The Rich Conwell Show - September 14, 2024

Longtime LPGA caddie Jeff DeCoen joins Rich to talk about the golfers he has worked with through out his career, his many hats early on, the story of his first hole-in-one, and more. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rich Gomwell Golf Show. I am continuing
to be very successful in finding some very interesting guests
for the show. I've had them. I've had a lot
of really really interesting people, some really good golf, some
really really good stories in golf. Last week was Eric Klenna,

(00:22):
who was super helpful, and I've had I've had a
ton of interesting conversations about that set that guest, because
I'm trying to put some people together I've had on
this show to actually help each other so we can
kind of grow this great game. But this week I
have a young man my named of Jeff D. Cohenon,

(00:43):
and Jeff has a very unique, very interesting story. He's
a very passionate person about the game of golf, and
I'm sure that will come through as we go through
all three segments today. But first off, I want to say, Jeff,
thanks for on the show with us.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well my pleasure. Con sir, thank you very much for
having me.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
You bet you so as we do with everybody. Why
don't you why don't you tell me how you got
your start in golf?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, first off, you know, once again, my name is
Jeffy Kellen. I'm originally from the state of Massachusetts, and
back in the day when driving ranges on golf courses
were out there, they didn't have carts going out to
pick up balls. They actually had people out there shocking
golf balls. So I was at a you know, during

(01:33):
the summer. I was a young kid, and I was
at this prestigious golf course in Concord, Massachusetts called Mishot
Country Club, and the assistant pro came out to the
caddy area and said, hey, the pro is going to
go hit some golf balls. He needs somebody to go
with him. Well, you know, may being a little kid,
I was about nine years old, I didn't know anything

(01:53):
about it. I just kind of sat there. Everybody scattered
and just went and hit and did all that. Well,
the pro came out and pointed his finger at me
and said, you're coming with me. I went, okay, you know,
no problem, let's go. So, you know, he goes, I'm
gonna go hit some golf balls. Here's my shag bag,
go out in the driving range and pick him up.
And I'm there like, okay, yeah that works. I mean
I could do that. You know, you had to hit

(02:14):
the balls, you know. And a nice thing was is
he had a very excellent swing, so I didn't have
to run all over the golf course. I think he
was actually trying to hit me, but you know I
knew how to dodge golf right, but I would pick
him up. And you know, like I said, I started
when I was nine years old and all my friends
you know, growing up, were in fast food restaurants and
doing all this stuff. I'm going to preceige this country club.

(02:36):
And when he was done practicing, he said, do me
a favor, go over to the swimming pool. Just stay there.
I'll come and get you when I need you. I'm there, Like, jeez,
this sounds fun. Well nine years later, you know, I
kind of moved on, and but this guy turned out
to be one of the best golfers in New England.
He won the mass Open. But he was taking me

(02:58):
all over the place and just you know, introducing me
to people, and you know, I had a bag on
my shoulder. But I was also able to watch this
player and just understand, you know, hey, what goes into
the golf game. So you know I I did that.
And when I got into high school, I decided, okay,

(03:18):
well let's see how good it is. And I went
in and tried out for the golf game as a freshman,
and this was you know, I mean, I ended up
making the team. But also another funny thing is my
parents would spend time down to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and
there was a little golf course there that you know,
it was nice, and my brother and I went out

(03:39):
and played one day and I came up to this hole.
There was a little par three about one hundred and
fifty yards downhill, and I pulled out a seven arm
and I'm over the ball and I started the swing
and I was right by the twelve o'clock alarm and
it went off. So I stepped back away. You know,
I'm there like created. You know, it's blowing in my ear.
And I stepped back away, and as I said, stepped

(04:00):
up to the ball. Two forces were going to cross
the street because they had to get to the first twelve. Well,
they stopped right at the tea where I was doing.
I took my swing pretty good, hit lo and behold,
I look up right in the hole and I get
a hold and won at nine years old. There you go,
I'm walking down the fairway. All the people at the
bar are looking out saying, who got the.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Holy One, this little kid, this little kid, and they
were all tick because you couldn't buy the beers. You
could buying beers, well buying beers.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
So I just kind of waved and said thank you
very much. But you know that that led me on,
That started me on the career of you know, lits.
This game is, as they say, it's a game of
a lifetime, and I just started understanding it a little
bit more, a little bit more. And then you know,
I was fortunate enough in nineteen ninety three to win
my club championship at a golf course here and there.

(04:51):
Again it was funny because I played one really fantastic
round and then I backed it up in the second round.
And about the twelfth hole, this guy comes out goes,
how you're doing? And I said, well, you know, I'm
she on the par right here, and he goes, well,
he got a twelve shot lead. I'm like, okay, you
know I'm on the twelve hole with a twelve shot lead, right, Okay, Well,

(05:11):
you know, let's have some fun. Exactly what kind of
went down, but it was And then it was funny
because on the last hole, I hit my approach shot
and I just went a little bit right, and I
ended up in a trap and the like, okay, well,
you know I can get up and down. So I
take my shot and it rolls right toward the hole.
As I got closer and closer to the hall, I
went stop. Stop, and everybody, you know, everybody's looking at

(05:32):
me saying, why did you Why did you want it
to stop? He said, because I wanted to put it
in right right.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
I didn't want to be finish, to finish, to finish
the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
But that got me into the industry, you know, to
understand the industry.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
So, okay, so you grew up in Massachusetts and then
but so where did you go after high school?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
After high school, I had the opportun unity to come
out here to Keystone State of Pennsylvania. And the funny
thing is is I really I still was playing golf
recreationally and all this stuff, and with my height and
everything that I had on there, everybody thought I'd be
a great basketball player. Well, my freshman year in high school,
I broke my ankle. Okay, so I went in to

(06:20):
get and I'm in Massachusett. I went into you know,
they sat and do all that stuff, and the doctor
looked at me and said, you know, it's a really
good thing to really build your ankle. Go play hockey.
There you go, and they're like, what skate? Yeah, go
play hockey, and I went, yeah, okay, fine. So I
ended up doing that, and then I ended up playing
a little bit on the professional level for a while.

(06:42):
But it's amazing what golf and hockey have in common.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Very similar, very similar. All right, so I gotta I
gotta jump in here. Where'd you play professionally? How far
did you get, Austin?

