The Rich Conwell Show - May 3, 2025

Rich dives into his time at Wheeling Country Club, what went into the club's closure, where he is today, and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rich Kalmo Golf Show. This week due
to circumstances beyond our control, especially with massive power outages
and high winds. I saw something funny the other day.
They predicted eighty mil and our destructive winds. Has anybody
ever seen an eighty mile in our non destructive wind?
I mean, have we ever found one of those? But

(00:23):
so we lost power, A lot of people have lost power.
Some people still do not have power in Pittsburgh and
the greater Pittsburgh area. So we are going to we
am gonna fly solo today. I hope. I actually had
a really, really really good guest on our schedule rather

(00:44):
but we couldn't pull it off. But I'll get him
on next week. And that's going to be a fascinating
golf story next week. But so, when I found out
that I was going to do the show by myself
without a call in, I I asked a couple of
people what they wanted me to talk about, and it

(01:06):
really I realized that I have not talking I have
not talked woo. I have not talked about recent past,
uh recent history and currently what I'm doing and how
I'm as they say, having had it and so I am.

(01:29):
I decided that I would do that. And I know
that there are some rumors out there, there are some misconceptions.
I don't know about rumors, but misconceptions, and and so
I figured I would spend a couple of minutes talking
about that. As everybody knows, I was the head golf

(01:54):
professional and general manager at Wheeling Country Club for five years.
Believable facility. Absolutely love that facility. Oldest golf course, all
those continuous golf course in West Virginia. Absolutely incredible place,

(02:16):
absolutely incredible physical plant. We had tennis courts, We had
wedding pads where wedding stages basically a swimming pool. We
had two restaurants, three meeting rooms. As I said, the
oldest golf course in West Virginia, and we had When

(02:45):
and I came to that job from Western New York,
I was given the opportunity and the reason that I
really wanted it. There was twofold and I have no
reason to lie or to disguise. I was in Western
New York, which is two and a half hours away
from my home in Pittsburgh, and this was an opportunity
to get to within fifty three minutes of my house,

(03:07):
I got to go home every night when I had
not done that. When I was in Western New York,
I had an opportunity to to return to the Tri
State PGA, which is you know where I started h
And so I did it. I met, I interviewed several times,

(03:31):
and I knew the challenges going in, and I gave
it my level best to give it a go. And
when I and and in a little while, I'm gonna
I'm going to change the eye to a we because
it was not an eye proposition. It really really really wasn't.
I mean, there's no way that there's no way I

(03:57):
could have done whatever success we have, And you know
this was I've always said this statement in my professional
career that whatever successes we had and have and will
have in the future are entirely the responsibility and credit

(04:21):
to the people who work at the facility. I you know,
it's funny. I you know, I never consider myself working
at that facility. I don't consider myself working at the
facility I'm at now, which we'll talk about later. But
I go there, I you know, I just I would

(04:45):
just go there and I didn't work. I have to
tell you that, you know, a long time ago. My
father was born in nineteen thirty and he told me,
he said, never ever ever say you work hard unless
you work in a steel mill or a coal mine.

(05:05):
And that stuck with me from the time I was
nineteen twenty one years old, twenty one years old when
we first laid that one on me. So, I'm I'm
dead serious. I don't work hard. I work a lot,
you know. I mean I have family members that would
tell me that I do work hard or whatever. But

(05:27):
so back to Wheeling Country Club. So so you know,
I went in there. We had a really good point
of sales system, we had a really good database, we
had a really good marketing program when I started there,
and we had a small membership, and we just tried

(05:47):
to grow, tried to do some neat things, tried to
to do some really really cool things at the facility
without delving too deeply into the long ago past. Is

(06:09):
the country club because I know this because the country
because I read the minutes from the bylaws from nineteen
thirty four nineteen sixty Wheeling Country Club has never financially
done very very very great. They have done great, and
so I knew even though we had new ownership. I

