November 19, 2025 • 48 mins
Bob Baldassari, the CEO and Founder of Re-Imagine Golf, joins the show to talk about his family's legacy in golf and the premise of Re-Imagine Golf. Plus, ideas on how PGA professionals can stregthen the "shot euphoria" that gets golfers hooked on the game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Rich komwoal Goof show. It is the middle
of November and we had the first cold snap in
the Northeast today, so the highest thirty seven. And the
good news is the heigh tomorrow is thirty one, so.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's going the wrong way.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We are joined this week by Bob Baltaseri. Bob is
a PJA professional who has a really really cool golf
story and some really really has accomplished a lot of
really great things in his career.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So we're going to jump right into this. Bob. First off,
thanks thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, Rich, it's awesome being with you, and you're keeping
me warm with those nights.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Talking about so as we do with everybody. Bob, go
ahead and tell me about your early years and how
you got into this game and some of your early
early successes.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, you know, I guess I'm a little bit so
fortunate and blessed. My dad was a PGA professional and
know the phrase right out of the crib was me.
A lot of photos of me crawling around trying to
you know, hit something around object with some sort of
I don't know what, but you know, yeah, just golf family.
(01:12):
My sisters played golf my mother played Golf's mother was
very very good. She's still around so making golf swings.
And my dad whole family's from the Boston area, but
he get into golf through a caddy program up in
New Hampshire, and the gentleman that was running that golf
course wanted to bring my dad when he was eighteen,
(01:33):
down to Florida to work in the winners as a
caddy master. So he said to my dad, if anybody
knows the Boston General Boston area, he basically said, yeah,
meet me a certain day at six am on Route
one and I'll pick you up. We're going to Florida.
Those things wouldn't happen to be, No, that's right. Yeah.
I grew up with my sisters. We were driving Florida
(01:53):
in the winter and he was the PGA head pro
at Kenilworth Lodge in Seabring. It's a historic building there
that's big, huge pink hotel, and so that's how I
grew Upbridge. I thought it was pretty normal. I thought
it was great. In the spring, we go back to Boston.
My dad was a head pro at a private club
outside of Boston, so back and forth like that. I
(02:13):
think we were the first people that went into Disney
World when it opened in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Wow, that's a point.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, that's the Sebring twenty four hour races right in Seabring.
The race car drivers used to stay at the hotel
at the Kenilworth Lodge. So it was a really I
don't know. It was just a fantastic way to grow
up around a lot of successful people and adults and golfers.
And yeah, I played right out of the crib and
played as a kid, junior events, high school, in college
(02:41):
and I tried the Mini Tours for a while. I
had some surgeries and some injuries that didn't help, but
then followed in basically my dad's path to be a
PGA member.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
At the time, it was called Walsh College. It's in Canton, Ohio,
not Walsh University. A football team, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
But then they did then they did not.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Not when I was there now. But the golf with
the golf was outstanding. A bunch of us turned pro
out of uh as an A N A I N
A I eight school. But we played a lot of
Division one and we either won or did really well.
We went to nationals a few times. We had a
great group of guys and it was a really strong team.
(03:27):
That was actually where Bob Huggins started his basketball coaching career.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I knew that.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So it was a you know, a little a little
fun tidbit.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I knew that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
The interesting thing is is, you know, when then then
he moved on to you know, then ultimately he became
highly successful at University of Cincinnati, and there the funny
thing about him was that at Cincinnati he was the
precursor to the one and done because those kids, you know,
didn't do so well in school, so they weren't one
(03:55):
and done. They just But it was funny because Bob
was at it was an academical American at the you know,
and you say yourself, Okay, this guy coached at Cincinnati
for eighteen years and I had trouble graduating kids, but
the guy who was academic all America. Yeah, I mean,
it's it's just like how things just coincide.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So all right, so you so you.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
All right, so tell me a little bit about the
The first off, let me ask you this question. You
mentioned your dad in New Hampshire. What part what part
was he working at?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Where do you work?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Uh? He was when he was fourteen. They would have
a train station in the Boston North End and all
the kids in the North End or a lot of
them will go up to this Mapledale up in forget
the name of the town in New Hampshire, but it
was about a four hour train ride. So that was
(04:47):
what he did in the summers. Learned golf, enjoyed golf,
became a PGA member, went to the old Dune Eden
Business School in Florida. Another fun fact was he was
playing at Blue Hill Country Club have been a like
a pro member event one year and this guy says, hey,
I really like you, and once you come and work
for me, I'm gonna, you know, just start a business
(05:08):
and we're really going to grow big. And my dad said, now,
I really love the golf industry. And the guy said,
all right, well, when you want to get in a
golf if you call me. It's the guy that started
dunkin Donuts. I could have been a coffee guy, you could.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You could have been a coffee guy sitting behind the
goal at every Boston Bruins game, every Boston Bruins game,
you know, and like not had to worry about getting
up on Sunday morning. It I don't know, five point
thirty in the morning.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, you know, exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So all right, So then okay, so you come out
of college, you're going to try to play, right, tell
me about a little bit of success there, because I
know you had some but obviously not as much as
you wanted. But but tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, you know a lot of guys you and I
Rich and others that you know you're starting to play well.
And my dad was very supportive. He's like, you know,
just give it a try. You absolutely never know what
can happen, and if nothing pans out, it's a great
experience and you meet people. And I was at Western
Golf Club W E. S. T O N. Western Golf
Club just out out of Boston, was working with Tony Morosco.
(06:12):
And Tony was just amazing Hall of Fame. He's literally
national PGA America Hall of Fame member, iconic guy in
New England, and he played so many tours and some
tour events, and so Tony did fundraising. He got behind
all the Western Golf Club members and the female assistant,
Lisa Aboud, and I we got funded to go play
(06:33):
many tours for a couple of winners, and you know,
it was great. Had a lot of really nice comments
from other tour players. I played with some guys ended
up being out on tour and they all said, you know,
you've got a short your short game is tour worthy
and you drive it so far, but why do you
keep firing at every pins? One of my issues and
(06:55):
then I just had some physical issues, and uh, but
it's you know, everything works for a reason.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Everybody kind of everybody kind of finds their their path,
sometimes not on how they mapped it out, but how
kind of there's a little bit of a higher power
thing going on a lot of times. So tell me
about Okay, so then so then that you get hurt,
you eat hurt. You can't quite make it that way,
so so where do you go then? So now you're
(07:23):
going to become PG professional, right because we're not going
to play on TV. So now we got to go
get the job.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, and there was sort of a you know, I
don't know what the right wording is, but you know,
back in the day, nobody seemed to get a head
pro job by it. They had to be in their thirties.
So I was really adamant, like, hey, I grew up
in this game. My dad was PG pro. I know
a lot of stuff. I want to be a head
pro before I'm thirty. So I started interviewing when I
(07:50):
was twenty eight, and you know, the h factor was
always there, But when I was twenty nine, it became
the head PGA pro at River Run Golf Club in
Ocean City, Maryland. So my wife and I my wife
six months pregnant, we've got a brand new well six
months baby. We're pretty well newly married. Going to an
area that was only five golf courses, now it's a
(08:12):
major golf destination. When I went there, nobody really knew
where Ocean City was. But I just, you know, I'm
just not afraid of anything, and we're just playing golf.
And it's the golf industry. And I've said this a
million times, and you know, I do get a little frustrated.
The industry gets in its way with tradition and history,
which is great, but and I just was, I don't know,
(08:34):
I thought the challenge was awesome, rich and I got
to owned the golf shop and owned some of the concessions.
So that was what I saw my dad's generation do.
They were entrepreneurs, and I think that's a component missing
in the golf industry big time, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
No doubt. So how long did you stay there?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I was in Ocean City, a river run for eleven years,
and then I had a phone call and ended up
having a a really amazing experience working for Dean Beeman,
who was former PGA Torque Missioner and Gary Shall, former
president of the PJ of America, and they hired me
for their cannon Ridge Golf project in Fredicksburg, Virginia, and that,
(09:15):
I mean, that thing's just amazing. It never really panned
out which was on paper, but it was beyond a
brilliant plan, beyond amazing that you know, just some timing,
you know, yes, timing the issue one life. But the
development is still there as far as the Celebrate Virginia,
which is immediately off A Route ninety five in Trodicksburg,
(09:38):
and the golf component ended up not flying. But I
was there when Joe Staranka, who was the CEO of
the PGA of America at the time, called me and said, Hey,
I want you to come down and talk to me
about the PJA Village PGA Golf club general manager of position.
So I ended up leaving, and Dean and Gary gave
me a hard time about it.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
But you know, well let me let me assu even
because you mentioned so. So tell me tell me about
like ky Dean Beaman, good guy, bad guy, intense guy,
not intense guy.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well he great guy, absolutely great guy. I you know,
obviously working with him for him after the tour, so
he was a little bit different. But I'll tell you
two things in the interview. When I talked to him,
he goes, all right, Bob, two things. I never want
my name associated with a slow blake slow play golf course.
I said, fantastic, okay, great, and we did some We
(10:29):
did some pretty big stuff there. That was we cut
through the clutter around DC was pace of play programming,
and we did. But the other thing he said to
me was, hey, I never want you to be afraid
of making any decision. And he said, you know, I
made some million dollar maybe bad decisions at the tour,
but those resulted in a billion dollar good decisions from learnings.
(10:51):
And I said, Mandan, you're you're singing my tune because
I'm just not afraid of doing anything, absolutely anything, just
nothing phases me. And it's been part of my legacy.
