The Rich Conwell Show - September 21, 2024

Bryan DeMarco of Pine Barrens Country Club in New Jersey joins Rich to discuss the perspective he gained while battling cancer, working with Rich in the past, and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rich kon Wal Golf Show. I think in.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
And looking back over this, I think this is episode
number sixty one, because I think we published. We just
published sixty so we are on episode sixty one. So
Corey has made me sound audible for sixty episode, so
we're hoping that we go sixty one for sixty one here.
This week, we're not going to talk about the Solheim

(00:29):
Cup and for because my god, I put everybody on
a diet because they've had two caddies take their shorts off.
I cannot I'm not going to revisit that.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
That was not good.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
But this week I am really, really, really excited, and
as we hear his story, you're going to realize how
honored we are. We are joined by Brian DeMarco. Brian
is the PGA head golf professional at Deal Country Club
in New Jersey. But he's got an incredibly good story
and I'm pine I'm sorry, Pineberry, excuse me? He was

(01:02):
at Deal Country Club. I knew I'd messed that up.
That's okay, it is, that's true because he is.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
In the middle of nowhere. We'll get into that later.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
But but Brian has an incredible story. I met Brian
almost twenty almost thirty years ago now, and Brian is
a really good golf professional and a really good guy.
And when we get into his story, you're going to
realize how good of a guy he is. But Brian,

(01:30):
thanks for being on today.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
No, you bet, you bet?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay, all right, So that's right, sixty one episodes. That's
all right, sixty one episodes. I've had let's see, let's think.
I had three tour winners on one from the Men's Tour,
one from the PGA Tour, and two from the LPGA Tour.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
I've had h Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I had Don Ray on, vice president of the PJ
of America. I had Brandy Brandy Caine on, I had
Bob ford On, and I have had numerous others obviously.
But yeah, it's really kind of a lot of fun.
It still amazes me that people say, yes, Brian, I
gotta be honest with you. I call him and I

(02:14):
text him and they're like, yeah, I'll do it. I'm like, wow,
fold him again.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So okay, Brian, So.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Don right, don right, what a great guy.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Don Ray has forty eight hours of energy in one
twenty four hour period.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I swear to God a couple of years ago at
the pg National Awards, he's a he is an amazing individual.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
It's it's unbelievable. So okay, Brian, So we start every
time with your start in golf, So go ahead, Oh.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
God, well you might as well go right back to
the beginning, because my father was a PGA professional for it.
He was a head pro for thirty five I think
just under thirty five years or thirty five years exactly,
and so up into golf business. I kind of laugh
when I tell my assistance that I actually have never

(03:06):
worked a job outside of golf in my life. It's
always been something associated with private club golf. So but
I started from a very young age. I grew up
in a country club environment. My father was the head
pro at Writing Country Club in the seventies and eighties,
and after that he moved down to New Jersey and

(03:28):
he was at a very small private facility in South
Jersey for about twenty years and then he retired. So
all my formative years were spent running around in a
private club environment.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Okay, so I have to tell you that I already
knew the answer to this one. But I ask everybody
that I have on for their start in golf and
their earliest influences, and invariably doesn't matter male, female, highly
successful player, or just somebody involved in golf, or it's

(04:02):
her father.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Chris Cheddar.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Chris Chedd's dad threw her on a golf course, not literally,
but put her on a golf courses a youngster, the
young lady that coaches at at Dennison College over in Grandville, Ohio,
her father started, you know, or a grandfather some sort of.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
So that's that's really really really cool.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
And for those who do not know, and and unfortunately
the older we get, Brian, the less people know. This
Reading Country Club in Reading, Pennsylvania used to be the
home the former head professional Redding Country Club is Byron Nelson.
And people don't realize, like Byron Nelson was the head
professional Redding Country Club and right down the road from
him was Hershey Country Club and Ben Hogan was the

(04:44):
head professional there. So it was it was it's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
That you know it.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
People don't realize the rich history in they know Marian,
but even the outlying areas of Philadelphia, because Redding is
technically Philadelphia, and.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's just it's just incredible.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
So so then you obviously you hung around reading for
a while. You're you're then where did you go to
high school?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
So? I went to high school at Reading Central Catholic.
I'm a I'm a Pennsylvania boy. Yeah, and uh, following
high school, I went to Penn State.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
So we're not going to talk about Penn State a
lot because I hate Penn State.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
You know, it's all you know.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I have, I have, I have a I have a
daughter who's a graduate of the Ohio State University, and
I have a son who's a senior at the Ohio
State University. So I and I'll be honest with you,
I grew up in Pittsburgh, and I remember when Pitt
and Penn State played every year, and I had I
had an older brother that told me one time when

