May 15, 2025 • 53 mins
Rich is joined by PGA Professional Dave Kendall to discuss his list of accomplishments, his new lease on life after a cancer diagnosis, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the rich Combell Golf Show. This week, we
are very very very fortunate to be joined by a
gentleman by the name of Dave Kendall. Dave is a
PGA professional, and Dave has a list of awards and
accomplishments that it would take two or three days to
talk about. But but there's any there's some in crazy.
(00:24):
He's got an incredible golf story, and I wanted to.
I want to first off say thanks for coming on, Dave,
and I appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, thanks so much for having me right, so I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
No problem at all. So so all right, so, like
I do with everybody, go ahead and tell me how
you got your start in golf.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well I was. I was. It's a six kids. I
have four sisters and a brother, and I was the
only one of the six that would take my parents
up on an offer to go play golf with them.
So my mother and father were avid golfers, but my
siblings weren't. And they got me a junior Walter Hagen
(01:07):
three iron and they had me hit every shot with
a pud Chips drive fairway shot. I think they could
have given me an easier club, but I don't think
they knew any better. There you go. I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's awesome. So then obviously as you you know, as
you got older, you started playing some junior events and
things like that. So I'm assuming you played through high
school correct.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, you know what, my family, our family moved from Cadillac,
Michigan to Jackson, Michigan, and and then I don't know,
we weren't member of a club anymore. I played all
kinds of sports. I didn't play much just when my
mother and father asked me. I wasn't a part of
a junior program. I was a public course kid, and uh,
(01:57):
but basically just played with my dad. Didn't think and
my mother and didn't think it would really amount to anything.
I knew. I liked it, but I wasn't extremely good
at it, although I was pretty good at other sports.
Although I was the smallest kid, but I had kind
of a small man's complex and I had to you know,
I thought I would try harder than anybody, and I
(02:19):
was you know, I was pretty coordinated, so I could
usually do things easily. But then I was playing hockey
and I had dislocating kneecaps and so I was hurt
all the time. I would it hit from the side
of my kneecaps to dislocate. And then, you know, I
had a high school golf coach when I went to
(02:40):
high school. Somehow he found out I played golf and
he encouraged me. I never thought that I would ever
be able to be good enough to play on the
high school team. But he was such a wonderful man.
I you know, I could talk about him forever. But
he meant a lot to so many of us. And
(03:00):
he had a team full of public course kids, so
you know, the court school across town had all the
country club kids because they were usually more gifted. But
then he was such a good coach and it wasn't
the excedent and oways of a golf swing. He made
us practice our short game all the time. He just
stood there and made us do that. And so we
(03:21):
were all all kind of overachievers. You know, we we
didn't look real good doing it, but we could usually
score okay and so, and he gave us a lot
of encouragement and explain things to us. And you know, I,
you know, one of the most memorable things that I
remember in my life was a I didn't play varsity golf,
(03:41):
so I was a senior, and but I did play
in college, so I he you know, I I had
a good of temper. I was on the eighteenth toll
of our home course and I missed the short putt
and I threw the ball into the woods as far
as I could. And he met me as I left
(04:04):
the green, and I could tell he wasn't happy with me,
but he wasn't a yeller. So he put his arm
around me, and he explained to me, Dave, you embarrassed
our team, and not only that, you embarrassed our school,
you embarrassed your family. I really didn't think I did
(04:26):
all that.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It was one throw.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I might have embarrassed myself, but he was right, and
he explained it to me. And I've always appreciated it
because he did explain it to me. And you know,
before that day, I never thought of it that way.
But ever since that day, I never didn't think of
it that way. That I that I actually, you know,
(04:50):
represented those who care about me, not just myself, and
so I you know, I didn't want him. I understood
then that the things I do could make those that
care about me proud or they could make them have
to apologize for me, and I didn't want them to
have to apologize for me. I want them to be
proud of me and hopefully someday be able to brag
(05:12):
about me. So, you know what, it really affected my
life from that time time, just because he explained it to.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Me right exactly exactly like that, I told my kids.
And it's the same kind of thing you because when
you have a really good coaches, it's almost like you're
his kid. And he said, I tell my kids all
the time. The only thing, the worst I could say
to use, you're better than that. I'm not going to yell.
I'm not going to scream you're better than that. Yeah,
And that's that's basically what it was. So Okay, so
(05:40):
you played one year of varsity varsity golf, so then
you decide to go to Farris State University.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Correct. Well, in between, uh, I had gotten a call
from the I had a pretty good senior year and
I got a call from the at Jackson Community the
coach there, and he asked me to come and play
at Jackson Community College and he paid for my tuition.
And I thought, Wow, I wasn't a guy who was recruited,
(06:10):
and so I thought that was great. So I wanted
to do that because the PGM program hadn't started yet,
So that was at the end of nineteen seventy three.
The program at Paris started in the fall of seventy five.
So I played at Jackson Committee College and then I
heard about the program from a classmate of mine. He
(06:33):
was he lived in my neighborhood and he told me
about it, and I again thought, I don't think there's
any way I could ever be good enough to be,
you know, a golf professional because in our area, all
of the assistant, the golf pros and the assistance were
all I was standing players. I found out later that,
(06:53):
you know, every it wasn't that way everywhere, so I
really but it made me want to work at it.
It made me want to try and get better and
better because you know, when I got in to be
a club professional, I didn't want my members to have
to apologize for me. I wanted to bail brag about me.
So I worked real hard at it, and I became,
(07:15):
you know, pretty competitive player by the time I got
out of college. And and uh, and then of course,
soon after I got out of school because I was
in the PGM program, I turned professional, and you know,
but I really it was important to me to play
in the tournaments and that although I worked open to
close six days a week, when on Mondays, you know,
(07:36):
they have programs and I could play. So that was
that was all I did. I was just worked in
golf and played in practice.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That was So that was I gotta ask you, what
was it What was it like in the infantile days
of the Professional Golf Management Program at Pharaoh State.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know, that's a that's a real good question because see,
we didn't have by the way, we had a fall
at that time. They started fifty kids in the fall,
and then they started another group in the spring, and
so the fall players would go to school, we had quarters.
They would go fall in winter quarter, and then they
went out in internships spring in summer quarter. So when
(08:19):
we came in in February for spring and summer on campus,
all of the other fifty guys who were in the program,
they were on internships, so we never knew them. So
we had nobody on campus and we had nobody to
kind of show us the way, or we didn't have
you know, exam seniors and junior. There was just us
(08:41):
and that was the interesting part. And we had a
director of our program was a guy named Norm Bennett,
who was the track coach at Farris State for twenty
three years and then in the summers he ran a
local country club. It was a nine holler and he
made himself a golf professional and uh, he became a
(09:04):
golf professional at Paris's golf course called Katy Golf Course.
And he was the director of the program. And he
you know, he was a he was a World War
Two veteran in the Marine Corps in the Pacific. Yeah,
he was a really tough guy.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah. Get getting the class on time wasn't really an
option there because that guy, that guy had already done it. Yeah,
oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And he rubbed some the students the wrong way, you know,
he said, only twenty five percent of you are going
to complete this program, you know, and we and they
took it like you know, he was going to try
to get rid of him, but he said no, it
just happened naturally. Some will thinks they don't care about
the business. Others will fail academically, Others will not be
(09:49):
able to pass the pah and that kind of at
that time that turns some guys away. And uh, he
was really you know he was he was right and
loved him and he was a great example. He wasn't
a great player himself, but he was a great teacher
because he could inspire people and he did simple things
and he made him believe that they could do it.
(10:11):
And it really made an impression on me. You know,
I really loved know him and he he he hired
me to go to work in the shop and I
met my wife working in the shop. Her names Karen,
and she's she was so local from Big Rapids and
ended up getting married four days out of school.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And that was, well, what took you so long?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, that was you know, she been through every adventure
I've ever had with me, and you know, he's amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Well, I got to tell you that that I know
that I know obviously I'm younger than you, but I
know a lot of guys who went through the Far
State program and I know a couple of who know you,
And I got to tell you you guys that first class,
those first two or three classes. He you know, like
you said, the quarter system whatever, So so you know
(11:10):
those first let's say two hundred or one hundred and
fifty or whatever it was. It was. You guys created
what now is basically what eight, nine, ten, eleven programs
in this country. And you guys were the model. And
Norm Bennett did too, and there's no argument there because
he kind of set the tone. But you guys created
(11:31):
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, that's something to say. We've had some conversations. I've
had some conversations with the guys in the first ball
class who liked to kid me about you know that
I wasn't in the first class. Well, Norm told us
we were all in the first year of the program,
you know, both of the ball class and the spring class,
and so you know, I always thought that, well, these
(11:55):
guys were their friends and close friends of mine. But
it was the third year, when you went year round
that you met the other guys, you know, the guys
because in the third year of the program you go
year round, and so I met some of those guys.
Now they still kid me today. But see, I graduated
kind of ahead of most a lot of them because
(12:15):
I was twenty one when I started the program, right,
you know, and it was only because you know, it
now existed, and I decided that's what I wanted to do.
And I thought that Norm said twenty five percent of
us to complete the program. I said, well, by golly,
I'm going to be one of those twenty five percent, So,
(12:35):
you know, whatever I got to do to do that.
And I made promises if I could get accepted to
that program, I would never miss a class. I always
had eight o'clock classes and I was usually done by noon,
so I was either practicing or working in the shop
or in class. So that's call I did. And because yeah,
(12:59):
I thought that I was going to ask to work
harder than the rest to be able to do it,
because you know, I wasn't. I wasn't a kid who
grew up in his juniors all program, who you know,
was number one man on the team in ninth grade
and you know that kind of stuff. That wasn't me.
I was. I played all kinds other sports and I
(13:22):
loved it, and whatever season it was, that's what I
wanted to do for a career. Wy in that change
every season and then so I had a lot against me.