It's been part of what I've done. And there's a
lot of examples. But you do learn from giving things
to try. And you know, I don't mean this the
wrong way what's sor rich, but I do. I say
(11:11):
this like, it's a golf industry. We're having fun, we're
playing golf, right, nobody's shooting at us. You know, we're
not putting on the uniform the United States and going
overseas like you know this. Some people are too afraid
of some things than golf. It just shocks me.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, it's interesting you say that because, like I have
to tell you know, I tell you I have a
twenty three year old son, and I have a and
he's in finance in DC. And I have a daughter
who is a speech pathologist. And I do what I
do and you do what you do. But it's like
nobody is going, realistically on a daily basis, nobody's going
(11:46):
to die.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So let's just.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Take it easy here and let's figure out how we
can make this a little bit better and see if
we can't have a little bit more fun because the
world is full of serious every day all you have
to do is read something.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
The world's full of serious.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But like we we're lucky, Like we're lucky, like like
people people were like happy. We get to go to
a place where people are happy to go to.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So we worked there. We worked there.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, exact, exactly, exactly, like there's there's nobody, there's nobody
walking down the trail going Okay, today we're going to
run six miles and you know, climb two mountains. No,
there's some golf balls. You know, see if we can't
make some three footers, everything's going to be okay. It's
gonna be all right, you know, And it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And it really pumped me. When I was at cannon Ridge.
We were about, I don't know, less than ten miles
from Quantico, and and you know, you could hear when
they were doing training up there in the basic school,
and you know, we always said that's the that's the
sound of freedom. And I had first lieutenants and I
had all kinds of military people coming through cannon Ridge
(12:52):
and just days before they were in fighting in Iraq
or overseas, and then they're in my golf shop and
it just makes me feel, yeah, seez I'm doing golf stuff.
But you know, they they needed that release. They you know,
obviously we have PJA hope now and Dan Rooney helps start.
You know, he got fulls the bonner going. I was
right on the forefront helping him at PGA Golf Club.
(13:14):
And you know, anything we can do for the US military,
first responders, everybody that's really really in a strustful position,
you know, golf can be a benefit.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Right And I do, I do. I do agree with
you the whole serious thing. It's like, oh my god,
wait what happens if we go outside the guardrail. I'll
bet you the sun comes up tomorrow. I'll bet you
the grass will keep growing.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I swear it well. I swear it well. I promise
you it will. And I agree with you. I agree
with you.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I just you know, and you've been around it. You've
been around it. I've been around it. It's just how
stalled we get for out of fear. Oh my god,
what what might happen? Okay, so what if it does happen.
What's the worst thing that can happen? We make a mistake.
It's okay, it's a golf cart. It's okay. We're gonna
be all right, you know, it's around the golf, you know,
(14:04):
it's it's more and I think I think that that that. Yeah,
I agree, I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't
agree with you more so. All right, So that didn't
so work out so well, Canon Ridge, but so, but
Beamon's a really good dude, right.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
He's a great guy. He's you know, the stories, you know,
and I never try to overdo it, but it was
great to get in conversations with him and you know,
learn more about the tour, and obviously I I soak
it all in. I'm I'm going to put in the
old school, to put in the history of the game.
And I've always loved hey growing up in Boston. I
love history. I love history and geography. So I know
(14:44):
a lot about the history of the game. And it
was neat to just pick his brain on some stuff
and what he did and how I came up with
TPC sagraph and that whole story. I mean, you know,
Dean took the PGA tour from station wagons to jets, yes,
you know, he just you know, he did an amazing,
amazing job. And you know, I remember him saying when
(15:05):
he went for the tour, the tour, the PGA tour
literally owned like a printer, a desk. The full assets
were like a thousand bucks or something. And when we
stop and think about it, it's amazing what the guy.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Did, right, Right, that's a that's a really that's a
really good way of putting it. You started thinking about
like buses to jets, you know, like you know, tricycle
to motorcycle. I mean, this is a it's a different world.
It's a different world, all right. So when we come
back from this commercial break, we're going to talk about
your move, your move to Florida and and all that
(15:39):
fun stuff. Uh, this is the Ridge Comboll Golf Show.
Welcome back to Riche Comwoll Golf Show. We're joined this
week by Bob Baltasari. And Bob is started out his
his career and his father is a PJ professional and
and so Bob was a Canon Ridge. Then okay, so
Canon Ridge, You're go along and it's not really kind
(16:01):
of the momentum is kind of slowing, right, I mean,
so then you get a phone call, So tell me
about that phone call.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, I mean we were, you know, kenn Ridge was growing,
we were starting to build a clubhouse and things were,
you know, working hard on it. But yeah, I get
a call from Jose Uranka the position for general manager
PGA Village was open. I sort of knew of it,
but you know, of the position. I sort of knew
that they're a change might be coming. But I said
(16:31):
to Joe, I'm not really you know, the ultimate corporate guy,
and but he said, you know what I bring to
the table my player develpment background. I had won a
national award. They wanted a lot of that there and
just less of the suit and tie really getting out there,
you know, and just being a PGA member with the team.
And there's almost three hundred people on the team. There.
(16:53):
There's three golf courses at PGA Golf Club itself, the
Want to Make a Rider and the Die the PGA
at the time, the PGA Country Club that's been sold.
At the time, overseeing the forty two acre PGA Learning
and Performance Center, and I was also overseeing the PGA
Museum of Golf. So pretty big job, a lot, a
lot of move aparts, but absolutely loved it. It was
(17:15):
great getting to me a ton of PJ pros around
the country and there's been some frustrations down there lately,
I know, I still stay in touch with everybody, so
but it was, you know, it turned it turned out great.
It's I thought about saying. Obviously in the Middletlantic section,
I thought about trying to go for the national board
and then giving it a shot for a national officer.
(17:35):
So down there I was staff, so I couldn't do
that right, but it worked out really really well.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So all right, so I got to believe that that
you leave, you leave Virginia and you go to you
go there. So I got to believe the learning car
has got to be massively, massively steep, massively steep.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yees no, so you know, at the end of the day,
we're still playing golf. It's still golf centric. And that
part was good. There were three hundred names to remember, Yes,
I wanted to know everybody's name and a lot, you know,
just all sort of good information that you know, that's
how we build a team. And then you know, just
(18:19):
when I went there, the learning center, we try to
reinvigorate that. My last year, I think we had ten
eleven national golf teams practicing out there. You know, I
thought that could be sort of the Olympic of golf
four runner way before you know, they were thinking about
golf and Olympics. But there's a lot of business side
of it. But at the end of the day, yeah,
(18:39):
it's interpersonal, it's personal relationships, it's building trust, it's playing golf.
So the bedrock of everything was sort of right there
for me anyways.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So so how much did you What do you think?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
What do you think? What do you think? Personally?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
The best, the biggest impact you made, most positive impact
you made there.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Probably just being visible and being around and playing golf
of the members and still giving golf lessons and still
being as much of a well rounded PGA member that
I knew. I had a title and I knew, yeah,
the buck would stop with me, and I got to
do certain things to run the business. But I told
everybody that the the hierarchy organizational chart was me and
(19:27):
everybody on the same level. Everybody. We're all working hard,
We're working as a team. I'm not better anybody else.
It's just you know, building the team, really knocking out silos.
We started using the phrase one team, one page. We're
all on the same page. So I felt good about that.
I fucking about bringing in certain events, and we were,
(19:50):
you know, certainly working at a high level. Yeah, it
was a great, great team effort. I thought it was
a blast. I thought about staying there. But then Joe
strank I made another phone call to me or we
were talking and they were starting Golf two point zero,
which to reinvigorate the golf industry, to get more people playing,
more retention, on and on, and I just thought it
(20:10):
was a great fit for really what so going back
real quick rich So I wanted with dem Beaman. I said, hey,
you know, maybe I never leave here, but if I
don't want to start my own consulting company, I want
to call it reimagine Golf. And here's why I want
to say it, to reimagine everything in the sport, in
the game and the business and the teaching. Even a scorecard.
(20:30):
Why do we have a scorecard the way we have
a scorecard? So yeah, he chuckled and said, well, I
hope you don't leave, you know, tomorrow. But so reimagine
Golf was on my brain all those years, were Dean,
all the years at PGA Golf Club, and then even
in my years at PGA headquarters and the Golf Tour
golf two point zero was a little bit of a
nice alignment with my mindset for reimagine golf.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, so it's interesting you said that one team one page.
You know, I have a I'm gonna summon hive facility now,
and I've been a private facility as general managers and
head golf professional.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
And I always tell people all the time, the most
important people on any staff is the guy who washes
the dishes in the restaurant and the kid who washes.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
The carts outside.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, because if you can't because if you don't have
clean plates, there's nobody making foot, there's nobody making foot.
And if you don't have a clean golf cart, that
that member, that guest whatever is just be like, Okay,
this is starting in a bad, bad, bad way. Everybody's
jumped into a hotel room or a rental car where
(21:40):
somebody made a mistake and didn't clean it correctly, and
it just changes the whole mindset. But like those people,
those people need to know they're the most important thing going, oh, yeah,
you had a title.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I get it, I have a title.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Everybody, you know, that's all that's really cool, But you
know what the most important people going are the people
who make us. You know, we do the same thing
they do, we just do it a different way. Yeah,
it's fascinating to me. It's fascinating. So talk to me
about reimagine. Reimagine.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Uh, well, you know, I well, I'm staying at headquarters before,
I guess till twenty into twenty eighteen. But you know,
I always wanted, you know, if I went out and
did some things on my own. Well, the PGA was
beening at Frisco, and I didn't want to move there
and was told that, you know, I wouldn't have my
job if I didn't move there full time. So but
(22:31):
I was ready. You know, I've been doing a lot
of things and had a national sort of standpoint and
national visibility and it was really really amazing and great
and humbling, and but I still you know, my DNA
is green Grass from my dad, and you know, my
sister is working the game too, and my son is
a PGA associate coming through the ranks, and so you know,
(22:53):
our family is all golf centric, and I just felt
like I wanted to get back to the green Grass
and I've been dying to buy my own golf course
or two courses or three courses rich, and I wanted
to put my money where my mouth is to show
the industry here's how you can have a sustainable business.
Here's how you get people in the game, you keep
them in the game. And the two things I get
(23:15):
asked all the time. But reimagined golf was enhancing the
experience at the club. It was one big thing, and retention.
