August 27, 2024 • 49 mins
Rich is flying solo, but there's a lot to cover. Rich details his experience volunteering at the recent LIV Tour event at The Greenbrier. He also gives a preview for Wheeling University Golf, and asks himself if he's lived up to a quote from Ben Hogan.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rich Komo Golf Show. This is a
kind of a rare occurrence this week. We are not
going to have a guest on this week. I made
a couple of attempts at a couple of different people
and came pretty close to a former PGA Tour player
who show remained nameless, but could not pull it off
(00:22):
on a beautiful Friday in August. So we are going
to fly solo. And that sound you here as everybody
shutting off the radio, But actually.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's not that. It's it should be fun.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
A lot's happened and is happening in the world of golf.
And so we are going to spend the first two
segments talking about some very very big time national stuff,
and then the second segment is gonna be about some
very local stuff. And then the third segment's going to
(00:55):
be a little bit of a story and see if
I haven't taken a very wise man's advice and lived
up to the advice he gave me during that story.
But that's all for the third segment. So first segment
is we are going to talk about the the world
(01:16):
of golf, but not in terms of tour versus tour
or anything like that. I'm just going to talk about
an opportunity that I had last week, which would have been, oh,
let's see seventeenth, sixteen, seventeenth and eighteen, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth,
(01:37):
and eighteenth of August at White Softur Springs the Greenbrier.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
First of all, if you've never been to the Greenbrier,
you have to go.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I realized it's really expensive to stay there, and it's unbelievably,
like ridiculously expensive to stay there. But it's it is
America's resort. It's literally something you have to see it.
You just have to drive through it, walk through the hotel,
any of that. The hotel lobby is a historical snapshot,
(02:13):
actually multiple snapshots of history. I'm going all the way
back to about the turn of the nineteenth century, which
is eighteen hundred, and then beyond that the turn of
the twentieth century, which would be nineteen hundred. And it's
it's just a really, really really cool place. It really is.
(02:35):
It just reeks of history. For those of you who
enjoy casinos, it's also a casino there, but that's not
really why I go it. Because you have to stay
at the hotel in order to go or one of
the cottages or homes in order to go to the casino.
So but if you ever have a chance, it is
(02:56):
absolutely a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Has horses.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
There's twenty eight or twenty nine different recreational activities there
from bachi to croquet, to golf, to horseback to water
sports to fitness or I guess cross training is what
(03:24):
I'm trying to think of, or hiking trails, climbing. It's
unbelievable with what they do there. So it's just something
you have to see. And I'm not an advertisement for
the Greenbrier because in order to get to the Greenbrier
it is you know, the joke is you go twelve
miles past nowhere and turn right.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But it is a great place.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
But why I'm talking about this is because last weekend
those dates I mentioned fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen of
August twenty twenty four, the live event was at the Greenbrier.
And if anybody pays attention to this show, they know
that I interviewed or on as a.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Guest Robert Harris.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Robert is the golf professional emeritus of the Greenbrier.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
He is also.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
An incredibly good storyteller. An incredibly involved guy in the
world of the Greenbrier, along with Hill Herrick, who is
the head professional with the Greenbrier. Now, they're just absolutely
they're really good guys. And their entire staff, all their
(04:37):
PJA professionals are very very very good guys, from apprentices
to no apprentice sorry, associate to assistants to head professionals
to directors of golf, they're just incredibly good guys. So
but anyway back to why I was there. I was
fortunate enough to be able to volunteer for the live event,
which meant that I spent two days on the practice
(05:02):
facility at the Greenbrier. So for those of you who
have not been to a live event, there is a
proram on Thursday, only play fifty four holes. They play
one running golf on Friday, one on Saturday, one on Sunday,
which is the tournament proper, they play a pro am
on Thursday. Interesting thing about the program is the only
(05:25):
people who are on the property on the golf course
itself are pro am participants and players. There are no
spectators in the prorams none so, and then on top
of that, they add an extra layer to it that
the players that live tour players only play nine holes,
(05:51):
so they play nine holes with a group of amateurs,
then they change out, and then the second nine hole,
second player, second tour player goes in and plays the
back nine.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
With those folks.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So it is very expensive to play in the program.
But at the same time you do get two professionals
you play with. So you spend two hours, two hours
and fifteen minutes with tour player A, and then two
hours and fifteen minutes with two tour player BA. So
you may get Charles how the Third and Brooks Koepka,
(06:24):
you might get Sergio Garcia and.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Peterial Line. You don't know. But it's really, really, really neat.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And why it's really neat is because when you are
on the range on pro am day, the only people
on the range are the players, their caddies, their teachers,
and me and two other volunteers, and you just all
(06:54):
your volunteering is not hard. All you have to do
is go up and pick up a little range bags,
take them back to the range station, they fill them up,
and the players come get them. Interestingly enough to give
you a little bit of a sidebar, a little what's
that Wizard of Oz thing to look behind the curtain right.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
In the range building.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
At any live event, any tour, of any PGA Tour.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Event, there are.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Bins of golf balls and they're brand new, and they
are sorted by type. So there's titlest black, titlist red,
stricks On blue, stricks on red, there's Callaway blue, Callaway red.
There's all sorts of any golf ball that a player
(07:44):
can play is there for the taking. So case in point,
tailor made, Tailor Made makes their own golf balls. Dustin
Johnson plays Tailor Made. His caddie goes in and gets
his tower made golf balls. So interestingly enough, one of
(08:10):
the players plays Wilson.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I won't tell you who.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
One of the players plays Wilson, and they sent in
he's the only player on the live tour that plays Wilson.
They send in twenty four dozen golf balls for him,
and then obviously as they pick them up, they replace
(08:33):
them and he comes and gets those and it's just phenomenal.
The other thing is that's phenomenal is what they take
to the range with them on tournament days. Dustin Johnson's
(08:54):
team has their own track Man device.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Times four.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Each player has their own track man, it's fifty five
thousand dollars piece of equipment.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Each player has their own.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
They bring them out during the practice rounds two, I
mean during the program day two, and all they do.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Is just readat or redad.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
It tells them launch, angle, spin rate, face angle, speed,
all of it. It's unbelievable and to watch them is
just a phenomenal opportunity. I was literally you can imagine,
(09:42):
I'm five feet behind their caddies, who are five feet
behind the tour player. I'm ten feet away from Brooks
kept get hitting t shots or iron shots. Charles how
the Third, Peter Yule, and anybody on the lift tour.
They all practice that day, so everyone of them, Phil Mickelson,
Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, they're all there, okay.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Ian Polter wears white sox.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It's it's the Alver shorts. He wears white sox. He
looks like a with all due respect him, he's a
very good flyer, great Ryder Cup player. He looks like
a sixty year old guy work a seventy year old
guy working in his yard because he has these usually
bright shorts on and a pattern shirt and high white sox.
(10:31):
He looks like you know, he looks like Kevin James's
father in law and King of Queens. That's exactly what
it looks like. Exactly what it looks like. But to
watch those guys, it's a spectacle. It is it's a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
That is.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It is the equivalent, because of who's there, of watching
Sydney Crosby skate standing in the center ice doot. It's
the equivalent of standing on second base watching a Major
(11:13):
League baseball team take batting practice literally, I mean, or
infield practice, infield practice like literally, It's that's that I
can't there's no other there's no other analogies.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
It's exactly like that.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
The only thing that would be different would be the
only thing I would modify that was if you were
watching Sidney Crosby, you could stand on the goal line
over by the over by the boards. But the problem
with that is he can't let you do that because
if he misses and he's gonna hit you.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It could hit you.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So they so it's probably on the blue line would
probably be the best way to do it. But you know,
the infield practice with the major League baseball team, it's
the same thing. And those guys work and I'm gonna
tell you right now, I realize they play golf for
a living. I realize nobody wants to talk about the
fact that they are athletes and they don't look like athletes.
And John Day and this end, they were working so
(12:09):
hard and then they go up into the Tennis Center
to Greenbrier and they work out up there, like on
weights and flexibility and all that. So it is absolutely
an incredible opportunity, and it's an opportunity to be in
the middle of a spectacle literally literally. And on pro
(12:33):
am day they're a little bit more laid back. They
have an opportunity to talk, they take advantage of it
a little bit and they talk a little bit more.