You know, I was the smallest kid in the field
in every sport.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
So anyway out work, what what what? What? The Hogan. Say,
Hogan said that you can't if you can't be to
got out work them. So I have to assume that
you you were able to you were able to say
thank you to mister Bennett, I would assume. So it's
probably Doctor Bennett was.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Closed to him until he passed away in late his
life he had dementia, but once he retired from Paris,
he stayed in golf, and in fact, there was a
season that he came and worked for me up in Cadillac.
I was Cadillac's about all thirty five or forty minutes
from Big Rapids, and that's where my parents were both
(14:21):
from there. But we moved when I was nine to Jackson.
But it's interesting I went back to Cadillac when I
right right out of school. So you know, Norm was
always around northern Michigan, and he was we just remained
close friends. His birthday was the same day as my wife,
so many times we celebrate his birthday with my wife,
(14:43):
and so he.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Was close to So yeah, that's that's neat because you know,
the reason I asked that is because I'm and you
wouldn't know this, but my son just graduated from Ohio State,
a couple of days ago, and my daughter graduated from
Ohio State University of Pittsburgh grad school five years ago,
and and it's it's amazing to me. It's amazing to me.
I tell them all the time, always thank the people
that help you. It's it's it goes so far, it
(15:09):
goes so far in helping people. I mean, it makes
it makes them feel so good. You know, if somebody
walks up to me and says, hey, I really got
to tell you that was really awesome, Like I really, like,
I appreciate you whatever. I I've done nothing really, but
you know, people say, hey, you know that was really cool,
thanks for doing that. Like I went and taught spine
(15:29):
it befit the kids one time and they're like, wow,
I can't believe you would do that. Thank you so much.
And the kids wrote like thank you, and it's like like, wow,
that's pretty awesome. Like you know, so I try to
teach them that. And that's why I asked you the
question about about him is because I know, I know,
you know, it's it's so important. I know he was
so happy to know that. You know, a lot of
(15:49):
people thought the world to him. They really did. Yeah, yeah,
so so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take
a break now, and when we come back from the
we're going to talk about your your I want to
talk to you a little bit about college golf and
then I'm going to talk about your professional career. Okay,
(16:10):
this is the Rich Combell Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich Kombwell Golf Show. Uh we are joined today
by Dave Kendall. Dave is everything about PGA of America
Professional Golf Management programs, great accomplishments. And when we left
off last he was he was actually just kind of
(16:31):
migrating away from Farris State. As as what the first
the first class of of the program. So before we
get to that, Dave, you played college golf at Ferris
as well?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Correct, I played one season. You know, it was awkward
playing college golf because of the internships and nowadays golf
is spring and fall. Then it was spring and uh
so for those first two years, the first year I
was there, you know, we didn't even know about cryouts
and that when we were first coming in. And then
(17:05):
the next year I went out for the team and
I was able to make the team, but I wasn't
a real difference maker. You know, I didn't play all
the time, and but but you know, that was an
accomplishment for me. So it was a step in the
right direction. And then you know, the momentum was happening
and we've had our own big tournaments. We had, you know,
(17:26):
the best competition I ever had was tournaments that are
alumni or not Alumni Association student association put together. You know,
we'd have four round championships, and that that really taught
me a lot. And I got so that I would
could be competitive. I wasn't a guy who ever won,
(17:47):
but I could get in the top five, and that
was a real accomplishment for me, and so it gave
me a lot of confidence that I could get better.
And you know, today, maybe the things I learned then
is that you know, don't discount accomplishment. If it's better
than you were before, it matters, and you should reward
(18:11):
yourself and celebrate that instead of saying, yeah, but I
didn't win, Well, isn't it better than you ever did?
Why why wouldn't you you know, say, that's a step
in the right direction, and maybe I could build that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, every every so often we have to be our
own best friend, and you know it's pretty it's pretty amazing.
When it's pretty amazing, like I think you are right.
It's like I, you know, I talked to Steve Whacroft
two weeks ago and he's a former PJ Tour player.
He's like, you know, I never really thought I was
good enough to win on the PGA Tour, which is
probably why I didn't. He goes, but you know, when
(18:45):
I played seven hundred professional Tour events, He's like that,
that's seven hundred more than I really ever thought, right,
I would get so it to that point, it's like
it's like, okay, yeah, you know what, that's pretty cool.
You know, that's pretty cool. You you finished off five,
that's pretty cool. That's awesome. And then next time maybe
you finished top three. But yeah, if you don't patch
(19:08):
yourself on the back, nobody else is going to anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So your own best friend was a great way to
put it.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
That's right. You got to be your own best friend
and and your biggest critics, that's right. That's right, And
sometimes you have to be sometimes you have to be
your biggest credit. But I'll tell you, most of the time,
it does you well to do you be your own
best friend. So all right, so we leave Fairris State.
So then where do you go professionally? You go back
to Cadillac.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, I left campus in the fall of seventy nine.
I had because I had gone to community college, I
had some transfer credits. So I got out about the
time the first class guys were and then I so
I went on my last internship, and about a week
after that ended, I started at Cadillac Country Club. I
(19:56):
was an assistant because the golf professional there became the
general manager and he needed somebody to kind of run
the golf shop, and he thought I had enough experience,
and he left at the end of that year and
they offered me the job as a head professional at Cadillac.
So on April first, nineteen eighty one, I became a
(20:17):
head professional and a PGA member on the same day.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That's the way for fools. Joke, brother, that's some serious
stuff right there.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Junior A they called him junior A back then.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, wow, So you were you were the first PGM graduate.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Well from the first PGA the first my first graduate,
the first PGA member professional. See, some guys graduated, but
they weren't PGA membership. In April first eighty one, Phil
Benson also became a PGA member head professional. And what's
interesting is in November twenty fourth that fall, we all
(20:57):
left campus, still did I and we got married the
same day, still married in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. I got
married in big rapids, and most people went to my
wedding and his reception because I was I married a
person whose family didn't believe in alcohol, so they couldn't
(21:17):
get a drink at mine, but they could have filled.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, that's what I hear. I hear. Yeah, that's a
that's a story. That's that's those stories of Phil's ability
to to find alcohol and consume alcohol still live forever
and ever and ever, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, he was alleged.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's that's hilarious. So how long did you stay there?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I was there seventeen years and when we you know,
I I really thought that the next job I would
have would be one I created for myself. And I
thought I taught a lot more than I had time
to teach at Cadillac, you know, because I had a
(22:03):
lot of other responsibilities. But I had an opportunity happened
at a place called Miles of golf where they wanted
to a golf academy. You know, they became a well
regarded It was a large range, large retail store. Well
they wanted to teaching business that you know, it was
kind of in keeping with what they were doing in retail,
(22:26):
and so they I was given an opportunity to start,
and it was amazing because people would say to me, Dave,
you're going to go to a driving range and work
for Lenson. See that's what a guy does when he
doesn't have a job, right So but see I didn't really.
I thought in the right place, that could be a
real good business. And although I had no guaranteed income,
(22:50):
I thought it was a really great opportunity. I think
it was maybe my you know, I didn't. I didn't
know enough. But I thought, you know, I'm going to
make the best of this opportunity. And it has and
it has to work. I mean it, there's no plan B.
I'm going to make a go of it, and it's
going to be a real good business. And uh, you know,
(23:13):
I look back and I say, boy, were you crazy?
But uh, you know, I was by myself, and I
remember the first month, you know, it was in the winter,
winter in Michigan, you know, isn't too good. But you know,
they they had a covered shelter, but it was you know,
it wasn't really heated very well. And so I remember
(23:35):
giving four lessons my first month, but you know, it's February,
so I thought, you know, that's okay. But you know,
by the time it came to Memorial Day, you know,
I thought, I think this is going to be a
good thing. And when I got so that my book
was too full, I would hire somebody that I would
(23:57):
send a family member to, you know. So I didn't.
I wasn't to where I made everybody teach my method.
I just thought they have to in their own way
make people better, and they have to care. They have
to care about the results. And that was where the
prerequisites because I think that we could all learn from
(24:20):
each other. So I believed in team teaching. They'd say,
I get asked the question, well, what if one person
says one thing to their student and the other one
says another. I said, you know, I think that's the
difficult things that we have to sort out every day
of our life. And I think the one that you
should believe is the one that works.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I and that doesn't be If somebody has a better
idea than I do, I think I'd like to learn
from them. So I never felt like, you know that
you had to be loyal to a certain teacher. I
think you need to be loyal to what works. And
we never were ones who argued. We never were ones
that fought over students to try to steal one from another.
(25:07):
We were more like a medical group where we kind
of learned from each other and we post for each other,
and we're all close and we're friends, and we want
to develop program that teach us all busy and uh,
that idea. I think it's kind of.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I never didn't have a model, right.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
It's it's interesting because you say, you know, because what
you said right there is like, no matter what you picked,
the one that works I got. I was lucky enough
to talk to Johnny Miller one time and he was
talking to me about when he tried to hit a
cod he would just open his face, or if he's
trying to hit a hook, he closed his face. And
I'm like, I'm standing there going, Okay, we know the
physics of this is not that's not true. You close
(25:48):
your face, that balls going left if you're a ready
hit a player. But to him, to him, it works,
So guess what if that works, more power to you, man,
more power to you. Like Johnny Miller does not need
to know the physics of a golf swing because that
guy just won the US Open. So don't worry about that, right,
you know, don't worry about it. If that works for him.
Way to go and hitting in the iron closed, oh
(26:11):
my god, Oh my god. He and Lenny Watkins, those
two Lenny Watkins could break a flag stick from anywhere.
I don't care where it was. He could break it
from anywhere, you know. And that and the other thing
is what's really interesting is that is that, like you,
like I the time I talked to Johnny Miller, you
don't realize how big he is. He's standing there talking
(26:33):
to you, and you're like, oh my god, this guy's
like gigantic, and like and Ernie Yell's the same way.
Andy Bean was the same way. And it's just like
they're they're they're big people making things happen. It's incredible.
It's incredible. So how long? So let me ask you,
how long did you stay at that job? Did you?
Did you retire from there.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm Mike Dy. Yeah, I was there, started and was founded,
and nineteen ninety seven I turned it over to actually
a fellow named Patrick Wilkes's career, who's, you know, one
of the outstanding players in Michigan. But he was an
eighth grader when I started the academy and he came
(27:14):
to take lessons. He was kind of small for his
age and he wanted to become a high school player.
