November 10, 2025 • 48 mins
Former PGA player Jay Don Blake joins Rich to talk about his road to a college championship, the grind that came with making it on the Tour, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the rich Conwall Go Show. We're gonna jump
right into this one.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This week, we are very very fortunate to be joined
by longtime PGA Tour player Jay Don Blake. Jay, first off,
thanks so much for doing this.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Well, you bet you're glad to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
So Jay, tell us, as I start with everybody, tell
us how it all.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How you got started in golf.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I mean, obviously a long, long, long career, and I'm
not trying to call you old, but it obviously started
started somewhere, so so go ahead and take us back
to the beginning.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Uh yeah, I mean it is how it all kind
of got evolved with golf. I live in Saint George, Utah.
They never really had a golf course even, you know,
I guess when I was young, but four or five
and stuff like that. But my brother, and one of
(00:58):
my older brothers, his name is he went to Vegas
to find some work. The small little town of Saint
George maybe had about five thousand people, and he wanted
to find a job and kind of do some other stuff.
And the guy offered him a job in Vegas to
work in a gas station down there, and so he
(01:20):
went down there and kind of was working and drant
into some guys that kind of had an interest in
just kind of casual golf, and so they asked him
to come and join. And he'd never played before, never
really knew much about the game. So they take him
to a little public golf course in Vegas and he
(01:44):
ended up getting out there, and I guess they didn't
realize that, you know, he's actually a left handed, been
left handed his whole life doing things, and so he
felt kind of awkward. But he tried a little bit
but didn't work out well for him. And then the
next time they ended up finding the left Handed Golf
Club and they thought he'd go try it again, and
(02:06):
he ended up started kind of liking it, got involved
with it and played a little bit. And then and
then when you come back up to Saint George, Utah,
where I grew up, they'd finally, you know, within that
short time, they'd bought put in a little nine hole
golf course Dixie Red Hills. And my parents being very athletic,
(02:29):
and our whole family being very athletic, they told me.
He told my parents that you know, you're gonna you
need to come and try this game of golf. You
kind of like, it's there's a lot of fun outdoors.
So he took them and it got to play, and
it just kind of snowballed. They they got involved, they
(02:50):
liked it, they enjoyed it. And then my other brother's older,
since I'm the baby of the family there, they all
kind of played and and I finally got a chance
to play when I was like I started at eight
and a half years old and just would go out
with my mom and dad and my brother just a
(03:13):
couple years older than me, Rick. He'd go and we
just played this little nine whole golf course. It was
only about twenty four hundred yards long, very short in
a neat, little red rock area, so it's kind of
a pretty golf course. And that's just kind of how
we got started, this little nine whole course and started
when as a kid, and you know, I ended up
(03:38):
kind of playing all the way through junior golf and
just kind of developed from that point on.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So okay, so like so okay, very small town, five
thousand people, pretty short golf course. So when did you
kind of start to try to think that you could
be you know, more than you know the short golf
course in the small town.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You know, it probably wasn't really. I mean I played
all other sports. I mean we were athletic families, so
every sport to come around, from football, baseball, basketball, we
didn't even have. Soccer wasn't even in the town growing up.
But I played all the sports. And when I got
(04:28):
to golf, I got into the high school, and it
just it seemed like it was a very individual sport.
So what you did was your own mistakes and whether
it was a good or bad. If you do things good,
then you feel like you've accomplished something on your own.
(04:50):
And team sports I really was discouraged about. I had
a scenario situation where playing basketball and we had a
chance to win a basketball game and a kid on
our team got fouled. So he's got two foul shots
(05:12):
and we're down by one. There's five seconds left, and
so we got a chance to win the basketball game,
and we were on a streak of about thirty one
games in a row that we'd won, and so we're
about ready to lose that streak, and so this kid
proceeds to miss both free throws, and so we end
(05:35):
up losing the game, and it became a situation where
this kid became kind of obsolete. They were everybody like,
boot him, and how do you do that? I mean,
he made us lose this streak and he became the
one that lost the game. And I got set back thinking,
(05:59):
you know, that's that can't be work. Yeah, we played
how many four quarters of ten minutes quarters? And I
know of a kid that I could name that mister
lay up in the first forty seconds of the game
that there could have been two points. So somebody missed
(06:20):
other foul shots in the game earlier that could have
been the points. So all that fell down on is
this one kid that that everybody established you're the one
that lost the whole game. And the kid ended up.
I mean, he he had a it. You could tell it.
I mean later on you could tell it that bothered him.
It it kind of I would say ruined his life,
(06:42):
but it it waged kept him from playing, Yeah, kept
him from playing sports again. He didn't want to play anymore.
And I just I kind of keep thinking about it
all the time. And then with the with golf, it was,
I mean, you play your own game, you hate your
own shots, and it's all all about yourself, and I
(07:03):
just kind of, I don't know, I guess fell in
love with that style of what the game is just
as so individualized and even though later on you go
in Team Evans, but it's still a lot of individually
your prospers and losses, I guess, by playing your own games.
(07:23):
So that's kind of where I was drawn towards golf.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So okay, So all right, so obviously you got pretty
good because you want to stay high school championship correct, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Won both when as a sophomore and a junior, and
I wasn't able to pull us off of my senior year,
but I won two high school state championships.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Well that's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. So okay.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So then, so at that point you had kind of think, hey, look,
you know, even as a sophomore even or a junior,
and yeah, you didn't pull off the three peet, but
you got to be thinking yourself, Okay, I can I
can play at the next level.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So or didn't you think that?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well? I mean at the times, I don't. I mean
I didn't really how much golf did we have on
TV back in the you know, early seventies, I mean,
he just went much golf, so I didn't I didn't
get to watch and I knew golf. I knew some
(08:37):
of the guys, you know. Johnny Miller was, you know,
a guy that I watched, you know, growing up, and
so I didn't really know my future potential. But I mean,
going to high school, besides the I don't know if
I even lost many high school matches. I was pretty
(08:58):
much low middleist and you know, all the events except
for like the state champions senior time, and so I
kind of had an idea. I had some coaches approached me,
you know, and as a junior in high school and
wanted me to talk about coming to their school. And
(09:22):
then I got thinking, well, I mean maybe people can
see that I might have a little bit of potential,
and so I thought, you know, we'll give this thing
a try. And I ended up going to Utah State
with a full right scholarship up there. And then that's
just kind of when I got into a different level
(09:44):
of quality of players, and it took me a little
bit to kind of adjust into that process and that
kind of snowball through the college careers.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So it's kind of okay. So where where else did
you consider going.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I actually had an offer from BYU. They came to
me and approached approached me and going to school there,
and they sent me a paperwork and all that stuff,
and I made the common I says, well, I'm I'm
only a junior in high school. I still got another
year of high school to finish up. And they're like, oh,
I said, all right, Well we'll get back with you
(10:23):
and we'll talk to you next year and see what
we can work out. And I said all right. So
I kind of waited and waited. Nothing happened with BYU,
and I even made contact with them and got a
reply back saying that well, we're not gonna We've decided
to go a different direction with our program and with
(10:45):
recruiting and changed a few things, and so they they
didn't feel like I was going to fit their program.
So the only other options that ever really had, you know,
that being a good opportunity having a full rade scholarship.
(11:05):
I didn't have to pay for schooling, and you know,
being in a small town, I didn't I don't know
if I could or my parents could have helped even
afford play for pay for college. So I took that
opportunity to I figured, you know what, going to Utah State.
I've seen some of the schedule. I feel like that
(11:27):
the tournaments that we were going to play, the kids
that we were going to play against, the teams that
we were going to play against, I could probably find
out how my abilities could still stack up, you know,
going to Utah State.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Okay, So you mentioned before that it took a little while,
like quote unquote get up the speed like those guys
talk about in the National Football League when you go
from college to you know, National football, Like that thing
is speed. So obviously it you know, it was kind
of had it had to be. I would think an
eye opener, like your first college events.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You're like, wow, yeah, they was. It was a big
eye opener. I mean being with you, Tai just was
playing high school golf, you know, just kids in Utah
and then all of a sudden you go down and
play against the California colleges in Arizona college kids, and
and it's like, you know, there's not just one or
(12:21):
two kids that are pretty good, there's about fifty kids
that are really good. And it's just like wow, man,
I mean, am I on the right spot here? Am
I doing the right thing.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And I think I just got into a big pool.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I got a big swimming pool here.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Now, I jumped in a pool of sharks pretty much,
and so I I got I don't know, I guess
maybe it was the dedication, the motivation of my desires
and to become you know, as good as I could
(12:57):
possibly you know, pursue a career, or made me work
harder and be more dedicated and put in the work
ethic of what I felt like you need to do
to become a better player and be able to compete.