I was fortunate enough to talk to to have a
conversation with Greg Norman, who one time was number one
(12:56):
player in the world for a long, many, many, many,
many many weeks, and I talked to him about Chris Smith,
who I had on this show, and we went back
and forth, and.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
He was really cool to talk to. He really was.
He's really cool to talk to.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And he was with Senator Man United States senator from
the state of West Virginia, Senator Mansion. I'm sorry, Yeah,
Cenator Mansion. He and I were While we were talking,
I was able to speak with Senator Mansion as well.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
But Greg Norman.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Obviously really cool to see, really cool to talk to.
I promised myself going into it. This is the second
year I did this volunteer deal at live event. I
don't think there's going to be a third opportunity because
I don't think they're going back there. They can't get
enough crowds. It's hard to get there. It's hard. As
(13:56):
I said before, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
To get there.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
But interestingly enough, I interrupted while he was changing golf
clubs Bryson d Chambeau, and I congratulated them as us open.
When I congratulated him on his how he's handling the
(14:18):
public and how he's handling people.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And the only thing I.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Can tell you is not an act, he actually stood
there and actually was like grateful to talk to me.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
He said, thanks for stopping, thanks for saying that.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I'm like, you know, I said, you know, I grew
up in a in a household with a My younger
sister was born with physical and mental defect and challenges,
and she was in a wheelchair, And I said, for
you to stop at the US Open and sign for
that person in the wheelchair said you you locked me
(14:54):
for life, and I said, you locked a lot of
other people for life too, and he's and his quote
to me was, golf's a great game, but there's way
more out there than golf, because there's people out there.
And he goes, and I have a chance to because
I was fortunate off the play well that week to
(15:15):
make an impact on people, and that's what I was
trying to do.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And he goes, I try to do it every.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Day, and he did say something really interesting. I wasn't
always like this, so it was just really neat. And
then he was done practicing. He walked away and I said, hey,
I don't mean to interrupt you. I said, I didn't
mean to disturb you in your practice. He's like, he's like, dude.
He called me dude, and I hate when people call
me dude. But he's like dude. He goes that you're
(15:42):
all good. He goes that those conversations are exactly why
they actually tell me how I'm doing. And he said,
I'm just trying to grow this great game. And I
did tell him that, you know, I was, you know,
I am a club professional and I just try to
grow the game and my little corner of the world.
And he's like, you probably do more than four than
(16:03):
I do. I'm like, I think you're crazy, but he goes,
it's probably harder for you. That was really interesting. I
think it's probably harder for you. I'm like, well, I
don't know how hard it is. But so he's the
real deal.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
And I just.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Wanted to say, if you ever get a chance to
go to a live event, they're not very well attended,
at least the one of the Greenbrier wasn't. And you
can get pretty close to those guys, and it's actually
kind of a pretty laid back situation.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
And yeah, so shout out to.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Great Norman for taking the time talk to me, Shout
out for Bryson d. Chambeau talk to me. And I
talked to some other players too, but those were kind
of the two big highlights there. So when we come back,
we are going to talk about some seriously local golf,
and then we are going to talk about some conversation
(16:55):
I had wow shockingly and olf almost forty years ago now,
and and I'm hoping that I have lived up to
that conversation. This is the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome
back to the Rich Comboll Golf Show. I spent the
first segment just kind of patting on the back myself
(17:17):
for having the opportunity to witness the spectacles that it
is live golf and working in the practice facility and
all that fun stuff and being able to talk to
D Chambeau and Greg Norman and and I just one
more time. D Chambo is a real deal. He genuinely
(17:38):
is interested in people, and I don't know, I don't
know what medicine he took to do that, because early
in his career he was not, but he It was
really really really nice to witness it and to experience
it one on one.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Because it is he is the real deal.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
So, as promised, moving off of that, we are going
to talk about local golf right now, and just in
one particular area because somebody brought up to me the
other day that is very very something's going on locally
that is very unusual, and I should probably try to
draw a little bit more attention to it if I could,
(18:20):
and I can, and I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And that is.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The Wheeling University golf team. I have eleven. I'm sorry
excuse me. I have ten players on the Wheeling University
golf team. One of them is from the United States
of America.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
One So.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
While I don't think it's that remarkable because it just
kind of happened that way, and you know it was
intentional that way. My wife asked me, how did you
get these kids from all over the world? And I
jokingly said, I'm I'm a magnet. But in reality, I'll
(19:13):
let you in on a little secret Division two NCAA
Division two golf, which is William University men and women.
Is you recruit the kids, recruit you as much as
you recruit the kids. So you find out about them
(19:34):
because they send emails, especially the international kids. There are
there are counsels or guilds or organizations that actually get
place kids in college to play their sport, whether it
be lacrosse or golf or baseball or whatever. Not so
much baseball in your but you know lacrosse and women's golf,
(19:56):
men's golf, soccer, huge soccer, So you know, you see
these kids. And with golf, it's numbers, right, I mean,
it's it's what did he shoot, what did he play in?
What golf course did he play? Did he play a
fifty five hundred yard golf course and shoot seventy two, Well,
(20:17):
I don't know how good that is. Did he play
sixty six hundred yard golf course and shoot seventy two?
That means something to me. Was it his home golf
course or did he travel an hour two hours whatever
to play in the regional junior I don't, you know,
I don't have any specifics, right, but the Division two
(20:39):
recruiting level is a mutual recruitment, so that's kind.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Of how it happens. So I really didn't Although I.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Would be willing to do this if the university paid
me to fly to their countries and recruit them in person,
I don't think they would do that. I don't think
the budget requires. The budgets nowhere near that. I'm kind
of lucky that I get a full tank of gas
to get those guys the Canaane Valley.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
But we'll talk about that a different day. But yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
It's very interesting, very very very interesting, the recruiting process.
So let's talk about who we have the Let's talk
about the returning players. The first one is Phil Halverson.
(21:39):
Phil is from Norway. Phil is Phil is a very
very very good player, very good player, very big kid,
hits it very very very long. Phil is addicted to
chick fil A. He's addicted to Chick fil A. I
mean addicted to chick fil A.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So, So just to let you in on a little
I'm trying to give you a snippet.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Of this kid.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
We'll start the car to go to whatever, and he'll
go coach, coach, coach, coach from right behind me, and
I'll go fil He'll go chick fil A, Chick fil A,
Chick fil A, Chick fil A. And I'm like, Phil,
you're gonna walk, and then he'll go walk to chick
(22:25):
fil A. I'm like, all right, look, we're not talking
about this anymore. But that's exactly how he is. And
if anybody anybody hears this, who knows him, you know
I'm right because he's like the he's like the he's
like the little kid. Well you're he's the little kid
at the dining room table. Got the excuse, got big excuse,
got me excuse. Finally, your dad just like, get get
away from me.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
So when he goes coach, coach, coach, coach, and.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Then I and then he can have to respond because
I lived with a decent amount of civility in my life,
and he's like Chick fil A, Chick fil A, Chick
fil A, Chick fil A, and every one of the
Chick fil A's matches the number of coaches, he said,
If it's six, it's six. If it's two, it's two.
I'm telling you. The next one I wanted to talk
about is Ryan Courtney. Ryan is from New Zealand. Ryan
(23:16):
is a super nice kid, very good player, very good player,
very passionate player.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
We have a golf room at.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
The university that there's a simulator inside of it, and
Ryan gets his mail in there. I mean literally, I
mean two three o'clock in the morning. You'll walk down
the hallway and you'll hear the thump, thump, thump, and
it's kind of like a bad horror movie until all
the lights are on and there's a kid standing in
there hitting golf balls into the net, looking at the simulator,
(23:52):
looking at the readouts, looking at all that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And I'm telling.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You it's paying off because last year at Canaane Valley.