Well now too, he can hit a three fifty and
he grew real big and tall, and he looks he's
what if you watch him, he's if somebody wants to
know what a tour player looks like, he looks just
like it. Yeah, and he hits it like that and
(27:35):
he's he he was down in the winter program. He
and his partner won a junior senior. This year he
had PG Village and he just missed the playoff for
the AJA Championship by one. And that was if he
plays well, he could win such a thing. So I'm
encouraging him to not be down harder because he missed
(27:59):
by a because he's going to have.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
A year where they went Yeah, so that's when you
got to go that's when you gotta go. You got
to be your own best friend. Man, You got to
be your own best friend.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Right, he really does, you know? And what do you
say to a guy like that, because I know he
wasn't there to make the cut, So I'm not going
to tell him how great he played, right, because that
isn't what he was looking for. But what I say is,
come on now, yeah, like that, be your own best friend,
learn from your mistake, found find out because it's two
(28:28):
years in a row where he barely missed the PGA,
and find out what's keeping you from doing better. But
your students, your students down the road, the ones you're
going to teach for the next twenty years, need to
be able to learn that from you, right firsthand. And
so you've got it. If you can't find it in
(28:49):
your hard to do it for yourself, do it for them.
And that would really get to him. And he's he's
the best guy to take over for me, and I
think he'll take it far further than I ever did. Wow,
I'm so proud of him.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, that's that's that's absolutely that's awesome. That's awesome. So
so all right, so we're going to talk a little
bit here a couple more minutes in this segment, and
then we're going to talk a little bit more about it.
But you know, I know you can downplay this as
much as you want, but you are absolutely a tremendous player.
I mean you and you could you could just get
(29:26):
it done, man, I mean, the things, the things that
you've accomplished with your with your golf clubs, would would
make any three people proud. I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Well, that's nice to say that. I mean, and and
you know, I think a big part of that is
we have at in Michigan. There's a fella Randy Irskin. Yeah, Randy.
Randy played the tour right out of Michigan. He was
an All American at the University of Michigan, and I was.
(29:59):
He was from Battle cre Michigan, and I was an
assistant on one of my internships at Battlecreek Country Club.
So I got introduced to Randy when I was done.
And I tell him to this day because he's a
very close friend. I say, Randy, you never big time
to You always included us, you know, the assistant. Hey,
come on over here, let me show you some of
(30:19):
the stuff that you know he's learned, and I always
appreciated that he was so good that way, but his
best attribute was on the golf course. He's the most
positive guy I've ever seen in my life. And it's
not fake. It's so he believes that he doesn't believe
anything bad applies to him. You know he does. But
(30:42):
he can have a bad attributey He says, well, I've
never had a problem with that, and you know, or
somebody has the yep, can't make it. Shortly, he says, oh,
that's not me. I've always been a good putter. You
know that, doesn't you know? He was? He was always
that way, and I you know, I just I would
notice that because I remember a real three time All
(31:04):
American at Michigan State who was the same age, his
name as Lynn Janssen. Lynn says to me one day
we were playing in a Senior Club Pro championship in
Palm Rings and we were playing a practice round with
Randy and he says, hey, you know, Randy wasn't a
great ball striker, but why do you think he was
as good as he was? And Lynn wants to prove
(31:24):
that he doesn't think. I know, I said, that's easy.
Randy is the most positive guy on the course whoever left.
He said, You're exactly right that he was such a
good example of that. And you know, I was the
biggest critic of myself, and I was you know, when
you'd have something going and then something fails, you say,
(31:47):
so I knew it was too good to be try
I knew I would never work. Well, you can't be
like that. What if you came close and but you
failed at the end, wouldn't that can It should convince
you that you're good enough to do it. And if
you could put yourself in that position again and you
could correct that error, you could win. Yeah, that's true,
(32:09):
and was a great example of that. I'm so lucky
that I had people like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
That's that's the best friend mentality right there. All right,
So after this break, I want to ask you a
couple of questions about playing, and then we're gonna talk
about some other stuff. Okay, this is the Rich Como
Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combo Golf Show.
We are joined this week by Dave Ken We're joined
(32:36):
with Dave Kendall. And when we last we left off there,
Dave was talking about we started talking about his playing ability,
and he met he mentioned Randy Erskin. And it's funny
how like he's so positive and he was he never
big timed anybody. And it's funny because I I had
a you know, when I was when I was a
(32:56):
young guy, like twenty one years old, I worked up
in New Hampshire and and there was a guy that
won the Main Open and won twice on the the Hogan.
It was the Hogan Tour that a Nike tour, Hogan
Hogan Tour that and his name was Jeff Julian. Jeff
has subsequently passed away from Luke Garret's disease. But I
always remember, no matter how Jeff did, how well it
(33:18):
was going. You know, he'd win the Main Open, or
he would show up and win and win something or whatever,
or he'd shoots some number and he'd walk in and
be like, how you doing. I'm like, I'm like what, Like,
I'm just I'm just here. He's like, no's how you doing?
I know what I did. I don't worry about me,
I'm worried about you. And like people like that are
(33:39):
just They're unfortunately few and far between. But but all right,
so let me ask you this what what do you
consider your big dave, your biggest win, What would be
your biggest win as a player?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Well, I had a you know, I had won something
chapter championships, but I hadn't won things that you know,
I thought meant something, and so I was frustrated with
a lot of people. You know, they get that way
and I and that's I had a lot to learn,
(34:14):
But I had in nineteen or two thousand and seven,
I was. I turned fifty in two thousand and five
and had a real close call. I almost won the
Michigan Senior Open. But way early in my career, I
set a goal to win a major in Michigan. You
know what I considered a major and so but I
(34:36):
it had been twenty six years and I never had.
But the week before I did for the first time,
I predicted it. And people said how out of character
that was to me, You know that I would say
such a thing. They were close friends. I would never
say that to most anybody, but somebody who was close
to me and you know, pull for me, I said,
(34:56):
And I had missed the cut and the Michigan Open,
and I missed the cut at the NA Club Pro Championship.
But I found my game and I knew it, and
I said, the Senior openers this week, and I think
I'm going to win, and as it turns out, I did. Now,
I never was a guy who, you know, win by
a lot. I went in a playoff, which is usually
how it was. I went by one stroke or I
(35:17):
went in a playoff. So I was never if I
and that's played my best. So it was the Michigan
Senior Open. I went in a playoff. I mean six
weeks later I won again at the Senior PGA at
a place called horse Doing here in Michigan, and there's
a wonderful course, and I beat Randy Erston by one shot.
(35:42):
I shot then under a Senior PGA. I was, you know,
I'm so proud of that, and I so I'd won.
Took me six weeks to win the second one, after
making me six years. Coming down the stretch, I said,
you know, I'm not good enough to win this tournament.
But then I have this certificate that I won about
six weeks ago that.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Says maybe maybe I am.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Just let maybe I just let the chips ball where
they may and see what happens. So and it worked out.
So that was a real thrill, you know, to win.
I'm competing against the same guys who would would beat
me all the time when I was younger, and uh
now you know, and then I ended up. You know,
(36:26):
I had a goal to win a lot. Well. I
two years later I won another Senior Open, and you know,
I had a couple other close calls and then I
want to senior match play. And so I had some
real good years and then I started. I played in
ten coup championships. But you know, towards the end, you
know I had I had a real good one, good
(36:48):
one for me, and then I bog in the last
two holes. I three putted twice in the last two
to miss playing at Inverness by a shot in the PGA.
But you know, I always thought I'd get another chance,
and I didn't. But then I came real close to
going to a senior PGA championship and I missed by
(37:09):
one at PJ Village twice, and then you know, you
might you think maybe it will never happen. That was
another one of those goals. But then a couple of
years later out in Palm Springs, the time I was
playing with Randy and Lenin and I ended up ended
up in a playoff. I lost out in the playoffs,
(37:29):
but but I had made a birdie on the second
playoff hole, but it didn't get me in because another
guy did it, and then he beats me on the
next hole and I got in there. I was first
aled in it to the Senior PGA Championship at Valhalla
in twenty eleven, and I got in and because I
had that, I was first ault in it. I would
(37:50):
have never got the pairing I got because Russ Coccran
pulls out of the tournament right before, so I get
his spot playing with John Cook and Tom Tight.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Oh is that all? That's no big deal. That's no
big deal.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, you know, it's an interesting thing. Happened. I didn't.
We got eight into the rain that year, and so
I stated John Cook because he asked me, how many
of these have you played in? And I said, well,
this would be my first. And you know, he didn't
make me feel bad. He said, oh, this is a
big deal then, you know, playing your first one. Now
(38:31):
he probably played in his first one when he was
like sixteen, right right, you know, I'm fifty six. And
so so anyways, we get a lot of rain. We
had all kinds of delays, but and so and I
played late early, but we had so many delays it's
going to be we're going to get stopped for darkness
in our second round. So I make a putt on
(38:54):
my seventeenth pole in John Cookbooks, he says, Dave, that
guy's ready to blow the horn for darkness. Would you
go over to the last hole and hit, you know,
and then we can all finish because Tom Kite's going
to miss the cut. I'm going to miss the cut.
But Cook's not going to have to play till noon,
so he didn't want to play at six thirty or something, right,
(39:14):
So I went and hit. And so these guys come
across the bridge on the ninety of Valhalla, and he says,
and I said, you know, you guys, if it were
my dream, I think I'd like to hang out and
play with you guys one more day. But I realized
that wasn't your dream, so I hit it.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I love that, you know what it was ins this
thing here, I'm you know, I wasn't going to complain
about whatever I did there. I was going to enjoy
myself because my next older sister the one that's closest
in an age to me. She was having a double
massed ectomy that day and she has the allergic to
all kinds of anesthetics. He had to take acupuncture for anesthetics.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So I wasn't worrying about what's happened to me. And
then I asked those guys when we got all done,
I didn't bother them with that. You know, we're at
through the second day and you know it's been cutt
and all that, and I said, you know, you guys,
my sisters going through real difficult time. Do you think
you could sign sign a parent sheet or something for me.