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I played in the AHL for a few years.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
You're a good hockey player, brother.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I played hockey for the Providence Bruins for about eleven
years and then still got my original teeth. But and
I mean, unfortunately, I did dislocate both my shoulders and
shoulder operations on them, but I lost no mobility whatsoever.
And it actually, you know, when I was working on
my golf swing, I'm They're like, hey, okay, I got
to keep the shoulder in place and get the shoulder

(07:20):
turn and learned how to get the shoulder turn and
do that. So it was a lot of fun. But
that brought me out here to the Keystone State and
then I just kind of, you know, i've been here
ever since.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
That that's pretty neat, that's pretty cool. So all right,
So then, so then did you play in college? Did
you play golf in college or no?

Speaker 2 (07:39):
No, I did not. Actually I played hockey in college
because I was playing hockey all the way through. And
of course, back then in the early late seventies early eighties,
the unfortunate thing was the team I was playing for stunk.
You know, we never got into the playoffs. So you know,
all summer, I just go play golf. So okay, I'm
gonna hang up the skates and go play golf. You know,
when the winter come, win, the winter rolls around, I'll

(07:59):
get that in shaite and be ready to go. But
I just went and played golf. But you know, and
then and then later on, after I graduated college and
I really started looking at this game from a different perspective,
there was a there still is an organization called Tournament
Golf Association of America where you go and play tournament golf.

(08:21):
And we played up and down the East coast. And
I said, you know, this was after you know, winning
the club championship. And I thought, okay, well, here you go.
If I can win a club championship, I can go
play on tour, no problem at all. And you know,
so I went out there got humbled. You know, I thought, Jesus,
you know what the heck am I'm doing out here?
But I kept grinding at it and saying, Okay, you know,
I'm going to work at it, work at it. And

(08:41):
came to one tournament and lo and be old, I
won the thing. I thought, okay, well that helps my
confidence a little bit. Next week I won again. I thought, wow,
this is fun. A third week. Third week I came
in second, I thought, oh darn, So I had to
win a win a second, and then I had a third.
Then I had another win. So I'm They're like, okay,

(09:02):
I can.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Do this right, I can do this right. Evidence shows
I can do this. Evidence shows I can do this.
That's neat.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yep yep. So I mean that that, you know, that
was really what got me on that thing there. And
then I had an opportunity to it was funny when
I turned that ripe old age of fifty uh. And
of course that was the champions Tour, and I had
an opportunity. Some people knew me because I was involved
in the golf industry and they knew me. And it says, Hey,

(09:30):
I got this tournament of the course in Conquered, Massachusetts
called the Shot at country Club. You'd like to come
and try out? I'm there, Like Jesus, you gotta be kidding,
I said, let me tell you a story. I started
my golf career out a country club. I know this thing,
you know, I know the course.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
The older I'm telling you the older.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
So you know, so I went back out there and
had fun, you know, got out there and played that
course again, which brought back a lot of great memories
for me and all that stuff. But you know, that
was the early years, so getting into it, and that's
really what got my my toes into the water, if
you will, about uh, you know what this game can
offer people.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
So so let me ask you this question. Where'd you
go to college?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I went to a state college outside of this place
called penn State University was right down the road, but
it was called lock Haven State College in lock Haven, Pennsylvania.
And it was funny because they were they were known
for their physical education and recreation and all that stuff.
And you know, I looked at it and you know,

(10:32):
went there and said, okay, I'm a jock. You know
I'm gonna do that. Right during my first semester, I
looked at my class and Jesus, three quarters of my
class is in physical education recreation. We're all going to
graduate at the same time and try and get the
same job.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Job.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
I'm sitting there thinking that's not for me. So, you know,
I went to a counselor, and of course I was
playing hockey, so you know, I knew a lot of
stuff going on there. But the vice president of academics
came up to me and said, hey, you know, we
have the new program. It's called social science pre law.
Which would you be interested in doing that? Whither I

(11:07):
was an attorney, I learned, so I said, yeah, you know,
I mean I have no problem. And of course the
athletic director lived at me and said you're never gonna
make it, and I said, well I did, but you know,
I mean, I mean switching from being a jock to
studying law. They're looking at it like, you know, who
is this kid? But it was, you know, and it
was kind of funny there. Even going to college. This

(11:27):
was a state college, and of course my father moved
from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania my senior year in high school,
and I said, you know, I looked at him and said, well,
you know, at the time, I was playing hockey. Guy,
I had drafted when I was sixteen, so to you know,
do the developmental league and all that stuff. But I

(11:47):
looked at him and said, you know, give me a buck.
He did. I said, you know, now I own the
house right for my last year, last year in high school,
you know. So I'm sitting there like okay, But I
go up to Lockhaven State College. My father's paying in
state fees and I don't have a stitch of idea
on me, and it says I'm from the state of Pennsylvania. Well,
the third day of classes, I walked back into my

(12:08):
dorm and my dorm moother comes up to me and says,
the president of the university wants to see you.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Oh, it's up, No, it's.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Up, yep. I got. I go to my roommate and
I said, this might be the quickest roommate you've ever
seen in your life, you know. So I go into
the president's office, I'm sitting down and and I introduced
myself to him and all that, and he goes, I'm
looking at your transcript. I can't help but see you're
from the state of Massachusetts. I said, yes, sir, I am,
he goes, Well, I'm from Lexington, mass Well, Lexington, mass
was right next to the town I grew up in.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
There. You go, this is gonna be a nice four years, right,
it's gonna be okay, this is gonna be okay. So
you went. So you went to lock Haven University, right,
So your basketball coach was it Roger Goodling.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
And back then when it was Lockhn State, cause it
was actually.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Brad Black and then it became right.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, I think Goodland came after I left.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, my brother went a lot to my brother, yeah, graduated,
he graduated nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Okay, yeah, well I graduated seventy eight.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Right, so you were.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, I think Goodland did come in after Black.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Right, you were leaving, right, you were leaving, and he
was coming in. I spent five years as the first
assistant at Williams for Country Club, which is actually very
close came very close.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
To the lot yep.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
So yeah, I know all about that. So so all right,
so after school, after college, you have your you have
your quasi pre law degree correct from the state university,
which that state college then, and so what would we do.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I actually got into the legal field for a while.
I went into a public defender's office in one of
the counties here and worked as a defense investigator doing
capital punishment cases. I mean I did in my fifteen years,
I did thirteen death penalty cases. But the release valve
was going out to a golf course and just saying, okay,