I felt like I was close, I mean, playing with
a few of the guys you know that that I'd
(13:18):
played with, and I felt like I had a game
that I could develop as to be as you know,
as good as some of those guys that were established
you know, outside of you know, Utah, which I just
was known for Utah. I never played anywhere else. I
never played any other states or any other work to
(13:40):
get recognized as a golfer. These other guys would play
other bigger junior events which I'd ever had the opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So like, yeah, the kid that goes from California to
Arizona and back to California, an a lot of that's
not you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
So there was there a kid?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was there anybody that you played against in your college career,
Like Okay, you know he's really good and he's not
that much better than me. You have that moment where like,
you know, I could get there.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Uh you know, they're the the kid that was a prodigy,
which was pretty well dominated a lot of the junior
younger into college and all that stuff. And I'd heard
about him and I'd actually a kid that went to BYU,
(14:32):
Bobby Klampitta. Bobby Clampitt was very dominating in all the
junior stuff and he was ranked i mean, top player,
highly recruited and everywhere, I mean just everything he did,
it was very successful at it. And you know, I
(14:53):
mean they even had a golf book, instructional book that
he thought it was his bible. And you know, the
golf machine is what I was. Yeah, And so you know,
and you hear this guy and now all of a
sudden you're playing against him and and you're watching him
(15:15):
what he does, and I watch what I do, and
I'm like, you know, I hear it. As far as
he does, I can get my iron shots on the
green just like he does. And you know, and sometimes
I feel like I can cut as good as he can.
And servey scenario, you kind of watch you kind of
pick your your game how he is compared to his
(15:41):
and I felt like that. You know, I'm still a
little quiet kid, so I'm not very outspoken, so I
never said much, but I just inside thought I had
the determination and desire in the golf game to to
pursue forward with hope a career with golf.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Okay, So when we come back from this commercial break,
we're going to talk about the end of your of
your college career, not the end, but like that the
highlight of your college career, and then we're going to
talk about what comes next. This this is the Rich
Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combo Goof Show.
We're joined by jadaen Blake. And when we left off,
(16:23):
we were talking about college and he's trying to you know,
shape his game to develop, you know, coming from you
to small town in Utah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And actually now we're.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Playing against kids from California, Arizona, Nevada, all that fun
stuff and you know, guys like Bobby Clampett and things
like that. So as you continually developed, did you I
guess the thing that had to grow and you had
to be your confidence, right, I mean it'd be like, well, Lake,
I can do that, I can do this.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, it was That's where it kind of had kind
of deep dig, deep down in and not get discouraged.
You had to, you know, try to take it to
that next level with confidence in yourself that you can
you can do this, you can hit the shots, you
(17:17):
can execute shots like these other guys that have got
these big names, and I'm just kind of sneaking through
the cracks of a few things and doing a few
things right. And you know, I mean the guys that
you kind of play against, you know, from Bobby to
(17:38):
Pretty Couples, and just the experience that these guys had,
you know, I could see where they've had I mean,
they've had instructors, they had people that worked on their games,
so they progressed, you know, probably a little bit quicker
than and I was just kind of on my own
doing my own. So that confident that I had to
(18:00):
build was you know, kind of the next step of
where I needed to pursue and progress to get better.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So yeah, so instead of saying, well, that guy's good,
you could say that guy's good, but so am I?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
But so am I?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Exactly? I didn't want to. I didn't want to back down.
I wasn't gonna be a quitter and think, well, I'll
never be as good as that guy. So I've got
the same abilities, I got the same opportunity. Why can't
I be and work hard and be, you know, as
accomplished as what these guys are? And and I felt
(18:40):
like I could get my game to their standards or
we're surpassed them. It possible.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, Like, somebody's got to get good, might as well
be me.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, exactly, it's okay. I got an opportunity to do it,
might as well take it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So okay.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So then when as you progress through your at Utah State,
you get to be a junior or senior at thing
like that, you you actually start to I'm assuming you
win some some conference tournaments, right, and then you get
to that how many times did you play in the
NCAA Championship?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Uh? I played one time? There you go twice? Sorry,
play twice? Excuse me? I played twice?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So you're bat in five hundred because you won?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, I went one time, just as an individual was
our team didn't even qualify, and I off my credentials
and the way I played, I went as an individual, and.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That your junior year, senior.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Year, junior year. Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Your senior year you got your The whole team went right,
the other.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Whole team went the oh. The junior year was in Columbus, Ohio,
and then and then the senior year was in Stanford, California.
So I actually had a six shot league going into
the last round, even on my senior year.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So so you had actually, you know, fulfilled your own
kind of confident prophecy, like I can I can do this?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah wow, Yeah. So the senior year was a I
don't know, it was a frustrating kind of a blow
I guess to my my record or my career or whatever.
But they gave us a choice of playing with our
team the way they fall the way a team was doing,
(20:35):
to be categorized with other teams at the same score.
And then they wanted to have some individuals that were
playing well individual wise play in the last two groups
kind of, and so the individual players would be after
or so kind of the last group of the individual players,
(20:56):
and so I talked with my coach and we yes, says, well,
our team to play early at eight thirty in the morning,
and I got to play at you know, eleven thirty
in the last group of me, you know, late late morning,
and the golf course totally changed. And one of the
(21:19):
kids played with his team that was you know, six
shots back. He played in the morning. He was done
before I even I mean played four holes. No, when
the greens were soft. The whole conditions changed, and I
ended up struggling coming to back nine holes and ended
(21:41):
up losing to a gentleman called Ron. His name is
Ron Commons. So he won the senior year that I've
played senior. But my so it was kind of a
kind of emotionally tough, tough moment to kind of have
a six shot lead and not end up, you know,
winning the event. And I'd wanted the year before, and
(22:04):
it was kind of like I wanted to be a repeat,
and it was kind of a that was kind of
a tough thing to to handle at the moment.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That was that was it was just punch to the
stomach that actually just kept hitting exactly. Yeah, okay, so
so like, okay, so it's interesting that you you know,
I got to believe you know, based on you know,
everything we hear about, you know, overcoming you know, obstacles
and overcoming adversity that had to somehow, while I'm sure
(22:33):
was painful, had to kind of shape you a little
bit for the future.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Right, Yeah, I think I think anybody's got to have.
I have those knockdown blows a few keep living on
that pedestal the whole time, and and don't don't learn
how to lose, don't learn how to get beat. Don't
(22:59):
learn to get knocked down and come back stronger than
I think that's a can be a positive to you know,
somebody's career doesn't matter what it is and business or
sports or what it is. I mean, you got to
have a little bit of you know, the feat to
give you that desire and determination too to get back
(23:24):
to the top piece, you know, I mean you've got
it inside you. Then you want to you want to
have a little bit of that negativity and to give
you the determination to be become better and be as
as good as you can.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, that's kind of like the old story is Belichick,
you know Belichick, when the Browns got fired. Next thing
you know, he's coaching the Patriots and winning Brazilion Super Bowls, Like,
I don't think he wins those without getting.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Fired by the Browns.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
You know, at sometimes at some point he's got to say,
all right, look, you know what, wat y'all, I can
do this. You know, watch, I'm going to come back
even better than you saw me walk out of there.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, you got to prove the point, you know, if
you if you want to, if you get that determination.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
So I'm assuming that right after right after college, you
you you turn professional.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah I did. I I turned turned pro that. You know.
I just thought I'm ready to do it. You know.
