome place. It's a pretty awesome place. And
I know it has his challenges, and I know all
that every place has its challenges, but it's just awesome.
(47:24):
And you know, from a personal standpoint, I'm obligated that.
You know, next year in July will be twenty four
years of sobriety for me. So that's really cool. I
(47:46):
and that's part of my honesty that I mentioned before.
You know, Jonathan Sessa said that to me too. I've
had a lot of people. Corey just said how proud
of of me he is. But I'm I'm really proud
of myself and I'm proud of and I have to
say this on this radio show. I have to thank
(48:06):
my wife because she saved my life because if she
hadn't stuck in there and helped me, I wouldn't be here.
So but that's a lot of stuff in one segment.
That's a lot of stuff in three segments. But mostly
I want to say thank you to everybody who listens,
even for five minutes. And the more words of Craig Bomber.
(48:27):
He heard my show by accident one day. So it's
just thank you for sharing your time with me. And
I will try to make this these as interesting as
possible and keep grabbing on some really solid guests. But
as you started out twenty twenty five, you know, target
your goals and get them done, and I'll be back
(48:48):
in March and we'll see what happens. This is the
rich Comwalllgoff Show.
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