(14:04):
you know, let's do this and I'll never forget. I'm
playing with one of the defense attorneys I was working for,
and you know, we had some time. We said let's
go play golf. So we went to play golf and
lo and behold, our cell phone goes off. It was
the judge and the case that we were getting ready
to prepare for. He goes, we need to have a
pre trial conference. So we pulled over into the rough,
sitting in golf carts, talked about the trial. I said,

(14:27):
this is what golf can do for you, you know,
you know, write it off as a business expense, because
we we discussed the case.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Because the right there, that's exactly that's that's that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
So you know, we went out and just played golf
and it and then it was it was funny because
you know, I was involved in another trials, a death
penalty case, and you know, we went through the trial,
but there wasn't enough evidence to go into the next
days that it would have been whether or not this
guy was going to live or die. So you know,

(14:57):
at the end of the thing, the judge sends a
note out to me and says, I need to see
in my chambers and I go win, So, hello, your honor,
how are He goes, Hey, see that we're not going
to be doing the death penalty phase of this. You
want to go play golf?

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Like, yeah, yeah, sure, we can do that. We can
do that, right right, Life or death three foot is
one or the other, you.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Know, yeah, you know what I mean. It's like, yeah, well,
you know Lee Trevino's the famous saying of you know,
pressure is when you're playing a fifty cent nassa and
you only have a quarter in.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Your Park's exactly right, That's exactly right, you know. So okay, So.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Then after that, I mean, after after that, I kind
of got burned out a little bit and I just said, okay,
you know, let's go back to my first love. And
understand the game of golf. Now. The thing about that
is that, you know, I looked at it from a
perspective of saying, Okay, I know how to play the game,
all right, but what I really don't know how to

(15:53):
do is how to teach the game. Because there's a
huge difference between being able to play the game and
teach the game. And I did some research and I
came upon this organization that was called at the time,
it was called the United States Golf Teachers Association, but
they switched their name to the United States Golf Teachers Federation.
What they did was they taught you how to teach golf, right,

(16:17):
you know, from everybody from the best professionals in the
world to somebody that's never even seen a golf club before.
And you know, I've always told everybody I have the
utmost respect for the PGA. I really do. But go
to a PGA player and ask them how a golf
swing is done, and they will say, this is what
I do, this is what I want you to do, right,

(16:40):
you know, and they're looking at them crossied, like you know,
what do you mean? And I mean the other thing
that is really and I you know, when I give
talks on golf and all that the most people, one
of the most people that are left out in this
game are left handed golfers. And I would go to
left handed golfers and say, how many times have you
gone to a PGA professional and spent you know, anywhere
from hundred to one thousand dollars an hour and you

(17:02):
come up and say, I'm left handed. And the first
thing the PGA professional says is, well, do everything in
reverse that I do. And the four guys sitting there
looking at him like what, yeah, exactly, you know? And
I finally figured out. I finally figured out something, and
looking at a golfer, I says, you know, when you
set up to address the ball, you're always going to
have a front foot and a back foot, a front

(17:24):
shoulder and a back shoulder, a top hand and a
bottom hand. It doesn't matter if you're right handed or
left handed. You know, when you line up to the ball,
your front shoulder is pointing towards your target. So you know,
when I did that, the left handers are shaking their
head like, okay, now I can understand this. Right you know,
your top hand is the one that's at the end
of the club you bought and is the one that's
closest to the face. Your front foot is the one

(17:46):
that's aiming toilet the target. Your backfoot is there, your
front shoulder, you know, And I said, it doesn't matter.
So you know when I when I went to get certified,
we had to do an oral exam, and of course,
you know, the guy came up to me, the teacher
there was running. One of the teachers that was doing
it that gave me my order exam, said Okay, I'm
gonna make this difficult for you. I'm a left hand
of golf and I want you to teach me how

(18:07):
to play. I said, okay, take your address and put
your front foot right here. And as soon as I
said that, he goes you win this gid. You were listening.
You were listening. I said, yeah, but that's the thing,
so I mean, you know, there I went on to understand,
you know, what it takes to be a teacher, and
how do you teach people? You know what I mean?

(18:29):
When you get beginners, you know that have never played
this game before, and you know, they take a swing
and the ball might only go twenty yards, but ten
yards of it was in the air, and I'm saying,
great shot, great shot. You know, look at me like
you no, I said, Hey, the idea is get the
ball off the ground, right, you know.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Halfway there?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Do that you've got it there half way there, and
then then we can do that. We can always find
tune in, right, okay.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
And that right? So yeah, So that's so that's kind
of where we are right now in your story. And
I know, I know you're going to travel the country
here and do some other stuff and and and I
want to talk about that. So when we come back
in the next segment, let's talk about where we've been
doing this, what we're doing at that point, and then
then we're going to wrap all this up in the
third segment with how we're growing the game. This is

(19:15):
the rich Comboll Golf Show. Welcome back to Rich Comboll
Golf Show. We are joined this week by Jeff to Cohene.
Jeff is a well, he's I guess we could say
reformed lawyer. I don't really want to say that, but
you know, he's kind of reform and try and reformed investigator.
A very very very good it was a very good

(19:36):
player as a youngster, very good hockey player as a
youngster and and obviously started at a very young age,
if you if you'll go back in nine years old
and carrying golf bags around. So I realized that that
you're in the you know, United States Golf Teachers Federation,
and you you're a good teacher, and we're going to

(19:57):
talk a lot about that and what we're doing to
grow the game with that. But why don't you, why
don't you tell us exactly what you've been doing for
the last forty nine years. In conjunction with all that, well,
I had a.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Great opportunity to work with a fine organization called the
Ladies Professional Golf Association. There was a tournament in the
central Pennsylvania area that ran for a long time, and
just one day I just happened to you know, I
was kind of had nothing to do in the afternoon,
and I went out there and I was standing there
and the caddy master came up to me and said, hey,

(20:31):
you know, I know you. He says, I got this
girl that's looking to she's looking for a caddy. Would
you be interested in doing it? And it was at
Hershey Country Club, West Court, which I had an opportunity
to play, So, you know, I went out and said, sure,
you know, no problem, I'll go like that. So you know,
I'm out there and we're in a practice round, and
you know I'm the one that I'm the one when

(20:53):
I do this. I said, look, I'm not going to
offer any insight unless you asked me. Okay, So you know,
she hits her shot out there and we're walking on
the fairway and I introduced myself. I said, no, I
play this game. And she hits a nice drive and
she just kind of looks at me and says, okay,
how would you play this shot? And I said, well,
you know, looking at the green, and I had already
been out on the course studying. That's so I knew
it was going on. This is you know, you're gonna

(21:14):
find this really hard to believe. But what I want
you to do is depends way on the right hand side.
You're going to go up the left center because when
the ball hits, it's going to kick it the right
and it's going to release and go. She looks at
me like, you know, why wouldn't I go right at
the pin? And I said, well, just try, just do
me a favor. Just hit one off the left hand side.
Let's see what happens. Well, she does what I say
and it ends up about three feet from the pin.