I thought I was going to be able to kind
of maybe jump out there a little quicker and play
the tour. And I thought i'd get you know, back
(24:33):
then this kind of I thought I'd get sponsored exemptions
on a couple of bands to maybe kind of get
my feet right into the PGA tour level. And but
it never happened, and so I had to wait till
tour school and and uh, you know, through the tour
(24:53):
school process that those was back then, it was only
once a year, always around the end of November, one
party December kind of that timeframe, and so you're a
whole year you're waiting until that time to go through
the process of the tour school where they've got a regional.
(25:16):
You get it through there, you go to this sectional.
As you get it through the sectional, then everybody meets
at a certain designated area and you get a hundred
and it was like one hundred and eighty players. They're
like twenty five spots they were given to make it
on tour and I, I don't know, it's one of
(25:38):
those things hard to understand why or what happened, but
it was a struggle for years. It took me finally
seven years until I finally broke through and was able
to get my tour card and nineteen actually it was
nineteen eighty six, the end of eighty six as the
(26:00):
qualifying where I qualified the place starting my eighty seven.
Nineteen eighty seven was my first year on tour.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So again, so then then then the adversity comes that
you go and don't make it go, and don't make
it go and don't make it you know, I got
to believe that either you had two choices, either that
breaks you or it makes you stronger.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, and it just it definitely made me stronger because
I didn't I didn't want to go. I'm not cutting
anybody's job down, or what do they do is work,
but I didn't really want to go, you know, pump
gas or work in a grocery store. I mean I
didn't want to do that. I mean not that I couldn't.
(26:47):
That just a matter if it led to later on
that I had to pick that choice or do that choice,
it would have been something I would have done. But
my determination continued towards my dream of playing in the
PG Tour, and so having those knockdowns kind of kept
me plugging along and and got me through the job
(27:12):
that he needed to take care of getting my tour card.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, it's interesting because you know you're talking about that,
you know, the the late and late in the year
and all those guys that that's before Hogan's tour. That's
before you didn't have anywhere else to go.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, no, you didn't have anywhere else. So they had
a few little mini tours that somebody kind of put together.
They was a gentleman that put like a a month
series where you play one tournament a week. It was
a four day tournament and and you pay twenty eight dollars,
(27:50):
So it's like seven seven a week of tournament. I
mean some weeks there were fifty players, some weeks there
were ninety players. Is it just randomly and it's just
a big gambling game. I mean, obviously they took a
little money off the top to kind of run the
business and run things, but it was just a big
go put your money in the pot and go play
(28:12):
against all these guys that I mean, there was a
bunch of guys that the same in my boat, that
struggled to get the tour card to go out, and
we'd every you know, two three times a year, we'd
meet and play these little gambling games, so to speak,
and keep working and working and working and trying to
(28:36):
get her tour card. You know.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
So this is what you had to do because there
was nowhere else to go.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, no, there wasn't anywhere else to go play, wasn't
any other you know, GG tour, many tours, there wasn't
anything else, and too expensive to go over to play
in Asia Japan, you're a I mean I couldn't afford
to do that either. There wasn't much opportunity to go
(29:06):
do that for.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Me, so Okay, so you make it in your first
year is eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Right, yeah, eighty seven eighty seven.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
So what's I would imagine you had to learn to
like travel, like you had to learn to do this.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, it was. There was a change. I mean to
figure out organize your suitcase to minimum of what you
needed to really have and what you need to take.
I mean the first few times I was bringing everything
(29:46):
thinking I needed I mean, however many pairs of socks
or how many shirts I needed? And I'm like, I
didn't know how to do it. And then I got
to gotch my clothes somewhere else, and I mean it
just was a whole new world, new adventure in my career,
(30:07):
my life that I needed to learn and figure out
and and but that was part of it that in
a way, I took it as as fun because it's
a new adventure, right, and I'm doing something that I love,
stuffing I enjoy and this other stuff on the side
that washing your clothes, and you know, you had to
(30:28):
learn how to travel, make your airfare and get rented cars,
and I mean it just it was something that was scary.
I mean I've never done it before, but I had
to do it, and I hadn't back down, and I
kind of actually look forward to it because I knew
I had to do this. I had to learn it. Yea.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
And not only that, but that meant that meant you
were doing what you really wanted to do. Yeah, that
was part. That was part of the package of all that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
So so your first year, how many events did you
play in first year?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Oh? I'm not what I played. I played a lot.
I mean I was one of those guys that liked
to play and love to play. I was probably probably
in the close to thirty maybe low thirties somewhere around
there tournaments and.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
So okay, so I was.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Called one of those journeyman guys. But I played thirty
to sometimes thirty three thirty four tournaments a year.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
So all right, so you go out there, you play,
you know, you obviously learn to wash your clothes and
things like that, But like, did you have that moment
your first year where you were like, Okay, yeah, I
know that guy's been out here for five years, he's
been out here for fifteen years, and yeah he's that,
but he's not He's not that much better than me.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Uh, you know, I still being a naive kid from
a small town. I was still in awe of, you know,
the players that I've watched whatever they could on TV
and seen the names when we had golf magazine and
(32:11):
golf books that you kind of learned a lot and
read about all the stats of players. I mean you
run into you know, Nick Fouldo, Greg Norman, I mean
even Jack Micklace and Johnny Miller. I mean he's and
finally you're seeing and being around these guys that that
(32:32):
you've watched and you know and you've heard about, and
they've won majors and they've done all this successful golf,
and so I was starstruck. I was nervous. I was
I couldn't approach him, but I kind of stood back
and kind of watched, and I've kind of admired and
(32:54):
tried to figure out what they were doing, what they
were working on, and tried to kind of listen. And
then I didn't mind sneaking up behind the golfer and
hit balls right next to them on the range. When
they had an instructor or two and they had a
group of people talking about golf and grips and how
(33:15):
to hit this and what to do. I mean, I
didn't have recorders back then, but I wish I had
one because I like sneaking up and kind of listening
to what they were talking about and trying to learn
from them. And I mean, I figure any information, I mean,
it might help me. It might might not fit into
my style, but I was willing to kind of give
(33:36):
it a try and learn through all that stuff. I
was too intimidated to walk up and you know, hey,
Johnny Miller, can you give me a few pointers, a
few tips. I didn't have the nerve to go do that.
I couldn't just jump right into it. I kind of
(33:56):
stood back on the back burner and kind of learned.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
That's that's pretty that's that's interesting. Okay, So when we
go to this, we're come back for this commercial break
and we're gonna talk about like, obviously now we're to
eighty seven, but there's some you have some awesome years
out there, so we're gonna talk about that. And right
when we come back to the rich Comwoll Golf Show,
Welcome back to the rich Comwoll Golf Show. We're joined
by Jada and Blake. Jays basically just walked us to
(34:24):
getting onto tour. In eighty seven. So so obviously you
know you're you're a rookie, then you're not, and then
you go back the second year and you're actually kind
of not treading water, you're actually swimming pretty quickly. But
so I gotta ask you at one it was there
ever a point early on when you said to yourself,
(34:45):
I can I can win?
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Or were you just always like, Okay, if I play well,
I'll win.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Uh, I don't. I don't know if it was. I mean,
I don't think you can ever I mean guarantee in
your mind that I'm going to win. I mean it's
I never really had that type of mentality part of it.
But I'd set back, I'd watched and I've analyzed, and
(35:15):
I would I would in my mind. I could tell.
And I felt like I could execute the golf shots
that all these guys were pulling off. I just had
to learn how to do it. I had to control it.
I had to kind of, you know, figure out how
to get the whole package kind of going. And I
(35:38):
felt like I could win. I felt like I could compete.
I felt like I could, I mean, beat the guys.
I could do everything they did. And it wasn't like
a guarantee, but I was going to pursue and work.
(35:59):
My work was determined enough that I'm gonna I'm gonna
work so I feel like I can prepare my game
and have a good chance of winning golf tournaments. That
was just kind of my mindset. I don't want to
put pressure on myself of saying that I should win
this week. I'm good enough this week I should win.