I've kind of gone back to Canaane Valley twice and
he shot sixty three, sixty.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Seven that's pretty good. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Sixty four sixty seven, I apologize, it's pretty good. And
a little bit about Ryan as we sat at dinner
of the Night at Kannaine Valley and he mapped his
round on an app he has on his phone when
he shot sixty four, and he looked at me after
about fifteen minutes and goes, you know, realistically, should have
been sixty one. I was like, this kid's different. The
(24:32):
next kid, Robin Dusman. Robin is from Sweden. Robin is
the nicest kid in the world, nicest kid in the world,
really good player. You know, to look inside his world
a little bit. Robin always says to me, how can
I help? So he says all the time, how can
(24:55):
I help? He never fails to say please and thank you,
a coach, guy, please have right of the golf course, Hey, coach,
thanks for the ride. Always please and thank you. A
very good player. He's gonna work on it, hitting it further,
further further. I've never been able to do that. But
(25:15):
never get that one right, I mean, but he will.
And he's a really, really, really good player. Now to
talk about. The only one from America is bou of
Alasqua's Bo is from Salem, Ohio. The joke on the
team is he's actually from the foreign country of Salem, Ohio,
because if you've ever been to Salem, Ohio, it's a
(25:38):
very nice town. But it suffices to make fun of
Bob of Alaska as when we say, you know, he's
from a foreign country. For those of you who do
not know, Elysses says, Grant was born in Salem, Ohio.
His family's farm, his mother's is buried there, and he's
obviously buried in Grant's tomb.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
But yeah, he's from Salem, Ohio. Bo played for us
a little bit last year. He's a.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Bo's kind of a wild card. He just kind of
shows up places and you know, he's like the wind.
He'll be standing there and they're like, hey, where's about
I don't know, and an hour later Bowl walked back in.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's like he's the wind.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Vladimir's Ang. Vladimir's Ang is from Indonesia. He is a
super nice kid, really works hard at his golf game.
Suffered a major knee surgery last semester last calendar year,
and into the last semester we played where every cl
(26:42):
was torn. Acl mcl there's another one somewhere. His meniscus
was torn. He said he was doing a dynamic workout,
and what he didn't realize is I would see the
video of him building a ramp to try to jump
and dunk a basketball and he landed wrong. So I
forever can make fun of lad for not knowing how
(27:04):
to land. It's a nineteen year old kid that does
know how to jump off a shelf and land, but
we're looking for big things from him. Really good player.
The next one is Luis Alvarez. Luis is from Venezuela.
Luis has a very strange speaking style. He's like, hey, coach,
(27:25):
how you doing it? Could be me, coach, I'm gonna
play today, and you just got a you gotta gotta
put up. I can't do his his accent very well.
The other guys can, but Luis is probably the the
most laid back guy we have. Doesn't say a whole
(27:46):
lot about anything, and things change. He just kind of
goes with the flow.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Another one is m J. Dar darm One.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
But MJ is gonna take the semester off because he
had some vince he wanted to play in and a
little bit of a family issue that was going to
take him to the middle of October, so there was
no sense in bringing him back over here for five
weeks of class before he went back for a month
of studies a month of vacation. So MJ will be missed.
Boy k, MJ hit it far. Oh my god, But
(28:18):
that's that's that.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That's MJ.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Now those are all returners now the new ones, since
they are so new, I'm not sure I can pronounce
their name correctly.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I'm just kidding. We will do them in order of arrival.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Last week, a young man by named Caleb Minson came
to Wheeling University from New Zealand brought his mom and
dad with him, which, you know, that's another thing I
do have to say, step aside, I do have all
these international kids. It's absolutely amazing to me that a
lot of them, seven of nine of them, six seven
(29:02):
of nine of them were sent to America from their
foreign country without a parent, without a parent. MJ flew
from Indonesia to Pittsburgh International Airport without a parent. Ryan
Courtney flew from New Zealand to Pittsburgh without a parent.
(29:25):
Enrolling in school, took classes scheduled. All that did all
the health checks, all that stuff without a parent. Now
I'm not saying I have bad parents, because I don't.
They're really good parents.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
But I don't know. I know I put two kids
in college, and I know I couldn't have done that.
I could not have done that. There's no way I
could have done it.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It was hard enough for me to drive down Interstate
seventy to Columbus and drop two kids off at Ohio State.
I certainly couldn't let him do it by themselves, and
I certainly couldn't let him do it three fourths of
the way around the world like those like these families have.
But Caleb came with his mom and dad, and you know,
(30:15):
behind the curtain, look at Caleb. He's a very good player,
a very very short kid. He's like five foot five.
So those kids have already latched on two His teammates
already latched on to the fact that, you know, he's
five foot five, and they will make fun of him
for it, but he'll be a better player for it.
And actually he does laugh at it, so it's pretty good.
(30:35):
Second to arrive is Lorenzo Loopi. Lorenzo is from Italy.
Super nice kid, good player, business administration major gonna be
really successful, and I'm really, really, really kind of excited
(30:58):
to see how he grows up and how he develops.
The last player is Loaden Foeman. He is from Norway.
They may call him Maddie. His middle name is Matthias
or Matthias, they may call him Maddie. Loaden a real
big kid. Brought his mom in just yesterday and checked
(31:20):
in on Friday. And Loaden is a super nice kid.
And I don't have any besides behind the scenes stuff
for him because I only met him today. The mincing
kid I've known for a while.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
That's why.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
It's why I can make fun of him for being
so short. Lorenzo is a super nice kid. But Loden
is going to be a really good player, real big, strong,
looks like getting a hit of the mile, and I
think that should be great.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I think they're all going to be great. I'm really
looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Outlook for twenty twenty four much better than last year,
and we were pretty good last year. Much better last year.
I think some of the returning players are very capable
of actually doing some serious damage in the top five
of events, if not winning an event. I do have
to tell you that there was one young man the
first year I coached the Willing University who said one
(32:20):
of his goals was to win an event and he
had no capability of breaking eighty.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
These kids, these kids can go.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So I'm really excited for him, and I'm also excited
for him for to be able to go to some
of the places that we go to. And we're going
to go to Canadane Valley, We're gonna go to Raven
and Snowshoe. We're going to go to Charleston, and we're
going to go to Greensburg, Pennsylvania. We're going to go
to a good golf course over in Bellsville. So I'm
(32:53):
really looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to
watching it through their eyes. Now again, we have to qualify,
you know what I mean. I have nine kids because
MJ's on sibbatical, I only take six or five or
six depending on the event, so nearly half the team
will be out. So if that's not motivation for him,
then I don't know what it is. You want to
(33:16):
go win the qualifier. You want to go be top
five in a qualifier. That's what concerns me about being
six taking six because maybe I just decreased the pressure
and they just know they have to only be three
people instead of four people. But that's kind of a
shout out to all those players, really good kids, nice kids.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Before I go, I.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Do have to to send out my condolences to Ella Keffer.
Ella is a women's player at William University whose father
passed away last week. Eric Keffer was a super supportive dad,
super supportive golf parent, super supportive of golf in general.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
And Eric, you'll be missed.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I know you're in a far better place, but just
know that you know we appreciate everything you did to
make the impact I'm at Whale University on your daughter
and the golf community in general. So when we come
back from this segment, we are going to talk about
a quote that I heard a long time ago and
(34:22):
see how I did with it. This is the Rich
Como go Show. Welcome back to Rich Como Goos Show.
As I said early on, we are flying a little
solo here, I actually a lot solo. I'm I do
not have a guest this week. So sat down today
and wanted to talk about some things, and i'm I'm
(34:45):
doing that. You know. We went over the live experience
down at the Greenbrier, went over the college golf team
at Willing University, the men's team, the varied backgrounds in countries.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
That they come from.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I got an opportunity to call myself a magnet, which
was a lot of fun for me. But this last segment,
I want to talk about a conversation I had in
nineteen eighty nine. I want to tell you that I'm
sorry nineteen eighty eight. I apologized this summer. The summer
of nineteen eighty eight, I was fortunate enough to be
(35:24):
persistent enough like the guy and family guy who goes Mom, Mom, I.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Wassue or Phil Chick fil A, Chick fil A, Chick
fil A.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I was persistent enough to make some well placed phone
calls to a manufacturing plant on West Pafford Street in
Fort Worth, Texas.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
And how crazy is that? I remember West.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Pafford Street because it's true and what they manufactured there
were golf clubs made by the Hogan Golf Club Company
and Ben Hogan, and I called down there persistently enough
until I got to speak with him and we talked
about the golf sing. I was a child, and we
have to talk about the golf swing, and he asked
(36:09):
me to to never tell anybody who that I talked
to him, because you got a Jillian phone calls a day,
and you get a Jillian morph if I if anybody
heard that somebody had gotten throw But in the midst
of all this and talking about the golf swing, and
you know, if you ever get a chance and we
(36:33):
ever we me we meet one on one, I will
tell you the golf swing story with mister Hogan. But
in the middle of all of this, he said to me,
how old are you.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
The time?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I was sixteen years old? Sixteen years old because I
was a junior in college, and he's I told him
(37:06):
I was sixteen years old, and he said, well, if
this game is as good to you as.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It was to me, you're gonna have a great life.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
So I was talking to somebody the other day and
I thought to myself, Okay, did I really really really
live up to that? Has this game been really, really
really that good to me? And it has it has,
But how do I personify that?