(21:34):
So there she starts looking at me saying.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, we can trust this, right, we can trust this.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
I think you know what's good? You know, so you know,
So we did that, and I had the opportunity to
work for her for a couple of events and then.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I who was that? It's interesting who was the first
one you went to?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Okay, the very first one I ever did was a
gal but the name of Jane Climbing from Lakeland, Florida.
She has since retired from the game, but it, you know,
it got me out there and got me before players,
and you know, one of the people that I was
paired with the next event. I really hadn't committed to

(22:11):
Jan or anything like that, but the next event she
came up to me in the parking lot and said, hey,
I was paired with you and I liked how you
handled her. Would you be interested in carrying my bag?
And I'm there like, this is okay, Well I know
who you are. Her name was Paige Dunlap. She was
a graduate of the University of Florida and her brother
was Scott Dunlap, who currently plays on the Champion Store.

(22:34):
So I'm out working with her, and you know, we
finished in the top ten and she said, hey, you know,
what are you doing for the rest of the year.
I said, well, I'd be more thant happy to carry
your bag. I mean, that's no problem at all. And
so I started out with her and stayed with her
for a total of ten years. And during the course

(22:55):
of that time, it was so funny because Scott would
come up to me and say, hey, look, you know,
don't change a thing. She says, she really respects you,
she likes what you're doing. And we were at one tournament,
I think it was like the third or fourth week.
I was on her bag and we're at the range
and Page comes up to me and says, hey, my
golf coach is gonna come down and watch me swing.

(23:16):
I said, yeah, okay, no problem at all. So, you know,
her golf coach comes down and it turns around and
I look at him and he looks at me and
he goes, I know you. And it was the pro
at the Bridges Country Club.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Scheftick, Tom Scheftick, Teddy ted Scheftick, Ted Schefticked. He was
at handover country Club forever. And then then he went
to the bridges.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Correct, yeah, yep, you are correct. But he comes walking
around the corner and we look at each other saying,
I know you and you know, he said, what are
you doing? You know, he looks at me, he says,
what are you doing on here? I said, well, I
Page's caddy. He looks right at Page and says, I'm leaving.
Just listen to this guy because he knows what he's doing.

(24:00):
He was, I mean, yeah, and he just you know,
we just hit it off.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
He taught He taught Jenny ch Saraporn, the girl that
the girl that was at Duke and yep, and he's
taught incredible, very very very good teacher. And I you know,
you don't want to pigeonhole anybody, but of female players
really good.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
That was his forte and I mean that was his
forte he taught her, but it was it was, you know,
it was great. And then, like I said, he introduced
me to a lot of you know out there, introduced
me to the different players that were out there at
the time, and you know, I mean we just hit
it off. But I mean that was you know, ten
ten years with her and then and then one day
she came up to me and we were a tournament

(24:44):
in Boston, as matter of fact, and we just got done.
Played tremendously, but you know, it's one of these things
I got to see in the parking lot. I said, yeah, okay, fine,
but you know I love her dearly, still keep in
touch with her. But she looked at me and she goes, Jeff,
I have an opportunity to go coach this game. Well,
her nickname was Rage. I mean, when she got inside
the rope, she was just like, you know, so intense game,

(25:04):
and I kept trying to you know, Scott would tell me,
you know, how to calm her down, Just calm her down,
you know, and then we wouldn't have a good result
in all that. But she said, I have an opportunity
to go coach. What do you think I left to
right in the eye, I said, Page, I'm telling you,
you know this game. You can teach this game really well.
If you continue playing, you're gonna end up killing yourself.

(25:24):
I said, you know, go coach. And she really wanted
to coach the University of Florida, but she lost out
to another LPGA player. But it turned out to be
that she went on to be the golf coach at
Vanderbilt and got into the Hall of Fame as a coach.
So they're like, okay, I think that was a good move.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
That good career choice right there. So that so that
was ten years and then what yep.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
And then there was this guy you was speaking of Duke.
This guy but the name of Jean Bartholomele was a
golfer out of Duke. And once again there was a
tournament in Reading, Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, it
was called the.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Betsy Sure Berkeley Country Then yep.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Berkeley Country Club. And here's a funny story in that
is that Berkeley Country Club was located off of Major Highway,
but they had the public parking down this road. And
Betsy King is probably one of the most religious people
out there. I mean, she's a sweetheart, but very much
a Christian. But at any rate, when you call in

(26:30):
to get directions to a parking lot on where it is,
the message was, we want you to go down Route
twenty two and you're going to see an adult bookstore.
Turn right, perfect, Wait a minute, I go to Bethy.
I said, Betsy, if you heard your message about where
they're directing people to park. She goes, no, I haven't.

(26:50):
I said, you see that pink bill where we're standing there.
I said, you see that pink building over there? She
goes yeah. I said, do you know what that is? No,
I said, it's an adult bookstore, and that's they're telling
him to turn. She just turned, like you know, what
do I do?