So Reimagic golf was about the retention keeping people in
the game, which doesn't get a lot of notoriety. You
talked about in golf at all. It's all about exposure,
all about the front end. We do exposure events. We
(23:35):
get thirty kids out there, everybody high fives, and there's
no follow up. There's no retention tactics, there's no nothing
to keep those kids in the game. But you feel good.
You spend some money and time and pay all hours
to have some kids have some fun. Okay, valid there
is one or two of those kids end up somehow
getting into the game. So I get frustrated with what
I see the industry not doing. Is not done for
(23:58):
a long time, really structured retention tactics and programming, but
also at the facility level of the experience. Just could
you give up popsicle six? Could you do music? Could
you do somethings that don't need one hundred thousand dollars
in your budget? Line at them?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Right?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Well, yeah, exactly exactly. It's not the first visit. It's
it's the thirty fifth visit that we need. The thirty
fifth visit. And I understand you can't have that without
the first one. But the fact of the matter is
you can't get the thirty five. You got to be
looking at thirty five the thirty fifth time, you.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Know, to take that kid.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You know that it's like it's like you get you
know they take about hooking people, Well, yeah, we want
to hook people, but that means that we have something
for them to come back to.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
You run, you run through the month of June and hey,
this was great, Thanks, I'll see you next June. Well
wait a minute, there's six months to go.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You know, we got a lot more to do.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
It's let's good, keep going having fun, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I do agree with you.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I do agree that it's kind of like, hey, it's
really need to do this once, but let's do it
thirty times.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, just some there's there needs to be structure for
adult kids. Whatever it is to just you know, one
and done doesn't really move or inspire somebody, or it
doesn't change habits, so you need some repetitiveness. But you
need to tell people, hey, there's a way for you
to play golf. You don't need fourteen clubs, you don't
need golf shoes, you don't need a whole bunch of
stuff that you know, people think there's barriers. So you know,
(25:28):
it's just the mindset too, with the facility to your
point earlier too, Like I want when we were at
PJA Village, I wanted every single person, three hundred people
on our team to know what we're about, where we're going.
If player development is important, it can't be you and
I as a GM and head pro that are into it.
Everybody needs to know why we're doing. Because somebody's on
(25:48):
the course and they're I don't know, mona green or
raking a bunk or something. Then they see some person struggling.
There's needs to be some empathy there and not just
I'm doing my task. Leave now. What are the small
things we can do to make people feel welcome? And
I take a lot of I mean I just constantly
looking outside the golf industry to these thriving, successful other
(26:10):
industries and what are they doing for experience and retention?
And I'm always pulling some ideas back in.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, because the thing of it is what what what
did Lou Holtz say?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You know?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You the best the best people are the best Steelers.
You know, the best the best thieves, the best coach
are the best thieves. I mean, you can't tell me.
You can't tell me that Bill Belichick or Lou Holtz,
they didn't invent that. Like you can't tell me that
that Bill Belichick did sit there and say, Okay, what
did Chuck Nole do in nineteen seventy five with the Steelers?
Because you know what, I could probably figure and learn
(26:41):
something from that guy, because Chuck Nole was going what
Vince Lombardi did with the Packers in the sixties. You know,
because I'm here now and he's there, then it's you
are you are correct? I mean, there's so much out there.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
That we we do. You know, use the phrase silo.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I I I not that I don't, it's not it's
a word, but but I I do think that the
golf business does that to itself. We we build our
we build these walls around us and say, we know
what we're doing in here, and then we look around
and go, how come more people aren't in here?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Or how more?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
How come more people aren't staying in here? And you
know what I mean, it's it's we built this thing. Hey,
look at you. You know, so I've got this, you
know six, I don't care sixty two hundred yards golf course.
And I have a decent restaurant, and there's cold beer
over there, and and and and we do a junior program.
But but how come, how come we're doing to have
(27:35):
more people? Why aren't there more people in here? Because
this is obviously a pretty good idea because look, there's
some people having fun, So why aren't we doing Why
aren't we seeing more people? Why aren't we you know,
capture when the walls fall down? Why don't they run away?
Why don't they run in?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
So yeah, I mean, go ahead. There's yeah, so many
aspects of that, and I've been studying it, and I've
been trying to be in the forefront of making these
barriers come down, and I you know, I do touch
on the history and tradition of the game is cool.
But at the same time, you know, it's the dress,
it's you know, just even I do a woman's program
(28:15):
called Discover Golf. I do it for men too, but
the guys seem to want to do their own thing
and I'll figure it out. But the ladies. I've been
doing it for thirty years, and I want women to
feel safe and secure at the facility. And it's a
very holistic way of getting somebody in the game, but
again keeping them in the game. And I want them
to understand what a tea time is, how to make
a tea time, Who do you talk to her at
(28:37):
the club? How do you navigate yourself at the club?
And I've told people this all the time for many years,
that there's clubs I'll go to as a middle aged
white guy, second generation PJA member, I'm intimidated. I don't
feel comfortable, right, and so somebody of color and somebody
some ladies. I mean, you know, the industry talks a lot,
and there's been some some improvements in some private clubs
(29:00):
inherently going to be what they are, but as in
general and the golf industry, it's still not the warm
welcoming as it should be.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah, I mean it's fairy because you know you, you
know your pro I call it the HEA's Wrong Clinic.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I do it for ladies.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It's called the he I saw every everything a guy
ever told you about the game of golf is wrong
except for me.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
And I'm like, look, you know what, when.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
You get here, you get here, this is where you're
gonna come over and and and it's going to be
one of three people and they're going to make sure
that they'll say hello to you first. And by the way,
this is how you put your golf clubs on a
on a golf cart. Because there is nothing more embarrassing
that when you.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Pull away and that it's not strapped in and it falls.
There's nothing more embarrassing than that. There isn't. There isn't.
And I tell them all the.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Time, I said, I said, the only reason I know
that's embarrassing because I've done that, you know, and I'm
supposed to know what I'm doing, So don't feel bad
and like and like, so just eliminate that from you.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
From your from your from your from your.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Mirror or your windshield. And then the other thing is
I tell them all the time, tee it up everywhere
you go.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
It's game is pretty hard, So why why do we
want to make it harder? Like what, I understand that.
I understand that Glenna cole at Vere would never have
done that.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
I get that, But Glenna cole at Ver died one
hundred years ago, and and and and I don't and
and so and I'm not trying to get her to
play golf.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I'm trying to get you to play golf. So how
do I get you.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
To play more? I got to make it a little
bit easier. I eat a little bit better, got to
make it a little easier to navigate around here. And
I also got to make the game more enjoyable, more fun.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
And there's a way to you know, people say, oh,
you got a kid in this Savanna and the rules,
and it's yeah, man, a new golfer. You're not playing
a boy the USKA rules. It's like if you went
out to play any sport, you're not going to play
from the official ruling. To get better, you need success,
you need some shot euphoria. And so yeah, all my beginners,
(30:55):
I want them peeing the ball up everywhere. And I mean,
if it's a chip shot two feet off the green,
really care teed up a little bit. Little by little
we take the tea away, but there's some confidence, the
balls getting up in the air, playing the course. This
is my wording, Rich, It's I want you to consume
the game of golf on your terms for the most part,
(31:15):
versus me shoving it down your throat. They have to
do all these things because we're doing it. Yeah, to
your point one hundred years. And if you never kept score,
but you paid to come out to play, and you
replace Davids and you buy some things, I mean that's Hey,
that's a golfer that you don't You don't have to
have a gin handicap. You don't have to do certain things.
(31:36):
And some people do those and it's the great. Hey,
it's awesome. I'm not I'm not trying to have it
both ways. I'm just trying to help people get in
the game and stay in the game because they go,
I don't have all these clubs, I don't have these shoes,
I don't dress right, I don't you know, how do
I get a handicap? This say out the other I
can't play eighteen holes a lot. You know, there's ways
around this to stay in the game, stay in the
(31:57):
golf ecosystem, enjoy it, and have to be thinking like
you're going to play an usc event.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Okay, when we come back from this commercial, we're going
to talk about how you and I see the PGA
of America and how that should be helping do this.
And I'm not so sure, I personally am not. I'm
not so sure we're doing everything we should be doing
to do to do to create that shot euphoria and
that attraction, that magnetization of the game of golf.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
This is the Rich.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Como Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combogolf Show.
We're talking with PGA professional bab Balla sorry today and
we were just talking about really cool like retention grabbing,
pulling people into the game and keeping them in the game,
or you know, kind of you know, raving fans of
(32:50):
the game and how to keep them raving fans of
the game. One of the ways is we might want
to make the game a little bit easier. We also
want to make it more welcoming, want to make it
a lot less rigid stringent. You know, I'm all for
you know, the you know, we all have them.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I mean, we all have them.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You know, I'm gonna play from here all the way back,
and I'm gonna tee it up, and I have all
this nice equipment and all this stuff, and this is
my entire existence.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I'm happy for you, but I need the other two
people in your house to come play. You're already here,
and that's great. I love I love to have you
have it here, but I need other people to come
do this. So all right, So Bob, you're a PGA member,
I'm a pg member. In your opinion, does the PGA
(33:38):
of America do as much as it should or could
to create this welcoming kind of grow the game? Because
that is in the mission statement, grow the Game?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Do we do enough?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
I think there's been some good there's been some good
work to do that. You know. Earlier I was talked
about Golf two point zero. I personally feel bad that
that ended up going away. We were working on some
absolutely I think transformational things that would help the game.
The phrase grow the game, don't really know that anybody
(34:20):
has a clue what that means. And it's a great
it's a great headline. It's a great term that people
throw around, but I've traveled this whole country for for
almost forty one sections. I did business development workshops, probably
development workshops across the pretty much across the country, talking
to PJ pro's golf industry people, and I've said, you know,
(34:41):
what does grow the game mean to you? And there's
a there's thousands of different interpretations, so that that part
it would help it. Whole industry was not the same
playing field as far as knowing exactly what that means.