(36:20):
But golf such a delicate game that you can't force
the situation to happen instead of just kind of kind
of come to you. And you've got to allow it
to happen instead of force it. And I kind of
tried to stay in that mentality.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
So okay, So so as we go through eighty seventy,
you know, all the way up until you know ninety one,
when you when you win and you like, so you
had to be seeing some level of improvement every year, right,
I mean, at some on some aspect of it, whether
you whether you putted it better or whether you you know,
(36:56):
you drove it better, whatever it was. You had to
keep kind of improving on them on something every year.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Go so what so, like, was there any one thing
that like like each year did you focus on one
thing or each year did you just say, Okay, you
know what, we're going to do this this better, We're
going to try and do all of this better.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I actually took it as a as the whole package.
I mean, there's I think that there's a process of
you've got to drive the ball. You got to keep
the ball in the fairway. And when I first got
out there, I i I didn't play golf courses that
(37:43):
were really tree lined or had a lot of rough.
I didn't look very tight, you know. I could just
feel like I could just kind of swing aggressive of
the driver and if I missed the fairway it was
light rough. I could hit my nine iron, you know,
was almost like a shot out of the fairways sometimes.
And when I got out there, I had to learn
(38:05):
that I had to execute more shots in the fairway.
So each time I played, each year, whatever, I developed
things that I needed to kind of better myself on.
And you know, and then the greens were a lot
faster than I played, sometimes a lot firmer, So you
(38:27):
got to learn a little bit of a shipping technique,
learn how to spin the ball. Possibly when the putting.
The speeds were, you know, a lot quicker than I played,
so you had to slowly kind of learn those and
get comfortable. And I mean each week I played, I
(38:49):
mean there was times that I felt like I drove
it really well and the irons were not quite there.
Next week it's like, oh, I work so much on
my irons. It my driver struggled, and then my irons
were good. So trying to get that whole package of
all it to work. At one time, I knew I
(39:10):
was close of getting them all together, but it just
didn't seem like it was happening, and you never know
what it's going to and then all of a sudden,
the package starts kind of closing together and you feel
comfortable and your shots are less stress and you feel
more comfortable and and you just kind of progress from
(39:34):
that and let's let the winds happen when they happen.
And that in San Diego was the first one. I
had it at San Diego, so it was you know,
it's just that package. It just falls together and it
happens in the comfort level and confidence you have just
(39:56):
allows it to happen.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, comfort level is huge, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Because you got to be comfortable, like, okay, so you know,
I'm sure you could recite shop by shop by shopping.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Every one of them.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
As you get closer to winning, you got to just
be as comfortable as you were on day one, on
Thursday afternoon at you know, on whole sex. You got
to be comfortable with all that.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
So there's even a yeah, go ahead, there's even a
comfort level of feeling comfortable about yourself. I mean, because
now all of a sudden, I've got to go to
the press room. I gotta go do interviews. I gotta
go after each round. I mean they're talking to you,
going here, you're going there. And usually I just walk
(40:39):
off the course, so grab a snack or whatever. If
I want to go hit balls, I'll go hit balls.
And now all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, I'm
the if you get a chance to win, And so
I got to go over everything. So you're getting pulled
different directions, and I I mean, it took a while
to even get used to that of having the exposure
(41:01):
of everybody's my name's being broadcasted and in the papers,
and and it's like, I mean I never thought about that.
I never thought about my name being in the limelight.
I just I just wanted to win a golf tournament.
So those things I had to get comfortable with, even
to kind of deal with the hype of you're the
(41:24):
leader of the golf tournament. You got a chance to win.
And I mean so that even was a scenario that was,
you know, a little bit difficult to sometimes to kind
of feel comfortable with being a shy kid. I didn't
like all that attention and I wanted to kind of,
you know, slide in secretly and take a win. I
(41:47):
didn't want to boast about it kind of guy. So
learning how to deal with the press was even a
different different process.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Okay, so so like San Diego, you win, what's the like,
what's what's the what's the one? Like you know, if
I if I you know, said, you know, played that game, Like, okay,
san Diego win, what's the thing.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
That pops into your head?
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Obviously you won, but like it was there a moment
that you you kind of hang on to.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Uh, I know the one I mean going through the
rounds for a second third day. I mean, you don't
You're trying to pace yourself. You was trying to play
the best you can and get your position to win.
And and then when I played the last round, I
mean I was kind of plotting around, and they didn't
(42:35):
have as many leaderboards, so you didn't really know exactly
how things were going. They only had like maybe a
couple each nine, so it wasn't a lot really, and
they didn't have all the people, you know, commentators out
there kind of so you really didn't know for sure.
And and I ended up seeing the leaderboard on like, oh,
(43:01):
I think it was thirteen or something like that, and
I think I'd had a little bit of a lead.
And then on fifteen I'd hit a shot over the
green and it was fast downhill, not a very good
lie and thought about chipping it, and I'm like, man,
(43:22):
I just don't know if I like chipping. And I'm
just going through this thing. I can remember to this
day my thought process. And I told my Caddy. I says,
you know, I says, I, I just don't feel comfortable.
I says, I think I might just put this because
it's coming down off this hill and I think I'm
gonna put it. And so I ended up grabbing my
(43:45):
putter and when I hit the pott comes trickling down there,
bouncing through all the zoas cocular grass that San Diego had,
and bouncing all over and it rolls on the green,
rolls down and goes in. And at that point right there,
I felt like, I think it gave me like a
(44:07):
three shot lead that I that I noticed even And
so that shot right there always pops into my head
when I people say about my win in San Diego,
is is that one shot gave me the confidence and
just kind of the boost I needed to feel like
(44:31):
that I can win the tournament.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
To finish now, now we can finish. Now we can go,
we can.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Get it, we can get it then and and it
took I don't know why. That just the nerves that
I'd kind of had a kind of every shot you
kind of hit and you have little nerves every time,
and all of a sudden, it's just like just like
the peace kind of came over and the comfort and
confidence just was there so I could relax and ease
(45:00):
my way through the last three holes to finish off
the wind. So that was that, that one shot that
went in. I'm on the back of fifteen green that
I always think about when when the San Diego tournament
kind of comes around people talking about it.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
That's pretty cool that that's that's really cool, like like
like that's see again, I go back to what you're
telling before about your confidence, like, Okay, I'm not comfortable
with this, but I'm comfortable with that. So I'm gonna
go with that because that gives me. That gives me,
that's me I can I can do that. I'm not
comfortable doing it that way, I'm gonna do it this way.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
So all right, So I got to ask you a question. Okay,
so who yeah, how many how many years you play
the PGA Tour?
Speaker 3 (45:48):
Played like I played probably fifteen straight years. Then I
which a lot of people have, which I suffered some
back issues. I started getting some back issues, and so
I was in and out for the next five years,
(46:11):
which I still played quite a bit the last five years.
So I had twenty years of really good, solid PGA
Tour play. Fifteen were you know where I didn't lose
my tour card. I kept my tour card, you know,
from the first year all the way to the fifteen
year period, and then I kind of dabbled between you know,
(46:32):
the one twenty five to one fifties, so I had
conditional status, but I still played quite a bit for
those next five years. So but it was, you know,
pretty good twenty year.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Period, all right.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
A bit.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
I got to ask you, who's the best player I
ever played with?
Speaker 3 (46:54):
You know, I got a chance to play with Jack Nicholas,
and I played a few holes with Arnold Palmer, didn't
actually get to play a competition round with Arnold Palmer.
And then those guys were I mean historic players, I
(47:18):
mean their history of golf as crazy. Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer,
Travine on those guys, and then you know, enjoyed Tom Watson.
And then I'm out there and then you get this
young kid, Tiger Woods that comes out, and that's where
(47:40):
crazy different level of golf happened and came about. And
having a chance to play with him, you know, bump
shoulders with him, talk with him, I mean, that's I
can put Ham into that category of those kind of
(48:04):
you know, kind of older players that have already generated
their life careers through golf. And then then when tiger
Wood comes out, it's like, holy cow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
All right, Well, I told you that this wouldn't take
that long so it doesn't feel like I hope it
didn't feel like really long time talking to me. But
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
It was so cool hearing those stories you were telling,
and and so I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Oh you bet. Yeah, I'm glad to do it. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
You bet. This is the Rich Gombwell Golf Show.