Speaker 2 (37:29):
You know, what is this game?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Who has this game allowed me to meet and have
conversations with? You know? So obviously I mentioned d Chambeau earlier.
I mentioned Greg Norman earlier, but let's think about this. Obviously,
I spoke with mister Hogan. I consider talking him on
the phone, meeting him. I've been fortunate enough to have
(37:57):
conversations with Arnold Palmer, shared a couple of letters with him.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
He wrote me back.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I had a conversation with him, two conversations with him.
It's pretty awesome. I don't know if anybody saw this
last week, but chi Chi Rodriguez died.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And I had a.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Conversation with him one time because he came to Williams
Williamsport Country Club when I was assistant golf professional and
we had a conversation. He's hard to understand. He had very,
very thick Central American accent. I also met Marco Mira,
a two time major winner. I had a conversation with
him about equipment, about how to play this game. Chris Smith,
(38:51):
I've had on this show numerous conversations with him. Chris Chatter,
LPGA Tour winner, several conversations one on this show. Missy
bertie Otti, LPGA.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Tour winner.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
From Pittsburgh on this show. David Ledbetter not on this show,
but I had conversations with him but golf swings. David
Liberty is a really tall player, that tall instructor.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
You see the hat on.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Hank Haney, Tiger's former teacher, Markomurra's former teacher.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Really cool, really cool.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Paul Colvin the other day at Greenbrier, prominent, prominent international teacher.
Unbelievable guy. If I weren't involved in golf, I wouldn't
meet them. Now this is easy because you could say, Okay,
they're all involved in golf. So I sat back and
I said to myself, Okay, who's not involved in golf
(40:01):
that I've actually had conversation with because I'm in the
golf business or because I'm around golf courses. Jerome Battison,
Really good dude. Mel Blunt. I was a really little kid.
I got the caddy from Mel Blunt. Mel Blunt lives
in Washington, Pennsylvania. His son, at least one of his children.
(40:22):
I know his son went to Lindsley Academy in Wheeling,
West Virginia. Mel's a real deal, really good guy. Probably
the most hated man in Steeer's history. Cordell Stewart, really
good guy. Told me, told me a very unfortunate story
(40:45):
about his experience in Pittsburgh. Very unfortunate story, but I
would not have been able to have a conversation with
him if.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
This game.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I wasn't involved in this game. Tommy Maddox, another NFL quarterback,
Mike Wagner, Super Bowl, multiple Super Bowl champion, Pittsburgh Steelars.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Frank o'harris football.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Basketball, John Starks play for the Knicks, play with Patrick
Ewing in the Necks, play against Michael Jordan and the
Bulls go back to football. Jack Ham just taught him
the other day on one more of the day weekend.
I would not have had that opportunity unless I run
the golf business. Mary Lemieux remember Rolling Hills Country Club
(41:48):
when I was making phone calls to Hogan's office. Dan
Quinn another NHL player. Younger people would probably remember Ryan
Malone that played with the Penguins, lost to Stanley Cup
in two thousand and eight, then went to Tampa Bay,
(42:09):
great NFL and NFL, great NHL career.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
His father Greg, very good hockey player for the Penguins.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
For stuff to hang out with him. Because I was
in the golf physiness. I got to meet Rick Kehoe,
who scored an unbelievable goal for my childhood to beat
the New York Islanders in a playoff game.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
So that's just.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Brian Chaucier. It's just hockey. That's just I mean, that's
just some of the sports. That's some of the guys.
First Director of Homeland Security United States of America, Tom Ridge.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
I got to meet him too.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Before he was he was before he was that, he
was the governor of Pennsylvania's good to meet him. Senator Mansion,
who I mentioned before, several you know, several United States Congressman,
(43:17):
you know, state senators, former Attorney General of the State
of Pennsylvania, Mike Fisher, Steve blast.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
All.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Because I'm in the golf hysins. Senator Mansion very very
very polite, nice smart guy, street smart. I really connects
thoughts very quickly. It's really interesting to watch him because
(43:56):
I spoke to him at Live and he was one
of my members as a was in government with.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Center Mansion, so it was really neat.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Numerous obviously tour players, golfers, you know that. Yes, I
got to meet I got to work for Bill Johnson.
Bill Johnson is the National Golf Course Coaches National Golf
Coaches Association of America. Hall of Fame's at Dartmouth for
thirty two years.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Jeff Julian.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Won on the Nike Tour twice, won the New England
Open one year. Jeff was just flat and nice to
a seventeen year old kid in New Hampshire. I was
eighteen then now, I was seventeen then. And then Jeff
went out and obviously didn't go out and do this
(44:57):
on purpose, but actually contracted Luke Garriss's he's and died.
But I don't meet him without that, you know, I
don't meet him without the golf business.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
I was.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
I had a position in a town called Culpepper, Virginia,
and it was an hour ride to Washington, d C.
And every so often I would just kind of take
a day and go to Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
And walk around. I love Washington, d C. It's just
really cool.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
I had this opportunity because I have a job where
you work weekends, and so sometimes you can take up
half a day and kind of disappear and nobody holds
it against you, because if you work Monday through Friday
and you take every other Thursday and just kind of
bug out for half a day, eventually your boss is
gonna be like, all right, man, what's the deal with that?
But my business, when you work weekends, you can kind
(45:48):
of find your half day. And so I was walking
around up there and in Washington, d C. And I
was going by the old Executive Office building and big
limo out in front, well big a limo, two of
them actually, and guy walked out. And this was this
was before nine to eleven. This was before everybody was
(46:09):
panicked about the way the wind blew and all that stuff.
This guy comes walking out, and I count this one
only because you know, I was in the golf business
in Virginia, So I would not have been in that
situation if I weren't in the.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Golf business in Virginia. And I said hello to a
senator from Delaware. It was Joe Biden. He stopped and
he said, how are you What are you doing here? Well,
why are you here?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Of course, I'm a dork enough that I knew who
he was, because like I'm like, I was like one
of the only guys that did ever really you know,
watch c Span, you know I love that. So you know,
I just ran through a bunch of names, and I
(46:56):
go back to what mister Hogan said to me, if
this game is good to use, it was to me,
And I'm sure he meant financially as well. I am
sure he meant winning events and playing with a lot
of really cool people. And I'd like to think that
I kind of picked my own path and still got
(47:18):
to meet some really cool people, all because I'm in
the golf business. Like I can pick up the phone
and call who is considered to be the best golf
professional in PJA of American history.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
I really can. It's just.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
It's just really cool. So I'd like to think that
I've kind of lived up to the game. I still
have a ways to go. I still have a ways
to go. I have many years to do this. I
am very excited about this. But I'm telling you right
now as I sit here, this game has been pretty
good to me. And if I could say something to
(48:00):
mister Hogan, I would say thanks for saying that, because
I took it to heart. Because if this game is
good to use, it was to me, is what he
said to me. I took that is only if I
make it as good as I want it to be.
And I've been fortunate enough to do that. And I
even get to sit in a room with Corey over
(48:20):
there and talk about some stuff and it's really really
really cool. And actually, for the first time, second time
in my career, I actually had somebody walk into the
golf shop the other day and said, I heard you
on the radio today, So how can you be sitting
there and you're on the radio right now, which I
thought was pretty cool, especially because it's an adult So
(48:46):
this has been the Rich Comwell Golf Show. I promise
I will start to get I already have a list
of eight or ten guests that are coming down the pipeline,
but I just wanted to say, you know, I just
want to fly solo. I want to say thanks for listening,
hope you enjoyed this, and this is the Rich Come
WALLLGF Show.