(06:34):
knew that it was going to be a difficult ride.
I did, and I knew it was going to be
beyond a bumpy ride. It was going to be a
difficult ride. It was going to be a hard, hard,
hard aircraft carrier. Yeah, hardship to turn around, hard aircraft
carrier to turn around. I needed everybody pulling in the
right direction, in the same direction. And so I set

(06:58):
about creating that as best I could, as best I could,
And I would tell you that there was one quarter
that we actually turned a profit. It was the first
profit and I think twenty six years. I think first

(07:19):
quarter of any quarter in twenty six years that had
turned a profit there. I was really proud of that home.
I had on that one pretty hard. We increased golf
outings by eight or nine. We had eighteen or nineteen,
as opposed to when I got there it was I'm sorry,
it was eleven when I was eight. When I got there,

(07:42):
we had eight on the books, and we got it
to nineteen. My last year there, we had a lot
of events, a lot of social events, a lot of
social events, and we just couldn't and I'm gonna start
to use the word I hear. I just couldn't turn it.

(08:05):
I just could not turn it. I tried really hard.
I tried a lot of things. You know. I came
up with what I perceived to be some pretty creative
membership programs. I call people, I talked to them, you know.
I tried really hard to come up with some innovative

(08:25):
stuff that other people weren't doing, to try to kind
of make us unique. And you know, and I don't
say I was grabbing at straws because I was not
grasping at straws. I was not. I was. I was
trying anything and everything. You know, there's a line in
the West Wing that, you know, Sam Seborne says in

(08:45):
the line is you know, we have a We had
a saying that you know, no idea is a bad idea,
so so here it goes, and bear with me. And
I had a lot of those conversations. It didn't take
me long sometimes to realize they were bad ideas. It
didn't take me long to realize a lot of them
were good ideas. I just don't think I could overcome

(09:08):
the history. I just I laid I laid my head
down now with it that I just I was I
couldn't overcome history. I couldn't. I couldn't overcome history. We
had two small membership. We we just there were a

(09:29):
lot of things, and someday, if you know, if you ever,
you know, catch me not on the radio, you know,
I could tell you some of the ideas we had
and see what you think about them. But I tried
so so in December of twenty twenty four, the ownership

(09:54):
came to me and said that we were going to
close Wheeland Country Club January first of twenty twenty five.
I have to tell you that I thought, initially when
I heard that that they were talking about closing January

(10:16):
February in March, to see if we couldn't maybe retool
and come out with it with a kind of a
fresh plan, even if it didn't include me. And I
actually said that to my boss, you know, and they
just they were like, no, we're just not gonna do
it anymore. We're just gonna turn it off. That's not

(10:39):
that those are my words, not their words. Trust me
that they weren't their words. So I don't know if
anybody's ever had that happen to you when they come
in and say, oh, by the way, we're closing. It
is stunning, and you've got to be quiet for a

(11:01):
little while. And because you know, again, I go back
to my father. He used to always say to me, said,
he used to always say, hey, just get just be
really quiet when you're not sure what to say. And
I wasn't sure what to say. So I went for
a walk and and we we went backwards, and I

(11:25):
sat back down and and I I told I had
to tell the staff, I had to tell all the
people that work for me. I had to and frankly,
I will tell this, I will tell the truth on
this one. It was my choice to do that. I
don't think that it was somebody anybody else's choice. I
think they would have rather have done it a different way.

(11:48):
But but I insisted it be me, and we we
wrapped it up. And I do have to say that
at to this day, I take I take a lot
of responsibility for the for the for the closing. I do.

(12:10):
I wish I'd done some things differently. I wish I'd
pushed harder for certain things. I wish I'd worked harder
for certain things. I know that's violation of my dad saying,
but I wish I had I had pushed harder for that.
I pushed myself harder. But I want to take just
a couple more minutes and just just go back and
just just mention the good, the good. We did a PJ.