I don't think it will ever happen. I think the
PGA of America, you know, it's corp. It's from the
high level. They should give you and I what we
(35:03):
need rich to help boots on the ground and get
people in the game, keep people in the game. You know,
some of it has always been a cookie cutter national
program that I've got. It's not going to work at
my club, so I break it apart. I make it
work at my club. But I know a lot of
pros would say that's not going to work in my club,
not going to do it. I just invent stuff on
(35:24):
my own and go do my thing. And it would
be nice if PGA with the old PGA foundation. I've
got some grants for some programming I did with kids
back in Ocean City. I'll call it Streets the Fairways,
And it was getting. It was getting I guess middle school,
(35:45):
high school, but also grammar school, the little kids into
the game, middle school into the game, but also thinking
about college. Well yeah, college golf, but high school golf.
And then the high school kids on a kind of
a work study that they were thinking about careers in golf.
But PGA Foundation they page that up, so they really
(36:05):
don't get any more grants or ways that you could
help the PGA member in the field.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
What did you call that?
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Streets the one streets to fairways.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Wow, I'll probably steal that one too. So so like
like I had somebody tell me the other day that
and I didn't know this, and you probably do, because
I think you're probably way smarter than me. But the
oil company, oil industry, you know, the the Chevron, all
(36:36):
those okay, they all have to contribute to a fund.
It's it's catastrophic fund because they need all the company,
all the oil companies to compete with each other, because
that's how that's how we set prices, because if they're
one company, they'd be charging a million dollars for a
barrel oil because there's only one company, so they so
(36:59):
when there's a there's a catastrophic fund.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So when something.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Goes wrong, they they all, they all, they all correct it,
and they pay all the environmental hazards and fines with
that collective fund. So this person said to me, if
we did that with golf courses, you know, if if
(37:25):
every golf course private, public, whatever. And I understand you
can't ram this down people's roads, but it just got
me thinking, how much better would the game of golf
be if we tore down the financial barrier of playing it?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yeah, well, that's certainly want the barriers for sure.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
And and I'm not saying I'm not saying that I
want you know, I don't want to give away golf
and I'm not trying to. Again, there's a lot in
politics now, you know, bad words like socialization, and so
I don't want to. I don't want to socialism and golf.
I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Is is.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Maybe there's a way that we can that the PGA
of America and its members can say, Okay, how do
we get more people to play instead of just saying, Okay,
I have you know, my three hundred members here, and
you have your three hundred over there, and I have
my you know, thirty three thousand at my place or
whatever it is. Right, how about we collectively raise all
(38:29):
the boats, you know, let's see if we can get
more people to play more, you know more. I think
that's growing the game. I think grow in the game's numbers.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, you know, I don't have this stat right up
the top of my head, but even if everybody played
one more round of golf in the country, yeah, that
moves the needle. If everybody were to bring one friend
into the game and they stuck in the game, you know,
and I'm yeah, I think it's It's been a couple
of years now, but Angiaff had reported at some point
(39:02):
recently that for the first time ever in the game
of golf, more people were playing golf consuming golf off
the golf course than on the golf Yes.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yes, to me, you.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Know, that was certainly a promising sign because to me,
that also said to me, hey, that people were looking
for the activity and didn't have to be so you know,
if eighteen holes in four to five hours doesn't fit
their schedule or this that the other. Uh, there's are
there are ways that people enjoy consuming the game, and
it didn't have to be the golf course. And then
(39:34):
you know, we all heard the next thing was, well,
how do we convert those people in the golfers at
the golf course? So that's a whole other conversation.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, because that's like I heard somebody say that, you know,
a simulator is a gate a gateway drug to my
first tea.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
That's great, that's awesome, that's awesome, and and so like
I do. I saw that stat too, and so I
just you know, I know finances are a big part
of it, but I think it's I personally think it's
actually the commitment. I think and now I'm speaking specifically
the PJ of America. You can say whatever you want it. Yeah,
(40:12):
we have this and we have that, and we have
the Junior League, and we have we have this, that
and the other thing. But and I I'm all in,
I get it. But my whole thing is is if
you look at, for example, the Junior League, Okay, the
first thing you see is a price tag because it's
(40:33):
not exactly cheap. You know, I've got a friend I've
got a friend of mine that's a PG professional in
northeastern northwestern Pennsylvania that when I was up in his
area and we started this together and he still runs it.
He runs his own junior tour. There's like there's like
eight golf courses, ten golf courses, and they just go
to different places and it's not very much to play.
(40:54):
It's like twenty five dollars to play. But like the
thing of it is is he gives away a sleeve
of titleist if you win, but or whatever he's giving
away or you know, but it's not you know, we're
not going to pay a five hundred dollars entry fee
and you know we're going to have you know, we're
I can tell tell Timmy that he's going to play
twelve Junior Tour events at seventy five dollars each and
(41:16):
tell mom and dad, oh, by the way, this is
the this is the only way you can stick in this.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
No, it's not. It shouldn't be. And so that's that
blows my mind.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
That's another good quick story. When I was at pgat
headquarters and as I moved in there, my my position
was director of Eastal Development and jo just Ranka called
me one day. We going into his office. Then he goes,
we need to create a little league of baseball for golf. Yep,
and what we have now is Junior League, right, And
there's a different time. I got called in and it
(41:51):
was like, we're going to do a skills competition with
Augusta National. I'm not sure what we're going to call it.
So I ended up helping to create run and Overseas
drop Chip in Junior League, and both of those were
absolutely one hundred percent quote unquote developmental in nature. But
I traveled this country and I would see parents come
(42:12):
with three four kids or DCP and one kid did it,
and the parents would say, oh, my kid can't get
to that. Guess that he's not that good. I'd say,
that's not why we're doing this. Junior League was the
same thing. It was completely developmental, and that's nudged away
to where you know, once the ESPN gets involved and
you get national exposure, you just know that some not all,
(42:32):
but some PGA members and try to get the optimum
all start team and this and that. So they're still
growing and they're still I think in the right spot.
But those are always concerning rich that both those national
programming which were just so key I think to what
we're seeing now because both are ten years old or
maybe more right, you know, we're seeing the results of it.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, it's interesting because I was, I was, I was
texting my son last night and and you said that
word developed because I saw something on on Facebook and
it said everywhere else in the world, which would be
not in the United States, it's practice, train and develop.
Here in America, it's let's let's play one hundred to
(43:17):
one hundred and twenty games of baseball for under ten.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, exactly. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Like you look at you go, I mean, I I
haven't done it, but but you go look at European
hockey kids. You know, they they play small game, they
play small skills, you know, this and that and then
and then then once a week they play a game.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Maybe, but but they they.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Jump in and they do skills. It's like skills. It's
like try this and try to get better at this
and this. And it was never about your going to
the NHL, Timmy. It was never about your going to
Major League Baseball. It was like, hey, this is how
you hit hit this is how you hit a go
hit it. We'll figure out maybe one day you will
be that good. But right now, I just need you
(44:05):
to get better, to develop yourself, because you know as
well as I do that when you get a kid
that's trying to get better or just developing skill, what
happens with that He meets other people, he meets other kids,
He starts to become kind of a decent, solid citizen
in society. And god knows what the amount of phones
that we have in this world and devices we have
(44:28):
in this world. Anything I can get the kids to
talk to each other about verbally is incredibly more important
than actually how well or how high you hit a
seven iron.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
It's a great point, you know, And I think that
to grown up in the game and fourteen and fifteen
and working for my dad and being around adults and
successful adults, and you have to learn how to talk
and converse and interact, and so yeah, that's that's one
of the really interesting things that golf can still do.
That when you're playing, you either socially or in a tournament,
(45:03):
you get to know somebody and you have to carry well, well,
ma'm to carry on a conversation. But there's definitely things
like that that are really beneficial with youth golfers.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, and and I think I think I think that's
where I think that's where we we like, like I said,
I love our Junior Tour in the Tri State section.
It's it's twenty four events and but it's seventy five
dollars an event. Okay, So now when you when you
go there, and and and like I host one, and
(45:35):
and we have a rules official okay, all right, and
and and now we have you walk down the range
and these kids are these kids have two mortgage payments
in their golf bag. I'm like, wait a minute, wait
a minute, what what This was supposed to be an
opportunity to get kids that tee it up some places
(45:56):
and have some fun. But now it's like, oh, he's
gonna go he and he's going to go there. It's like, well,
wait what happened here?
Speaker 3 (46:04):
So yeah, it's some crazy stories. And I think you
and I both know of and you know it's a
part of the the side of the especially youth golf
that frustrates me.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
Yeah, I'm with you there, And I think and I
think the other thing is I think that PGA professionals,
by and large are really I don't want to say
missing the boat, but I think there's not enough emphasis
on on growing kids to play. I think it's more
about growing kids who are accomplished. I also think it's
(46:39):
the same way with beginning adults. We all want to say, well,
we taught her to you know, she's a club champion
now and she started as not. How about the thirty
ladies that are over there playing every tuesday. You created them, right,
You created them just so happens he might be better,
that she might be better than the other one.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Who cares.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
You created all thirty of them, exactly. I think I
think that I think that is exactly where our emphasis
has to be. Create people, create players, don't don't try
to create the player, if that makes sense exactly. So, Bob,
I'll tell you what. This whole thing went very very quickly,
(47:21):
you know what. And I want to tell you I
appreciate you, know you jumping on, and I know I'll
be talking to you soon, but I just wanted to
say formally thanks for your time, and it was awesome
talking to you.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
My pleasure. Rich is happy to join you at any
time because we can dive into a lot of other
things as well.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
But thank you, thank you. This is the Rich Comwell
Golf Show.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
When you score one hundred and golf, that's usually a
bad thing. But when you score one hundred episodes of
a golf show, that's definitely a good thing. Make sure
to join us next Saturday at nine am for the
one hundredth episode of The Rich Komwall Golf Show right
here on Fox Sports. Wheeling
Welcome to Rich komwoal Goof show. It is the middle
of November and we had the first cold snap in
the Northeast today, so the highest thirty seven. And the
good news is the heigh tomorrow is thirty one, so.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's going the wrong way.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We are joined this week by Bob Baltaseri. Bob is
a PJA professional who has a really really cool golf
story and some really really has accomplished a lot of
really great things in his career.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So we're going to jump right into this. Bob. First off,
thanks thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, Rich, it's awesome being with you, and you're keeping
me warm with those nights.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Talking about so as we do with everybody. Bob, go
ahead and tell me about your early years and how
you got into this game and some of your early
early successes.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, you know, I guess I'm a little bit so
fortunate and blessed. My dad was a PGA professional and
know the phrase right out of the crib was me.