(05:44):
I was about six years old. He goes, you either
you either love pitt and hate Penn State, or love
Penn State and hate Pitt And you better like hate
and Penn State because you're gonna love Pitt.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
And when your older.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Brother tells you that at age six, that's what you do.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
That's what you do.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
So there's no no option there.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
That's exactly right, that's exactly right, all right, So you
tool through, you tool through Penn State and then and
then I want to talk about like, Okay, so obviously
you're going to go in the golf business, right, I mean,
your your dad's thirty five years in not not then
he wasn't, but he's You're well steeped in this, so

(06:24):
you pretty much have, you know, two avenues basically leading
to the same the same destination.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, It's it's funny. I when I first entered when
I first went to Penn State, I went as an
agronomy major. I was going to go for term press. Yeah,
and so, and that that's probably why I do have
a lot of friends that are superintendents in the business
and so. But a little way through school, plans changed,
and by the time I was leaving school, I was

(06:55):
dead set on going into the business side of golf
and becoming a PGA.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Pri There you go, there you go. So, so where'd
you go right after college?

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Right after college, I actually I was tooling around and
I was working on the ground as you as you
probably remember, I was working on the grounds crew at
Bellwood Golf Club, and I was working with a couple
of my buddies on the grounds crew, and the superintendent
came to me and said, hey, you know the head
pros looking for an assistant. I remember, I remember asking

(07:31):
you if I could come for an interview and you said, absolutely,
come by tomorrow. And you said, don't even worry about change,
and I said, are you sure? And I remember walking
into the interview and the guy before me was walking
out in a suit and I was walking in. We
were airing it, and I was walking in in boots,
shorts and a golf shirt because I just jumped off
a tractor. And we had a great chat and uh

(07:54):
that I was working working for you.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
That's exactly where. That's exactly the truth. That's exact the truth,
and see and see it. We didn't stick around together
very long because I knew you were going to outrun
me and I didn't want anybody to know you were
going to outrun me. So so so okay, so then obviously.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
We were We had a lot of fun that fall.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
We did have a lot of fun. We did have
a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
But then, obviously, I'll tell you what, if we weren't
laughing at each other, we were laughing at them, which
was probably the best part of all of it, because
my whole thing, with my whole thing, our whole conversations
were like, do you believe that just happened?

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Did he really just say that?

Speaker 2 (08:33):
So? So then so then where'd you go?

Speaker 3 (08:38):
So? So way after that, I was I was kind
of looking at some jobs for the start of the
twenty I guess two thousand and fourth season, and so anyways,
I was looking at some openings in New Jersey and
a guy from my past that knew my father, that
I kind of knew, was looking for an assistant at

(09:01):
Deal Country Club, and that person was Jason lamp and
he was a highly regarded pro. I mean, he won
pretty much everything in terms of tournaments, and so I
went down there for an interview. We had a great chat,
and I ended up starting for him in two thousand
and four and ended up being a deal for ten
years after that. We had a great, great run there.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, he's actually he's he's the real deal. He's the
real deal, and so and then.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
I was very fortunate. I've had some very good influences
in my life, starting with my father working for you
and then Jason. I've had a lot of great influences.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Now, the fact that you see the only reason you
mentioned me is because you're on the radio with me.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
You know that I know that to be true. That's okay,
absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I remember many things that you taught a young impressionable
Brian de Mark for in my stint there. I remember.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
So then, so.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
I guess maybe you really really really never ever thought
about getting out?

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Did you.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Out of the God business? No? No, I was. I
was in it.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
I mean it's you know, it's funny because because you know,
I'm sure, I'm sure we've had this conversation too.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I know I had it with my mother. I know
I've had it with my wife and.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
And and you know, there was never there was never really.
I there were times I'd wonder what it would be
like to not wake up on Saturday morning and go, Okay,
what's the first you know, what's the first thing I have.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
To do at work? But I don't.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
I don't know that I ever really took considered it seriously.
You know, I never really considered it seriously. I would
and people ask me all the time, because I'm older
than you, people ask me like, Okay, what are you
gonna when you retire, like, will you miss it?

Speaker 1 (10:53):
I probably won't.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
I'll miss Sunday mornings. I won't miss Saturdays. It's Sunday
mornings like just to kind laid back kind of like
because generally that's the more laid back of the two
days in the private club world because Saturday, but it's
jacked up, you know, But on Sunday it's kind of
like okay, and that's what I'll miss. And I'll miss
I'll miss being the last one to leave after after

(11:15):
an event, the last one to leave after an event.
M hm, you know, that's what I'll miss. And so
so yeah, it's interesting though because I never I'm sure
my mother, I don't think she really cared, but because
she knew I was happy. But I know my wife
is always kind of everybody's Everybody who ever talked to
me about getting out always knew I wouldn't get out,