(12:36):
I did two sessions of PJ Hope program I did,
and it was it was the veterans first, and it
was awesome. It was awesome. I started the radio show
when I was working there, so that's a very good memory.
I saw people get married there, I saw celebrations of

(12:59):
life there. I saw how a country club could be
weaved into the fabric of the community. And I was very,
very very and still am very proud of that, very proud.
I met a lot of great people. I had people
working for me that were just phenomenal. I mean, you know,

(13:25):
Sarah Canter, Lori Horvath, you know, I mean those are
just two. Uh, those are just two right off the
top of my head. And I didn't I didn't sit
down and think about this whole lot, but but but
you know, it was those two. Laurie was in charge

(13:48):
of Laurie was in charge of of all of our events.
She did an incredible job, incredible incredible job. I mean,
we sold events. I never thought she sold of vans.
I never thought we would we would we would ever

(14:10):
get and she got him. Lourie's awesome, Sarah Sarah Canter unbelievable. Deanna.
Deanna was Dianna with our bar manager. Deanna was absolutely dynamic,
she was full of life. She was so happy to

(14:31):
see people. She was so happy to see people. And
that's kind of where I feel like I failed, because,
like people like Diana wanted to see people, and I
couldn't get enough to be members. I couldn't come up
with the right ideas. I couldn't I couldn't get the
golf course where I wanted it. I couldn't get enough.

(14:52):
I couldn't get I couldn't get I couldn't help Loory
get enough events, she did so many of them. I
couldn't get community. I couldn't force community buy in. And
that's where I fell short. I fell short with Dianna, Sarah, Lorie,
everybody else to work there, everybody. I just couldn't do it.

(15:19):
But I will tell you this, I'm really proud of
what we did, and I'm really, really, really sad that
it's not a fabric of the community anymore. Somebody sent
me pictures they drove by the other day and it's
not it's all barricaded, and that's that's fine. It is
what it is. I'm I'm truly sad that I am

(15:40):
the last PGA professional to ever work there. That that
made me. That makes me sad, and it makes me
sad that I that I am the last, And I
wonder sometimes what I could have done better to have
prevented it from me being the last, that I couldn't
have handled the job as some young guy and said, hey,

(16:01):
I made it pretty good, you go make it better.
So that's what's happened. And after this commercial break, I'm
going to tell you exactly what we're doing now. And
it's really, really, really exciting. This is the Rich comwoll
Golf Show. Welcome back to the rich Combogolf Show. As

(16:21):
I said in the first segment, I am flying solo
today due to technical difficulties due to a storm and
phones were out, power was out. It's crazy how routine
you are in your world when power goes out. Because
I swear to God, I walked into my kitchen three
times with my power out and flicked the switch, and

(16:42):
I consciously I knew but that's what happens. So I
spent the first segment talking about Willing Country Club and
the closing of Willing Country Club and the people that
made made Willing Country Club just really really, really really
special to me, you know, people like Deanna Reid and

(17:04):
Sarah Canter and Laurie Horvath, and it was just awesome
to me, and they were awesome. And but as you
have to do in this world, you have to close chapters.
And at the end of the show, I would ask
you to please hang on for the last two minutes
because I'm going to close chapters in my personal life

(17:30):
today too. But they are actually kind of exciting chapters,
so they're not sad chapters like the Willie Country Club was.
So as my I think I keep referring to my father,
as my father used to say, when you're in a
tough spot, you got to think your way out of
it and always remember go to work. And I did that.
So I reached out to a facility when I realized

(17:52):
that we were closing at Willie Country Club, and I
was hired as the general manager and the PGAHAD golf
professional to a facility called Fort Cherry Golf Club, which
is in McDonald Pennsylvania, and it is only twenty six
minutes from my house. So now I every job I get,
I get closer, and I guess maybe the next one

(18:14):
might be retirement when I actually live at home and
stay at home. And then that'll last about a day
until my wife goes all right, dude, you got to
go get a job further away from me than four feet.
So so Fort Cherry Golf Club unbelievable physical plant. I
mean you have to understand this is we have a

(18:38):
five hundred seat ballroom. We have a one hundred and
fifty seat ballroom. We have a two hundred and fifty
seat ballroom, which part of that is a enclosed porch.
It is we have a golf shop we haven't and
then on the first floor that those rooms are all

(18:59):
in the second floor. The first floor is golf shop
in the restaurant. Restaurant probably seat sixty to eighty people easily.
It is absolutely, absolutely an incredible physical plant. A cart
passed the whole way around the golf course. Golf course

(19:20):
was built approximately sixty five to almost seventy years ago.
It is it has and they are not working right now,
and they are disconnected. It has lighted nine holes lighted literally,
I'm saying that, like there's stadium lights on the golf course.