(40:21):
I'll tell you what. Most of them they couldn't do enough,
Like they have a sisters, they couldn't do enough. And
I really appreciated it. I didn't want to bother them
with it, but you know, at that point they were
glad to do whatever. And that was so nice.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
So since passed away, but she lived a long time.
And she said when she was in the waiting room
she saw me. I said, you know, I'm going to
be in a TV group, but I won't be on TV.
And they say, well, after one of the guys would putt,
you'd be kneeling down that I saw you.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
And I told everybody I saw her from the back
because they were watching John were watching John Cook. But
I saw you there. You were there. I swear to god,
they were so aside from from the playing obviously, you
know the section president Northern Michigan. I mean, how and
I know it started at at Farris State, but how
(41:20):
I know it's hard to categorize. But how proud are
you to be a PGA member?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Well, you know, I think beck when I was a kid,
you know, I wasn't you. It's the golf pro knew
my name. You know. My hero was Dave Hill, Dave
Hills from Jackson.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yes he is, Yes he is. So is his brother Mike.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Mike. Yeah, my Dave was my was my hero and
I won when I won the Michigan Senior Open first time.
There was a golf cable golf show in Jackson on cable.
They have a cable station and so the host, his
name is Andy Hollie. He plays a hole with his
guests and he said, and we're at this quote nice Colocyjackson,
(42:08):
and he said, I'm the only guy he ever beat
Because we're on a two hundred yard part three and
he made a two.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
I said, I'm a guy who can take that. That
was a nice shot, and I don't mind that I'm
the only guy you ever beat. But what he what
I didn't know is I had explained, you know, my
hero was Dave Hill, but actually I've never met him minute.
You know, I've been in the golf business a long time,
but I just never had But he's my hero. And
so he arranges, you know, I'm talking with the film
(42:39):
crew and they're gonna film it. He comes out of
the pro shop with this old guy and the old
guy whose days congratulations on winning the Michigan team. You're open.
I look over, I said, that's Dave Hill.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
And we talked about golf. They filmed is talking about
golf for forty minutes. And you know, I said to him, David,
I think I got the quote correctly. But you finished
second in the US Open in nineteen seventy at Hazel
and you said, and Tony Jacqueline won. And he said,
(43:11):
you said, all this place needs is about eighty acres
of corn and some cows, and it makes a great
fun He said, that's exactly what I sat, I said.
He said, I didn't call it a cow pasture.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Right, I said, it would make a great form, right, right,
it would.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah. Is it is it true that the people at
Hazel team fleop you up the Hazel team to make suggestions?
Is the course changes when they were doing a renovation?
Of course? He said that's true. And I did. And
so anyways, and he couldn't believe how much I knew
about him, And he thought, I was, you know, kidding
(43:49):
them when I was saying he was my hero. But
everybody doesn't get to meet their heroes, right, And we
and we were going to play, you know, he said,
we'll play golf. Well, I was in our local town.
They have a golf hall team and you know the
longtime players, and you know they might get recognized. Well,
(44:11):
I was going through that and a guy, a guy
that Dave was close to, who sponsored him for fifty
years to own a big company in Jackson called al Rosfield,
big donor to the University of Michigan. He comes over
to me and I see him come in, and I said, well,
that sounds like I know him. He doesn't know me.
(44:32):
He walks right over to me and he says Dave,
I just talked to Dave Hill this morning, and he
wants me to congratulate you on what a great honor. Now,
I had said in that thing to the interview when
we were talking with Andy Hawley, I said, I think
I should clarify some things here. I'm here because I
(44:54):
won the Michigan Senior Open and we're talking to a
guy who wouldn't even put that on his resume. You
know what he said? He was so generous, He said, Dave,
I won the Michigan Open in nineteen fifty nine and
I'm still damn proud of it. You should be proud
there you go. Oh, he gave me the ability to
be proud. Yeah, that was so generous. I know who
(45:17):
he was, you know, I know he played in three
or four Ryder Cups, he won fourteen times on tour,
and you know he wasn't just some guy who played
in a few tour events, right.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
He was serious business like I was serious business, you bet,
and he.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Was somebody look up to me. And I told him,
I said, Dave, you you crushed a lot of hopes
of a lot of young players. And he didn't take
that right right away, but he said, well, Why do
you say that, I said, because every time you came
to town, you would shoot sixty sixty one, sixty two,
sixty three and a few of us who could shoot
(45:53):
three under par I thought we were good. If you
can't play like that, I had no chance to on tour.
Oh and he was confused by that. He didn't he
didn't take that.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, that's that's amazing. So all right, so obviously you
know you're incredibly accomplished. You're in you should be in
about every not my kids went to Ohio State, so
I'm not a uge Michigan, I gotta tell you. But
but but you know, and I just have to you know,
(46:28):
I don't know obviously, no, not everybody knows this. But
you've been going through some health stuff and and how
you doing with that?
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Well, that's I see to ask. You know, when I
first I was first diagnosed, I thought I had lymphoma,
and I read up about it and I'd say, you know,
that's not so good, but you know, people do can
do pretty well. Well. Within two weeks I found out
I had because you have to find out that with
(46:58):
my lympho origin of it or did it spread from
somewhere else there. Well, then they do tests and within
two weeks I find out I have stage four a
stopage deal cancer and uh, you know it spread to
my lungs, into my lymph nodes, into my adrenal gland. Well,
(47:19):
you know that was disappointing. And I started to hear
about that, and you know the I read everything about it,
and the prognosis wasn't good. It could be worse though,
because two weeks later I found out that I had
a brain tumor.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
It had spread to my brain, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
That was a tough recovery and I lost my voice.
We couldn't done this interview a year ago because I
didn't have a voice. People couldn't understand me. I got.
You know, I've always been what I call kind of
a dumpy build, but I got down in one hundred
and twenties. I couldn't eat, I couldn't swallow. I just
(47:58):
thought I'd keep getting work until I died. And I
wasn't getting a lot of hope from what I was
reading about. But my sister. I have a younger sister,
and the fifth has said she's keeping by novarian cancer
for six years, and you know they aren't going to
hear her, but she every time something happens, they just
(48:19):
push it back and she feels good about that. And
she said, Dave, that your brain tumors set back chemo.
They couldn't start chemo, so your problems you're having her
because the tumors are still growing. If you could just
hang in there till you can get chemo. Well, she
was so right. I started getting chemo and I started
(48:40):
feeling a lot better. I felt like I could eat,
I could swallow. And somebody told me I was having
a procedure just a week ago, and the PA who
was assisting the doctor, I have a tumor in my
adrenal gland, which isn't so scary, but it's growing and
they say if it's growing, it could spread, so they
need to do radiation. So the pie though, he says, Dave,
(49:06):
I have an uncle who had your same diagnosis about
the same time you did. He lived three months. Will
it's a real small number of patients who respond to
the chemo. The way you have awesome makes me feel
so lucky. And I'm seventy years old, so I have
(49:28):
nothing to complain about. I mean, everybody has challenges in
their life. Everybody gets bad bouncers. Everybody gets bad lies
and they just have to kind of fight to them.
And I'm no exception. But I looked at these seventies.
I have a niece who is thirty, and she lost
her husband when he was thirty to a something he
(49:51):
got exposed to in the military, and he passed away.
And I think he got a bad deal. I didn't
get a bad deal. I got a great deal. Nice
things happened in my life. How could I complain? I
think that would be It just wouldn't be right, because
everybody has challenges. Nobody has things go their way all
(50:12):
the time. And I didn't either. I had to kind
of fight through everything. You know, I failed before I won,
and you know I'm winning, so I you know, I
don't know how long, what the future holds, but I
started doing a daily regimen. You know, I try my
best every day just in case it works. You know,
how about in golf, people you know, things turn and
(50:34):
they you know, they kind of quit emotionally. Well, this
might be the day where you birdy the last four
holes and here you would have quit and missed it, right,
I can't afford to miss it. This might be the
day so maybe you know I get up when I
get up in the morning and start and I walk
four miles. It isn't that that's very it's so extraordinary.
(50:55):
But I wouldn't miss because what if it could help
me live one month longer? Right? Is?
Speaker 1 (51:02):
What is exactly exactly?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
I know it is? I do that, I know it is.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
I got to tell you, you know what. I knew
this would be awesome talking to you, but I didn't
know it would be this awesome. And I'm going to
tell you something right now. I'm younger than you. I'm
about twenty about seventeen years younger than you, and I'm
going to tell you right now. You know what when
I was a kid golf for PG professionals, we're heroes.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Of mine and yeah me too.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
You were a hero to a ton of people. So
don't think for a minute that we don't know that.
And I need you to know that. And I need
to keep doing your regime because one of these days,
if you ever decide not to do it, I'll come
up there and I'll walk you.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
No, I so great. I'm going to do it as
long as as long as I'm capable and I can
get up and I can do it. I'll do it.
And I can come up with a lot of very
reasons not to practice my golf, but I can't come
up with any reasons not.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
To not to go for a walk.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Just in case it helps. Because I got two little granddaughters,
and one of them is going to be four and
a week. And when we made up, my wife and
I is anniversary was November twenty fourth, and last year,
at this time, we made a goal to live that long.
You know, if I could, we could make it to
November twenty fourth, that would be a great victory, and
we'll celebrate. Well. My granddaughter's birthday is a week from yesterday,
(52:32):
and she'll be four and she'll be old enough to
remember me. And when we make it there, we're going
to celebrate again, not take it for granted. And then
my other granddaughter, she'll be two next December twenty first,
and we'll celebrate again. If we can make it, don't
make it. My goal in life is to make it
long enough that she remembers me.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
I love that. I love that, Dave. I can't tell
you how much I appreciate it. You know, an hour
one by very quickly, I knew it would You are
every PGA professionals model and I'm just honored to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Rich Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed
the opportunity. Thanks for what you do on the radio,
for all the golf closing for golf it really we
all have benefit. Commath th thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
This is the Rich Combwell Golf Show.