Welcome to the Rich Komo Golf Show. This is a
kind of a rare occurrence this week. We are not
going to have a guest on this week. I made
a couple of attempts at a couple of different people
and came pretty close to a former PGA Tour player
who show remained nameless, but could not pull it off
(00:22):
on a beautiful Friday in August. So we are going
to fly solo. And that sound you here as everybody
shutting off the radio, But actually.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's not that. It's it should be fun.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
A lot's happened and is happening in the world of golf.
And so we are going to spend the first two
segments talking about some very very big time national stuff,
and then the second segment is gonna be about some
very local stuff. And then the third segment's going to
(00:55):
be a little bit of a story and see if
I haven't taken a very wise man's advice and lived
up to the advice he gave me during that story.
But that's all for the third segment. So first segment
is we are going to talk about the the world
(01:16):
of golf, but not in terms of tour versus tour
or anything like that. I'm just going to talk about
an opportunity that I had last week, which would have been, oh,
let's see seventeenth, sixteen, seventeenth and eighteen, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth,
(01:37):
and eighteenth of August at White Softur Springs the Greenbrier.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
First of all, if you've never been to the Greenbrier,
you have to go.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I realized it's really expensive to stay there, and it's unbelievably,
like ridiculously expensive to stay there. But it's it is
America's resort. It's literally something you have to see it.
You just have to drive through it, walk through the hotel,
any of that. The hotel lobby is a historical snapshot,
(02:13):
actually multiple snapshots of history. I'm going all the way
back to about the turn of the nineteenth century, which
is eighteen hundred, and then beyond that the turn of
the twentieth century, which would be nineteen hundred. And it's
it's just a really, really really cool place. It really is.
(02:35):
It just reeks of history. For those of you who
enjoy casinos, it's also a casino there, but that's not
really why I go it. Because you have to stay
at the hotel in order to go or one of
the cottages or homes in order to go to the casino.
So but if you ever have a chance, it is
(02:56):
absolutely a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Has horses.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
There's twenty eight or twenty nine different recreational activities there
from bachi to croquet, to golf, to horseback to water
sports to fitness or I guess cross training is what
(03:24):
I'm trying to think of, or hiking trails, climbing. It's
unbelievable with what they do there. So it's just something
you have to see. And I'm not an advertisement for
the Greenbrier because in order to get to the Greenbrier
it is you know, the joke is you go twelve
miles past nowhere and turn right.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But it is a great place.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
But why I'm talking about this is because last weekend
those dates I mentioned fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen of
August twenty twenty four, the live event was at the Greenbrier.
And if anybody pays attention to this show, they know
that I interviewed or on as a.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Guest Robert Harris.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Robert is the golf professional emeritus of the Greenbrier.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
He is also.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
An incredibly good storyteller. An incredibly involved guy in the
world of the Greenbrier, along with Hill Herrick, who is
the head professional with the Greenbrier. Now, they're just absolutely
they're really good guys. And their entire staff, all their
(04:37):
PJA professionals are very very very good guys, from apprentices
to no apprentice sorry, associate to assistants to head professionals
to directors of golf, they're just incredibly good guys. So
but anyway back to why I was there. I was
fortunate enough to be able to volunteer for the live event,
which meant that I spent two days on the practice
(05:02):
facility at the Greenbrier. So for those of you who
have not been to a live event, there is a
proram on Thursday, only play fifty four holes. They play
one running golf on Friday, one on Saturday, one on Sunday,
which is the tournament proper, they play a pro am
on Thursday. Interesting thing about the program is the only
(05:25):
people who are on the property on the golf course
itself are pro am participants and players. There are no
spectators in the prorams none so, and then on top
of that, they add an extra layer to it that
the players that live tour players only play nine holes,
(05:51):
so they play nine holes with a group of amateurs,
then they change out, and then the second nine hole,
second player, second tour player goes in and plays the
back nine.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
With those folks.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So it is very expensive to play in the program.
But at the same time you do get two professionals
you play with. So you spend two hours, two hours
and fifteen minutes with tour player A, and then two
hours and fifteen minutes with two tour player BA. So
you may get Charles how the Third and Brooks Koepka,
(06:24):
you might get Sergio Garcia and.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Peterial Line. You don't know. But it's really, really, really neat.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And why it's really neat is because when you are
on the range on pro am day, the only people
on the range are the players, their caddies, their teachers,
and me and two other volunteers, and you just all
(06:54):
your volunteering is not hard. All you have to do
is go up and pick up a little range bags,
take them back to the range station, they fill them up,
and the players come get them. Interestingly enough to give
you a little bit of a sidebar, a little what's
that Wizard of Oz thing to look behind the curtain right.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
In the range building.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
At any live event, any tour, of any PGA Tour.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Event, there are.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Bins of golf balls and they're brand new, and they
are sorted by type. So there's titlest black, titlist red,
stricks On blue, stricks on red, there's Callaway blue, Callaway red.
There's all sorts of any golf ball that a player
(07:44):
can play is there for the taking. So case in point,
tailor made, Tailor Made makes their own golf balls. Dustin
Johnson plays Tailor Made. His caddie goes in and gets
his tower made golf balls. So interestingly enough, one of
(08:10):
the players plays Wilson.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I won't tell you who.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
One of the players plays Wilson, and they sent in
he's the only player on the live tour that plays Wilson.
They send in twenty four dozen golf balls for him,
and then obviously as they pick them up, they replace
(08:33):
them and he comes and gets those and it's just phenomenal.
The other thing is that's phenomenal is what they take
to the range with them on tournament days. Dustin Johnson's
(08:54):
team has their own track Man device.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Times four.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Each player has their own track man, it's fifty five
thousand dollars piece of equipment.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Each player has their own.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
They bring them out during the practice rounds two, I
mean during the program day two, and all they do.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Is just readat or redad.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
It tells them launch, angle, spin rate, face angle, speed,
all of it. It's unbelievable and to watch them is
just a phenomenal opportunity. I was literally you can imagine,
(09:42):
I'm five feet behind their caddies, who are five feet
behind the tour player. I'm ten feet away from Brooks
kept get hitting t shots or iron shots. Charles how
the Third, Peter Yule, and anybody on the lift tour.
They all practice that day, so everyone of them, Phil Mickelson,
Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, they're all there, okay.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Ian Polter wears white sox.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It's it's the Alver shorts. He wears white sox. He
looks like a with all due respect him, he's a
very good flyer, great Ryder Cup player. He looks like
a sixty year old guy work a seventy year old
guy working in his yard because he has these usually
bright shorts on and a pattern shirt and high white sox.
(10:31):
He looks like you know, he looks like Kevin James's
father in law and King of Queens. That's exactly what
it looks like. Exactly what it looks like. But to
watch those guys, it's a spectacle. It is it's a spectacle.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
That is.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It is the equivalent, because of who's there, of watching
Sydney Crosby skate standing in the center ice doot. It's
the equivalent of standing on second base watching a Major
(11:13):
League baseball team take batting practice literally, I mean, or
infield practice, infield practice like literally, It's that's that I
can't there's no other there's no other analogies.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
It's exactly like that.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
The only thing that would be different would be the
only thing I would modify that was if you were
watching Sidney Crosby, you could stand on the goal line
over by the over by the boards. But the problem
with that is he can't let you do that because
if he misses and he's gonna hit you.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It could hit you.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So they so it's probably on the blue line would
probably be the best way to do it. But you know,
the infield practice with the major League baseball team, it's
the same thing. And those guys work and I'm gonna
tell you right now, I realize they play golf for
a living. I realize nobody wants to talk about the
fact that they are athletes and they don't look like athletes.
And John Day and this end, they were working so
(12:09):
hard and then they go up into the Tennis Center
to Greenbrier and they work out up there, like on
weights and flexibility and all that. So it is absolutely
an incredible opportunity, and it's an opportunity to be in
the middle of a spectacle literally literally. And on pro
(12:33):
am day they're a little bit more laid back. They
have an opportunity to talk, they take advantage of it
a little bit and they talk a little bit more.