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Exactly?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I'm laughing like a son of a gun. But I
was catty for Jeane. It was the last event and
we played great. I mean, she finished in the top
twenty and got this all this money, but she was going,
you know, like nuts. At the end of you know,
at the end of the four days, he came up
and gave me a big herd thank you, thank you.
Thinking I said, yeah, I'm just thinking to myself, Wait
a minute. We finished twentieth. I mean, yeah, that's nice,

(27:26):
But what's the big deal? You know? So after all this,
she goes, you just accepted the from Q School and
I can play the next year. There you go, They're like, oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
I guess that is a big thing.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
And then she says, what are you doing next year?
And they're like, okay, you know, I can be with you.
So I stayed with her for ten years. She was
a sweetheart. But she actually was a graduate of Duke.
And the funny thing is is her roommated Duke was
another golfer by the name of Kelly Tillman who went
on to be anchor at Golf Golf Channel. Yes, yep, correct,

(28:04):
so and yeah, so it was Kelly Tillman and her.
But you know, Jean was a was a tremendous person,
uh you know, and she was learning, she was learning
how to play the game, but she also wanted to
learn how to teach. So we would, you know, swap
stories back and forth, and she would always say, you know,
take a look at my swing, tell me what I'm
doing wrong, you know what I mean. It was like,
you know, here you go, let's do this. And even

(28:26):
when you know, it was after the ten year run
there when I I'll back up a little bit, when
I was with Tage Dunlamp and we played these events,
there was this gap graduated from the University of Arizona
that we kept getting paired with for like six weeks
in a row. Well this girl happened to be Anica Sorenston.

(28:48):
Oh well, well, yeah. We had her right out of
college and watching her play the first you know, every
week we get paired with her. After about the fourth week,
we were walking down the away one time and just
looked at me and said, you know, it might be
pretty good, pretty good.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
I think, Yeah, it's funny. It's funny you say that
because I had I had you and you were talking
about the Legend tour. I had Chris Cheddar on and
and I've known Chris for a couple of years and
twenty years I've known yeah, And and she she told
me that that she said, they're playing a practice round
the US Open with the one the one that Onnica

(29:27):
won by like eight and Cheddar finished second. She's like,
I won the golf tournament. I don't know what event
she was playing. And she said, I said, I totally.
I said I like this golf course. And Anica said that, well,
this it is a great golf course, but the fairways
are just a little too wide. And and and she
wasn't being condescending. This is how she saw things like,

(29:48):
she was just so so just like so there, you know,
I mean, and and she said that, and Chris said,
for her, for her money, you know, she just obviously
over the moon talented, but she said it was just

(30:08):
her mental strength.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, it was just so that's what it was. Yeah,
And I mean it was funny because, you know, after
we did this, and you know, at the time, I
was carrying for Gene and then I'm in a parking
lot and Anica comes up to me and says, hey,
my sister is going to come out and start playing
on a war And I've seen you work with Page

(30:31):
and I've seen what you've done with Geane. Would you
like to work for my sister next week? And I
looked at her. You know, I mean, the number one
player in the world first, you know what else she
remembered me. But I said, well, you know, in all honestly,
I have to give the respect to my player, my
current player. Let me go ask her and just see
what it says, and then I'll get She gave me
your number, I said, I'll give you a call. So
I go up to Gene and say, hey, Gene, Anca

(30:52):
just asked me to were first sister next week. What's
your opinion of that? And Jane Lives looks at me
right in the eye and says, yeah, you got a choice.
You can need go do it or you're fired.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
There you go, that's pretty awesome, sweetheart. That's pretty awesome, sweetheart.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
So I ended up I ended up with I'm sorry,
I ended up with Charlotta, and you know that was
I stayed with her for ten years. But it was
so funny because we were doing a tournament in outside
of Arizona, Superstition Mountain, and of course, you know, we
always did practice runs with Honica, so you know, we
got to know each other and really did all that.
But we're at this event and the fourth all Anica

(31:29):
calls her sister and says, hey, I'll meet you on
the back nine. And I'm there like, okay, fine, you know,
no problem. So you know, when we get down to
night Toll, Charlotta goes into the ladies locker room and
you know, I'm down there talking to Terry Mack was
caddying for it at the time, talking to Honica and
all that, and a huge crowd, you know, coming to
watch a practice round of Honica. For sure, you know,
no problem, but it's so funny. Charlotta comes walking down

(31:52):
and looks me and she goes, Jeff, where did all
these people come from? I said, well, Charlotta ad they're
here to see you just lost. The looked at me
and goes, good, comeback. You know, everybody starts laughing. But
we had a blast. I mean it was it was
so much fun working for her, and you know, as
we got along, of course, you know, they were looking
to the future on what they wanted to do, and

(32:13):
I was already pretty heavily into the golf industry. You know,
I knew what was happening in the industry, and you know,
how to run a business, how to do this and
that in the business. And they kept asking me questions
about it. You know, how do you do this? What
do you get this? And who do I need to
talk to here? And who do you know? And I'm
sitting there thinking, Jesus, you know, what the heck's going on?
And then it dawned on me that's when she was

(32:35):
thinking about opening up her academy. So she wanted to
know how to set the business plan to open up
her academy. After one day, I just looked at them
both and said, okay, now I get it, and they
both started laughing. They said, hey, we're going to the
professional you know, we're going to ask the guy that
knows what's going on, you know, and they're like, yeah, okay,
you know, no problem. But I mean it was it
was a great academy. They had it down there for

(32:56):
a long time, but they bought it off that developer.
His last name was Win, Yes, I can never remember. Yeah,
but at any rate, they had this they had this property
on this golf course and they were leasing it from Wint.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Right, Steve Steve Vegas.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, but he was getting into some financial difficulties, so,
you know, and An was trying to establish her business.
And I basically told them one day, I said, hey,
do me a favor. You got the money, buy that land.
And they go, why, I said, just just do buy
the land, you know, just do it and trust me,
you know. So they went and bought the land. Two

(33:35):
days later, Win files for bankruptcy, right, and he just
came up to me and says, thank you. I said,
and I said, you understand why I said that. She goes, yeah,
because you know, if they had leased it from him
and under the current lease when it went bankrupt, they
would have come in and shut him down.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Right. The craziest thing in the world when you hear
things like that and like, you know, and we'll just
stay away from the current politics. But like when, like,
how how's a guy like that go bankrupt? How's that happen?

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Well, yeah, and staying away from the current politics. When
I was with Page Don Lapp who was a model.
I mean, she's a sweetheart, but she was a model.
We have this off site pro am in Atlantic City,
and you know, we get there and she, you know,
I see her come in. I go up and get
the bag out of her car, and she grabs onto
my shoulder and she goes, oh my god, jod you
see who were playing with? You who we're playing with?