Welcome to the rich Combell Golf Show. This week, we
are very very very fortunate to be joined by a
gentleman by the name of Dave Kendall. Dave is a
PGA professional, and Dave has a list of awards and
accomplishments that it would take two or three days to
talk about. But but there's any there's some in crazy.
(00:24):
He's got an incredible golf story, and I wanted to.
I want to first off say thanks for coming on, Dave,
and I appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, thanks so much for having me right, so I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
No problem at all. So so all right, so, like
I do with everybody, go ahead and tell me how
you got your start in golf.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well I was. I was. It's a six kids. I
have four sisters and a brother, and I was the
only one of the six that would take my parents
up on an offer to go play golf with them.
So my mother and father were avid golfers, but my
siblings weren't. And they got me a junior Walter Hagen
(01:07):
three iron and they had me hit every shot with
a pud Chips drive fairway shot. I think they could
have given me an easier club, but I don't think
they knew any better. There you go. I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's awesome. So then obviously as you you know, as
you got older, you started playing some junior events and
things like that. So I'm assuming you played through high
school correct.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, you know what, my family, our family moved from Cadillac,
Michigan to Jackson, Michigan, and and then I don't know,
we weren't member of a club anymore. I played all
kinds of sports. I didn't play much just when my
mother and father asked me. I wasn't a part of
a junior program. I was a public course kid, and uh,
(01:57):
but basically just played with my dad. Didn't think and
my mother and didn't think it would really amount to anything.
I knew. I liked it, but I wasn't extremely good
at it, although I was pretty good at other sports.
Although I was the smallest kid, but I had kind
of a small man's complex and I had to you know,
I thought I would try harder than anybody, and I
(02:19):
was you know, I was pretty coordinated, so I could
usually do things easily. But then I was playing hockey
and I had dislocating kneecaps and so I was hurt
all the time. I would it hit from the side
of my kneecaps to dislocate. And then, you know, I
had a high school golf coach when I went to
(02:40):
high school. Somehow he found out I played golf and
he encouraged me. I never thought that I would ever
be able to be good enough to play on the
high school team. But he was such a wonderful man.
I you know, I could talk about him forever. But
he meant a lot to so many of us. And
(03:00):
he had a team full of public course kids, so
you know, the court school across town had all the
country club kids because they were usually more gifted. But
then he was such a good coach and it wasn't
the excedent and oways of a golf swing. He made
us practice our short game all the time. He just
stood there and made us do that. And so we
(03:21):
were all all kind of overachievers. You know, we we
didn't look real good doing it, but we could usually
score okay and so, and he gave us a lot
of encouragement and explain things to us. And you know, I,
you know, one of the most memorable things that I
remember in my life was a I didn't play varsity golf,
(03:41):
so I was a senior, and but I did play
in college, so I he you know, I I had
a good of temper. I was on the eighteenth toll
of our home course and I missed the short putt
and I threw the ball into the woods as far
as I could. And he met me as I left
(04:04):
the green, and I could tell he wasn't happy with me,
but he wasn't a yeller. So he put his arm
around me, and he explained to me, Dave, you embarrassed
our team, and not only that, you embarrassed our school,
you embarrassed your family. I really didn't think I did
(04:26):
all that.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It was one throw.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I might have embarrassed myself, but he was right, and
he explained it to me. And I've always appreciated it
because he did explain it to me. And you know,
before that day, I never thought of it that way.
But ever since that day, I never didn't think of
it that way. That I that I actually, you know,
(04:50):
represented those who care about me, not just myself, and
so I you know, I didn't want him. I understood
then that the things I do could make those that
care about me proud or they could make them have
to apologize for me, and I didn't want them to
have to apologize for me. I want them to be
proud of me and hopefully someday be able to brag
(05:12):
about me. So, you know what, it really affected my
life from that time time, just because he explained it to.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Me right exactly exactly like that, I told my kids.
And it's the same kind of thing you because when
you have a really good coaches, it's almost like you're
his kid. And he said, I tell my kids all
the time. The only thing, the worst I could say
to use, you're better than that. I'm not going to yell.
I'm not going to scream you're better than that. Yeah,
And that's that's basically what it was. So Okay, so
(05:40):
you played one year of varsity varsity golf, so then
you decide to go to Farris State University.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Correct. Well, in between, uh, I had gotten a call
from the I had a pretty good senior year and
I got a call from the at Jackson Community the
coach there, and he asked me to come and play
at Jackson Community College and he paid for my tuition.
And I thought, Wow, I wasn't a guy who was recruited,
(06:10):
and so I thought that was great. So I wanted
to do that because the PGM program hadn't started yet,
So that was at the end of nineteen seventy three.
The program at Paris started in the fall of seventy five.
So I played at Jackson Committee College and then I
heard about the program from a classmate of mine. He
(06:33):
was he lived in my neighborhood and he told me
about it, and I again thought, I don't think there's
any way I could ever be good enough to be,
you know, a golf professional because in our area, all
of the assistant, the golf pros and the assistance were
all I was standing players. I found out later that,
(06:53):
you know, every it wasn't that way everywhere, so I
really but it made me want to work at it.
It made me want to try and get better and
better because you know, when I got in to be
a club professional, I didn't want my members to have
to apologize for me. I wanted to bail brag about me.
So I worked real hard at it, and I became,
(07:15):
you know, pretty competitive player by the time I got
out of college. And and uh, and then of course,
soon after I got out of school because I was
in the PGM program, I turned professional, and you know,
but I really it was important to me to play
in the tournaments and that although I worked open to
close six days a week, when on Mondays, you know,
(07:36):
they have programs and I could play. So that was
that was all I did. I was just worked in
golf and played in practice.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That was So that was I gotta ask you, what
was it What was it like in the infantile days
of the Professional Golf Management Program at Pharaoh State.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know, that's a that's a real good question because see,
we didn't have by the way, we had a fall
at that time. They started fifty kids in the fall,
and then they started another group in the spring, and
so the fall players would go to school, we had quarters.
They would go fall in winter quarter, and then they
went out in internships spring in summer quarter. So when
(08:19):
we came in in February for spring and summer on campus,
all of the other fifty guys who were in the program,
they were on internships, so we never knew them. So
we had nobody on campus and we had nobody to
kind of show us the way, or we didn't have
you know, exam seniors and junior. There was just us
(08:41):
and that was the interesting part. And we had a
director of our program was a guy named Norm Bennett,
who was the track coach at Farris State for twenty
three years and then in the summers he ran a
local country club. It was a nine holler and he
made himself a golf professional and uh, he became a
(09:04):
golf professional at Paris's golf course called Katy Golf Course.
And he was the director of the program. And he
you know, he was a he was a World War
Two veteran in the Marine Corps in the Pacific. Yeah,
he was a really tough guy.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah. Get getting the class on time wasn't really an
option there because that guy, that guy had already done it. Yeah,
oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And he rubbed some the students the wrong way, you know,
he said, only twenty five percent of you are going
to complete this program, you know, and we and they
took it like you know, he was going to try
to get rid of him, but he said no, it
just happened naturally. Some will thinks they don't care about
the business. Others will fail academically, Others will not be
(09:49):
able to pass the pah and that kind of at
that time that turns some guys away. And uh, he
was really you know he was he was right and
loved him and he was a great example. He wasn't
a great player himself, but he was a great teacher
because he could inspire people and he did simple things
and he made him believe that they could do it.
(10:11):
And it really made an impression on me. You know,
I really loved know him and he he he hired
me to go to work in the shop and I
met my wife working in the shop. Her names Karen,
and she's she was so local from Big Rapids and
ended up getting married four days out of school.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And that was, well, what took you so long?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, that was you know, she been through every adventure
I've ever had with me, and you know, he's amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Well, I got to tell you that that I know
that I know obviously I'm younger than you, but I
know a lot of guys who went through the Far
State program and I know a couple of who know you,
And I got to tell you you guys that first class,
those first two or three classes. He you know, like
you said, the quarter system whatever, So so you know
(11:10):
those first let's say two hundred or one hundred and
fifty or whatever it was. It was. You guys created
what now is basically what eight, nine, ten, eleven programs
in this country. And you guys were the model. And
Norm Bennett did too, and there's no argument there because
he kind of set the tone. But you guys created
(11:31):
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, that's something to say. We've had some conversations. I've
had some conversations with the guys in the first ball
class who liked to kid me about you know that
I wasn't in the first class. Well, Norm told us
we were all in the first year of the program,
you know, both of the ball class and the spring class,
and so you know, I always thought that, well, these
(11:55):
guys were their friends and close friends of mine. But
it was the third year, when you went year round
that you met the other guys, you know, the guys
because in the third year of the program you go
year round, and so I met some of those guys.
Now they still kid me today. But see, I graduated
kind of ahead of most a lot of them because
(12:15):
I was twenty one when I started the program, right,
you know, and it was only because you know, it
now existed, and I decided that's what I wanted to do.
And I thought that Norm said twenty five percent of
us to complete the program. I said, well, by golly,
I'm going to be one of those twenty five percent, So,
(12:35):
you know, whatever I got to do to do that.
And I made promises if I could get accepted to
that program, I would never miss a class. I always
had eight o'clock classes and I was usually done by noon,
so I was either practicing or working in the shop
or in class. So that's call I did. And because yeah,
(12:59):
I thought that I was going to ask to work
harder than the rest to be able to do it,
because you know, I wasn't. I wasn't a kid who
grew up in his juniors all program, who you know,
was number one man on the team in ninth grade
and you know that kind of stuff. That wasn't me.
I was. I played all kinds other sports and I
(13:22):
loved it, and whatever season it was, that's what I
wanted to do for a career. Wy in that change
every season and then so I had a lot against me.
You know, I was the smallest kid in the field
in every sport.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
So anyway out work, what what what? What? The Hogan. Say,
Hogan said that you can't if you can't be to
got out work them. So I have to assume that
you you were able to you were able to say
thank you to mister Bennett, I would assume. So it's
probably Doctor Bennett was.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Closed to him until he passed away in late his
life he had dementia, but once he retired from Paris,
he stayed in golf, and in fact, there was a
season that he came and worked for me up in Cadillac.