A lot of photos of me crawling around trying to
you know, hit something around object with some sort of
I don't know what, but you know, yeah, just golf family.
(01:12):
My sisters played golf my mother played Golf's mother was
very very good. She's still around so making golf swings.
And my dad whole family's from the Boston area, but
he get into golf through a caddy program up in
New Hampshire, and the gentleman that was running that golf
course wanted to bring my dad when he was eighteen,
(01:33):
down to Florida to work in the winners as a
caddy master. So he said to my dad, if anybody
knows the Boston General Boston area, he basically said, yeah,
meet me a certain day at six am on Route
one and I'll pick you up. We're going to Florida.
Those things wouldn't happen to be, No, that's right. Yeah.
I grew up with my sisters. We were driving Florida
(01:53):
in the winter and he was the PGA head pro
at Kenilworth Lodge in Seabring. It's a historic building there
that's big, huge pink hotel, and so that's how I
grew Upbridge. I thought it was pretty normal. I thought
it was great. In the spring, we go back to Boston.
My dad was a head pro at a private club
outside of Boston, so back and forth like that. I
(02:13):
think we were the first people that went into Disney
World when it opened in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Wow, that's a point.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, that's the Sebring twenty four hour races right in Seabring.
The race car drivers used to stay at the hotel
at the Kenilworth Lodge. So it was a really I
don't know. It was just a fantastic way to grow
up around a lot of successful people and adults and golfers.
And yeah, I played right out of the crib and
played as a kid, junior events, high school, in college
(02:41):
and I tried the Mini Tours for a while. I
had some surgeries and some injuries that didn't help, but
then followed in basically my dad's path to be a
PGA member.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
At the time, it was called Walsh College. It's in Canton, Ohio,
not Walsh University. A football team, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
But then they did then they did not.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Not when I was there now. But the golf with
the golf was outstanding. A bunch of us turned pro
out of uh as an A N A I N
A I eight school. But we played a lot of
Division one and we either won or did really well.
We went to nationals a few times. We had a
great group of guys and it was a really strong team.
(03:27):
That was actually where Bob Huggins started his basketball coaching career.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I knew that.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So it was a you know, a little a little
fun tidbit.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I knew that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
The interesting thing is is, you know, when then then
he moved on to you know, then ultimately he became
highly successful at University of Cincinnati, and there the funny
thing about him was that at Cincinnati he was the
precursor to the one and done because those kids, you know,
didn't do so well in school, so they weren't one
(03:55):
and done. They just But it was funny because Bob
was at it was an academical American at the you know,
and you say yourself, Okay, this guy coached at Cincinnati
for eighteen years and I had trouble graduating kids, but
the guy who was academic all America. Yeah, I mean,
it's it's just like how things just coincide.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So all right, so you so you.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
All right, so tell me a little bit about the
The first off, let me ask you this question. You
mentioned your dad in New Hampshire. What part what part
was he working at?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Where do you work?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Uh? He was when he was fourteen. They would have
a train station in the Boston North End and all
the kids in the North End or a lot of
them will go up to this Mapledale up in forget
the name of the town in New Hampshire, but it
was about a four hour train ride. So that was
(04:47):
what he did in the summers. Learned golf, enjoyed golf,
became a PGA member, went to the old Dune Eden
Business School in Florida. Another fun fact was he was
playing at Blue Hill Country Club have been a like
a pro member event one year and this guy says, hey,
I really like you, and once you come and work
for me, I'm gonna, you know, just start a business
(05:08):
and we're really going to grow big. And my dad said, now,
I really love the golf industry. And the guy said,
all right, well, when you want to get in a
golf if you call me. It's the guy that started
dunkin Donuts. I could have been a coffee guy, you could.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You could have been a coffee guy sitting behind the
goal at every Boston Bruins game, every Boston Bruins game,
you know, and like not had to worry about getting
up on Sunday morning. It I don't know, five point
thirty in the morning.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, you know, exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So all right, So then okay, so you come out
of college, you're going to try to play, right, tell
me about a little bit of success there, because I
know you had some but obviously not as much as
you wanted. But but tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, you know a lot of guys you and I
Rich and others that you know you're starting to play well.
And my dad was very supportive. He's like, you know,
just give it a try. You absolutely never know what
can happen, and if nothing pans out, it's a great
experience and you meet people. And I was at Western
Golf Club W E. S. T O N. Western Golf
Club just out out of Boston, was working with Tony Morosco.
(06:12):
And Tony was just amazing Hall of Fame. He's literally
national PGA America Hall of Fame member, iconic guy in
New England, and he played so many tours and some
tour events, and so Tony did fundraising. He got behind
all the Western Golf Club members and the female assistant,
Lisa Aboud, and I we got funded to go play
(06:33):
many tours for a couple of winners, and you know,
it was great. Had a lot of really nice comments
from other tour players. I played with some guys ended
up being out on tour and they all said, you know,
you've got a short your short game is tour worthy
and you drive it so far, but why do you
keep firing at every pins? One of my issues and
(06:55):
then I just had some physical issues, and uh, but
it's you know, everything works for a reason.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Everybody kind of everybody kind of finds their their path,
sometimes not on how they mapped it out, but how
kind of there's a little bit of a higher power
thing going on a lot of times. So tell me
about Okay, so then so then that you get hurt,
you eat hurt. You can't quite make it that way,
so so where do you go then? So now you're
(07:23):
going to become PG professional, right because we're not going
to play on TV. So now we got to go
get the job.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, and there was sort of a you know, I
don't know what the right wording is, but you know,
back in the day, nobody seemed to get a head
pro job by it. They had to be in their thirties.
So I was really adamant, like, hey, I grew up
in this game. My dad was PG pro. I know
a lot of stuff. I want to be a head
pro before I'm thirty. So I started interviewing when I
(07:50):
was twenty eight, and you know, the h factor was
always there, But when I was twenty nine, it became
the head PGA pro at River Run Golf Club in
Ocean City, Maryland. So my wife and I my wife
six months pregnant, we've got a brand new well six
months baby. We're pretty well newly married. Going to an
area that was only five golf courses, now it's a
(08:12):
major golf destination. When I went there, nobody really knew
where Ocean City was. But I just, you know, I'm
just not afraid of anything, and we're just playing golf.
And it's the golf industry. And I've said this a
million times, and you know, I do get a little frustrated.
The industry gets in its way with tradition and history,
which is great, but and I just was, I don't know,
(08:34):
I thought the challenge was awesome, rich and I got
to owned the golf shop and owned some of the concessions.
So that was what I saw my dad's generation do.
They were entrepreneurs, and I think that's a component missing
in the golf industry big time, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
No doubt. So how long did you stay there?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
I was in Ocean City, a river run for eleven years,
and then I had a phone call and ended up
having a a really amazing experience working for Dean Beeman,
who was former PGA Torque Missioner and Gary Shall, former
president of the PJ of America, and they hired me
for their cannon Ridge Golf project in Fredicksburg, Virginia, and that,
(09:15):
I mean, that thing's just amazing. It never really panned
out which was on paper, but it was beyond a
brilliant plan, beyond amazing that you know, just some timing,
you know, yes, timing the issue one life. But the
development is still there as far as the Celebrate Virginia,
which is immediately off A Route ninety five in Trodicksburg,
(09:38):
and the golf component ended up not flying. But I
was there when Joe Staranka, who was the CEO of
the PGA of America at the time, called me and said, Hey,
I want you to come down and talk to me
about the PJA Village PGA Golf club general manager of position.
So I ended up leaving, and Dean and Gary gave
me a hard time about it.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
But you know, well let me let me assu even
because you mentioned so. So tell me tell me about
like ky Dean Beaman, good guy, bad guy, intense guy,
not intense guy.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Well he great guy, absolutely great guy. I you know,
obviously working with him for him after the tour, so
he was a little bit different. But I'll tell you
two things in the interview. When I talked to him,
he goes, all right, Bob, two things. I never want
my name associated with a slow blake slow play golf course.
I said, fantastic, okay, great, and we did some We
(10:29):
did some pretty big stuff there. That was we cut
through the clutter around DC was pace of play programming,
and we did. But the other thing he said to
me was, hey, I never want you to be afraid
of making any decision. And he said, you know, I
made some million dollar maybe bad decisions at the tour,
but those resulted in a billion dollar good decisions from learnings.
(10:51):
And I said, Mandan, you're you're singing my tune because
I'm just not afraid of doing anything, absolutely anything, just
nothing phases me. And it's been part of my legacy.