(34:23):
I said, yeah, no problem, we'll have fun. I mean,
we'll just go do our thing, do what we want
to do. So we go up and run and range
and big limo pulls up, door opens up Donald Trump.
We are paired with Donald's and this is right when
he's learning how to play golf back in the you know,
late eighties, just learned how to play golf and he

(34:44):
had a sidekick, George with him, and that's when the
Apprentice was just getting started. But anyway, we're out there
playing and I'm doing my thing with Page, and you know,
creaking a couple of things here and there, and George
has asked me questions, and I'm showing him a couple
of stuff, you know, some stuff that needs to be done.
And then we get up to the twelfth hole and
Trump steps up and just crushes this drive, you know,

(35:05):
Eric in his hell. He just turns around five thousand dollars.
Anybody that can out hit that drive. George just starts laughing,
you know. I like, yeah, okay, But the other amateur
gets up and gets pretty close to him. George gets up,
gets pretty close to him. My player gets up and
just about passes him, and I pick up the bag
and start walking. And George looks at Donald and he goes, hey, Donald,
what do you think of a caddy? Can hit you?

(35:27):
Trump just starts laughing. I looked at my player. I look,
you know, I looked at Page, and I looked at
George and said, what do you want me to do?
He says, go have fun. I said okay, So I
sat down Page's bag, I took out her driver. I
went to the back tee not where they were teeing
off from the back tee, and I just nutted it
right in the middle of the face fell great twenty
yards by him in the air and his jaw just

(35:48):
dropped and he you know, he I walk up to him, say,
mister he has this check book, said, mister Trump, do
me a favor, make it out to the American Cancer Society.
Put my name in a memo and donate it. And
he did. And then all of a sudden he starts asking.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Me about you know, yeah, right, you know, now you
have to Now you're working for two people, all right,
So when when we come back from this, we are
going to talk in the final segment about you know,
kind of what our day to day is now and
how you're how you're using some really cool things going
on right now to grow the game and to just

(36:23):
kind of preach not to the choir, but preach to
the unknown, you know what I mean. And we're just
going to see what we can do here. But it's
a really really really cool, cool process and a cool story.
So we'll be right back with Jeff to Cone. This
is the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to the
Rich Combogulf Show. We are joined by Jeff to Cone

(36:47):
this week and he has great stories thirty year around
probably closer to fifty years now on the LPGA Tours,
a caddy and a long time very very very good player,
a long time very very good teacher. And we are
going to kind of get away from the LPGA Tour

(37:08):
and away from the famous people that are out there.
And I want to talk to Jeff about what he's doing,
what he's doing now, And obviously he's still out there
and he's still caddying and things like that. But I
guess maybe the word of the day is probably the

(37:30):
word of the day or this era, is passion. So Jeff,
tell us what's grabbed your passion recently?

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Well, I understand this. You know what they say about
this wonderful game of golf is it's a game of
a lifetime. And of course, as we go through our life,
we watch technology try and take over everything that we do. Well,
you know, going back to the early eighties, they had
the famous thing called an indoor golf simulator where if

(37:58):
the weather isn't nice for you, go inside and play.
And it's like unbelievable because you know, it's on a
screen and it brings up golf courses and all that stuff,
and you know, you hit a ball through infrared and
it does all this stuff. Well, there was this company
called Party Golf and the interior of it was done
by Eptronics that did all the you know, the the

(38:21):
visualization and all of the high tech stuff at that time.
And it was funny because when you go down to
every January, the PGA has a PGA Golf Show, and
you know, that's where all the major manufacturers go. Well,
back in the eighties, there was only one company that
had a golf simulator, and that was called Party by Uptronics.

(38:42):
You know, one thing. Now, you go to the PGA
show and go down there and you got five aisles
of different simulators, right, and it's like that market has
just exploded. But the underlying factor of it, the optronics
of it, are still the same as they were back
in nineteen eighty. And yet everybody comes out and says, Okay,

(39:05):
you know, we can do this, we can do this,
we can do that, we can do that. But you know,
understanding the game of golf is that, you know, everybody says, oh,
we're going to we're going to show you ball speed,
We're going to show you you know, ball spin, We're
going to show you angle of trajectory, and all all
these technical terms that golfers, amateur golfers don't have a

(39:26):
clue about. And I'll be honest with you, but to
a PGA player on tour, he might not even know it,
or she might not even know it. But the thing
is is that what companies are, especially one right now
it's coming to the forefront very quickly called golf Joy.
Which they're trying to do, is they're trying to revolutionize

(39:46):
the indoor golf experience with state of the art technology
and trying to streamline the efficiency and the enjoyability and
the visual captivity of experiencing with the game all in
one little package that they can do because their mission
is to spread the joy of golf to everyone everywhere. Well,

(40:07):
in order to do that, you know, and what I
say is that, yeah, all these numbers are very good,
but you have to understand what's your addressed position? Look like, Okay,
what's your club doing when it takes away your club?
You're The direction of the ball is determined within the
first six inches of the club coming away from the ball,

(40:29):
so it doesn't matter when you make contact what the
ball spin is and all that stuff that all these
people seem to think that they need to know in
order to you know, master this game. Well, there's a
tremendous player that everybody recognizes and still idolizes. His name
was Arnold Palmer, and mister Palmer to the day that

(40:50):
he kind of set aside, he still had a golf
coach who was able to look at him without all
this modern technology stuff and see what he's doing in
his swing. So, you know, with all the upgrades and
everything like that, what golf Joy has done is they
have come to look at it so that when anybody

(41:12):
first experiences indoor golf. Believe me, it's like, oh my god,
you got to be kidding me. The initial impression is visual.
They want to know, you know, what are the graphics like,
you know, what's going to look like? You know, Well,
what this company did was they they were able to
put on different types of filming where they took a

(41:34):
drone and went over a golf course. So they're actually
getting they're capturing the essence and beauty of each course
and you can experience, you know, just like you're playing
the actual course. You don't have to pay thousands and
thousands of dollars to play Pebble Beach. You don't need
a membership at Augusta to go play Augusta to do it. Okay,
But the other thing too is the other thing that

(41:58):
you're looking at is the critical, critical aspect of indoor
golf is the feel of the ball control that players
experience anywhere from professional players to coaches. You know, you
want to see what your what your SHOT's looking at
and you know how it looks like and golf joy.
What it does is it possesses strong practice tools that