(11:37):
and and I know I know you won't either.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
And I think another reason for that is because I don't.
I never really had that conversation with anybody because my
within my family obviously with my father being in the
business his entire life, my mother, even even though my
parents did get divorced. My mother knew what that lifestyle
and that and the business was right, and there was
never any really uh, there was never a real push

(12:03):
there like hey, what are you doing or anything like that.
So she's always been very supportive. And obviously my father
was always very supportive, right my stepfather for that means yep.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
So it's it is interesting because like my mom, you say, like,
you you're you're you're you're crazy.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
You got a goofy job.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
And I knew I had a goofy job. Like everybody
knows I have a goofy job. It's like really weird.
But and you have one too.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
I did think I had a Yeah, my friends thought
I had a goofy job when I especially when I
was an assistant. Yeah, you're working crazy hours. And I
do have to admit I did miss some things that
I do regret, you know, but uh unfortunately, uh you know,
it was part of the process, and you know, I am.
I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm very happy with

(12:47):
how everything's going.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, it's funny because I I because people like I
talked to my because my son's he's a finance major.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Ohiouse state. So he'll he's not in golf business.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
But and and and my daughter's speak pathologists. So there
was never a you know, there's never a conversation with
those two. But but like I tell them all the time,
like I went to work for Tom Chrophy at Williams
for a country club, and I went from a twelvemonth
job to a nine month job and I worked sixty
three hours a week for five years. And I'm going

(13:20):
to tell you right now, I was never ever ever happier.
I made no money, no money I had, I had
very little responsibility, you know. But like the big thing is,
like I was newly married, my wife was in dental
hygiene school, and we would go to Rival Sports bar
on Friday on Saturday night and we get like four

(13:41):
beers and two appetizers, and that was like massive out
for us.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
And there was nothing. It was nothing that made me.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Like we look back those days like my god, how
great would it be to do that.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Exactly?

Speaker 2 (13:56):
You know, I mean, like that twenty dollars that twenty
dollars at mister Lytle gave you for putting the grips
on his clubs.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
It was everything, and it was just.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
It's just so cool and that and that's and that's
actually why I would never get out because I would remember.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Those things, you know.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
So all right, so you spend ten years a deal
and and and then.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
What ten years a deal? And quite honestly, I was,
I was down and you know, I at that point,
I was spending winters down in Florida. My father at
that time was retired and living down in Florida, so
I'd go down there for a couple of months. And
while I was down there, I had heard that a
job opened up in in the New Jersey section and

(14:41):
I actually think I was the last person to put
their resume in for it. I think I submitted it
on the deadline date, and from what I understand, they
kind of had their choices all lined up, and then
my resume hit the pile and one thing led to another,
had first interview and came back for a second, was

(15:02):
offered the job and turned out being my head, my
first head professional job. And that's where I am perfect.
And that Pine Barons ever since.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's that's perfect. That's perfect.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
So so so we're gonna talk about Pine Barons and
and all the and and all the cool things you're
doing about growing the game and things like that, because
we're gonna take a commercial break into a second, and but
we're gonna when we come back. First of all, how
and I'm going to ask you this because it's it's
I know, it's cool before we go to a break.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
How cool was it to get your class A membership.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Class A membership? That happened while I was a deal,
And that was very cool.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
That was cool.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
That was a sense of accomplishment. Uh, I will I
will admit that Jason was very instrumental in pushing me
towards that during my time a deal. He would he'd
stay on me, and he just kept pounding it into
me how important it was to get that. And but
it did feel it was very to finally get that.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, that is really really really cool.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
It was because I remember because you had to do
an or interview.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right, yeah, so did you know? And so did I.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
I remember that like that was like the last thing
I had to do, and it was.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
And then they were like you're good.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
And then I waited for the mail to come, and
then the mail came like, hey, look at that. They
weren't lying.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
So when we come back from this break, we're going
to talk about a little bit of a sidetrack for
you and and this is when the story, this is
when people are going to start to realize how how
how good of a guy, and how great of a
guy Brian DeMarco is because you need to hear some
things that are that are really really interesting. So when
we come back, we're going to talk to Brian a
little bit more and we're.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Going to see how he's growing the game. Today.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
This is the rich Combwell Golf Show. Welcome back to
the rich Comboll Golf Show. We're talking to the head
golf professional at Pine Barrens and in the wonderful state
of New Jersey, Brian DeMarco, and we for those just
to kind of recap. You know, Brian grew up in
the game of golf. You know, his father's a longtime
PGA class A professional, and we went through some of

(17:06):
his history and some of his early starts and early influences.
But I think what it would be what I want
to do now is I want to tell Brian, why
don't you just tell us about about the health scare
that you've dealt with and you're dealing well, obviously you
always deal with it, but.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Tell us what happened.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
I might as well just give you the whole story,
so bear with me. So things started in my junior
year Penn State. And you know, at that point in
your life, you feel invincible, twenty one years old. Nothing
can go wrong, you know, not a care in the world.
You're on top of the world. And a lump in