It's been part of what I've done. And there's a
lot of examples. But you do learn from giving things
to try. And you know, I don't mean this the
wrong way what's sor rich, but I do. I say
(11:11):
this like, it's a golf industry. We're having fun, we're
playing golf, right, nobody's shooting at us. You know, we're
not putting on the uniform the United States and going
overseas like you know this. Some people are too afraid
of some things than golf. It just shocks me.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, it's interesting you say that because, like I have
to tell you know, I tell you I have a
twenty three year old son, and I have a and
he's in finance in DC. And I have a daughter
who is a speech pathologist. And I do what I
do and you do what you do. But it's like
nobody is going, realistically on a daily basis, nobody's going
(11:46):
to die.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So let's just.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Take it easy here and let's figure out how we
can make this a little bit better and see if
we can't have a little bit more fun because the
world is full of serious every day all you have
to do is read something.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
The world's full of serious.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But like we we're lucky, Like we're lucky, like like
people people were like happy. We get to go to
a place where people are happy to go to.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So we worked there. We worked there.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, exact, exactly, exactly, like there's there's nobody, there's nobody
walking down the trail going Okay, today we're going to
run six miles and you know, climb two mountains. No,
there's some golf balls. You know, see if we can't
make some three footers, everything's going to be okay. It's
gonna be all right, you know, And it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And it really pumped me. When I was at cannon Ridge.
We were about, I don't know, less than ten miles
from Quantico, and and you know, you could hear when
they were doing training up there in the basic school,
and you know, we always said that's the that's the
sound of freedom. And I had first lieutenants and I
had all kinds of military people coming through cannon Ridge
(12:52):
and just days before they were in fighting in Iraq
or overseas, and then they're in my golf shop and
it just makes me feel, yeah, seez I'm doing golf stuff.
But you know, they they needed that release. They you know,
obviously we have PJA hope now and Dan Rooney helps start.
You know, he got fulls the bonner going. I was
right on the forefront helping him at PGA Golf Club.
(13:14):
And you know, anything we can do for the US military,
first responders, everybody that's really really in a strustful position,
you know, golf can be a benefit.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Right And I do, I do. I do agree with
you the whole serious thing. It's like, oh my god,
wait what happens if we go outside the guardrail. I'll
bet you the sun comes up tomorrow. I'll bet you
the grass will keep growing.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I swear it well. I swear it well. I promise
you it will. And I agree with you. I agree
with you.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I just you know, and you've been around it. You've
been around it. I've been around it. It's just how
stalled we get for out of fear. Oh my god,
what what might happen? Okay, so what if it does happen.
What's the worst thing that can happen? We make a mistake.
It's okay, it's a golf cart. It's okay. We're gonna
be all right, you know, it's around the golf, you know,
(14:04):
it's it's more and I think I think that that that. Yeah,
I agree, I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't
agree with you more so. All right, So that didn't
so work out so well, Canon Ridge, but so, but
Beamon's a really good dude, right.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
He's a great guy. He's you know, the stories, you know,
and I never try to overdo it, but it was
great to get in conversations with him and you know,
learn more about the tour, and obviously I I soak
it all in. I'm I'm going to put in the
old school, to put in the history of the game.
And I've always loved hey growing up in Boston. I
love history. I love history and geography. So I know
(14:44):
a lot about the history of the game. And it
was neat to just pick his brain on some stuff
and what he did and how I came up with
TPC sagraph and that whole story. I mean, you know,
Dean took the PGA tour from station wagons to jets, yes,
you know, he just you know, he did an amazing,
amazing job. And you know, I remember him saying when
(15:05):
he went for the tour, the tour, the PGA tour
literally owned like a printer, a desk. The full assets
were like a thousand bucks or something. And when we
stop and think about it, it's amazing what the guy.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Did, right, Right, that's a that's a really that's a
really good way of putting it. You started thinking about
like buses to jets, you know, like you know, tricycle
to motorcycle. I mean, this is a it's a different world.
It's a different world, all right. So when we come
back from this commercial break, we're going to talk about
your move, your move to Florida and and all that
(15:39):
fun stuff. Uh, this is the Ridge Comboll Golf Show.
Welcome back to Riche Comwoll Golf Show. We're joined this
week by Bob Baltasari. And Bob is started out his
his career and his father is a PJ professional and
and so Bob was a Canon Ridge. Then okay, so
Canon Ridge, You're go along and it's not really kind
(16:01):
of the momentum is kind of slowing, right, I mean,
so then you get a phone call, So tell me
about that phone call.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, I mean we were, you know, kenn Ridge was growing,
we were starting to build a clubhouse and things were,
you know, working hard on it. But yeah, I get
a call from Jose Uranka the position for general manager
PGA Village was open. I sort of knew of it,
but you know, of the position. I sort of knew
that they're a change might be coming. But I said
(16:31):
to Joe, I'm not really you know, the ultimate corporate guy,
and but he said, you know what I bring to
the table my player develpment background. I had won a
national award. They wanted a lot of that there and
just less of the suit and tie really getting out there,
you know, and just being a PGA member with the team.
And there's almost three hundred people on the team. There.
(16:53):
There's three golf courses at PGA Golf Club itself, the
Want to Make a Rider and the Die the PGA
at the time, the PGA Country Club that's been sold.
At the time, overseeing the forty two acre PGA Learning
and Performance Center, and I was also overseeing the PGA
Museum of Golf. So pretty big job, a lot, a
lot of move aparts, but absolutely loved it. It was
(17:15):
great getting to me a ton of PJ pros around
the country and there's been some frustrations down there lately,
I know, I still stay in touch with everybody, so
but it was, you know, it turned it turned out great.
It's I thought about saying. Obviously in the Middletlantic section,
I thought about trying to go for the national board
and then giving it a shot for a national officer.
(17:35):
So down there I was staff, so I couldn't do
that right, but it worked out really really well.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So all right, so I got to believe that that
you leave, you leave Virginia and you go to you
go there. So I got to believe the learning car
has got to be massively, massively steep, massively steep.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yees no, so you know, at the end of the day,
we're still playing golf. It's still golf centric. And that
part was good. There were three hundred names to remember, Yes,
I wanted to know everybody's name and a lot, you know,
just all sort of good information that you know, that's
how we build a team. And then you know, just
(18:19):
when I went there, the learning center, we try to
reinvigorate that. My last year, I think we had ten
eleven national golf teams practicing out there. You know, I
thought that could be sort of the Olympic of golf
four runner way before you know, they were thinking about
golf and Olympics. But there's a lot of business side
of it. But at the end of the day, yeah,
(18:39):
it's interpersonal, it's personal relationships, it's building trust, it's playing golf.
So the bedrock of everything was sort of right there
for me anyways.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So so how much did you What do you think?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
What do you think? What do you think? Personally?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
The best, the biggest impact you made, most positive impact
you made there.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Probably just being visible and being around and playing golf
of the members and still giving golf lessons and still
being as much of a well rounded PGA member that
I knew. I had a title and I knew, yeah,
the buck would stop with me, and I got to
do certain things to run the business. But I told
everybody that the the hierarchy organizational chart was me and
(19:27):
everybody on the same level. Everybody. We're all working hard,
We're working as a team. I'm not better anybody else.
It's just you know, building the team, really knocking out silos.
We started using the phrase one team, one page. We're
all on the same page. So I felt good about that.
I fucking about bringing in certain events, and we were,
(19:50):
you know, certainly working at a high level. Yeah, it
was a great, great team effort. I thought it was
a blast. I thought about staying there. But then Joe
strank I made another phone call to me or we
were talking and they were starting Golf two point zero,
which to reinvigorate the golf industry, to get more people playing,
more retention, on and on, and I just thought it
(20:10):
was a great fit for really what so going back
real quick rich So I wanted with dem Beaman. I said, hey,
you know, maybe I never leave here, but if I
don't want to start my own consulting company, I want
to call it reimagine Golf. And here's why I want
to say it, to reimagine everything in the sport, in
the game and the business and the teaching. Even a scorecard.
(20:30):
Why do we have a scorecard the way we have
a scorecard? So yeah, he chuckled and said, well, I
hope you don't leave, you know, tomorrow. But so reimagine
Golf was on my brain all those years, were Dean,
all the years at PGA Golf Club, and then even
in my years at PGA headquarters and the Golf Tour
golf two point zero was a little bit of a
nice alignment with my mindset for reimagine golf.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, so it's interesting you said that one team one page.
You know, I have a I'm gonna summon hive facility now,
and I've been a private facility as general managers and
head golf professional.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
And I always tell people all the time, the most
important people on any staff is the guy who washes
the dishes in the restaurant and the kid who washes.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
The carts outside.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, because if you can't because if you don't have
clean plates, there's nobody making foot, there's nobody making foot.
And if you don't have a clean golf cart, that
that member, that guest whatever is just be like, Okay,
this is starting in a bad, bad, bad way. Everybody's
jumped into a hotel room or a rental car where
(21:40):
somebody made a mistake and didn't clean it correctly, and
it just changes the whole mindset. But like those people,
those people need to know they're the most important thing going, oh, yeah,
you had a title.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I get it, I have a title.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Everybody, you know, that's all that's really cool, But you
know what the most important people going are the people
who make us. You know, we do the same thing
they do, we just do it a different way. Yeah,
it's fascinating to me. It's fascinating. So talk to me
about reimagine. Reimagine.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Uh, well, you know, I well, I'm staying at headquarters before,
I guess till twenty into twenty eighteen. But you know,
I always wanted, you know, if I went out and
did some things on my own. Well, the PGA was
beening at Frisco, and I didn't want to move there
and was told that, you know, I wouldn't have my
job if I didn't move there full time. So but
(22:31):
I was ready. You know, I've been doing a lot
of things and had a national sort of standpoint and
national visibility and it was really really amazing and great
and humbling, and but I still you know, my DNA
is green Grass from my dad, and you know, my
sister is working the game too, and my son is
a PGA associate coming through the ranks, and so you know,
(22:53):
our family is all golf centric, and I just felt
like I wanted to get back to the green Grass
and I've been dying to buy my own golf course
or two courses or three courses rich, and I wanted
to put my money where my mouth is to show
the industry here's how you can have a sustainable business.
Here's how you get people in the game, you keep
them in the game. And the two things I get
(23:15):
asked all the time. But reimagined golf was enhancing the
experience at the club. It was one big thing, and retention.