Welcome to the rich Conwall Go Show. We're gonna jump
right into this one.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This week, we are very very fortunate to be joined
by longtime PGA Tour player Jay Don Blake. Jay, first off,
thanks so much for doing this.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Well, you bet you're glad to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
So Jay, tell us, as I start with everybody, tell
us how it all.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How you got started in golf.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I mean, obviously a long, long, long career, and I'm
not trying to call you old, but it obviously started
started somewhere, so so go ahead and take us back
to the beginning.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Uh yeah, I mean it is how it all kind
of got evolved with golf. I live in Saint George, Utah.
They never really had a golf course even, you know,
I guess when I was young, but four or five
and stuff like that. But my brother, and one of
(00:58):
my older brothers, his name is he went to Vegas
to find some work. The small little town of Saint
George maybe had about five thousand people, and he wanted
to find a job and kind of do some other stuff.
And the guy offered him a job in Vegas to
work in a gas station down there, and so he
(01:20):
went down there and kind of was working and drant
into some guys that kind of had an interest in
just kind of casual golf, and so they asked him
to come and join. And he'd never played before, never
really knew much about the game. So they take him
to a little public golf course in Vegas and he
(01:44):
ended up getting out there, and I guess they didn't
realize that, you know, he's actually a left handed, been
left handed his whole life doing things, and so he
felt kind of awkward. But he tried a little bit
but didn't work out well for him. And then the
next time they ended up finding the left Handed Golf
Club and they thought he'd go try it again, and
(02:06):
he ended up started kind of liking it, got involved
with it and played a little bit. And then and
then when you come back up to Saint George, Utah,
where I grew up, they'd finally, you know, within that
short time, they'd bought put in a little nine hole
golf course Dixie Red Hills. And my parents being very athletic,
(02:29):
and our whole family being very athletic, they told me.
He told my parents that you know, you're gonna you
need to come and try this game of golf. You
kind of like, it's there's a lot of fun outdoors.
So he took them and it got to play, and
it just kind of snowballed. They they got involved, they
(02:50):
liked it, they enjoyed it. And then my other brother's older,
since I'm the baby of the family there, they all
kind of played and and I finally got a chance
to play when I was like I started at eight
and a half years old and just would go out
with my mom and dad and my brother just a
(03:13):
couple years older than me, Rick. He'd go and we
just played this little nine whole golf course. It was
only about twenty four hundred yards long, very short in
a neat, little red rock area, so it's kind of
a pretty golf course. And that's just kind of how
we got started, this little nine whole course and started
when as a kid, and you know, I ended up
(03:38):
kind of playing all the way through junior golf and
just kind of developed from that point on.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So okay, so like so okay, very small town, five
thousand people, pretty short golf course. So when did you
kind of start to try to think that you could
be you know, more than you know the short golf
course in the small town.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You know, it probably wasn't really. I mean I played
all other sports. I mean we were athletic families, so
every sport to come around, from football, baseball, basketball, we
didn't even have. Soccer wasn't even in the town growing up.
But I played all the sports. And when I got
(04:28):
to golf, I got into the high school, and it
just it seemed like it was a very individual sport.
So what you did was your own mistakes and whether
it was a good or bad. If you do things good,
then you feel like you've accomplished something on your own.
(04:50):
And team sports I really was discouraged about. I had
a scenario situation where playing basketball and we had a
chance to win a basketball game and a kid on
our team got fouled. So he's got two foul shots
(05:12):
and we're down by one. There's five seconds left, and
so we got a chance to win the basketball game,
and we were on a streak of about thirty one
games in a row that we'd won, and so we're
about ready to lose that streak, and so this kid
proceeds to miss both free throws, and so we end
(05:35):
up losing the game, and it became a situation where
this kid became kind of obsolete. They were everybody like,
boot him, and how do you do that? I mean,
he made us lose this streak and he became the
one that lost the game. And I got set back thinking,
(05:59):
you know, that's that can't be work. Yeah, we played
how many four quarters of ten minutes quarters? And I
know of a kid that I could name that mister
lay up in the first forty seconds of the game
that there could have been two points. So somebody missed
(06:20):
other foul shots in the game earlier that could have
been the points. So all that fell down on is
this one kid that that everybody established you're the one
that lost the whole game. And the kid ended up.
I mean, he he had a it. You could tell it.
I mean later on you could tell it that bothered him.
It it kind of I would say ruined his life,
(06:42):
but it it waged kept him from playing, Yeah, kept
him from playing sports again. He didn't want to play anymore.
And I just I kind of keep thinking about it
all the time. And then with the with golf, it was,
I mean, you play your own game, you hate your
own shots, and it's all all about yourself, and I
(07:03):
just kind of, I don't know, I guess fell in
love with that style of what the game is just
as so individualized and even though later on you go
in Team Evans, but it's still a lot of individually
your prospers and losses, I guess, by playing your own games.
(07:23):
So that's kind of where I was drawn towards golf.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So okay, So all right, so obviously you got pretty
good because you want to stay high school championship correct, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Won both when as a sophomore and a junior, and
I wasn't able to pull us off of my senior year,
but I won two high school state championships.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Well that's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. So okay.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So then, so at that point you had kind of think, hey, look,
you know, even as a sophomore even or a junior,
and yeah, you didn't pull off the three peet, but
you got to be thinking yourself, Okay, I can I
can play at the next level.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So or didn't you think that?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Well? I mean at the times, I don't. I mean
I didn't really how much golf did we have on
TV back in the you know, early seventies, I mean,
he just went much golf, so I didn't I didn't
get to watch and I knew golf. I knew some
(08:37):
of the guys, you know. Johnny Miller was, you know,
a guy that I watched, you know, growing up, and
so I didn't really know my future potential. But I mean,
going to high school, besides the I don't know if
I even lost many high school matches. I was pretty
(08:58):
much low middleist and you know, all the events except
for like the state champions senior time, and so I
kind of had an idea. I had some coaches approached me,
you know, and as a junior in high school and
wanted me to talk about coming to their school. And
(09:22):
then I got thinking, well, I mean maybe people can
see that I might have a little bit of potential,
and so I thought, you know, we'll give this thing
a try. And I ended up going to Utah State
with a full right scholarship up there. And then that's
just kind of when I got into a different level
(09:44):
of quality of players, and it took me a little
bit to kind of adjust into that process and that
kind of snowball through the college careers.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So it's kind of okay. So where where else did
you consider going.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I actually had an offer from BYU. They came to
me and approached approached me and going to school there,
and they sent me a paperwork and all that stuff,
and I made the common I says, well, I'm I'm
only a junior in high school. I still got another
year of high school to finish up. And they're like, oh,
I said, all right, Well we'll get back with you
(10:23):
and we'll talk to you next year and see what
we can work out. And I said all right. So
I kind of waited and waited. Nothing happened with BYU,
and I even made contact with them and got a
reply back saying that well, we're not gonna We've decided
to go a different direction with our program and with
(10:45):
recruiting and changed a few things, and so they they
didn't feel like I was going to fit their program.
So the only other options that ever really had, you know,
that being a good opportunity having a full rade scholarship.
(11:05):
I didn't have to pay for schooling, and you know,
being in a small town, I didn't I don't know
if I could or my parents could have helped even
afford play for pay for college. So I took that
opportunity to I figured, you know what, going to Utah State.
I've seen some of the schedule. I feel like that
(11:27):
the tournaments that we were going to play, the kids
that we were going to play against, the teams that
we were going to play against, I could probably find
out how my abilities could still stack up, you know,
going to Utah State.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Okay, So you mentioned before that it took a little while,
like quote unquote get up the speed like those guys
talk about in the National Football League when you go
from college to you know, National football, Like that thing
is speed. So obviously it you know, it was kind
of had it had to be. I would think an
eye opener, like your first college events.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You're like, wow, yeah, they was. It was a big
eye opener. I mean being with you, Tai just was
playing high school golf, you know, just kids in Utah
and then all of a sudden you go down and
play against the California colleges in Arizona college kids, and
and it's like, you know, there's not just one or
(12:21):
two kids that are pretty good, there's about fifty kids
that are really good. And it's just like wow, man,
I mean, am I on the right spot here? Am
I doing the right thing.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And I think I just got into a big pool.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I got a big swimming pool here.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Now, I jumped in a pool of sharks pretty much,
and so I I got I don't know, I guess
maybe it was the dedication, the motivation of my desires
and to become you know, as good as I could
(12:57):
possibly you know, pursue a career, or made me work
harder and be more dedicated and put in the work
ethic of what I felt like you need to do
to become a better player and be able to compete.