(19:43):
When they did some of the construction of the building
and some remodeling and things like that, we had to
they had to turn those off. I wasn't obviously there then.
I've only been working there for fifty sixty days now,
so seventy days, I guess, ninety whatever, ninety whatever, we'll
just call it three months. So so yeah, it's been three

(20:03):
months actually today. So so I went there and I
was fascinated by what I found. So aside from eighteen holes,
there's a driving there's a practice range which is exactly
seventy five steps from my office door. We have thirty

(20:27):
two hotel rooms, we have all that banquet space, and
all we do is turn rounds rounds after rounds, after rounds.
I share some numbers with you. Good Friday we did
two hundred and twenty eight rounds of golf. Last Sunday
we did one hundred and ninety six. It is, it

(20:54):
is fascinating. It's just activity. There's activity everywhere we have.
I mean, it's just awesome, it really is. I've met
you know, and It's truly Wheeling is Willing is close
to western Pennsylvania. McDonald is western Pennsylvania. I mean, it

(21:17):
is absolutely a phenomenal place. Golf course is really good.
Our golf course superintendent unbelievable job. His name is Brendan Craigo.
Unbelievable job he does. I mean I mentioned the storm.
You know, we lost six trees and half of eight trees,
along with numerous untold branches and you know Twig not

(21:41):
Twig's branches and everything. And that was on Tuesday at
five point thirty. By Wednesday at nine o'clock nine thirty
in the morning, it looked like the storm had ever happened.

(22:02):
We do. We have twenty six golf legs. It just
smells golf, just smells like golf. And of course we
are going to work to fill the hotel rooms. We
are going to work to fill the banquet rooms. We
are going to work to turn more rounds of golf.
We're gonna work to meet more people. My goal at

(22:24):
this at this facility, and obviously I don't have goals
separate from from ownership, that that is to turn for
a cherry golf club into a transform it into a
relationship based facility as opposed to a transaction based facility.

(22:49):
Think of your favorite restaurant and McDonald's. They both do food,
all that good stuff. But at your favorite restaurant, the
server usually knows you. At McDonald's, the server doesn't know you.
Matter of fact, it's a kiosk. By the way, I
was in McDonald's the other day. I did not realize

(23:10):
that we had replaced people with a kiosk. Literally, I'm
not kidding you. It was it was that the kid.
The kid, he's like seven, He's behind the counter. He
pointed at the kiosk. I tried to talk to him
about something. He pointed at the kiosk like that was
the only thing that was going to answer my question
I wanted took out of coffee. That guy me pointed

(23:31):
at that thing. He said that thing. I went, Okay,
So we are turning for Cherry into not that, we
are turning for Cherry into a people based entity. It
is absolutely a really, really, really fun ride. It is.

(23:51):
I go. Granted, I've only been there for ninety days.
I've met some interesting people. I have. I've met some
interesting people. I mess some really good people. I mean,
I've had it happen before. But I will tell you
that I that we worked really hard on one young
man's golf swing and he was he became emotional when

(24:13):
he saw it start to work. I've had that happen
a couple of times in my career and kind of
go home and sit still for a little bit and go, wow,
you know what, Maybe I am making a difference. Maybe
I am. We will, we are that. The history of
the facility is it's always been busy. The golf course

(24:38):
has is not as good. That is, I'm sorry, was
not as good as it is now. So now we
put with the ownership, put money into irrigation system. So
now the burnout will that has happened, That happens everywhere. Actually,
you know, I don't want to single my facility out.
Our facility help, but it is going to is going