So Reimagic golf was about the retention keeping people in
the game, which doesn't get a lot of notoriety. You
talked about in golf at all. It's all about exposure,
all about the front end. We do exposure events. We
(23:35):
get thirty kids out there, everybody high fives, and there's
no follow up. There's no retention tactics, there's no nothing
to keep those kids in the game. But you feel good.
You spend some money and time and pay all hours
to have some kids have some fun. Okay, valid there
is one or two of those kids end up somehow
getting into the game. So I get frustrated with what
I see the industry not doing. Is not done for
(23:58):
a long time, really structured retention tactics and programming, but
also at the facility level of the experience. Just could
you give up popsicle six? Could you do music? Could
you do somethings that don't need one hundred thousand dollars
in your budget? Line at them?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Right?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Well, yeah, exactly exactly. It's not the first visit. It's
it's the thirty fifth visit that we need. The thirty
fifth visit. And I understand you can't have that without
the first one. But the fact of the matter is
you can't get the thirty five. You got to be
looking at thirty five the thirty fifth time, you.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Know, to take that kid.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You know that it's like it's like you get you
know they take about hooking people, Well, yeah, we want
to hook people, but that means that we have something
for them to come back to.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
You run, you run through the month of June and hey,
this was great, Thanks, I'll see you next June. Well
wait a minute, there's six months to go.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You know, we got a lot more to do.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
It's let's good, keep going having fun, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I do agree with you.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I do agree that it's kind of like, hey, it's
really need to do this once, but let's do it
thirty times.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, just some there's there needs to be structure for
adult kids. Whatever it is to just you know, one
and done doesn't really move or inspire somebody, or it
doesn't change habits, so you need some repetitiveness. But you
need to tell people, hey, there's a way for you
to play golf. You don't need fourteen clubs, you don't
need golf shoes, you don't need a whole bunch of
stuff that you know, people think there's barriers. So you know,
(25:28):
it's just the mindset too, with the facility to your
point earlier too, Like I want when we were at
PJA Village, I wanted every single person, three hundred people
on our team to know what we're about, where we're going.
If player development is important, it can't be you and
I as a GM and head pro that are into it.
Everybody needs to know why we're doing. Because somebody's on
(25:48):
the course and they're I don't know, mona green or
raking a bunk or something. Then they see some person struggling.
There's needs to be some empathy there and not just
I'm doing my task. Leave now. What are the small
things we can do to make people feel welcome? And
I take a lot of I mean I just constantly
looking outside the golf industry to these thriving, successful other
(26:10):
industries and what are they doing for experience and retention?
And I'm always pulling some ideas back in.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, because the thing of it is what what what
did Lou Holtz say?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
You know?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You the best the best people are the best Steelers.
You know, the best the best thieves, the best coach
are the best thieves. I mean, you can't tell me.
You can't tell me that Bill Belichick or Lou Holtz,
they didn't invent that. Like you can't tell me that
that Bill Belichick did sit there and say, Okay, what
did Chuck Nole do in nineteen seventy five with the Steelers?
Because you know what, I could probably figure and learn
(26:41):
something from that guy, because Chuck Nole was going what
Vince Lombardi did with the Packers in the sixties. You know,
because I'm here now and he's there, then it's you
are you are correct? I mean, there's so much out there.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
That we we do. You know, use the phrase silo.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I I I not that I don't, it's not it's
a word, but but I I do think that the
golf business does that to itself. We we build our
we build these walls around us and say, we know
what we're doing in here, and then we look around
and go, how come more people aren't in here?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Or how more?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
How come more people aren't staying in here? And you
know what I mean, it's it's we built this thing. Hey,
look at you. You know, so I've got this, you
know six, I don't care sixty two hundred yards golf course.
And I have a decent restaurant, and there's cold beer
over there, and and and and we do a junior program.
But but how come, how come we're doing to have
(27:35):
more people? Why aren't there more people in here? Because
this is obviously a pretty good idea because look, there's
some people having fun, So why aren't we doing Why
aren't we seeing more people? Why aren't we you know,
capture when the walls fall down? Why don't they run away?
Why don't they run in?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
So yeah, I mean, go ahead. There's yeah, so many
aspects of that, and I've been studying it, and I've
been trying to be in the forefront of making these
barriers come down, and I you know, I do touch
on the history and tradition of the game is cool.
But at the same time, you know, it's the dress,
it's you know, just even I do a woman's program
(28:15):
called Discover Golf. I do it for men too, but
the guys seem to want to do their own thing
and I'll figure it out. But the ladies. I've been
doing it for thirty years, and I want women to
feel safe and secure at the facility. And it's a
very holistic way of getting somebody in the game, but
again keeping them in the game. And I want them
to understand what a tea time is, how to make
a tea time, Who do you talk to her at
(28:37):
the club? How do you navigate yourself at the club?
And I've told people this all the time for many years,
that there's clubs I'll go to as a middle aged
white guy, second generation PJA member, I'm intimidated. I don't
feel comfortable, right, and so somebody of color and somebody
some ladies. I mean, you know, the industry talks a lot,
and there's been some some improvements in some private clubs
(29:00):
inherently going to be what they are, but as in
general and the golf industry, it's still not the warm
welcoming as it should be.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah, I mean it's fairy because you know you, you
know your pro I call it the HEA's Wrong Clinic.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I do it for ladies.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It's called the he I saw every everything a guy
ever told you about the game of golf is wrong
except for me.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
And I'm like, look, you know what, when.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
You get here, you get here, this is where you're
gonna come over and and and it's going to be
one of three people and they're going to make sure
that they'll say hello to you first. And by the way,
this is how you put your golf clubs on a
on a golf cart. Because there is nothing more embarrassing
that when you.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Pull away and that it's not strapped in and it falls.
There's nothing more embarrassing than that. There isn't. There isn't.
And I tell them all the.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Time, I said, I said, the only reason I know
that's embarrassing because I've done that, you know, and I'm
supposed to know what I'm doing, So don't feel bad
and like and like, so just eliminate that from you.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
From your from your from your from your.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Mirror or your windshield. And then the other thing is
I tell them all the time, tee it up everywhere
you go.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
It's game is pretty hard, So why why do we
want to make it harder? Like what, I understand that.
I understand that Glenna cole at Vere would never have
done that.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
I get that, But Glenna cole at Ver died one
hundred years ago, and and and and I don't and
and so and I'm not trying to get her to
play golf.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I'm trying to get you to play golf. So how
do I get you.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
To play more? I got to make it a little
bit easier. I eat a little bit better, got to
make it a little easier to navigate around here. And
I also got to make the game more enjoyable, more fun.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
And there's a way to you know, people say, oh,
you got a kid in this Savanna and the rules,
and it's yeah, man, a new golfer. You're not playing
a boy the USKA rules. It's like if you went
out to play any sport, you're not going to play
from the official ruling. To get better, you need success,
you need some shot euphoria. And so yeah, all my beginners,
(30:55):
I want them peeing the ball up everywhere. And I mean,
if it's a chip shot two feet off the green,
really care teed up a little bit. Little by little
we take the tea away, but there's some confidence, the
balls getting up in the air, playing the course. This
is my wording, Rich, It's I want you to consume
the game of golf on your terms for the most part,
(31:15):
versus me shoving it down your throat. They have to
do all these things because we're doing it. Yeah, to
your point one hundred years. And if you never kept score,
but you paid to come out to play, and you
replace Davids and you buy some things, I mean that's Hey,
that's a golfer that you don't You don't have to
have a gin handicap. You don't have to do certain things.
(31:36):
And some people do those and it's the great. Hey,
it's awesome. I'm not I'm not trying to have it
both ways. I'm just trying to help people get in
the game and stay in the game because they go,
I don't have all these clubs, I don't have these shoes,
I don't dress right, I don't you know, how do
I get a handicap? This say out the other I
can't play eighteen holes a lot. You know, there's ways
around this to stay in the game, stay in the
(31:57):
golf ecosystem, enjoy it, and have to be thinking like
you're going to play an usc event.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Okay, when we come back from this commercial, we're going
to talk about how you and I see the PGA
of America and how that should be helping do this.
And I'm not so sure, I personally am not. I'm
not so sure we're doing everything we should be doing
to do to do to create that shot euphoria and
that attraction, that magnetization of the game of golf.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
This is the Rich.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Como Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Combogolf Show.
We're talking with PGA professional bab Balla sorry today and
we were just talking about really cool like retention grabbing,
pulling people into the game and keeping them in the game,
or you know, kind of you know, raving fans of
(32:50):
the game and how to keep them raving fans of
the game. One of the ways is we might want
to make the game a little bit easier. We also
want to make it more welcoming, want to make it
a lot less rigid stringent. You know, I'm all for
you know, the you know, we all have them.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I mean, we all have them.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You know, I'm gonna play from here all the way back,
and I'm gonna tee it up, and I have all
this nice equipment and all this stuff, and this is
my entire existence.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I'm happy for you, but I need the other two
people in your house to come play. You're already here,
and that's great. I love I love to have you
have it here, but I need other people to come
do this. So all right, So Bob, you're a PGA member,
I'm a pg member. In your opinion, does the PGA
(33:38):
of America do as much as it should or could
to create this welcoming kind of grow the game? Because
that is in the mission statement, grow the Game?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Do we do enough?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
I think there's been some good there's been some good
work to do that. You know. Earlier I was talked
about Golf two point zero. I personally feel bad that
that ended up going away. We were working on some
absolutely I think transformational things that would help the game.
The phrase grow the game, don't really know that anybody
(34:20):
has a clue what that means. And it's a great
it's a great headline. It's a great term that people
throw around, but I've traveled this whole country for for
almost forty one sections. I did business development workshops, probably
development workshops across the pretty much across the country, talking
to PJ pro's golf industry people, and I've said, you know,
(34:41):
what does grow the game mean to you? And there's
a there's thousands of different interpretations, so that that part
it would help it. Whole industry was not the same
playing field as far as knowing exactly what that means.