(42:19):
can assist players in training. Because what they do is
they show you such things as your swing posture analysis.
You know, sure, it's going to give you a clubhead data.
It's going to give you instant video playback of each
shot and you know what the clubhead's doing. So this
will enable the player to clearly observe, you know, the
swing process and what take what takes part. So you know,

(42:40):
the other thing too is they want to make sure
that you know, once again, their mission is to make
golf easy and fun, right, And what they try and
do is they aim to achieve this through various practice
tools and games that they have. H You know, they
have great games that it's like ones called happy Bombing
where they have up, you know, like a like on
the how that show that they had on the Golf channel.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, big break, big break, Yeah, the big.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Break where you're hitting different targets and stuff like that.
Well that's what it does here. You know. You look
at it and say, Okay, well I got to hit
this target over here on this side, so I gotta
line up over here, and here's another one. We can
get more points. But it makes it enjoyable. But at
the same time, you're you're you're developing the skills that
are demanded in training games, you know. So these you know,
they these games that they have out there, they lower

(43:31):
the entry barrier into golf because now, yeah, it's a
challenging sort it's a challenging sport. By making but by
making it one that's entertaining too, is also helping to
enhance the skills and and it makes the learning and
training more enjoyable for both children and adults alike. I mean,
that's the whole thing that you want to look at. So,

(43:54):
I mean, those are the things that are out there, right.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
I think it is interesting because you know, I had
Don rey On, the vice president of the PJ of
America and will be obviously rising to the president of
the PJ of America. And I think it's fascinating to me,
Like he put in, he put a bunch of flight
scope in at his place out west and and it's
interesting because he says, you know what we used to

(44:17):
we used to scream against these, you know, we used
to fight against these. You know, we don't want to
do We don't want to be friends with the people,
the off course people and the simulator people. And his
thing is like, you know, if that's the if that's
the gateway drugg on my first tea, what do I care?
What do I care?

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Right?

Speaker 1 (44:32):
So what do I care? Like like if it takes
you know, there's some and just pick you know, some
twenty four year old kid that that just graduated from
you know wherever, and and he's and he's like, hey,
this is a lot of fun to do. And all
of a sudden it's like, hey, wonderful when it's like outside.
So now now you've got now you've got a gateway
to the first tea. So now somebody just got another player.
And without that that gate we don't get another player.

(44:56):
And without the ability to see improvement inside, you will
never see improvement outside exactly.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
And I remember, I mean, like I said, you know,
back in the eighties, my wife and I had a
golf store in Hershey, but we were the first ones
to put in a simulator. And we put it in
and it was funny because it was like, you know,
when we got it all up, operational everything. There's a
little nine hole course right next to us. But you know,
it was during the winter. It was during January and

(45:24):
we just had twenty three inches of snow and one
of the local TV stations was coming by and I
knew the guy, and he came in and he said, hey,
can we do a you know, can we shoot some
video in here of your golf seam?

Speaker 1 (45:36):
And I said absolutely.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
But the first thing you see, the first thing you
see is twenty three inches of snow and a sign
up saying course closed, and the opening the opening segment
said this course might be closed, but you can still
practice your swing. The name of our store was Golf
of Gusta Pro Shops says, come to Golf of Gusta
Pro Shops and play the simulator. So I'm now like,
jes thank you. I mean, I worked on that. I

(45:59):
worked on that religiously from like January from March, and
my first event on the tournament Golf Association of America
was in March and it was down down in Georgia.
But you know I went down there and got out
on the first team. I just smacked it. And you know,
I mean I ended up winning the tournament, but I
was playing fantastic and everybody's looking at me saying, once
you in snow allway? Right? Yeah it was, but guess what,

(46:21):
I had an indoor simulator. And even to this day,
you know, with the introduction of AI okay and looking
at the different aspects. A matter of fact, I just
showed this to a gentleman yesterday who was saying that,
you know, it's funny because I listened to these people
that you know, try and tell them with because he
was saying, oh ah, my goals are going to write
and doing this and doing that, and they were out

(46:42):
there saying, well, this is what you're doing, this is
what you're doing. And you know, I went up to
him afterwards and said, do you want to see what
you're doing? Right? You know, not listening does somebody tell you?
But do you want to see right? And now they
have programs that are out there, and golf Joy has it,
which is absolutely fantastic. It'll take eight different categories right
from the set up to the follow through, and you
can see pictures of each one of those and you

(47:06):
can say, okay, you're set up. Your address is fine, okay,
And I mean it's great because you know, I'll start
out and have them swing and their address will be terrible,
but it'll say this is what you need to do,
and then I'll botch you sit by saying this is
how you do this, right, okay, Now when you set
up on that, let's do that. Now, go ahead and
take a swing. Okay, And they take a swing and
hit it. You know, it might not go straight or

(47:27):
anything like that. But when the analysis comes up, I said, now,
look at your address position, it was like seventy percent.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Now it's ninety five percent.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Got your address out of the way. You got your
address out of the way, you know. Now let's take
a look at the famous You know, how did you
bring your club back? What did it do?

Speaker 1 (47:44):
You know?

Speaker 2 (47:45):
You brought it back here? Okay, Well, it's telling you
this is what you want to do. You know. Eventually
we'll go through all eight things where it gets up
and you know, and then of course you know the look,
you know, and I'll say, well, this is what you
want to do, and I'll take a shot and we'll
come up and go one hundred percent. I'm the like, see,
that's why I get paid.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
That's why I get paid. That's why I get paid.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
So but I mean, it's it's it's amazing. And you know,
like I said, this is a game of a lifetime.
Number one, you want to make it enjoyable. And you
know number two And the other thing that obviously my
heart is in one thousand percent is the women in
the game to be able to get them out there.
And and I mean I talk to college kids all
the time that I says, you know, what's your major business?

(48:25):
I said. They look at me across They look at
me across that like, what do you mean? I said, Hey,
what better place are you going to have when you
have a prospective client and taking them out to a
golf course and spend four hours with them walking and
you're talking not only about golf, but you're talking maybe
about a proposal that you want to do. But it's
an end. They said, I never thought of that, And
they're like, well here, start out here. Okay, let's go here,

(48:48):
you know, let's work here. You can see what's going on.
Then we can go out to a range and and
and see what's happening. But the you know, the golf
simulator business has just exploded. And it's it's so funny
because I watched the godfre from everybody, and you know,
this golf Jeway company Number one is it's very practical,
but it can be found at golf jeway dot com.