I was fortunate enough to talk to to have a
conversation with Greg Norman, who one time was number one
(12:56):
player in the world for a long, many, many, many,
many many weeks, and I talked to him about Chris Smith,
who I had on this show, and we went back
and forth, and.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
He was really cool to talk to. He really was.
He's really cool to talk to.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And he was with Senator Man United States senator from
the state of West Virginia, Senator Mansion. I'm sorry, Yeah,
Cenator Mansion. He and I were While we were talking,
I was able to speak with Senator Mansion as well.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
But Greg Norman.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Obviously really cool to see, really cool to talk to.
I promised myself going into it. This is the second
year I did this volunteer deal at live event. I
don't think there's going to be a third opportunity because
I don't think they're going back there. They can't get
enough crowds. It's hard to get there. It's hard. As
(13:56):
I said before, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
To get there.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
But interestingly enough, I interrupted while he was changing golf
clubs Bryson d Chambeau, and I congratulated them as us open.
When I congratulated him on his how he's handling the
(14:18):
public and how he's handling people.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And the only thing I.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Can tell you is not an act, he actually stood
there and actually was like grateful to talk to me.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
He said, thanks for stopping, thanks for saying that.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I'm like, you know, I said, you know, I grew
up in a in a household with a My younger
sister was born with physical and mental defect and challenges,
and she was in a wheelchair, And I said, for
you to stop at the US Open and sign for
that person in the wheelchair said you you locked me
(14:54):
for life, and I said, you locked a lot of
other people for life too, and he's and his quote
to me was, golf's a great game, but there's way
more out there than golf, because there's people out there.
And he goes, and I have a chance to because
I was fortunate off the play well that week to
(15:15):
make an impact on people, and that's what I was
trying to do.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And he goes, I try to do it every.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Day, and he did say something really interesting. I wasn't
always like this, so it was just really neat. And
then he was done practicing. He walked away and I said, hey,
I don't mean to interrupt you. I said, I didn't
mean to disturb you in your practice. He's like, he's like, dude.
He called me dude, and I hate when people call
me dude. But he's like dude. He goes that you're
(15:42):
all good. He goes that those conversations are exactly why
they actually tell me how I'm doing. And he said,
I'm just trying to grow this great game. And I
did tell him that, you know, I was, you know,
I am a club professional and I just try to
grow the game and my little corner of the world.
And he's like, you probably do more than four than
(16:03):
I do. I'm like, I think you're crazy, but he goes,
it's probably harder for you. That was really interesting. I
think it's probably harder for you. I'm like, well, I
don't know how hard it is. But so he's the
real deal.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
And I just.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Wanted to say, if you ever get a chance to
go to a live event, they're not very well attended,
at least the one of the Greenbrier wasn't. And you
can get pretty close to those guys, and it's actually
kind of a pretty laid back situation.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
And yeah, so shout out to.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Great Norman for taking the time talk to me, Shout
out for Bryson d. Chambeau talk to me. And I
talked to some other players too, but those were kind
of the two big highlights there. So when we come back,
we are going to talk about some seriously local golf,
and then we are going to talk about some conversation
(16:55):
I had wow shockingly and olf almost forty years ago now,
and and I'm hoping that I have lived up to
that conversation. This is the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome
back to the Rich Comboll Golf Show. I spent the
first segment just kind of patting on the back myself
(17:17):
for having the opportunity to witness the spectacles that it
is live golf and working in the practice facility and
all that fun stuff and being able to talk to
D Chambeau and Greg Norman and and I just one
more time. D Chambo is a real deal. He genuinely
(17:38):
is interested in people, and I don't know, I don't
know what medicine he took to do that, because early
in his career he was not, but he It was
really really really nice to witness it and to experience
it one on one.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Because it is he is the real deal.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
So, as promised, moving off of that, we are going
to talk about local golf right now, and just in
one particular area because somebody brought up to me the
other day that is very very something's going on locally
that is very unusual, and I should probably try to
draw a little bit more attention to it if I could,
(18:20):
and I can, and I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And that is.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The Wheeling University golf team. I have eleven. I'm sorry
excuse me. I have ten players on the Wheeling University
golf team. One of them is from the United States
of America.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
One So.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
While I don't think it's that remarkable because it just
kind of happened that way, and you know it was
intentional that way. My wife asked me, how did you
get these kids from all over the world? And I
jokingly said, I'm I'm a magnet. But in reality, I'll
(19:13):
let you in on a little secret Division two NCAA
Division two golf, which is William University men and women.
Is you recruit the kids, recruit you as much as
you recruit the kids. So you find out about them
(19:34):
because they send emails, especially the international kids. There are
there are counsels or guilds or organizations that actually get
place kids in college to play their sport, whether it
be lacrosse or golf or baseball or whatever. Not so
much baseball in your but you know lacrosse and women's golf,
(19:56):
men's golf, soccer, huge soccer, So you know, you see
these kids. And with golf, it's numbers, right, I mean,
it's it's what did he shoot, what did he play in?
What golf course did he play? Did he play a
fifty five hundred yard golf course and shoot seventy two, Well,
(20:17):
I don't know how good that is. Did he play
sixty six hundred yard golf course and shoot seventy two?
That means something to me. Was it his home golf
course or did he travel an hour two hours whatever
to play in the regional junior I don't, you know,
I don't have any specifics, right, but the Division two
(20:39):
recruiting level is a mutual recruitment, so that's kind.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Of how it happens. So I really didn't Although I.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Would be willing to do this if the university paid
me to fly to their countries and recruit them in person,
I don't think they would do that. I don't think
the budget requires. The budgets nowhere near that. I'm kind
of lucky that I get a full tank of gas
to get those guys the Canaane Valley.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
But we'll talk about that a different day. But yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
It's very interesting, very very very interesting, the recruiting process.
So let's talk about who we have the Let's talk
about the returning players. The first one is Phil Halverson.
(21:39):
Phil is from Norway. Phil is Phil is a very
very very good player, very good player, very big kid,
hits it very very very long. Phil is addicted to
chick fil A. He's addicted to Chick fil A. I
mean addicted to chick fil A.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So, So just to let you in on a little
I'm trying to give you a snippet.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Of this kid.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
We'll start the car to go to whatever, and he'll
go coach, coach, coach, coach from right behind me, and
I'll go fil He'll go chick fil A, Chick fil A,
Chick fil A, Chick fil A. And I'm like, Phil,
you're gonna walk, and then he'll go walk to chick
(22:25):
fil A. I'm like, all right, look, we're not talking
about this anymore. But that's exactly how he is. And
if anybody anybody hears this, who knows him, you know
I'm right because he's like the he's like the he's
like the little kid. Well you're he's the little kid
at the dining room table. Got the excuse, got big excuse,
got me excuse. Finally, your dad just like, get get
away from me.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
So when he goes coach, coach, coach, coach, and.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Then I and then he can have to respond because
I lived with a decent amount of civility in my life,
and he's like Chick fil A, Chick fil A, Chick
fil A, Chick fil A, and every one of the
Chick fil A's matches the number of coaches, he said,
If it's six, it's six. If it's two, it's two.
I'm telling you. The next one I wanted to talk
about is Ryan Courtney. Ryan is from New Zealand. Ryan
(23:16):
is a super nice kid, very good player, very good player,
very passionate player.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
We have a golf room at.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
The university that there's a simulator inside of it, and
Ryan gets his mail in there. I mean literally, I
mean two three o'clock in the morning. You'll walk down
the hallway and you'll hear the thump, thump, thump, and
it's kind of like a bad horror movie until all
the lights are on and there's a kid standing in
there hitting golf balls into the net, looking at the simulator,
(23:52):
looking at the readouts, looking at all that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And I'm telling.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
You it's paying off because last year at Canaane Valley.
I've kind of gone back to Canaane Valley twice and
he shot sixty three, sixty.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Seven that's pretty good. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Sixty four sixty seven, I apologize, it's pretty good. And
a little bit about Ryan as we sat at dinner
of the Night at Kannaine Valley and he mapped his
round on an app he has on his phone when
he shot sixty four, and he looked at me after
about fifteen minutes and goes, you know, realistically, should have
been sixty one. I was like, this kid's different. The
(24:32):
next kid, Robin Dusman. Robin is from Sweden. Robin is
the nicest kid in the world, nicest kid in the world,
really good player. You know, to look inside his world
a little bit. Robin always says to me, how can
I help? So he says all the time, how can
(24:55):
I help? He never fails to say please and thank you,
a coach, guy, please have right of the golf course, Hey, coach,
thanks for the ride. Always please and thank you. A
very good player. He's gonna work on it, hitting it further,
further further. I've never been able to do that. But
(25:15):
never get that one right, I mean, but he will.