I felt like I was close, I mean, playing with
a few of the guys you know that that I'd
(13:18):
played with, and I felt like I had a game
that I could develop as to be as you know,
as good as some of those guys that were established
you know, outside of you know, Utah, which I just
was known for Utah. I never played anywhere else. I
never played any other states or any other work to
(13:40):
get recognized as a golfer. These other guys would play
other bigger junior events which I'd ever had the opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So like, yeah, the kid that goes from California to
Arizona and back to California, an a lot of that's
not you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
So there was there a kid?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was there anybody that you played against in your college career,
Like Okay, you know he's really good and he's not
that much better than me. You have that moment where like,
you know, I could get there.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Uh you know, they're the the kid that was a prodigy,
which was pretty well dominated a lot of the junior
younger into college and all that stuff. And I'd heard
about him and I'd actually a kid that went to BYU,
(14:32):
Bobby Klampitta. Bobby Clampitt was very dominating in all the
junior stuff and he was ranked i mean, top player,
highly recruited and everywhere, I mean just everything he did,
it was very successful at it. And you know, I
(14:53):
mean they even had a golf book, instructional book that
he thought it was his bible. And you know, the
golf machine is what I was. Yeah, And so you know,
and you hear this guy and now all of a
sudden you're playing against him and and you're watching him
(15:15):
what he does, and I watch what I do, and
I'm like, you know, I hear it. As far as
he does, I can get my iron shots on the
green just like he does. And you know, and sometimes
I feel like I can cut as good as he can.
And servey scenario, you kind of watch you kind of
pick your your game how he is compared to his
(15:41):
and I felt like that. You know, I'm still a
little quiet kid, so I'm not very outspoken, so I
never said much, but I just inside thought I had
the determination and desire in the golf game to to
pursue forward with hope a career with golf.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Okay, So when we come back from this commercial break,
we're going to talk about the end of your of
your college career, not the end, but like that the
highlight of your college career, and then we're going to
talk about what comes next. This this is the Rich
Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combo Goof Show.
We're joined by jadaen Blake. And when we left off,
(16:23):
we were talking about college and he's trying to you know,
shape his game to develop, you know, coming from you
to small town in Utah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And actually now we're.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Playing against kids from California, Arizona, Nevada, all that fun
stuff and you know, guys like Bobby Clampett and things
like that. So as you continually developed, did you I
guess the thing that had to grow and you had
to be your confidence, right, I mean it'd be like, well, Lake,
I can do that, I can do this.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, it was That's where it kind of had kind
of deep dig, deep down in and not get discouraged.
You had to, you know, try to take it to
that next level with confidence in yourself that you can
you can do this, you can hit the shots, you
(17:17):
can execute shots like these other guys that have got
these big names, and I'm just kind of sneaking through
the cracks of a few things and doing a few
things right. And you know, I mean the guys that
you kind of play against, you know, from Bobby to
(17:38):
Pretty Couples, and just the experience that these guys had,
you know, I could see where they've had I mean,
they've had instructors, they had people that worked on their games,
so they progressed, you know, probably a little bit quicker
than and I was just kind of on my own
doing my own. So that confident that I had to
(18:00):
build was you know, kind of the next step of
where I needed to pursue and progress to get better.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So yeah, so instead of saying, well, that guy's good,
you could say that guy's good, but so am I?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
But so am I?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Exactly? I didn't want to. I didn't want to back down.
I wasn't gonna be a quitter and think, well, I'll
never be as good as that guy. So I've got
the same abilities, I got the same opportunity. Why can't
I be and work hard and be, you know, as
accomplished as what these guys are? And and I felt
(18:40):
like I could get my game to their standards or
we're surpassed them. It possible.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, Like, somebody's got to get good, might as well
be me.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, exactly, it's okay. I got an opportunity to do it,
might as well take it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
So okay.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So then when as you progress through your at Utah State,
you get to be a junior or senior at thing
like that, you you actually start to I'm assuming you
win some some conference tournaments, right, and then you get
to that how many times did you play in the
NCAA Championship?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Uh? I played one time? There you go twice? Sorry,
play twice? Excuse me? I played twice?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So you're bat in five hundred because you won?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, I went one time, just as an individual was
our team didn't even qualify, and I off my credentials
and the way I played, I went as an individual, and.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That your junior year, senior.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Year, junior year. Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Your senior year you got your The whole team went right,
the other.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Whole team went the oh. The junior year was in Columbus, Ohio,
and then and then the senior year was in Stanford, California.
So I actually had a six shot league going into
the last round, even on my senior year.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So so you had actually, you know, fulfilled your own
kind of confident prophecy, like I can I can do this?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah wow, Yeah. So the senior year was a I
don't know, it was a frustrating kind of a blow
I guess to my my record or my career or whatever.
But they gave us a choice of playing with our
team the way they fall the way a team was doing,
(20:35):
to be categorized with other teams at the same score.
And then they wanted to have some individuals that were
playing well individual wise play in the last two groups
kind of, and so the individual players would be after
or so kind of the last group of the individual players,
(20:56):
and so I talked with my coach and we yes, says, well,
our team to play early at eight thirty in the morning,
and I got to play at you know, eleven thirty
in the last group of me, you know, late late morning,
and the golf course totally changed. And one of the
(21:19):
kids played with his team that was you know, six
shots back. He played in the morning. He was done
before I even I mean played four holes. No, when
the greens were soft. The whole conditions changed, and I
ended up struggling coming to back nine holes and ended
(21:41):
up losing to a gentleman called Ron. His name is
Ron Commons. So he won the senior year that I've
played senior. But my so it was kind of a
kind of emotionally tough, tough moment to kind of have
a six shot lead and not end up, you know,
winning the event. And I'd wanted the year before, and
(22:04):
it was kind of like I wanted to be a repeat,
and it was kind of a that was kind of
a tough thing to to handle at the moment.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That was that was it was just punch to the
stomach that actually just kept hitting exactly. Yeah, okay, so
so like, okay, so it's interesting that you you know,
I got to believe you know, based on you know,
everything we hear about, you know, overcoming you know, obstacles
and overcoming adversity that had to somehow, while I'm sure
(22:33):
was painful, had to kind of shape you a little
bit for the future.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Right, Yeah, I think I think anybody's got to have.
I have those knockdown blows a few keep living on
that pedestal the whole time, and and don't don't learn
how to lose, don't learn how to get beat. Don't
(22:59):
learn to get knocked down and come back stronger than
I think that's a can be a positive to you know,
somebody's career doesn't matter what it is and business or
sports or what it is. I mean, you got to
have a little bit of you know, the feat to
give you that desire and determination too to get back
(23:24):
to the top piece, you know, I mean you've got
it inside you. Then you want to you want to
have a little bit of that negativity and to give
you the determination to be become better and be as
as good as you can.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, that's kind of like the old story is Belichick,
you know Belichick, when the Browns got fired. Next thing
you know, he's coaching the Patriots and winning Brazilion Super Bowls, Like,
I don't think he wins those without getting.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Fired by the Browns.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
You know, at sometimes at some point he's got to say,
all right, look, you know what, wat y'all, I can
do this. You know, watch, I'm going to come back
even better than you saw me walk out of there.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, you got to prove the point, you know, if
you if you want to, if you get that determination.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
So I'm assuming that right after right after college, you
you you turn professional.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah I did. I I turned turned pro that. You know.
I just thought I'm ready to do it. You know.