(17:51):
my groin became painful to the point that I had
to get it looked at, and I went down to
you know, I came home from Penn State and had
my doctor look at it, and he didn't He didn't
know exactly what to make of it. He thought it
was an infection. Wanted me to see a specialist, so
I waited around for the weekend. Monday, I went to
see a specialist. That specialist on Monday diagnosed me with

(18:15):
testicular cancer. On the next day, I was going for
pre op testing, and Wednesday I was having surgery to
have the tumor removed because it had to come out immediately.
So that that started what became the first battle. It
became over the course of about two years, I had

(18:37):
to have multiple surgeries and multiple rounds of a very
intense chemotherapy that definitely took a lot out of you.
The protocol for testicular cancer at that time was I
would spend five days in the hospital receiving chemotherapy. It
was very intense, ivy, and then I'd have two weeks

(19:00):
off and during those two weeks I would get a
couple of shots of chemo drugs and then I'd go
back in and start up another cycle. Five days in
the hospital and then two weeks off and that those
were the cycles, and so it was. It definitely took
a lot out of you over a short period of time.
But between that and the surgeries, and finally got through
that and then finished up my career at college and

(19:25):
graduated and pretty much thought everything was behind me, and
then became the head pro at Pine Barons. And in
twenty sixteen, which was about fifteen years later, I had
a familiar pain in my groin. And you know I've
said before, like you know, you sit there and you

(19:46):
think in the back of your head, itch like, no,
it can't be that right, and so you know, just
to be certain, I went up to phone Kettering up
in New York City and saw my doctor and he
confirmed that I was in I can't remember if he
said it was one percent or two percent of testicular

(20:07):
cancer patients that have a recurrence. And so at that point,
they were looking at multiple tumors that were in my
abdomen because the cancer had spread. But the initial tumor
that was in my groin had to be taken out immediately,
and they were, you know, kind of concerned about the
other tumors that were in my abdomen. And so that

(20:30):
time around, when you have it a second time, the
protocol is much more severe they give you, you know, like,
don't get me wrong, I'm not I'm not glossing over
the fact that the chemo drugs that I had the
first time, we were pretty significant and very intense. But
the chemo drugs that I faced the second time made

(20:53):
the first batch look like a walk in the park.
And because they can't use the same drugs because you buy,
he gets accustomed to it. So the second time around,
you know, I thought I got hit by a truck
the first time. The second time around.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
It was a train.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, exactly. So I had I did have surgery, and
I had four rounds of these extremely aggressive chemotherapy drugs,
four cycles, and it involved me being in the city
for a week to receive the drugs and then I
would get two weeks off. But this time around, I
had to go back pretty much every other day for

(21:34):
blood transfusions because and platelet infusions, iron infusions because the
drugs were really messing with my body so much that
it was throwing everything off. So but like everything, you know,
to keep fighting and you get through it. And so
I made it through that, and at the end of

(21:54):
the fourth cycle, they decided that I did not need
any more treatments. They were they were still watching the
other four tumors because at that time it was deemed
that there was far greater risk to go in and
get them than to or it was far greater risk
to go get them than to just leave them. So
they just left them. They verified through pet scans that

(22:16):
they were inactive, that the chemo had rendered them dead,
so to speak, and so I was declared back in
remission at that point.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
So other than that, Missus Lincoln, how was that play
holy Man?

Speaker 1 (22:32):
So well?

Speaker 3 (22:33):
That was that was the you know, that was intense. Yeah,
that was It took a lot out of me. And
I remember my doctor saying to my family that, you know,
he Brian's not going to be himself for quite a while.
These drugs are going to take a while to get
out of his system. You know. They they gave me
a constant barrage of all kinds of different drugs to
kind of prop my body up, steroids, et cetera. And

(22:55):
in the meantime, you know, I was still going back
every every couple of months for CT scan because they
were still looking at these other tumors that were in
my body. And lo and behold at the at the
end of twenty twenty one, I had a follow up
scan and got a phone call from my doctor. And
it's funny. I was on a golf trip at the time.