(24:59):
to be minim Some great shots on that golf course,
some great holes on a golf course. You know, we're
starting to get into a little social media program. Now
I'm not very good at it, but you know, I
figure something's better than nothing, you know, and something's actually
a lot a lot better than nothing. Uh, And you

(25:20):
know we're I'm on X now see and I should.
I guess I'm supposed to say formerly known as Twitter,
I guess is legally what I have to say. But
we're on x now, we're on Facebook, We're on Instagram.
I haven't quite figured out Instagram yet. Instagram is kind
of weird for me. I feel like it's like an
eight year old game. I really do. Like. I have

(25:44):
a nephew who's coaching football, done it at University of
North Texas, and he posts stuff on Instagram all the time,
and I don't. I don't. I mean, I know what
he's posting. I can, I'm intelligent enough to understand it,
but I'm not quite sure. I know I'm not as
good at as he is, so I'm trying to be
as good as he is. But yeah, so that's what's happening.

(26:09):
You know that this facility is is a really really
really neat spot. It is basically it's a little not
even little. It's not a real long golf course, a
little over sixty two hundred and sixty two hundred yards
and would and what we'll do is we will we'll

(26:38):
just keep maintaining it. He's, as I said, brand's doing
a really really really good job. I'm sorry, Brandon, I
keep home, Brandon. Brandon's doing a really good job, and
he will continue to do a really good job. His
crew does a really good job for him, and we
will just continue to grow rounds of golf. We will
just continue to go round to golf. I mean we

(26:59):
have we have great people working for us. I mean
great people we have. You know, Jim Skacken runs uh
manages the golf shop for me, the golf operation for me.
As I said, Brandon is superintendent. I just go there.
Those guys work, They just go there. We we started

(27:22):
a very inexpensive membership, which is really really really kind
of interesting. And this was this was the first step
in not making it transactional and making it relationship based.
We sold it for very inexpensively, but it's basically a

(27:43):
season pass. Get twenty percent off merchandise and things like that,
and you get a free golf lesson and you know,
includes your greens fees and things like that. And we
got one hundred and ninety two people to do it,
one hundred ninety two people to do it in twenty
five days. It was awesome. It was awesome, and I

(28:08):
don't use this word very often. I use it at
my place of employment. See how I didn't say it work,
But I don't use it on this show. So my
guests use it, and I need to use it more.
The word is trust. The amount of trust they placed

(28:29):
in us to give us a sizeable piece of money,
so as a chunk of money in lieu of future promises,
showed an incredible amount of trust in them in us,
rather from them in us. And I'd like to think
we're rewarding that. I really would. I mean, I see

(28:51):
things at for Cherry Golf Club that I have never
seen before, and I don't think a lot of places
have seen them. I have seen these things. We have
twenty six golf legs. We will do one hundred starts
on the golf course after three o'clock on a Tuesday night.
Put one hundred people on the golf course on a
Tuesday night, actually after four o'clock. Excuse me, between four

(29:14):
o'clock and six thirty. We'll put one hundred people in
a golf course. Now I know it's only nine holes.
I don't care. I mean, if you do, if you had,
if you take our average rounds, which I can't do yet,
because you know, I haven't been through a whole year.
And you do it extrapolate over three hundred and sixty
five days, I'll be pretty close to thinking we'll do
one hundred thousand rounds of golf. One hundred thousand rounds

(29:38):
of golf, if you know, every day was like you know,
average day, June tenth, June, you know whatever, you know,
July fifteenth, whenever. So yeah, it's really really, really fascinating,

(30:00):
and the people just seem to be really into it.
They really do a lot of young people, a lot
of young people. And we did a demo day last
week with Tailor Made and I'm sorry, excuse me, with
Tour Edge in Cleveland Golf stricks On. Really really really people.
Now here's the interesting thing you talk about a little

(30:21):
bit of history thing. That was the first evidence of
golf club sales at Fort Cherriot and Over in fifty years.
Fifty years now, we only sold probably looks like about
six or seven I'm sorry, nine orders. But fifty years

(30:44):
we were not seen as an outlet to get a
golf club. We got people fitted, we got people swinging,
we got people talking, and we got people buying, and
we got energy energy for the first time in a
long time, I finally on the facility that seems to
match my energy level. And I and I think, what