I thought I was going to be able to kind
of maybe jump out there a little quicker and play
the tour. And I thought i'd get you know, back
(24:33):
then this kind of I thought I'd get sponsored exemptions
on a couple of bands to maybe kind of get
my feet right into the PGA tour level. And but
it never happened, and so I had to wait till
tour school and and uh, you know, through the tour
(24:53):
school process that those was back then, it was only
once a year, always around the end of November, one
party December kind of that timeframe, and so you're a
whole year you're waiting until that time to go through
the process of the tour school where they've got a regional.
(25:16):
You get it through there, you go to this sectional.
As you get it through the sectional, then everybody meets
at a certain designated area and you get a hundred
and it was like one hundred and eighty players. They're
like twenty five spots they were given to make it
on tour and I, I don't know, it's one of
(25:38):
those things hard to understand why or what happened, but
it was a struggle for years. It took me finally
seven years until I finally broke through and was able
to get my tour card and nineteen actually it was
nineteen eighty six, the end of eighty six as the
(26:00):
qualifying where I qualified the place starting my eighty seven.
Nineteen eighty seven was my first year on tour.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So again, so then then then the adversity comes that
you go and don't make it go, and don't make
it go and don't make it you know, I got
to believe that either you had two choices, either that
breaks you or it makes you stronger.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, and it just it definitely made me stronger because
I didn't I didn't want to go. I'm not cutting
anybody's job down, or what do they do is work,
but I didn't really want to go, you know, pump
gas or work in a grocery store. I mean I
didn't want to do that. I mean not that I couldn't.
(26:47):
That just a matter if it led to later on
that I had to pick that choice or do that choice,
it would have been something I would have done. But
my determination continued towards my dream of playing in the
PG Tour, and so having those knockdowns kind of kept
me plugging along and and got me through the job
(27:12):
that he needed to take care of getting my tour card.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, it's interesting because you know you're talking about that,
you know, the the late and late in the year
and all those guys that that's before Hogan's tour. That's
before you didn't have anywhere else to go.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, no, you didn't have anywhere else. So they had
a few little mini tours that somebody kind of put together.
They was a gentleman that put like a a month
series where you play one tournament a week. It was
a four day tournament and and you pay twenty eight dollars,
(27:50):
So it's like seven seven a week of tournament. I
mean some weeks there were fifty players, some weeks there
were ninety players. Is it just randomly and it's just
a big gambling game. I mean, obviously they took a
little money off the top to kind of run the
business and run things, but it was just a big
go put your money in the pot and go play
(28:12):
against all these guys that I mean, there was a
bunch of guys that the same in my boat, that
struggled to get the tour card to go out, and
we'd every you know, two three times a year, we'd
meet and play these little gambling games, so to speak,
and keep working and working and working and trying to
(28:36):
get her tour card. You know.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
So this is what you had to do because there
was nowhere else to go.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, no, there wasn't anywhere else to go play, wasn't
any other you know, GG tour, many tours, there wasn't
anything else, and too expensive to go over to play
in Asia Japan, you're a I mean I couldn't afford
to do that either. There wasn't much opportunity to go
(29:06):
do that for.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Me, so Okay, so you make it in your first
year is eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Right, yeah, eighty seven eighty seven.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
So what's I would imagine you had to learn to
like travel, like you had to learn to do this.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, it was. There was a change. I mean to
figure out organize your suitcase to minimum of what you
needed to really have and what you need to take.
I mean the first few times I was bringing everything
(29:46):
thinking I needed I mean, however many pairs of socks
or how many shirts I needed? And I'm like, I
didn't know how to do it. And then I got
to gotch my clothes somewhere else, and I mean it
just was a whole new world, new adventure in my career,
(30:07):
my life that I needed to learn and figure out
and and but that was part of it that in
a way, I took it as as fun because it's
a new adventure, right, and I'm doing something that I love,
stuffing I enjoy and this other stuff on the side
that washing your clothes, and you know, you had to
(30:28):
learn how to travel, make your airfare and get rented cars,
and I mean it just it was something that was scary.
I mean I've never done it before, but I had
to do it, and I hadn't back down, and I
kind of actually look forward to it because I knew
I had to do this. I had to learn it. Yea.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
And not only that, but that meant that meant you
were doing what you really wanted to do. Yeah, that
was part. That was part of the package of all that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
So so your first year, how many events did you
play in first year?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Oh? I'm not what I played. I played a lot.
I mean I was one of those guys that liked
to play and love to play. I was probably probably
in the close to thirty maybe low thirties somewhere around
there tournaments and.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
So okay, so I was.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Called one of those journeyman guys. But I played thirty
to sometimes thirty three thirty four tournaments a year.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
So all right, so you go out there, you play,
you know, you obviously learn to wash your clothes and
things like that, But like, did you have that moment
your first year where you were like, Okay, yeah, I
know that guy's been out here for five years, he's
been out here for fifteen years, and yeah he's that,
but he's not He's not that much better than me.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Uh, you know, I still being a naive kid from
a small town. I was still in awe of, you know,
the players that I've watched whatever they could on TV
and seen the names when we had golf magazine and
(32:11):
golf books that you kind of learned a lot and
read about all the stats of players. I mean you
run into you know, Nick Fouldo, Greg Norman, I mean
even Jack Micklace and Johnny Miller. I mean he's and
finally you're seeing and being around these guys that that
(32:32):
you've watched and you know and you've heard about, and
they've won majors and they've done all this successful golf,
and so I was starstruck. I was nervous. I was
I couldn't approach him, but I kind of stood back
and kind of watched, and I've kind of admired and
(32:54):
tried to figure out what they were doing, what they
were working on, and tried to kind of listen. And
then I didn't mind sneaking up behind the golfer and
hit balls right next to them on the range. When
they had an instructor or two and they had a
group of people talking about golf and grips and how
(33:15):
to hit this and what to do. I mean, I
didn't have recorders back then, but I wish I had
one because I like sneaking up and kind of listening
to what they were talking about and trying to learn
from them. And I mean, I figure any information, I mean,
it might help me. It might might not fit into
my style, but I was willing to kind of give
(33:36):
it a try and learn through all that stuff. I
was too intimidated to walk up and you know, hey,
Johnny Miller, can you give me a few pointers, a
few tips. I didn't have the nerve to go do that.
I couldn't just jump right into it. I kind of
(33:56):
stood back on the back burner and kind of learned.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
That's that's pretty that's that's interesting. Okay, So when we
go to this, we're come back for this commercial break
and we're gonna talk about like, obviously now we're to
eighty seven, but there's some you have some awesome years
out there, so we're gonna talk about that. And right
when we come back to the rich Comwoll Golf Show,
Welcome back to the rich Comwoll Golf Show. We're joined
by Jada and Blake. Jays basically just walked us to
(34:24):
getting onto tour. In eighty seven. So so obviously you
know you're you're a rookie, then you're not, and then
you go back the second year and you're actually kind
of not treading water, you're actually swimming pretty quickly. But
so I gotta ask you at one it was there
ever a point early on when you said to yourself,
(34:45):
I can I can win?
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Or were you just always like, Okay, if I play well,
I'll win.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Uh, I don't. I don't know if it was. I mean,
I don't think you can ever I mean guarantee in
your mind that I'm going to win. I mean it's
I never really had that type of mentality part of it.
But I'd set back, I'd watched and I've analyzed, and
(35:15):
I would I would in my mind. I could tell.
And I felt like I could execute the golf shots
that all these guys were pulling off. I just had
to learn how to do it. I had to control it.
I had to kind of, you know, figure out how
to get the whole package kind of going. And I
(35:38):
felt like I could win. I felt like I could compete.
I felt like I could, I mean, beat the guys.
I could do everything they did. And it wasn't like
a guarantee, but I was going to pursue and work.
(35:59):
My work was determined enough that I'm gonna I'm gonna
work so I feel like I can prepare my game
and have a good chance of winning golf tournaments. That
was just kind of my mindset. I don't want to
put pressure on myself of saying that I should win
this week. I'm good enough this week I should win.