(23:16):
I was down in Kiola with some of my members
from Pine Parents and here my doctors call me, and
so this I picked up the phone and said, hey,
something does not look at on your scan and we
need you to come in for a biopsy. And so,
sure enough, one of these tumors had started to grow
and it was in a very precarious position. It was
it had actually grown to a size of ten centimeters,

(23:37):
which is pretty significant, and it was it was located
on my aorda in my body. It had adhered to
my aorda and it had wrapped itself around one of
my kidneys. So my surgeons first things out of the
first words out of his mouth were we're looking at
life threatening blood loss with the surgery. And he followed

(23:59):
that up, I say that your kidney is we're going
to have to take one of your kidneys because this
tumor has wrapped itself around it, and we're going to
have to take take the kidney with the tumor. And so,
you know, I was going into the surgery kind of
not knowing what to think. But the surgery. I had
this surgery and early of early twenty twenty two in

(24:21):
I think end of January twenty twenty two, and the
surgery was about seven and a half hours, I believe.
And I remember coming out of surgery and I looked
at the nurse and I mean, everybody up at sung
cuttering is amazing. And I had one nurse for me,
and she looked at me and she's like, you did great,
And I said, well, I'm here. That's that's that's really good.
And she kind of smiled and I said, how many

(24:43):
kidneys do I have? And she held up two fingers
and I said wow. And she looked at me and
she said, you know, you had the best surgeon in
the world for the surgery. And I said, I know.
So I count my blessings with all of the people
that are up at Memorials one cuttering up in New
York City, because without them I wouldn't here.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Right, all right, it's a it's amazing, you know what.
I go, we do some stuff over here, and my sister,
My sister has spent a bifitous so she had shunts
and operations and and my brother unfortunately uh had liver
cancer and they couldn't get to what they needed to
do with him. And so but the thing of it

(25:21):
is is thank God for smart people because because without that,
you know what I mean, like like and let's be honest,
I mean you and I talk about you know, goof
around like where you having lunch? And you know what's
a downswing plane look like? And why is that ball
going high?

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Right? And you know this and that?

Speaker 2 (25:36):
And did I pay my quarterly taxes on times?

Speaker 1 (25:39):
This is serious stuff. This is serious.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
This is this is like really smart people stuff here,
like like thank thank God for them so we can
actually bitch and moan about downswing plants exactly.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
You know what half of them. All they want to
talk about.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Is their downswing plant.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Isn't that amazing they're downswing plan It's amazing that. That's
another thing I didn't bring up in the first segment.
You know, that is one of the things about being
a golf professional. You can call almost any office you
want and get put right through because you're the golf pro.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
You're the golf pro, you know, like like the here
the golf pro.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
So but yeah, but thank God for thank God for
smart people.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
So you get you get through all that, okay.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
And I gotta ask you, because you know, I do
have to ask this, what how mentally strong did you
become to do all this?

Speaker 3 (26:37):
Apparently pretty strong. I remember looking back when I was
when I was in when I was twenty one and
I was facing it for the first time at Penn State.
I remember, you know, when somebody tells when you get
a cancer diagnosis, that's something that I mean, I can
still remember that day, clear as day when I was

(26:58):
first told that, and you know, it runs through your
mind and you kind of think of all the outcomes,
and I remember sitting there that night wondering what I'm
going to do, and I thought about the worst case scenario,
and obviously the worst case scenario is when anybody is

(27:19):
fighting cancer, you can die. And I convinced myself that
dying was not a bad thing and that I was
not afraid of it. And I figured if I wasn't
afraid of it, I could beat it. And I went
with that mindset, and I basically just told myself from
that point on, I was going to do whatever it
takes to beat it. And I applied that the first

(27:42):
go round. I applied it when I had the recurrence
in twenty sixteen, and then when I was told that,
you know, the cancer had actually reactivated itself in twenty two,
I was, you know, I went the same thing. I
remember looking at my nurse and I said, look, I
trust my doctors and whatever they say, we're going to
do it, and we're going to beat this. And so

(28:05):
that's how I've approached it every time.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, so that's got to be. But that kind of
puts let's just talk about perspective for a second. Hell nothing,
nothing's nothing, no challenge now, and it's really nothing hard.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Mean pretty much. I remember the first time when I
was sick, and my father said, well, put some new
perspective on a five foot put. Okay, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's exactly right. It's exactly it's exactly right. That's exactly right.
It's so obviously your your outlook now is is really good?

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Right?

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Absolutely right now it is. My My doctors are very happy.
Things are doing great. Uh. You know, I couldn't be
happier when they when they did the surgery that I
had in twenty twenty two was very complex at that time.
At that point, they obviously removed the bad tumor that
had started growing, but they also went in and removed

(29:02):
the other remaining tumors just to eliminate any doubt that
they would ever activate themselves.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, so while we're here, we might as just eliminate them.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well that's pretty interesting.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
So okay, so now obviously you know you've beaten this,
and then then you start to get I'm quite sure
some national recognition for this from the PGA of America.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
I yeah, it started on the sectional level. Somebody, you know,
if I had been nominated for the Deacon Palmer Award
within the New Jersey section, and I you know, I
remember reading about it when they sent me the nomination,
and I was floored, you know, because it's such a

(29:48):
it hit home for me and was such an honor
that my peers in my section nominated me for this award.
And when I got the phone call from our section
president that I was selected for the award, I was,
you know, I was beyond overjoyed. It was you know,
it was a huge honor for me, and it it
kind of made me feel like, you know, hey, this