(31:08):
I try to do every day there and we will
continue to do, is is grow our internal pride in
the facility so we can be happy with it because
that will that will actually trans transpose to our our customers.
That will transmit translate to our customers. It really really

(31:31):
really makes me happy that that that we can do
that and we're doing it now. Is it hard? Yes,
that's an aircraft carrier. That's an aircraft carrier. I mean,
when I come back from this segment, I'm going to
talk about what we're going to do with the future

(31:51):
of this facility, or what I think we're gonna do
with the future of affiliate, what I like to do
with the future of this facility. But it is an
aircraft carrier. And when I talk talk about the size
of it, you're gonna you're gonna start to realize that
it is an aircraft carrier. This is the Rich Combo
Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combo Golf Show.
I'm not gonna tell you I'm flying solo again, but
I am flying solo. Uh and I was just I

(32:15):
left the last segment with talking about Fort Cherry Golf
Club where I'm currently employed, and and and some of
the some of the the really cool things that we
have going on there. But I will tell you that
I want to talk about the physical plant and what

(32:36):
I think might happen. So this facility for Cherry Golf
Club was originally built. Actually, it's interesting. I do need
to stamp a little history on this thing. There was
a guy named Cherry a long time ago, before the
Revolutionary War, that built built a fort to fend off

(33:01):
Native Americans. Although he never was attacked by the Native
Americans and they never even came any type of hostility
towards him, but he did build a fort. That's why
it's Fort Cherry. Okay, that's exactly why it's for Cherry.
It doesn't have anything to do with cherry trees, it
doesn't have any to do with with any of that.
It has to do with a guy named Cherry who
built a fort. Our logo has cherries in it because

(33:24):
that makes sense, but it is. It was a thousand
acres and he built this fort on on the on
the acreage obviously not a thousand acre of fort. But
and I have a we have a rendering of the fort,

(33:45):
and I will probably hopefully change our logo to incorporate
that a little bit because it's kind of a cool
history kind of thing. I think it is. And and
my owner is going to probably go no, but you know,
it's it's worth worth of travel anyway. You know when
I tell you before, you know, whatever, whatever ideas, you

(34:08):
have to throw them out there and we'll see what happens.
So you know, we'll go with that one too. But
just for the the sheer size of this facility, if
you have not seen it, there is enough room on
the property for an additional nine holes. Next to our restaurant,

(34:30):
there's a door door that obviously is locked all the time.
It's internal. You know, it's inside the building and if
you opened it up you will see what once was.
It's a very large room. Now it's empty. What once
was seven lane bowling alley in the building. It's in
the building. How big this place is, So this is

(34:58):
just it's massive. So what do I see in the future, Well,
first off, I have to say, I see the bowling
alleys be filled with simulators. Nineteen point one million people
used a off course activity with golf. Last year twenty

(35:23):
twenty four, nineteen point one million, nineteen million people simulators.
I would love to bring my golf course friend up
and design a six hole short course where the nine
holes were and make this the family center of golf.

(35:44):
I mean it would be incredible. That would be incredible.
I mean it would be incredible. You know, you go
out there, walk six six par threes. Families whould go
out there. That would be incredible. So those are those
are two things I see. And it's kind of interesting

(36:07):
because honestly, this sky's kind of the limit because we
have enough activity to support whatever, not whatever, but major initiatives,
because I truly believe that is going to that activity
will support those initiatives. I mean, like I said, we
have twenty six golf legs. Could you imagine, like in October,

(36:28):
I say to you, by the way, take a week
off after your leg's over and start in the simulator.
They wouldn't leave. And that to me, that to me
is like and then then the simulator becomes the gateway
drug to the first t That's awesome. You know that's
six hole. That's six hole. Part three. Oh my god.
They have kids going round and round and round and

(36:49):
round and round. You know. I mean, I understand kids
want to hit a driver three hundred yards. They also
understand very quickly they can't. First of all, nobody can. Very
few people can hit golf club like that, golfle like that.
So anyway, I'm just telling you that it's just a
pretty pretty, pretty big, pretty big thing. It's a big ship,

(37:14):
you know. It's like the aircraft carrier. It's takes a
long time to turn, but I know it's turning because
I see it. So will grow the food and beverage
just just organically, organically, because we're just going to become
a relationship based facility as opposed to transaction based facility.