(36:20):
But golf such a delicate game that you can't force
the situation to happen instead of just kind of kind
of come to you. And you've got to allow it
to happen instead of force it. And I kind of
tried to stay in that mentality.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
So okay, So so as we go through eighty seventy,
you know, all the way up until you know ninety one,
when you when you win and you like, so you
had to be seeing some level of improvement every year, right,
I mean, at some on some aspect of it, whether
you whether you putted it better or whether you you know,
(36:56):
you drove it better, whatever it was. You had to
keep kind of improving on them on something every year.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Go so what so, like, was there any one thing
that like like each year did you focus on one
thing or each year did you just say, Okay, you
know what, we're going to do this this better, We're
going to try and do all of this better.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I actually took it as a as the whole package.
I mean, there's I think that there's a process of
you've got to drive the ball. You got to keep
the ball in the fairway. And when I first got
out there, I i I didn't play golf courses that
(37:43):
were really tree lined or had a lot of rough.
I didn't look very tight, you know. I could just
feel like I could just kind of swing aggressive of
the driver and if I missed the fairway it was
light rough. I could hit my nine iron, you know,
was almost like a shot out of the fairways sometimes.
And when I got out there, I had to learn
(38:05):
that I had to execute more shots in the fairway.
So each time I played, each year, whatever, I developed
things that I needed to kind of better myself on.
And you know, and then the greens were a lot
faster than I played, sometimes a lot firmer, So you
(38:27):
got to learn a little bit of a shipping technique,
learn how to spin the ball. Possibly when the putting.
The speeds were, you know, a lot quicker than I played,
so you had to slowly kind of learn those and
get comfortable. And I mean each week I played, I
(38:49):
mean there was times that I felt like I drove
it really well and the irons were not quite there.
Next week it's like, oh, I work so much on
my irons. It my driver struggled, and then my irons
were good. So trying to get that whole package of
all it to work. At one time, I knew I
(39:10):
was close of getting them all together, but it just
didn't seem like it was happening, and you never know
what it's going to and then all of a sudden,
the package starts kind of closing together and you feel
comfortable and your shots are less stress and you feel
more comfortable and and you just kind of progress from
(39:34):
that and let's let the winds happen when they happen.
And that in San Diego was the first one. I
had it at San Diego, so it was you know,
it's just that package. It just falls together and it
happens in the comfort level and confidence you have just
(39:56):
allows it to happen.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, comfort level is huge, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Because you got to be comfortable, like, okay, so you know,
I'm sure you could recite shop by shop by shopping.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Every one of them.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
As you get closer to winning, you got to just
be as comfortable as you were on day one, on
Thursday afternoon at you know, on whole sex. You got
to be comfortable with all that.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
So there's even a yeah, go ahead, there's even a
comfort level of feeling comfortable about yourself. I mean, because
now all of a sudden, I've got to go to
the press room. I gotta go do interviews. I gotta
go after each round. I mean they're talking to you,
going here, you're going there. And usually I just walk
(40:39):
off the course, so grab a snack or whatever. If
I want to go hit balls, I'll go hit balls.
And now all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, I'm
the if you get a chance to win, And so
I got to go over everything. So you're getting pulled
different directions, and I I mean, it took a while
to even get used to that of having the exposure
(41:01):
of everybody's my name's being broadcasted and in the papers,
and and it's like, I mean I never thought about that.
I never thought about my name being in the limelight.
I just I just wanted to win a golf tournament.
So those things I had to get comfortable with, even
to kind of deal with the hype of you're the
(41:24):
leader of the golf tournament. You got a chance to win.
And I mean so that even was a scenario that was,
you know, a little bit difficult to sometimes to kind
of feel comfortable with being a shy kid. I didn't
like all that attention and I wanted to kind of,
you know, slide in secretly and take a win. I
(41:47):
didn't want to boast about it kind of guy. So
learning how to deal with the press was even a
different different process.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Okay, so so like San Diego, you win, what's the like,
what's what's the what's the one? Like you know, if
I if I you know, said, you know, played that game, Like, okay,
san Diego win, what's the thing.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
That pops into your head?
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Obviously you won, but like it was there a moment
that you you kind of hang on to.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Uh, I know the one I mean going through the
rounds for a second third day. I mean, you don't
You're trying to pace yourself. You was trying to play
the best you can and get your position to win.
And and then when I played the last round, I
mean I was kind of plotting around, and they didn't
(42:35):
have as many leaderboards, so you didn't really know exactly
how things were going. They only had like maybe a
couple each nine, so it wasn't a lot really, and
they didn't have all the people, you know, commentators out
there kind of so you really didn't know for sure.
And and I ended up seeing the leaderboard on like, oh,
(43:01):
I think it was thirteen or something like that, and
I think I'd had a little bit of a lead.
And then on fifteen I'd hit a shot over the
green and it was fast downhill, not a very good
lie and thought about chipping it, and I'm like, man,
(43:22):
I just don't know if I like chipping. And I'm
just going through this thing. I can remember to this
day my thought process. And I told my Caddy. I says,
you know, I says, I, I just don't feel comfortable.
I says, I think I might just put this because
it's coming down off this hill and I think I'm
gonna put it. And so I ended up grabbing my
(43:45):
putter and when I hit the pott comes trickling down there,
bouncing through all the zoas cocular grass that San Diego had,
and bouncing all over and it rolls on the green,
rolls down and goes in. And at that point right there,
I felt like, I think it gave me like a
(44:07):
three shot lead that I that I noticed even And
so that shot right there always pops into my head
when I people say about my win in San Diego,
is is that one shot gave me the confidence and
just kind of the boost I needed to feel like
(44:31):
that I can win the tournament.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
To finish now, now we can finish. Now we can go,
we can.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Get it, we can get it then and and it
took I don't know why. That just the nerves that
I'd kind of had a kind of every shot you
kind of hit and you have little nerves every time,
and all of a sudden, it's just like just like
the peace kind of came over and the comfort and
confidence just was there so I could relax and ease
(45:00):
my way through the last three holes to finish off
the wind. So that was that, that one shot that
went in. I'm on the back of fifteen green that
I always think about when when the San Diego tournament
kind of comes around people talking about it.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
That's pretty cool that that's that's really cool, like like
like that's see again, I go back to what you're
telling before about your confidence, like, Okay, I'm not comfortable
with this, but I'm comfortable with that. So I'm gonna
go with that because that gives me. That gives me,
that's me I can I can do that. I'm not
comfortable doing it that way, I'm gonna do it this way.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
So all right, So I got to ask you a question. Okay,
so who yeah, how many how many years you play
the PGA Tour?
Speaker 3 (45:48):
Played like I played probably fifteen straight years. Then I
which a lot of people have, which I suffered some
back issues. I started getting some back issues, and so
I was in and out for the next five years,
(46:11):
which I still played quite a bit the last five years.
So I had twenty years of really good, solid PGA
Tour play. Fifteen were you know where I didn't lose
my tour card. I kept my tour card, you know,
from the first year all the way to the fifteen
year period, and then I kind of dabbled between you know,
(46:32):
the one twenty five to one fifties, so I had
conditional status, but I still played quite a bit for
those next five years. So but it was, you know,
pretty good twenty year.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Period, all right.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
A bit.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
I got to ask you, who's the best player I
ever played with?
Speaker 3 (46:54):
You know, I got a chance to play with Jack Nicholas,
and I played a few holes with Arnold Palmer, didn't
actually get to play a competition round with Arnold Palmer.
And then those guys were I mean historic players, I
(47:18):
mean their history of golf as crazy. Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer,
Travine on those guys, and then you know, enjoyed Tom Watson.
And then I'm out there and then you get this
young kid, Tiger Woods that comes out, and that's where
(47:40):
crazy different level of golf happened and came about. And
having a chance to play with him, you know, bump
shoulders with him, talk with him, I mean, that's I
can put Ham into that category of those kind of
(48:04):
you know, kind of older players that have already generated
their life careers through golf. And then then when tiger
Wood comes out, it's like, holy cow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
All right, Well, I told you that this wouldn't take
that long so it doesn't feel like I hope it
didn't feel like really long time talking to me. But
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
It was so cool hearing those stories you were telling,
and and so I just want to say thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Oh you bet. Yeah, I'm glad to do it. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
You bet. This is the Rich Gombwell Golf Show.
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