(30:08):
this battle meant something, and you know, it just it
was like a symbol that you know, you've gone through
a lot of stuff and you made it through.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Right, right.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
So then obviously people don't know, right, once you get
the sectional one, then we can go to.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yeah, so once you get the sectional one, the sections,
then if they feel that you're worthy of nominating for
the for a national UH selection, they will nominate. And
so they obviously they nominated me for the National Deacon
Foment Award, and I was, you know it I'll say, like,

(30:47):
it was a huge honor to just go through the
process to write up everything for it. I was beyond honored.
And I remember getting the notification that I was a
finalist then and I was like, wow, this is you know,
this isn't even greater honor. And I remember filling out
all the paperwork, the associated paperwork with that, and it

(31:09):
was a real blessing for me because doing the National
Award paperwork, it gave me some perspective and for the
first time, it allowed me to really write down on
paper everything that I had gone through that had transpired
in those twenty years over the course of my battle.
And it was very beneficial to me to be able
to do that. And I even said it at the

(31:31):
end closing of the award my statement, I said, I'm
just thankful for going through this process because it finally
allowed me some time to look back on this and
just recollect everything. And I remember I got a phone
call from Jim Richardson, the president of the PGA at
the time, and he told me that I was selected
for the award, and I was blown away, and I

(31:54):
remember I got very emotional, and you know, it's something
being selected for a national award. I said, it's the
greatest honor of my career. It will always be the
greatest honor of my career. It's something that I never imagined,
you know, growing up. You see national award winners and

(32:15):
it's kind of just something that you see and you
don't really think too much about. But yeah, to be
selected for a national award, that was such a huge honor,
and like I said, biggest honor of my career.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's that's that's an awesome you know. I think it's
interesting what you what you said there is a is
a little bit a little bit really really telling that
you got to write it all out and kind of
kind of reprocess it and put it into its own
little position, because it's almost like you're able to talk
about talk talk it out. So like all the quote
unquote trauma is gone, not gone exactly.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yeah, there were some things that I that even close
friends didn't even know. I remember the one thing I
talked about was one of the side effects of the
chemo of the second time around, I actually lost my
eyesight for about a month. And nobody had known that
really except those really close to me, right, and you know,

(33:13):
and so I was sitting there, I was like, you know,
I almost it's something you're never going to forget, but
it would allow me to When I was writing everything down,
I was putting everything down, and it was like, yeah,
I remember that, and you know it just it was
really beneficial.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, it can, you can kind of compartmentalize it a
little bit, I would think. Obviously I've not done that.
So all right, so now we're coming out of that.
That that really really cool thing. So now when we
after this break, we are going to talk about like,
and I know this for a fact because I do research,
even for those people that only work for me for

(33:47):
about fifteen minutes, I know you're doing some really really
cool things. And I want to talk about what you're
doing and how you're growing this game, and and and
so we'll get into that a little bit of the
happier things.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Okay, yeah, absolutely perfect.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
This is the rich Comboll Golf Show. Welcome back to
the Rich Comboll Golf Show. We are talking with Brian DeMarco.
And this has been I've known Brian for wow. Now
it's wow. Brian was pushing twenty five years now, right,
twenty two years.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Something like that, right, So so.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Brian's just gotten through with his all of his medical
scares and all that fun stuff. And now tell you
a couple of minutes and tell us about your place now,
because it's awesome that place is awesome.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Time Baron's is great. It's uh, you know, it's not
the first thing that I'm very quick to tell everybody,
especially if we've got some perspective members, that we are
not a country club. This this place is strictly a
golf club. And we've got a great practice facility and
a great golf course and you know great don't get

(34:58):
me wrong, great pub food. But you know, we don't
do we don't do the country club dinners and stuff
like that, right, and it is just a fun place.
You know. The courses sprawled out over about four hundred
and fifty acres, so not like a lot of the
traditional courses in New Jersey where all the holes are
stacked up on each other. Yeah, when you're basically out

(35:18):
on the course, you're on your own hole. You really
don't see anybody else while you're out there.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
That's cool, that's good.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
You know, it's funny you say that because because I
you know, I mentioned before that I had Bob Ford
on him when he went to Seminole. He was like,
you know, I was there for a bn month, month
and a half, two months, and I was talking to
the president that hired him and he goes, you know,
I love it here. He's like, but you know, I
have some suggestions we should probably like, you know, maybe