And he's a really, really, really good player. Now to
talk about. The only one from America is bou of
Alasqua's Bo is from Salem, Ohio. The joke on the
team is he's actually from the foreign country of Salem, Ohio,
because if you've ever been to Salem, Ohio, it's a
(25:38):
very nice town. But it suffices to make fun of
Bob of Alaska as when we say, you know, he's
from a foreign country. For those of you who do
not know, Elysses says, Grant was born in Salem, Ohio.
His family's farm, his mother's is buried there, and he's
obviously buried in Grant's tomb.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
But yeah, he's from Salem, Ohio. Bo played for us
a little bit last year. He's a.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Bo's kind of a wild card. He just kind of
shows up places and you know, he's like the wind.
He'll be standing there and they're like, hey, where's about
I don't know, and an hour later Bowl walked back in.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's like he's the wind.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Vladimir's Ang. Vladimir's Ang is from Indonesia. He is a
super nice kid, really works hard at his golf game.
Suffered a major knee surgery last semester last calendar year,
and into the last semester we played where every cl
(26:42):
was torn. Acl mcl there's another one somewhere. His meniscus
was torn. He said he was doing a dynamic workout,
and what he didn't realize is I would see the
video of him building a ramp to try to jump
and dunk a basketball and he landed wrong. So I
forever can make fun of lad for not knowing how
(27:04):
to land. It's a nineteen year old kid that does
know how to jump off a shelf and land, but
we're looking for big things from him. Really good player.
The next one is Luis Alvarez. Luis is from Venezuela.
Luis has a very strange speaking style. He's like, hey, coach,
(27:25):
how you doing it? Could be me, coach, I'm gonna
play today, and you just got a you gotta gotta
put up. I can't do his his accent very well.
The other guys can, but Luis is probably the the
most laid back guy we have. Doesn't say a whole
(27:46):
lot about anything, and things change. He just kind of
goes with the flow.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Another one is m J. Dar darm One.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
But MJ is gonna take the semester off because he
had some vince he wanted to play in and a
little bit of a family issue that was going to
take him to the middle of October, so there was
no sense in bringing him back over here for five
weeks of class before he went back for a month
of studies a month of vacation. So MJ will be missed.
Boy k, MJ hit it far. Oh my god, But
(28:18):
that's that's that.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That's MJ.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Now those are all returners now the new ones, since
they are so new, I'm not sure I can pronounce
their name correctly.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I'm just kidding. We will do them in order of arrival.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Last week, a young man by named Caleb Minson came
to Wheeling University from New Zealand brought his mom and
dad with him, which, you know, that's another thing I
do have to say, step aside, I do have all
these international kids. It's absolutely amazing to me that a
lot of them, seven of nine of them, six seven
(29:02):
of nine of them were sent to America from their
foreign country without a parent, without a parent. MJ flew
from Indonesia to Pittsburgh International Airport without a parent. Ryan
Courtney flew from New Zealand to Pittsburgh without a parent.
(29:25):
Enrolling in school, took classes scheduled. All that did all
the health checks, all that stuff without a parent. Now
I'm not saying I have bad parents, because I don't.
They're really good parents.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
But I don't know. I know I put two kids
in college, and I know I couldn't have done that.
I could not have done that. There's no way I
could have done it.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
It was hard enough for me to drive down Interstate
seventy to Columbus and drop two kids off at Ohio State.
I certainly couldn't let him do it by themselves, and
I certainly couldn't let him do it three fourths of
the way around the world like those like these families have.
But Caleb came with his mom and dad, and you know,
(30:15):
behind the curtain, look at Caleb. He's a very good player,
a very very short kid. He's like five foot five.
So those kids have already latched on two His teammates
already latched on to the fact that, you know, he's
five foot five, and they will make fun of him
for it, but he'll be a better player for it.
And actually he does laugh at it, so it's pretty good.
(30:35):
Second to arrive is Lorenzo Loopi. Lorenzo is from Italy.
Super nice kid, good player, business administration major gonna be
really successful, and I'm really, really, really kind of excited
(30:58):
to see how he grows up and how he develops.
The last player is Loaden Foeman. He is from Norway.
They may call him Maddie. His middle name is Matthias
or Matthias, they may call him Maddie. Loaden a real
big kid. Brought his mom in just yesterday and checked
(31:20):
in on Friday. And Loaden is a super nice kid.
And I don't have any besides behind the scenes stuff
for him because I only met him today. The mincing
kid I've known for a while.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
That's why.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
It's why I can make fun of him for being
so short. Lorenzo is a super nice kid. But Loden
is going to be a really good player, real big, strong,
looks like getting a hit of the mile, and I
think that should be great.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I think they're all going to be great. I'm really
looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Outlook for twenty twenty four much better than last year,
and we were pretty good last year. Much better last year.
I think some of the returning players are very capable
of actually doing some serious damage in the top five
of events, if not winning an event. I do have
to tell you that there was one young man the
first year I coached the Willing University who said one
(32:20):
of his goals was to win an event and he
had no capability of breaking eighty.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
These kids, these kids can go.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So I'm really excited for him, and I'm also excited
for him for to be able to go to some
of the places that we go to. And we're going
to go to Canadane Valley, We're gonna go to Raven
and Snowshoe. We're going to go to Charleston, and we're
going to go to Greensburg, Pennsylvania. We're going to go
to a good golf course over in Bellsville. So I'm
(32:53):
really looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to
watching it through their eyes. Now again, we have to qualify,
you know what I mean. I have nine kids because
MJ's on sibbatical, I only take six or five or
six depending on the event, so nearly half the team
will be out. So if that's not motivation for him,
then I don't know what it is. You want to
(33:16):
go win the qualifier. You want to go be top
five in a qualifier. That's what concerns me about being
six taking six because maybe I just decreased the pressure
and they just know they have to only be three
people instead of four people. But that's kind of a
shout out to all those players, really good kids, nice kids.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Before I go, I.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Do have to to send out my condolences to Ella Keffer.
Ella is a women's player at William University whose father
passed away last week. Eric Keffer was a super supportive dad,
super supportive golf parent, super supportive of golf in general.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
And Eric, you'll be missed.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I know you're in a far better place, but just
know that you know we appreciate everything you did to
make the impact I'm at Whale University on your daughter
and the golf community in general. So when we come
back from this segment, we are going to talk about
a quote that I heard a long time ago and
(34:22):
see how I did with it. This is the Rich
Como go Show. Welcome back to Rich Como Goos Show.
As I said early on, we are flying a little
solo here, I actually a lot solo. I'm I do
not have a guest this week. So sat down today
and wanted to talk about some things, and i'm I'm
(34:45):
doing that. You know. We went over the live experience
down at the Greenbrier, went over the college golf team
at Willing University, the men's team, the varied backgrounds in countries.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
That they come from.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I got an opportunity to call myself a magnet, which
was a lot of fun for me. But this last segment,
I want to talk about a conversation I had in
nineteen eighty nine. I want to tell you that I'm
sorry nineteen eighty eight. I apologized this summer. The summer
of nineteen eighty eight, I was fortunate enough to be
(35:24):
persistent enough like the guy and family guy who goes Mom, Mom, I.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Wassue or Phil Chick fil A, Chick fil A, Chick
fil A.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I was persistent enough to make some well placed phone
calls to a manufacturing plant on West Pafford Street in
Fort Worth, Texas.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
And how crazy is that? I remember West.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Pafford Street because it's true and what they manufactured there
were golf clubs made by the Hogan Golf Club Company
and Ben Hogan, and I called down there persistently enough
until I got to speak with him and we talked
about the golf sing. I was a child, and we
have to talk about the golf swing, and he asked
(36:09):
me to to never tell anybody who that I talked
to him, because you got a Jillian phone calls a day,
and you get a Jillian morph if I if anybody
heard that somebody had gotten throw But in the midst
of all this and talking about the golf swing, and
you know, if you ever get a chance and we
(36:33):
ever we me we meet one on one, I will
tell you the golf swing story with mister Hogan. But
in the middle of all of this, he said to me,
how old are you.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
The time?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I was sixteen years old? Sixteen years old because I
was a junior in college, and he's I told him
(37:06):
I was sixteen years old, and he said, well, if
this game is as good to you as.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It was to me, you're gonna have a great life.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
So I was talking to somebody the other day and
I thought to myself, Okay, did I really really really
live up to that? Has this game been really, really
really that good to me? And it has it has,
But how do I personify that?