I was Cadillac's about all thirty five or forty minutes
from Big Rapids, and that's where my parents were both
(14:21):
from there. But we moved when I was nine to Jackson.
But it's interesting I went back to Cadillac when I
right right out of school. So you know, Norm was
always around northern Michigan, and he was we just remained
close friends. His birthday was the same day as my wife,
so many times we celebrate his birthday with my wife,
(14:43):
and so he.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Was close to So yeah, that's that's neat because you know,
the reason I asked that is because I'm and you
wouldn't know this, but my son just graduated from Ohio State,
a couple of days ago, and my daughter graduated from
Ohio State University of Pittsburgh grad school five years ago,
and and it's it's amazing to me. It's amazing to me.
I tell them all the time, always thank the people
that help you. It's it's it goes so far, it
(15:09):
goes so far in helping people. I mean, it makes
it makes them feel so good. You know, if somebody
walks up to me and says, hey, I really got
to tell you that was really awesome, Like I really, like,
I appreciate you whatever. I I've done nothing really, but
you know, people say, hey, you know that was really cool,
thanks for doing that. Like I went and taught spine
(15:29):
it befit the kids one time and they're like, wow,
I can't believe you would do that. Thank you so much.
And the kids wrote like thank you, and it's like like, wow,
that's pretty awesome. Like you know, so I try to
teach them that. And that's why I asked you the
question about about him is because I know, I know,
you know, it's it's so important. I know he was
so happy to know that. You know, a lot of
(15:49):
people thought the world to him. They really did. Yeah, yeah,
so so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take
a break now, and when we come back from the
we're going to talk about your your I want to
talk to you a little bit about college golf and
then I'm going to talk about your professional career. Okay,
(16:10):
this is the Rich Combell Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich Kombwell Golf Show. Uh we are joined today
by Dave Kendall. Dave is everything about PGA of America
Professional Golf Management programs, great accomplishments. And when we left
off last he was he was actually just kind of
(16:31):
migrating away from Farris State. As as what the first
the first class of of the program. So before we
get to that, Dave, you played college golf at Ferris
as well?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Correct, I played one season. You know, it was awkward
playing college golf because of the internships and nowadays golf
is spring and fall. Then it was spring and uh
so for those first two years, the first year I
was there, you know, we didn't even know about cryouts
and that when we were first coming in. And then
(17:05):
the next year I went out for the team and
I was able to make the team, but I wasn't
a real difference maker. You know, I didn't play all
the time, and but but you know, that was an
accomplishment for me. So it was a step in the
right direction. And then you know, the momentum was happening
and we've had our own big tournaments. We had, you know,
(17:26):
the best competition I ever had was tournaments that are
alumni or not Alumni Association student association put together. You know,
we'd have four round championships, and that that really taught
me a lot. And I got so that I would
could be competitive. I wasn't a guy who ever won,
(17:47):
but I could get in the top five, and that
was a real accomplishment for me, and so it gave
me a lot of confidence that I could get better.
And you know, today, maybe the things I learned then
is that you know, don't discount accomplishment. If it's better
than you were before, it matters, and you should reward
(18:11):
yourself and celebrate that instead of saying, yeah, but I
didn't win, Well, isn't it better than you ever did?
Why why wouldn't you you know, say, that's a step
in the right direction, and maybe I could build that.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, every every so often we have to be our
own best friend, and you know it's pretty it's pretty amazing.
When it's pretty amazing, like I think you are right.
It's like I, you know, I talked to Steve Whacroft
two weeks ago and he's a former PJ Tour player.
He's like, you know, I never really thought I was
good enough to win on the PGA Tour, which is
probably why I didn't. He goes, but you know, when
(18:45):
I played seven hundred professional Tour events, He's like that,
that's seven hundred more than I really ever thought, right,
I would get so it to that point, it's like
it's like, okay, yeah, you know what, that's pretty cool.
You know, that's pretty cool. You you finished off five,
that's pretty cool. That's awesome. And then next time maybe
you finished top three. But yeah, if you don't patch
(19:08):
yourself on the back, nobody else is going to anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So your own best friend was a great way to
put it.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
That's right. You got to be your own best friend
and and your biggest critics, that's right. That's right, And
sometimes you have to be sometimes you have to be
your biggest credit. But I'll tell you, most of the time,
it does you well to do you be your own
best friend. So all right, so we leave Fairris State.
So then where do you go professionally? You go back
to Cadillac.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, I left campus in the fall of seventy nine.
I had because I had gone to community college, I
had some transfer credits. So I got out about the
time the first class guys were and then I so
I went on my last internship, and about a week
after that ended, I started at Cadillac Country Club. I
(19:56):
was an assistant because the golf professional there became the
general manager and he needed somebody to kind of run
the golf shop, and he thought I had enough experience,
and he left at the end of that year and
they offered me the job as a head professional at Cadillac.
So on April first, nineteen eighty one, I became a
(20:17):
head professional and a PGA member on the same day.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That's the way for fools. Joke, brother, that's some serious
stuff right there.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Junior A they called him junior A back then.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, wow, So you were you were the first PGM graduate.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Well from the first PGA the first my first graduate,
the first PGA member professional. See, some guys graduated, but
they weren't PGA membership. In April first eighty one, Phil
Benson also became a PGA member head professional. And what's
interesting is in November twenty fourth that fall, we all
(20:57):
left campus, still did I and we got married the
same day, still married in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. I got
married in big rapids, and most people went to my
wedding and his reception because I was I married a
person whose family didn't believe in alcohol, so they couldn't
(21:17):
get a drink at mine, but they could have filled.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, that's what I hear. I hear. Yeah, that's a
that's a story. That's that's those stories of Phil's ability
to to find alcohol and consume alcohol still live forever
and ever and ever, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, he was alleged.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's that's hilarious. So how long did you stay there?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I was there seventeen years and when we you know,
I I really thought that the next job I would
have would be one I created for myself. And I
thought I taught a lot more than I had time
to teach at Cadillac, you know, because I had a
(22:03):
lot of other responsibilities. But I had an opportunity happened
at a place called Miles of golf where they wanted
to a golf academy. You know, they became a well
regarded It was a large range, large retail store. Well
they wanted to teaching business that you know, it was
kind of in keeping with what they were doing in retail,
(22:26):
and so they I was given an opportunity to start,
and it was amazing because people would say to me, Dave,
you're going to go to a driving range and work
for Lenson. See that's what a guy does when he
doesn't have a job, right So but see I didn't really.
I thought in the right place, that could be a
real good business. And although I had no guaranteed income,
(22:50):
I thought it was a really great opportunity. I think
it was maybe my you know, I didn't. I didn't
know enough. But I thought, you know, I'm going to
make the best of this opportunity. And it has and
it has to work. I mean it, there's no plan B.
I'm going to make a go of it, and it's
going to be a real good business. And uh, you know,
(23:13):
I look back and I say, boy, were you crazy?
But uh, you know, I was by myself, and I
remember the first month, you know, it was in the winter,
winter in Michigan, you know, isn't too good. But you know,
they they had a covered shelter, but it was you know,
it wasn't really heated very well. And so I remember
(23:35):
giving four lessons my first month, but you know, it's February,
so I thought, you know, that's okay. But you know,
by the time it came to Memorial Day, you know,
I thought, I think this is going to be a
good thing. And when I got so that my book
was too full, I would hire somebody that I would
(23:57):
send a family member to, you know. So I didn't.
I wasn't to where I made everybody teach my method.
I just thought they have to in their own way
make people better, and they have to care. They have
to care about the results. And that was where the
prerequisites because I think that we could all learn from
(24:20):
each other. So I believed in team teaching. They'd say,
I get asked the question, well, what if one person
says one thing to their student and the other one
says another. I said, you know, I think that's the
difficult things that we have to sort out every day
of our life. And I think the one that you
should believe is the one that works.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I and that doesn't be If somebody has a better
idea than I do, I think I'd like to learn
from them. So I never felt like, you know that
you had to be loyal to a certain teacher. I
think you need to be loyal to what works. And
we never were ones who argued. We never were ones
that fought over students to try to steal one from another.
(25:07):
We were more like a medical group where we kind
of learned from each other and we post for each other,
and we're all close and we're friends, and we want
to develop program that teach us all busy and uh,
that idea. I think it's kind of.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I never didn't have a model, right.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
It's it's interesting because you say, you know, because what
you said right there is like, no matter what you picked,
the one that works I got. I was lucky enough
to talk to Johnny Miller one time and he was
talking to me about when he tried to hit a
cod he would just open his face, or if he's
trying to hit a hook, he closed his face. And
I'm like, I'm standing there going, Okay, we know the
physics of this is not that's not true. You close
(25:48):
your face, that balls going left if you're a ready
hit a player. But to him, to him, it works,
So guess what if that works, more power to you, man,
more power to you. Like Johnny Miller does not need
to know the physics of a golf swing because that
guy just won the US Open. So don't worry about that, right,
you know, don't worry about it. If that works for him.
Way to go and hitting in the iron closed, oh
(26:11):
my god, Oh my god. He and Lenny Watkins, those
two Lenny Watkins could break a flag stick from anywhere.
I don't care where it was. He could break it
from anywhere, you know. And that and the other thing
is what's really interesting is that is that, like you,
like I the time I talked to Johnny Miller, you
don't realize how big he is. He's standing there talking
(26:33):
to you, and you're like, oh my god, this guy's
like gigantic, and like and Ernie Yell's the same way.
Andy Bean was the same way. And it's just like
they're they're they're big people making things happen. It's incredible.
It's incredible. So how long? So let me ask you,
how long did you stay at that job? Did you?
Did you retire from there.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I'm Mike Dy. Yeah, I was there, started and was founded,
and nineteen ninety seven I turned it over to actually
a fellow named Patrick Wilkes's career, who's, you know, one
of the outstanding players in Michigan. But he was an
eighth grader when I started the academy and he came
(27:14):
to take lessons. He was kind of small for his
age and he wanted to become a high school player.