(35:45):
you know, renovate the clubhouse a little bit and.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
This, and he goes. He goes, you don't get it.
Because you don't get it.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
He goes, I want people to come here to have lunch,
hit balls, take a lesson, play eteen.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Holes, and go home.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
We start making this place nice and people don't want
to stay here for a long time because I don't
want that. We want people to play the golf course,
go home, have you know, have a sandwich, go home,
take a golf lesson, work in a short game, go home.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
And he goes, And that's what I knew. I was
at a golf club. And that's exactly what you're describing.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yes, that's what it is. We uh, we're definitely not
a country cob. There's you know, there's no pool, no
you know, formal dining and things like that. It's strictly
a golf club. And and that's and it's a fun place.
There's a fun group of members here. They're they're all great,
and uh, you know, it's just it's a very chill place,
very laid back very good. Yeah, so number of years

(36:38):
that I've been.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Here, yeah, right, and and so and then the interesting
thing is is the same thing is like up at Chinnacock,
they don't have a TV. There's not a TV on
the property, you know, because people people go there, they
play golf and they go home because why would you
why why else would you go to the golf course,
because that's what that you know. So that's kind of

(37:00):
that mentality. I'm on the other side of it. I
have I have pool, I have you know, we're building pickleball.
I have tennis, and I have dining and stuff. But
but it is interesting because, like you can, I always
say about places like yours.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
You get out of the.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Car and like you just smell golf. What you smell,
you smell golf.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
And that's what we're doing. That's what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
So obviously, since you are in charge of all that,
so tell me, tell me how you're growing the game
a little bit.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
We're doing a number of things here. I'm pretty passionate
about golf club fitting and so one of the first
things I started doing when I got here, we started
just started really pushing fitting clubs and uh, you know,
year after year kind of got my assistance on board

(37:52):
with it, and we uh the past few years, we
uh we have been I say we everything's a team effort, right.
We've been selected as one of the top one hundred
fitters in golf by Golf Digest, which I thought to
be a huge honor. It's you know, there's a lot
of people, a lot of big names that are on
that list, so it's nice to be listed with them.

(38:15):
And we're actually only one of two entities in the
state of New Jersey that have that designation formally, so
that's a huge hore in and of itself. But the
bigger thing that we've been doing here growing the game.
And we've got a member guest professional tournament that we
run at the end of every season. And I cannot

(38:35):
say I cannot take credit for starting it. It was
started before I, before I started here at Pine Barons,
but I'd like to think that I took the ball
and ran with it a little bit more, and you know,
it's grown incrementally each year since I've started here. We
get a bunch of pros from the New Jersey in
Philadelphia sections and they pair with members from Pine Barons

(38:59):
who then bring a game as well, and it is
just a very fun day for the golf pros, for
the members and their guests. We raise a ton of
money for the New Jersey Golf Foundation. In the process.
You pay out a little money to the pros while
we're doing that, and uh, you know the members that
everybody has a blest and I kind of turned it

(39:21):
into a celebration of the PGA professional. I don't I
don't put any you know, any responsibilities on them. They
just tell them to come out and have a great day.
A lot of them donate force thems that we then
raffle off and help generate funds for the New Jersey
Golf Foundation. So that's one of the beneficiaries of it.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
That's awesome. That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
So so okay, so you mentioned Philly, you mentioned New Jersey.
So tell me some of the famous famous golf pros
you had come in there, because I know, I know
there's several of them.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
I'll be honest with you. As far as I'm concerned,
every golf pro in the New Section is famous to
me because of the support that they gave me in
twenty sixteen when I was sick. But these guys are
all I consider them all. They're almost like family. The
amount of support that I received from them when I
was sick is unbelievable. So but you know, we we

(40:15):
have a lot of great players that play in this event.
You know, I don't even want to go down the list,
and you know there's uh, I'm not going to start
naming names, but we've got guys that played in you know,
double digit PGA championships at nation you know, at the
national level. Uh, we've got National Club Pro champions We've

(40:35):
got guys that have played in the US Open. You know,
it's obviously US Senior Opens, US Senior or the Senior
PGA Championship. So there's it's a who's who have who's
in the golf business in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
I got to tell your members got to be pretty
jacked up. That's probably a pretty quick sign.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Oh, they love it. They it's it's just a great
fun day. And you know what, it's not the pros
do play for a little bit of money, but like
I said, it's it's a way. It's at the end
of the year, so they can kind of you know,
they can come here and just relax and kind of
you know, just have a fun day out playing golf,
and you know, yeah, if they play good, they're gonna

(41:15):
win some money, right And.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
If they don't play good, they get something to eat.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
And go home, exactly, they still have a great time.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
So so I know that you're modest with these things,
but how much money have you raised?