(37:36):
So but I talked about the future, and I talked
about the now, and I want to talk about the
immediate future because we are focused on three areas, not
three areas. We're focused on a lot of areas. But
a couple of things I want to bring up. I
have a student golf membership at for Cherry Golf Club
for high schoolers grades eight through twelve. It is two

(37:57):
one hundred dollars covers you through December thirty, first twenty
twenty five. That is, you can walk the golf course
for free if you tee off before nine o'clock on
Monday through Thursday, the Monday through Friday, and after two
o'clock on Saturdays and Sundays two hundred dollars. Now, I'll

(38:19):
be honest with you. If you're a seventeen year old
kid or a sixteen year old kid, and you play
a lot of golf and you come to four Cherry
five times, if you come out at one o'clock on
a Saturday afternoon five times, you're going to give me
two hundred and seventy five dollars. Give me two hundred

(38:39):
and come out unlimited. Makes no sense to me why
this hasn't happened. Now, I've sent it out to schools,
I have done that. I haven't done a good enough
job of doing all that, but I'm telling you we'll
get there. And the other thing is is the junior

(39:01):
golf program. So I have a benefactor who has cut
the junior golf program price in half. For sixty dollars,
you get five golf lessons one hour golf lessons fifty minute.

(39:22):
To be exact, it is the student teacher ratio would
be twelve to one. It is open from ages four. Yeah,
I said that open to ages four to seventeen. I'm sorry.
I apologize. Five to sixteen, I apologize. I always do that.

(39:43):
Five to sixteen, five to sixteen. Sixty dollars one hour
student teacher ratio be twelve to one. So if I
get one hundred and twenty kids in this, I'll be
teaching for ten hours a day, five mondays in a row.
I don't care. Be awesome, awesome, absolutely awesome. I'll take

(40:06):
three hundred kids. I'll figure it out, absolutely awesome. I
want this to be an incredibly good program. I'm going
to send this to every local township, every rec center,
every wreck recreation department, for every township community around me.

(40:31):
I will get one hundred and twenty kids in this program,
and they'll all take advantage of the sixty dollars scholarship
because it's it should be one twenty. They'll get a
sixty dollars scholarship, and we will make this work. And
why we'll make the high school program work. Another program
I had and that is very important to me, very important.

(40:53):
It's very important to the game of golf. If I
can grow the game of golf. My career will have
been worth it. If they say to me, you know what,
we think you grew at two percent, I'll take it.
If they tell me they did I didn't grow it,

(41:16):
I will I will regret it. It's my responsibility going
all the way back to the start of my career.
Another program that we have starting in June is going
to be the Hope Program. I have two sessions scheduled.

(41:37):
I already have some people signed up for it. This
is our helping our patriots everywhere. I am one of four,
one of four, one one of four in the secondary
state section. You talk about a wonderful program, costs nothing
for veterans. PAYJA of America takes care of it. They

(42:01):
come out. They just they come out. They being the veterans,
come out, learn some golf, have some fun, develop some camaraderie,
gives them something to look forward to, and we just
go have fun. The greatest time a golf professional can

(42:23):
spend is doing a Hope program. Fall closely by, Fall
closely by a junior program. Junior programs are a lot
of fun. By the Veterans program. The Hope Program really
really really good. I mean it's really a whole lot
of fun and I'm working on I'm working with the
veterans the VA over in Washington, Pennsylvania on that and

(42:48):
so that is that is really really really important. So
just to recap, there's three programs going on right now.
You know, we're starting to get loaded up for the
Hope program, which I just mentioned. We'll do verse order
the whole program that I just mentioned. So if you
know a veteran, I'm asking you to share that information,

(43:09):
share this information with them, go on the Whole program website,
and we will get him hooked up in our program
and he will enjoy every minute of it. It will
be absolutely awesome. The Junior Golf Program, if you have

(43:30):
a youngster in your life that either plays golf or
doesn't play golf, or wants to play golf, or might
want to play golf, it's sixty dollars for five golf lessons.
It's a wholesome activity. I know how to teach and
know how to teach kids. They'll learn. We provide equipment.