(49:08):
But you know, when you look at the prices, it'll
it'll knock your socks off. And then being able to
do and these guys have like thirty years experience, but
they they listen to what people and it all comes
back to what I said in the very beginning about
what what drove me to the United States Golf Teachers Federation.
I wanted to understand how to teach well. These people

(49:31):
want to understand how can we make the golf simulator
business so that it is enjoyable for everybody that wants
to play right, you know, And I mean that's the
you know, that's the biggest thing about what we want
to see in this industry right now, is we want
to see it grow, and we want to be able
to say. You know, people tell me all the time.
You know, they come up and say, why are the
Koreans so good? I said, well, number one, the Korean

(49:52):
government pays them right to play. So they've got to
be up at sunrise to sundown practicing to get pay okay,
you know, because they get taped to do it, and
but they practice. But at the same time, you know,
I would look at my players that I dealt with,
I said, look, you don't need to play seventy two holes.
Before you play seventy two holes. You know, there's a

(50:13):
certain point where you know, we just want to focus
on certain things that you know, I mean after around.
I mean I'll go up to my player after around
and I'll say, look, you know, if we're in the morning,
we're playing in the afternoon and we just got done playing,
I said, instead of going to beat yourself up in
the range, go relax, because we can come here in
the morning, right and take a couple of hours and
work on a couple of things that we need to

(50:33):
work on, and then you know, boom, you know, and
I'll never forget. Page told me one time we were
at a tournament and she wasn't hitting the ball very
well on the range, but I, you know, I tweaked
it a little bit and all that. And she looked
at me and said, why didn't you tell me that?

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Ear?

Speaker 2 (50:46):
I said, Page, we're getting ready to go play a tournament.
You think I'm going to put negative thoughts in your
head as you're walking to the first tee. I said,
we'll take care of it afterwards. You know, let's let's
let's get turn this focus on what you know. And
I mean, I could say, it's so funny. And another
funny story was that we were playing the Chick fil
A in Atlanta and I'm carrying for Geene Bartholomew and
it's a Saturday and we had made the cut and

(51:09):
we're on the range and we're getting ready to go,
and she's hunting all over, you know, and she's the smoking.
I thought she was looking for her cigarettes because she
was looking everywhere I look. I said, Geane, what are
you looking for? She goes, Jeff, Jeff, I can't find
my yardage book. I said, well, Gene, I've got my
yardage book right here. You and I have walked around
this course on teen times I've got my notes here,

(51:30):
you've got you know your mind and how to play
the game. Let's talk and let's see what happens. We
go out, we shoot ten under and she looked. She
looked at me at the end of the eighteenth toll and goes,
I think I'm want to get my yardge book. The
no problem. But I mean, you know, it's it's just
how do you, you know, relate to people that do that?
And like I said before, when you start a brand

(51:52):
new person, you know, and I mean I'll say this
all the time. I said, let's go over to the fundamentals. Okay,
but you know all give them all the technical stuff
and all that. But I always try and end a
lesson or anything saying, you know, okay, everything I told
you is great. When you're out playing golf, you want
to have fun, and I'll tell you how you can
play this game. To make it real simple, there is

(52:14):
only four thoughts that you need in your mind when
you step onto a golf course. The first thing is
where am I going? Okay? What's my direction? Where am
I going? Okay? So you pick a target that you
want to go to and aim toward that. Get your
alignment there, So that's aim. The second one is address.
How am I setting up to the ball? Are my

(52:35):
arms in the correct position? Does it feel like my
body's in front? Does it feel like my body's you know,
it's supposed to be right in the middle, or you
know where you can connect the golf ball? Okay. The
next thing is moving. How do we move? How do
we get the hips to go from front to back
back to the front, you know, how does the body move?

(52:55):
And then the final one that nobody gets is and
I always tell I said, the fourth one is probably
the most difficult one to do, but it is is
it's a five letter word that begins in R and
ends the next And they look at me like huh.
And after but you know, I give them the jeopardy
time and then I'll say relax, relax, you know. So

(53:19):
I'll get up there and I'll just say, this is
what you want to do. You want to get your target.
You want to know where you're going, So you get
your alignment, okay, Then you get your address position. Feel
that movement okay, and then relax and I'll swing. It'll
go straight down the middle. I said, that's how easy
this game is you know, I said, when you're out
on a golf course, that's all you have to instead
of sitting the thinking, God, what am I instructor to

(53:41):
tell me? What do I have to put this? How
do I have to do this? How far do I
have to bring it? You know, by the time you
get ready to hit the ball, it's like the computer
is overloaded.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Right, don't play golf. Don't play golf. Swing and go
play golf.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah, you know so. I mean that's the thing where
you try and make it very easy and make it
enjoyable so that it so that it does become a game,
game of.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
The life time exactly right, Jeff. I can't tell you
how much I've enjoyed the time this is flown by.
And as as I always promise everybody who's on with me,
I will be in touch and we will touch base
probably later in the fall, and we'll just kind of
get a quick update and see how things are going
for you.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Okay, no problem, no problem. And just one last note.
The current player that I'm working with right now is
a lovely, charming lady I've known for over twenty years.
Chris Chedder knows it very well. Galvin the name was
Stefania Crochy and we just came off the two big
LTGA Senior Championship and the USGA Women's Senior Open, where

(54:39):
we finished in the top ten in both of those.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Boom, So well, you know what, maybe I'll come see you.
It'd be good.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
We'll be around. She's a sweetheart, great golfer. And you know,
I keep telling her, I say, is you know we're
getting We're moving up the ladder right now. It's going
to be taking the trophies home.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
I said, you know, enough of these top tens. Let's
go our hand on the trophy, hands on the biggest things.
I always tell her, as I say, keep smiling, enjoy
the game of golf, because, folks, that's what this game
is all about. It's a game of a lifetime that
Canavenion enjoyed from you know, everybody, a little kid that
started out as nine years old and is now a

(55:18):
pushing senior citizen status and pass it. Yeah, but you're
still enjoying it. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
That's awesome. Jeff, thanks again. I will talk to you
very soon.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
You've got it, sir, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
You bet. This is the this is the Rich Comwell
Golf Show,