I don't think it will ever happen. I think the
PGA of America, you know, it's corp. It's from the
high level. They should give you and I what we
(35:03):
need rich to help boots on the ground and get
people in the game, keep people in the game. You know,
some of it has always been a cookie cutter national
program that I've got. It's not going to work at
my club, so I break it apart. I make it
work at my club. But I know a lot of
pros would say that's not going to work in my club,
not going to do it. I just invent stuff on
(35:24):
my own and go do my thing. And it would
be nice if PGA with the old PGA foundation. I've
got some grants for some programming I did with kids
back in Ocean City. I'll call it Streets the Fairways,
And it was getting. It was getting I guess middle school,
(35:45):
high school, but also grammar school, the little kids into
the game, middle school into the game, but also thinking
about college. Well yeah, college golf, but high school golf.
And then the high school kids on a kind of
a work study that they were thinking about careers in golf.
But PGA Foundation they page that up, so they really
(36:05):
don't get any more grants or ways that you could
help the PGA member in the field.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
What did you call that?
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Streets the one streets to fairways.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Wow, I'll probably steal that one too. So so like
like I had somebody tell me the other day that
and I didn't know this, and you probably do, because
I think you're probably way smarter than me. But the
oil company, oil industry, you know, the the Chevron, all
(36:36):
those okay, they all have to contribute to a fund.
It's it's catastrophic fund because they need all the company,
all the oil companies to compete with each other, because
that's how that's how we set prices, because if they're
one company, they'd be charging a million dollars for a
barrel oil because there's only one company, so they so
(36:59):
when there's a there's a catastrophic fund.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So when something.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Goes wrong, they they all, they all, they all correct it,
and they pay all the environmental hazards and fines with
that collective fund. So this person said to me, if
we did that with golf courses, you know, if if
(37:25):
every golf course private, public, whatever. And I understand you
can't ram this down people's roads, but it just got
me thinking, how much better would the game of golf
be if we tore down the financial barrier of playing it?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yeah, well, that's certainly want the barriers for sure.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
And and I'm not saying I'm not saying that I
want you know, I don't want to give away golf
and I'm not trying to. Again, there's a lot in
politics now, you know, bad words like socialization, and so
I don't want to. I don't want to socialism and golf.
I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Is is.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Maybe there's a way that we can that the PGA
of America and its members can say, Okay, how do
we get more people to play instead of just saying, Okay,
I have you know, my three hundred members here, and
you have your three hundred over there, and I have
my you know, thirty three thousand at my place or
whatever it is. Right, how about we collectively raise all
(38:29):
the boats, you know, let's see if we can get
more people to play more, you know more. I think
that's growing the game. I think grow in the game's numbers.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, you know, I don't have this stat right up
the top of my head, but even if everybody played
one more round of golf in the country, yeah, that
moves the needle. If everybody were to bring one friend
into the game and they stuck in the game, you know,
and I'm yeah, I think it's It's been a couple
of years now, but Angiaff had reported at some point
(39:02):
recently that for the first time ever in the game
of golf, more people were playing golf consuming golf off
the golf course than on the golf Yes.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yes, to me, you.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Know, that was certainly a promising sign because to me,
that also said to me, hey, that people were looking
for the activity and didn't have to be so you know,
if eighteen holes in four to five hours doesn't fit
their schedule or this that the other. Uh, there's are
there are ways that people enjoy consuming the game, and
it didn't have to be the golf course. And then
(39:34):
you know, we all heard the next thing was, well,
how do we convert those people in the golfers at
the golf course? So that's a whole other conversation.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, because that's like I heard somebody say that, you know,
a simulator is a gate a gateway drug to my
first tea.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
That's great, that's awesome, that's awesome, and and so like
I do. I saw that stat too, and so I
just you know, I know finances are a big part
of it, but I think it's I personally think it's
actually the commitment. I think and now I'm speaking specifically
the PJ of America. You can say whatever you want it. Yeah,
(40:12):
we have this and we have that, and we have
the Junior League, and we have we have this, that
and the other thing. But and I I'm all in,
I get it. But my whole thing is is if
you look at, for example, the Junior League, Okay, the
first thing you see is a price tag because it's
(40:33):
not exactly cheap. You know, I've got a friend I've
got a friend of mine that's a PG professional in
northeastern northwestern Pennsylvania that when I was up in his
area and we started this together and he still runs it.
He runs his own junior tour. There's like there's like
eight golf courses, ten golf courses, and they just go
to different places and it's not very much to play.
(40:54):
It's like twenty five dollars to play. But like the
thing of it is is he gives away a sleeve
of titleist if you win, but or whatever he's giving
away or you know, but it's not you know, we're
not going to pay a five hundred dollars entry fee
and you know we're going to have you know, we're
I can tell tell Timmy that he's going to play
twelve Junior Tour events at seventy five dollars each and
(41:16):
tell mom and dad, oh, by the way, this is
the this is the only way you can stick in this.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
No, it's not. It shouldn't be. And so that's that
blows my mind.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
That's another good quick story. When I was at pgat
headquarters and as I moved in there, my my position
was director of Eastal Development and jo just Ranka called
me one day. We going into his office. Then he goes,
we need to create a little league of baseball for golf. Yep,
and what we have now is Junior League, right, And
there's a different time. I got called in and it
(41:51):
was like, we're going to do a skills competition with
Augusta National. I'm not sure what we're going to call it.
So I ended up helping to create run and Overseas
drop Chip in Junior League, and both of those were
absolutely one hundred percent quote unquote developmental in nature. But
I traveled this country and I would see parents come
(42:12):
with three four kids or DCP and one kid did it,
and the parents would say, oh, my kid can't get
to that. Guess that he's not that good. I'd say,
that's not why we're doing this. Junior League was the
same thing. It was completely developmental, and that's nudged away
to where you know, once the ESPN gets involved and
you get national exposure, you just know that some not all,
(42:32):
but some PGA members and try to get the optimum
all start team and this and that. So they're still
growing and they're still I think in the right spot.
But those are always concerning rich that both those national
programming which were just so key I think to what
we're seeing now because both are ten years old or
maybe more right, you know, we're seeing the results of it.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, it's interesting because I was, I was, I was
texting my son last night and and you said that
word developed because I saw something on on Facebook and
it said everywhere else in the world, which would be
not in the United States, it's practice, train and develop.
Here in America, it's let's let's play one hundred to
(43:17):
one hundred and twenty games of baseball for under ten.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, exactly. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Like you look at you go, I mean, I I
haven't done it, but but you go look at European
hockey kids. You know, they they play small game, they
play small skills, you know, this and that and then
and then then once a week they play a game.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Maybe, but but they they.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Jump in and they do skills. It's like skills. It's
like try this and try to get better at this
and this. And it was never about your going to
the NHL, Timmy. It was never about your going to
Major League Baseball. It was like, hey, this is how
you hit hit this is how you hit a go
hit it. We'll figure out maybe one day you will
be that good. But right now, I just need you
(44:05):
to get better, to develop yourself, because you know as
well as I do that when you get a kid
that's trying to get better or just developing skill, what
happens with that He meets other people, he meets other kids,
He starts to become kind of a decent, solid citizen
in society. And god knows what the amount of phones
that we have in this world and devices we have
(44:28):
in this world. Anything I can get the kids to
talk to each other about verbally is incredibly more important
than actually how well or how high you hit a
seven iron.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
It's a great point, you know, And I think that
to grown up in the game and fourteen and fifteen
and working for my dad and being around adults and
successful adults, and you have to learn how to talk
and converse and interact, and so yeah, that's that's one
of the really interesting things that golf can still do.
That when you're playing, you either socially or in a tournament,
(45:03):
you get to know somebody and you have to carry well, well,
ma'm to carry on a conversation. But there's definitely things
like that that are really beneficial with youth golfers.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, and and I think I think I think that's
where I think that's where we we like, like I said,
I love our Junior Tour in the Tri State section.
It's it's twenty four events and but it's seventy five
dollars an event. Okay, So now when you when you
go there, and and and like I host one, and
(45:35):
and we have a rules official okay, all right, and
and and now we have you walk down the range
and these kids are these kids have two mortgage payments
in their golf bag. I'm like, wait a minute, wait
a minute, what what This was supposed to be an
opportunity to get kids that tee it up some places
(45:56):
and have some fun. But now it's like, oh, he's
gonna go he and he's going to go there. It's like, well,
wait what happened here?
Speaker 3 (46:04):
So yeah, it's some crazy stories. And I think you
and I both know of and you know it's a
part of the the side of the especially youth golf
that frustrates me.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
Yeah, I'm with you there, And I think and I
think the other thing is I think that PGA professionals,
by and large are really I don't want to say
missing the boat, but I think there's not enough emphasis
on on growing kids to play. I think it's more
about growing kids who are accomplished. I also think it's
(46:39):
the same way with beginning adults. We all want to say, well,
we taught her to you know, she's a club champion
now and she started as not. How about the thirty
ladies that are over there playing every tuesday. You created them, right,
You created them just so happens he might be better,
that she might be better than the other one.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Who cares.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
You created all thirty of them, exactly. I think I
think that I think that is exactly where our emphasis
has to be. Create people, create players, don't don't try
to create the player, if that makes sense exactly. So, Bob,
I'll tell you what. This whole thing went very very quickly,
(47:21):
you know what. And I want to tell you I
appreciate you, know you jumping on, and I know I'll
be talking to you soon, but I just wanted to
say formally thanks for your time, and it was awesome
talking to you.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
My pleasure. Rich is happy to join you at any
time because we can dive into a lot of other
things as well.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
But thank you, thank you. This is the Rich Comwell
Golf Show.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
When you score one hundred and golf, that's usually a
bad thing. But when you score one hundred episodes of
a golf show, that's definitely a good thing. Make sure
to join us next Saturday at nine am for the
one hundredth episode of The Rich Komwall Golf Show right
here on Fox Sports. Wheeling
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