(43:52):
You don't have to have equipment. You don't have to
have your own equipment. We'll provide the equipment. It's just
about golf. It's literally about golf. And so the other
thing is is the high school membership two hundred dollars.
Two hundred dollars gains you seven day access to the

(44:17):
golf course, no greens fee. If you walk, it's free.
If you have a license, you want a card, Okay,
there's a fee for that. But I'm telling you it

(44:37):
is absolutely an awesome program. And again again, I give
credit to everybody who works for me because they're the
ones who come up with this stuff. I just talk
about it now. I think if you went to them
and asked them, they would say he did it. But
I don't care. I don't care who gets the credit.
I just need the success. Okay, I'll work to get

(45:00):
it successful. I got to grow the game I need.
I need high school kids to play the golf course.
I will tell you this now. The junior program does
have a fee associated with it. I do not take
money for kids under sixteen years old to teach them.
I never have, I never will because somebody helped me

(45:25):
then ask me for money. They asked me to pay attention,
and I did. And I know I've been threatening this
for three years, but I'm actually gonna start using the
practice range again. So I'm actually going to start to
play golf a little bit. So that's what's going on
in my professional life and at for Cherry Golf Club

(45:50):
and things like that. Now, I did mention that, you know,
with the closing of Wheeling Country Club and the closing
of that chapter in my life and the people well
that you know, the people that were negatively impacted, I
do have to say one thing, and I'm very, very
proud of this. From all the people that I mentioned

(46:11):
and all the people I didn't mention that work for me.
At the end of Willing Country Club, every one of
them was either offered a job or I got them
in touch with somebody to go to work for them.
Whether they did or not was up to them. And
I'm really that's what I'm really proud of because I'll
tell you what I don't wish it. I don't wish

(46:31):
a closing of any business. I don't care if it's
a popsicle stand or a country club or a TV
studio or I don't care what. I don't wish it
on anybody. I'm really proud of those those people for
actually just picking up the opportunities and running with them.
I had a small hand in finding some of them,

(46:53):
but I'm telling you right now, I'm really proud of them.
But being on that, there are some big changes in
my personal life. For those of you who don't remember,
I will tell you. My daughter is a speech pathologist
at the Children's Institute. She got married last June and

(47:13):
they are moving to Austria. My daughter will be moving
to Austria within the next ten days. It's only for
eighteen months, sixty about eighteen months, so that's a serious,
serious change. I'm a sad guy, you know, because I

(47:34):
know when she got married, you know, they move away
and all that stuff, but they were always like forty
five minutes away, half hour away, even two hours away.
This is more than two I looked Austria is more
than two hours away from my house earlier. But she
is an incredibly, incredibly wonderful young lady. She's a really

(47:56):
gifted speech pathologist. And when she goes to Austria, I
know she's going to put her time in to do
some English as a second language thing or some speech
pathology things in Europe, and she'll just do awesome at
that too, because there's nothing she doesn't do. It's awesome
and The last one is my son, Drew, graduates from

(48:16):
the Ohio State University this Sunday and he's going to
go work for a very large mortgage company in Washington,
d C. That's under conservativeship conservatorship with the federal government,
and he is going to do great. But there's some
massive changes in my world. And I'm watching these kids

(48:37):
flat on my house, like, whoa wait a minute, where
the last twenty seven years ago? You know, Drew's twenty two.
I don't want you to think he, you know, took
six years to get through Ohio State. But so all
right there, I flew solo. There's all the information I
have at this moment in time. I will be back

(48:59):
with much more inter people than me next week. And
I thank you for listening. This is the Rich Komal
Golf Show.