Speaker 2 (37:29):
You know, what is this game?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Who has this game allowed me to meet and have
conversations with? You know? So obviously I mentioned d Chambeau earlier.
I mentioned Greg Norman earlier, but let's think about this. Obviously,
I spoke with mister Hogan. I consider talking him on
the phone, meeting him. I've been fortunate enough to have
(37:57):
conversations with Arnold Palmer, shared a couple of letters with him.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
He wrote me back.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I had a conversation with him, two conversations with him.
It's pretty awesome. I don't know if anybody saw this
last week, but chi Chi Rodriguez died.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And I had a.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Conversation with him one time because he came to Williams
Williamsport Country Club when I was assistant golf professional and
we had a conversation. He's hard to understand. He had very,
very thick Central American accent. I also met Marco Mira,
a two time major winner. I had a conversation with
him about equipment, about how to play this game. Chris Smith,
(38:51):
I've had on this show numerous conversations with him. Chris Chatter,
LPGA Tour winner, several conversations one on this show. Missy
bertie Otti, LPGA.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Tour winner.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
From Pittsburgh on this show. David Ledbetter not on this show,
but I had conversations with him but golf swings. David
Liberty is a really tall player, that tall instructor.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
You see the hat on.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Hank Haney, Tiger's former teacher, Markomurra's former teacher.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Really cool, really cool.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Paul Colvin the other day at Greenbrier, prominent, prominent international teacher.
Unbelievable guy. If I weren't involved in golf, I wouldn't
meet them. Now this is easy because you could say, Okay,
they're all involved in golf. So I sat back and
I said to myself, Okay, who's not involved in golf
(40:01):
that I've actually had conversation with because I'm in the
golf business or because I'm around golf courses. Jerome Battison,
Really good dude. Mel Blunt. I was a really little kid.
I got the caddy from Mel Blunt. Mel Blunt lives
in Washington, Pennsylvania. His son, at least one of his children.
(40:22):
I know his son went to Lindsley Academy in Wheeling,
West Virginia. Mel's a real deal, really good guy. Probably
the most hated man in Steeer's history. Cordell Stewart, really
good guy. Told me, told me a very unfortunate story
(40:45):
about his experience in Pittsburgh. Very unfortunate story, but I
would not have been able to have a conversation with
him if.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
This game.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I wasn't involved in this game. Tommy Maddox, another NFL quarterback,
Mike Wagner, Super Bowl, multiple Super Bowl champion, Pittsburgh Steelars.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Frank o'harris football.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Basketball, John Starks play for the Knicks, play with Patrick
Ewing in the Necks, play against Michael Jordan and the
Bulls go back to football. Jack Ham just taught him
the other day on one more of the day weekend.
I would not have had that opportunity unless I run
the golf business. Mary Lemieux remember Rolling Hills Country Club
(41:48):
when I was making phone calls to Hogan's office. Dan
Quinn another NHL player. Younger people would probably remember Ryan
Malone that played with the Penguins, lost to Stanley Cup
in two thousand and eight, then went to Tampa Bay,
(42:09):
great NFL and NFL, great NHL career.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
His father Greg, very good hockey player for the Penguins.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
For stuff to hang out with him. Because I was
in the golf physiness. I got to meet Rick Kehoe,
who scored an unbelievable goal for my childhood to beat
the New York Islanders in a playoff game.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
So that's just.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Brian Chaucier. It's just hockey. That's just I mean, that's
just some of the sports. That's some of the guys.
First Director of Homeland Security United States of America, Tom Ridge.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
I got to meet him too.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Before he was he was before he was that, he
was the governor of Pennsylvania's good to meet him. Senator Mansion,
who I mentioned before, several you know, several United States Congressman,
(43:17):
you know, state senators, former Attorney General of the State
of Pennsylvania, Mike Fisher, Steve blast.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
All.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Because I'm in the golf hysins. Senator Mansion very very
very polite, nice smart guy, street smart. I really connects
thoughts very quickly. It's really interesting to watch him because
(43:56):
I spoke to him at Live and he was one
of my members as a was in government with.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Center Mansion, so it was really neat.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Numerous obviously tour players, golfers, you know that. Yes, I
got to meet I got to work for Bill Johnson.
Bill Johnson is the National Golf Course Coaches National Golf
Coaches Association of America. Hall of Fame's at Dartmouth for
thirty two years.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Jeff Julian.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Won on the Nike Tour twice, won the New England
Open one year. Jeff was just flat and nice to
a seventeen year old kid in New Hampshire. I was
eighteen then now, I was seventeen then. And then Jeff
went out and obviously didn't go out and do this
(44:57):
on purpose, but actually contracted Luke Garriss's he's and died.
But I don't meet him without that, you know, I
don't meet him without the golf business.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
I was.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
I had a position in a town called Culpepper, Virginia,
and it was an hour ride to Washington, d C.
And every so often I would just kind of take
a day and go to Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
And walk around. I love Washington, d C. It's just
really cool.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
I had this opportunity because I have a job where
you work weekends, and so sometimes you can take up
half a day and kind of disappear and nobody holds
it against you, because if you work Monday through Friday
and you take every other Thursday and just kind of
bug out for half a day, eventually your boss is
gonna be like, all right, man, what's the deal with that?
But my business, when you work weekends, you can kind
(45:48):
of find your half day. And so I was walking
around up there and in Washington, d C. And I
was going by the old Executive Office building and big
limo out in front, well big a limo, two of
them actually, and guy walked out. And this was this
was before nine to eleven. This was before everybody was
(46:09):
panicked about the way the wind blew and all that stuff.
This guy comes walking out, and I count this one
only because you know, I was in the golf business
in Virginia, So I would not have been in that
situation if I weren't in the.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Golf business in Virginia. And I said hello to a
senator from Delaware. It was Joe Biden. He stopped and
he said, how are you What are you doing here? Well,
why are you here?
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Of course, I'm a dork enough that I knew who
he was, because like I'm like, I was like one
of the only guys that did ever really you know,
watch c Span, you know I love that. So you know,
I just ran through a bunch of names, and I
(46:56):
go back to what mister Hogan said to me, if
this game is good to use, it was to me,
And I'm sure he meant financially as well. I am
sure he meant winning events and playing with a lot
of really cool people. And I'd like to think that
I kind of picked my own path and still got
(47:18):
to meet some really cool people, all because I'm in
the golf business. Like I can pick up the phone
and call who is considered to be the best golf
professional in PJA of American history.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
I really can. It's just.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
It's just really cool. So I'd like to think that
I've kind of lived up to the game. I still
have a ways to go. I still have a ways
to go. I have many years to do this. I
am very excited about this. But I'm telling you right
now as I sit here, this game has been pretty
good to me. And if I could say something to
(48:00):
mister Hogan, I would say thanks for saying that, because
I took it to heart. Because if this game is
good to use, it was to me, is what he
said to me. I took that is only if I
make it as good as I want it to be.
And I've been fortunate enough to do that. And I
even get to sit in a room with Corey over
(48:20):
there and talk about some stuff and it's really really
really cool. And actually, for the first time, second time
in my career, I actually had somebody walk into the
golf shop the other day and said, I heard you
on the radio today, So how can you be sitting
there and you're on the radio right now, which I
thought was pretty cool, especially because it's an adult So
(48:46):
this has been the Rich Comwell Golf Show. I promise
I will start to get I already have a list
of eight or ten guests that are coming down the pipeline,
but I just wanted to say, you know, I just
want to fly solo. I want to say thanks for listening,
hope you enjoyed this, and this is the Rich Come
WALLLGF Show.
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