Well now too, he can hit a three fifty and
he grew real big and tall, and he looks he's
what if you watch him, he's if somebody wants to
know what a tour player looks like, he looks just
like it. Yeah, and he hits it like that and
(27:35):
he's he he was down in the winter program. He
and his partner won a junior senior. This year he
had PG Village and he just missed the playoff for
the AJA Championship by one. And that was if he
plays well, he could win such a thing. So I'm
encouraging him to not be down harder because he missed
(27:59):
by a because he's going to have.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
A year where they went Yeah, so that's when you
got to go that's when you gotta go. You got
to be your own best friend. Man, You got to
be your own best friend.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Right, he really does, you know? And what do you
say to a guy like that, because I know he
wasn't there to make the cut, So I'm not going
to tell him how great he played, right, because that
isn't what he was looking for. But what I say is,
come on now, yeah, like that, be your own best friend,
learn from your mistake, found find out because it's two
(28:28):
years in a row where he barely missed the PGA,
and find out what's keeping you from doing better. But
your students, your students down the road, the ones you're
going to teach for the next twenty years, need to
be able to learn that from you, right firsthand. And
so you've got it. If you can't find it in
(28:49):
your hard to do it for yourself, do it for them.
And that would really get to him. And he's he's
the best guy to take over for me, and I
think he'll take it far further than I ever did. Wow,
I'm so proud of him.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, that's that's that's absolutely that's awesome. That's awesome. So
so all right, so we're going to talk a little
bit here a couple more minutes in this segment, and
then we're going to talk a little bit more about it.
But you know, I know you can downplay this as
much as you want, but you are absolutely a tremendous player.
I mean you and you could you could just get
(29:26):
it done, man, I mean, the things, the things that
you've accomplished with your with your golf clubs, would would
make any three people proud. I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Well, that's nice to say that. I mean, and and
you know, I think a big part of that is
we have at in Michigan. There's a fella Randy Irskin. Yeah, Randy.
Randy played the tour right out of Michigan. He was
an All American at the University of Michigan, and I was.
(29:59):
He was from Battle cre Michigan, and I was an
assistant on one of my internships at Battlecreek Country Club.
So I got introduced to Randy when I was done.
And I tell him to this day because he's a
very close friend. I say, Randy, you never big time
to You always included us, you know, the assistant. Hey,
come on over here, let me show you some of
(30:19):
the stuff that you know he's learned, and I always
appreciated that he was so good that way, but his
best attribute was on the golf course. He's the most
positive guy I've ever seen in my life. And it's
not fake. It's so he believes that he doesn't believe
anything bad applies to him. You know he does. But
(30:42):
he can have a bad attributey He says, well, I've
never had a problem with that, and you know, or
somebody has the yep, can't make it. Shortly, he says, oh,
that's not me. I've always been a good putter. You
know that, doesn't you know? He was? He was always
that way, and I you know, I just I would
notice that because I remember a real three time All
(31:04):
American at Michigan State who was the same age, his
name as Lynn Janssen. Lynn says to me one day
we were playing in a Senior Club Pro championship in
Palm Rings and we were playing a practice round with
Randy and he says, hey, you know, Randy wasn't a
great ball striker, but why do you think he was
as good as he was? And Lynn wants to prove
(31:24):
that he doesn't think. I know, I said, that's easy.
Randy is the most positive guy on the course whoever left.
He said, You're exactly right that he was such a
good example of that. And you know, I was the
biggest critic of myself, and I was you know, when
you'd have something going and then something fails, you say,
(31:47):
so I knew it was too good to be try
I knew I would never work. Well, you can't be
like that. What if you came close and but you
failed at the end, wouldn't that can It should convince
you that you're good enough to do it. And if
you could put yourself in that position again and you
could correct that error, you could win. Yeah, that's true,
(32:09):
and was a great example of that. I'm so lucky
that I had people like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
That's that's the best friend mentality right there. All right,
So after this break, I want to ask you a
couple of questions about playing, and then we're gonna talk
about some other stuff. Okay, this is the Rich Como
Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combo Golf Show.
We are joined this week by Dave Ken We're joined
(32:36):
with Dave Kendall. And when we last we left off there,
Dave was talking about we started talking about his playing ability,
and he met he mentioned Randy Erskin. And it's funny
how like he's so positive and he was he never
big timed anybody. And it's funny because I I had
a you know, when I was when I was a
(32:56):
young guy, like twenty one years old, I worked up
in New Hampshire and and there was a guy that
won the Main Open and won twice on the the Hogan.
It was the Hogan Tour that a Nike tour, Hogan
Hogan Tour that and his name was Jeff Julian. Jeff
has subsequently passed away from Luke Garret's disease. But I
always remember, no matter how Jeff did, how well it
(33:18):
was going. You know, he'd win the Main Open, or
he would show up and win and win something or whatever,
or he'd shoots some number and he'd walk in and
be like, how you doing. I'm like, I'm like what, Like,
I'm just I'm just here. He's like, no's how you doing?
I know what I did. I don't worry about me,
I'm worried about you. And like people like that are
(33:39):
just They're unfortunately few and far between. But but all right,
so let me ask you this what what do you
consider your big dave, your biggest win, What would be
your biggest win as a player?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Well, I had a you know, I had won something
chapter championships, but I hadn't won things that you know,
I thought meant something, and so I was frustrated with
a lot of people. You know, they get that way
and I and that's I had a lot to learn,
(34:14):
But I had in nineteen or two thousand and seven,
I was. I turned fifty in two thousand and five
and had a real close call. I almost won the
Michigan Senior Open. But way early in my career, I
set a goal to win a major in Michigan. You
know what I considered a major and so but I
(34:36):
it had been twenty six years and I never had.
But the week before I did for the first time,
I predicted it. And people said how out of character
that was to me, You know that I would say
such a thing. They were close friends. I would never
say that to most anybody, but somebody who was close
to me and you know, pull for me, I said,
(34:56):
And I had missed the cut and the Michigan Open,
and I missed the cut at the NA Club Pro Championship.
But I found my game and I knew it, and
I said, the Senior openers this week, and I think
I'm going to win, and as it turns out, I did. Now,
I never was a guy who, you know, win by
a lot. I went in a playoff, which is usually
how it was. I went by one stroke or I
(35:17):
went in a playoff. So I was never if I
and that's played my best. So it was the Michigan
Senior Open. I went in a playoff. I mean six
weeks later I won again at the Senior PGA at
a place called horse Doing here in Michigan, and there's
a wonderful course, and I beat Randy Erston by one shot.
(35:42):
I shot then under a Senior PGA. I was, you know,
I'm so proud of that, and I so I'd won.
Took me six weeks to win the second one, after
making me six years. Coming down the stretch, I said,
you know, I'm not good enough to win this tournament.
But then I have this certificate that I won about
six weeks ago that.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Says maybe maybe I am.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Just let maybe I just let the chips ball where
they may and see what happens. So and it worked out.
So that was a real thrill, you know, to win.
I'm competing against the same guys who would would beat
me all the time when I was younger, and uh
now you know, and then I ended up. You know,
(36:26):
I had a goal to win a lot. Well. I
two years later I won another Senior Open, and you know,
I had a couple other close calls and then I
want to senior match play. And so I had some
real good years and then I started. I played in
ten coup championships. But you know, towards the end, you
know I had I had a real good one, good
(36:48):
one for me, and then I bog in the last
two holes. I three putted twice in the last two
to miss playing at Inverness by a shot in the PGA.
But you know, I always thought I'd get another chance,
and I didn't. But then I came real close to
going to a senior PGA championship and I missed by
(37:09):
one at PJ Village twice, and then you know, you
might you think maybe it will never happen. That was
another one of those goals. But then a couple of
years later out in Palm Springs, the time I was
playing with Randy and Lenin and I ended up ended
up in a playoff. I lost out in the playoffs,
(37:29):
but but I had made a birdie on the second
playoff hole, but it didn't get me in because another
guy did it, and then he beats me on the
next hole and I got in there. I was first
aled in it to the Senior PGA Championship at Valhalla
in twenty eleven, and I got in and because I
had that, I was first ault in it. I would
(37:50):
have never got the pairing I got because Russ Coccran
pulls out of the tournament right before, so I get
his spot playing with John Cook and Tom Tight.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Oh is that all? That's no big deal. That's no
big deal.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, you know, it's an interesting thing. Happened. I didn't.
We got eight into the rain that year, and so
I stated John Cook because he asked me, how many
of these have you played in? And I said, well,
this would be my first. And you know, he didn't
make me feel bad. He said, oh, this is a
big deal then, you know, playing your first one. Now
(38:31):
he probably played in his first one when he was
like sixteen, right right, you know, I'm fifty six. And
so so anyways, we get a lot of rain. We
had all kinds of delays, but and so and I
played late early, but we had so many delays it's
going to be we're going to get stopped for darkness
in our second round. So I make a putt on
(38:54):
my seventeenth pole in John Cookbooks, he says, Dave, that
guy's ready to blow the horn for darkness. Would you
go over to the last hole and hit, you know,
and then we can all finish because Tom Kite's going
to miss the cut. I'm going to miss the cut.
But Cook's not going to have to play till noon,
so he didn't want to play at six thirty or something, right,
(39:14):
So I went and hit. And so these guys come
across the bridge on the ninety of Valhalla, and he says,
and I said, you know, you guys, if it were
my dream, I think I'd like to hang out and
play with you guys one more day. But I realized
that wasn't your dream, so I hit it.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I love that, you know what it was ins this
thing here, I'm you know, I wasn't going to complain
about whatever I did there. I was going to enjoy
myself because my next older sister the one that's closest
in an age to me. She was having a double
massed ectomy that day and she has the allergic to
all kinds of anesthetics. He had to take acupuncture for anesthetics.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So I wasn't worrying about what's happened to me. And
then I asked those guys when we got all done,
I didn't bother them with that. You know, we're at
through the second day and you know it's been cutt
and all that, and I said, you know, you guys,
my sisters going through real difficult time. Do you think
you could sign sign a parent sheet or something for me.
(40:21):
I'll tell you what. Most of them they couldn't do enough,
Like they have a sisters, they couldn't do enough. And
I really appreciated it. I didn't want to bother them
with it, but you know, at that point they were
glad to do whatever. And that was so nice.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
So since passed away, but she lived a long time.
And she said when she was in the waiting room
she saw me. I said, you know, I'm going to
be in a TV group, but I won't be on TV.
And they say, well, after one of the guys would putt,
you'd be kneeling down that I saw you.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
And I told everybody I saw her from the back
because they were watching John were watching John Cook. But
I saw you there. You were there. I swear to god,
they were so aside from from the playing obviously, you
know the section president Northern Michigan. I mean, how and
I know it started at at Farris State, but how
(41:20):
I know it's hard to categorize. But how proud are
you to be a PGA member?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Well, you know, I think beck when I was a kid,
you know, I wasn't you. It's the golf pro knew
my name. You know. My hero was Dave Hill, Dave
Hills from Jackson.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yes he is, Yes he is. So is his brother Mike.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Mike. Yeah, my Dave was my was my hero and
I won when I won the Michigan Senior Open first time.
There was a golf cable golf show in Jackson on cable.
They have a cable station and so the host, his
name is Andy Hollie. He plays a hole with his
guests and he said, and we're at this quote nice Colocyjackson,
(42:08):
and he said, I'm the only guy he ever beat
Because we're on a two hundred yard part three and
he made a two.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
I said, I'm a guy who can take that. That
was a nice shot, and I don't mind that I'm
the only guy you ever beat. But what he what
I didn't know is I had explained, you know, my
hero was Dave Hill, but actually I've never met him minute.
You know, I've been in the golf business a long time,
but I just never had But he's my hero. And
so he arranges, you know, I'm talking with the film
(42:39):
crew and they're gonna film it. He comes out of
the pro shop with this old guy and the old
guy whose days congratulations on winning the Michigan team. You're open.
I look over, I said, that's Dave Hill.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
And we talked about golf. They filmed is talking about
golf for forty minutes. And you know, I said to him, David,
I think I got the quote correctly. But you finished
second in the US Open in nineteen seventy at Hazel
and you said, and Tony Jacqueline won. And he said,
(43:11):
you said, all this place needs is about eighty acres
of corn and some cows, and it makes a great
fun He said, that's exactly what I sat, I said.
He said, I didn't call it a cow pasture.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Right, I said, it would make a great form, right, right,
it would.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah. Is it is it true that the people at
Hazel team fleop you up the Hazel team to make suggestions?
Is the course changes when they were doing a renovation?
Of course? He said that's true. And I did. And
so anyways, and he couldn't believe how much I knew
about him, And he thought, I was, you know, kidding
(43:49):
them when I was saying he was my hero. But
everybody doesn't get to meet their heroes, right, And we
and we were going to play, you know, he said,
we'll play golf. Well, I was in our local town.
They have a golf hall team and you know the
longtime players, and you know they might get recognized. Well,
(44:11):
I was going through that and a guy, a guy
that Dave was close to, who sponsored him for fifty
years to own a big company in Jackson called al Rosfield,
big donor to the University of Michigan. He comes over
to me and I see him come in, and I said, well,
that sounds like I know him. He doesn't know me.
(44:32):
He walks right over to me and he says Dave,
I just talked to Dave Hill this morning, and he
wants me to congratulate you on what a great honor. Now,
I had said in that thing to the interview when
we were talking with Andy Hawley, I said, I think
I should clarify some things here. I'm here because I
(44:54):
won the Michigan Senior Open and we're talking to a
guy who wouldn't even put that on his resume. You
know what he said? He was so generous, He said, Dave,
I won the Michigan Open in nineteen fifty nine and
I'm still damn proud of it. You should be proud
there you go. Oh, he gave me the ability to
be proud. Yeah, that was so generous. I know who
(45:17):
he was, you know, I know he played in three
or four Ryder Cups, he won fourteen times on tour,
and you know he wasn't just some guy who played
in a few tour events, right.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
He was serious business like I was serious business, you bet,
and he.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Was somebody look up to me. And I told him,
I said, Dave, you you crushed a lot of hopes
of a lot of young players. And he didn't take
that right right away, but he said, well, Why do
you say that, I said, because every time you came
to town, you would shoot sixty sixty one, sixty two,
sixty three and a few of us who could shoot
(45:53):
three under par I thought we were good. If you
can't play like that, I had no chance to on tour.
Oh and he was confused by that. He didn't he
didn't take that.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, that's that's amazing. So all right, so obviously you
know you're incredibly accomplished. You're in you should be in
about every not my kids went to Ohio State, so
I'm not a uge Michigan, I gotta tell you. But
but but you know, and I just have to you know,
(46:28):
I don't know obviously, no, not everybody knows this. But
you've been going through some health stuff and and how
you doing with that?
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Well, that's I see to ask. You know, when I
first I was first diagnosed, I thought I had lymphoma,
and I read up about it and I'd say, you know,
that's not so good, but you know, people do can
do pretty well. Well. Within two weeks I found out
I had because you have to find out that with
(46:58):
my lympho origin of it or did it spread from
somewhere else there. Well, then they do tests and within
two weeks I find out I have stage four a
stopage deal cancer and uh, you know it spread to
my lungs, into my lymph nodes, into my adrenal gland. Well,
(47:19):
you know that was disappointing. And I started to hear
about that, and you know the I read everything about it,
and the prognosis wasn't good. It could be worse though,
because two weeks later I found out that I had
a brain tumor.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
It had spread to my brain, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
That was a tough recovery and I lost my voice.
We couldn't done this interview a year ago because I
didn't have a voice. People couldn't understand me. I got.
You know, I've always been what I call kind of
a dumpy build, but I got down in one hundred
and twenties. I couldn't eat, I couldn't swallow. I just
(47:58):
thought I'd keep getting work until I died. And I
wasn't getting a lot of hope from what I was
reading about. But my sister. I have a younger sister,
and the fifth has said she's keeping by novarian cancer
for six years, and you know they aren't going to
hear her, but she every time something happens, they just
(48:19):
push it back and she feels good about that. And
she said, Dave, that your brain tumors set back chemo.
They couldn't start chemo, so your problems you're having her
because the tumors are still growing. If you could just
hang in there till you can get chemo. Well, she
was so right. I started getting chemo and I started
(48:40):
feeling a lot better. I felt like I could eat,
I could swallow. And somebody told me I was having
a procedure just a week ago, and the PA who
was assisting the doctor, I have a tumor in my
adrenal gland, which isn't so scary, but it's growing and
they say if it's growing, it could spread, so they
need to do radiation. So the pie though, he says, Dave,
(49:06):
I have an uncle who had your same diagnosis about
the same time you did. He lived three months. Will
it's a real small number of patients who respond to
the chemo. The way you have awesome makes me feel
so lucky. And I'm seventy years old, so I have
(49:28):
nothing to complain about. I mean, everybody has challenges in
their life. Everybody gets bad bouncers. Everybody gets bad lies
and they just have to kind of fight to them.
And I'm no exception. But I looked at these seventies.
I have a niece who is thirty, and she lost
her husband when he was thirty to a something he
(49:51):
got exposed to in the military, and he passed away.
And I think he got a bad deal. I didn't
get a bad deal. I got a great deal. Nice
things happened in my life. How could I complain? I
think that would be It just wouldn't be right, because
everybody has challenges. Nobody has things go their way all
(50:12):
the time. And I didn't either. I had to kind
of fight through everything. You know, I failed before I won,
and you know I'm winning, so I you know, I
don't know how long, what the future holds, but I
started doing a daily regimen. You know, I try my
best every day just in case it works. You know,
how about in golf, people you know, things turn and
(50:34):
they you know, they kind of quit emotionally. Well, this
might be the day where you birdy the last four
holes and here you would have quit and missed it, right,
I can't afford to miss it. This might be the
day so maybe you know I get up when I
get up in the morning and start and I walk
four miles. It isn't that that's very it's so extraordinary.
(50:55):
But I wouldn't miss because what if it could help
me live one month longer? Right? Is?
Speaker 1 (51:02):
What is exactly exactly?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
I know it is? I do that, I know it is.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
I got to tell you, you know what. I knew
this would be awesome talking to you, but I didn't
know it would be this awesome. And I'm going to
tell you something right now. I'm younger than you. I'm
about twenty about seventeen years younger than you, and I'm
going to tell you right now. You know what when
I was a kid golf for PG professionals, we're heroes.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Of mine and yeah me too.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
You were a hero to a ton of people. So
don't think for a minute that we don't know that.
And I need you to know that. And I need
to keep doing your regime because one of these days,
if you ever decide not to do it, I'll come
up there and I'll walk you.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
No, I so great. I'm going to do it as
long as as long as I'm capable and I can
get up and I can do it. I'll do it.
And I can come up with a lot of very
reasons not to practice my golf, but I can't come
up with any reasons not.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
To not to go for a walk.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Just in case it helps. Because I got two little granddaughters,
and one of them is going to be four and
a week. And when we made up, my wife and
I is anniversary was November twenty fourth, and last year,
at this time, we made a goal to live that long.
You know, if I could, we could make it to
November twenty fourth, that would be a great victory, and
we'll celebrate. Well. My granddaughter's birthday is a week from yesterday,
(52:32):
and she'll be four and she'll be old enough to
remember me. And when we make it there, we're going
to celebrate again, not take it for granted. And then
my other granddaughter, she'll be two next December twenty first,
and we'll celebrate again. If we can make it, don't
make it. My goal in life is to make it
long enough that she remembers me.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
I love that. I love that, Dave. I can't tell
you how much I appreciate it. You know, an hour
one by very quickly, I knew it would You are
every PGA professionals model and I'm just honored to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Rich Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed
the opportunity. Thanks for what you do on the radio,
for all the golf closing for golf it really we
all have benefit. Commath th thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
This is the Rich Combwell Golf Show.
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