Speaker 3 (41:30):
I forget what the total number has been. I forget
the New Jersey God Foundation. Did they awarded Pine Barrens
the we were club of the Year back in twenty
twenty one because of it. But I forget what the
total has been. Now I'd have to go. Look, I'm right,
I'm embarrassed that I don't know that. No, that's what

(41:52):
the total is because we just keep adding to it
every year.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
So right, right, So how much how much teaching do
you get to do?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
I do a little bit. I'm gonna be completely honest.
I've got a couple of great assistants. My assistant, my
first assistant, Dominic, does a good portion of the teaching
and instruction here. And he is an excellent teacher. He's
he's learned from some good teachers, uh, and he is
an excellent young teaching professional. He's an assistant. But you know,

(42:25):
he does everything well. But he's a good young teacher.
But I teach a little bit, not not as much
as him, but a fair man.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Oh good for you, good for you. So you you
still you like that? Correct? You do like that?

Speaker 3 (42:38):
I enjoy it. I do enjoy it, Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Because it's funny because you know, and I know we
never got to the point where we talked about this stuff.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
But but you know, if you don't.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Enjoy that, you really really really are are it's going
to be really difficult to be properly rewarded for it,
because if you don't enjoy it, if you don't enjoy it,
there's no sense. And even you know, like and and
I'm sure you have to, but I've run into golf
professionals to say to me, like I charge I charge,

(43:08):
you know, in suburban Pittsburgh, I charge on hundred and
seventy five dollars an hour on my My first thought
is you don't want to teach, so you you want
you want to get that money because you charge money
so those people won't come ceo you know, or or
you I don't know, if you're patting yourself on the
back when you say that out loud, that that's what
you that's what you get, you know, because I never

(43:30):
follow up with, well, you know, how how eight?

Speaker 1 (43:32):
How all?

Speaker 2 (43:33):
How did all eight of your golf lessons go? Because
that's exactly what you had last year. So so that's that,
you know that, that's really that's that's really cool to hear.
So so, okay, so you're doing a lot of club fitting,
you're doing you know, you're doing some teaching.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
You're just growing, you're just growing golf.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
I'm assuming now that your goal would be and I'm
not trying to assume. I want you to kind of confirm,
but you got to make sure that you keep the
COVID sorge going correct, I mean, because because it can
go away.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Oh sure, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
So so what do you think? What do you think
for you personally? What would be your next step? Like
a professional development like I mean, because I'm enrolled in
the Master like I'm certified and I'm the Master Master
Professional program, like you doing anything like that.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
It's funny when before the PGA restructured everything, and before
I was sick in twenty sixteen, I was in I
was into their h I had started their general management. Yeah,
curriculum or you know, specialty certification I think they called it.
I'm going to continue doing that. I'm gonna, you know,
I'm gonna that's whatever version it is now. And yeah,

(44:51):
I'm always always trying to do something.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
You know, Ray and I had that done. Ray and
I had that conversation. It's like, Okay, you know what,
I would like to get a degree that everybody can recognize,
because my god, everything every six months you change the
name of it. You know, it was it was this,
you know whatever whatever, like you said, especially certification.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Now now I'm a certified you know.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
It's like it's like, you know, we all want to
do this stuff, but you got to make it like seeable,
you know, because it's it's like you keep over with
the goalposts.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Exactly exactly. You want to keep improving yourself.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Well that's pretty good. And then so obviously I have
to revisit you.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
You're healthy, correct I am?

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Now? I am. I'm very thankful for that. It's been uh,
you know, the the the the surgery that I had
in twenty twenty two kind of wiped out any question marks.
But because of all of my history, I do get
pretty continued pretty regular checkout, sure scance, and I will
continue to get them for the rest of my life.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah, so and and that's and that's obviously that's common sense.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Then why wouldn't you, Now it's.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Like I would assume that that would be like kind
of like I go to the dentist every six months,
you know, I mean, like you just do it, just
do it, you know, it's just.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Part of your steps.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
But well, that's awesome, that's awesome. So anything Pine Barrens
have anything on the on the horizon about any renovations
or anything like that, or you guys just sticking with
your with your current deal renovations.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Now, we did some renovations at the beginning of last year.
We did some long overdue changes to our eighteenth hole,
kind of made it more playable, gave gave the better
players for hitting driver some options into hitting second shots
into the green. And then we're actually looking to we're
gonna reshuffle the maybe the flow of our fifteenth hall

(46:46):
to part five. And from anybody that's familiar with the course,
they know that it kind of bottle next down by
the green. So we're looking at ways to kind of
improve the flow of the playability of the whole. So
that might be something that's on the horizon. But other
than that, nothing too crazy. That's just going about our
business and starting to play some golf finally, So that's

(47:08):
a good thing.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
So it's interesting because because I was you know, I'm
the golf coach at Willing. You don't know, but I'm
the golf coach at Willing University. And we went to
a resort down in uh in West Virginia and it's
a place called the Raven, which is on Snowshoe Mountain
and Gary Player designed it. And I will tell you, you say,

(47:31):
flow that has no flow, like none, like not like you.
You kind of feel like like what were we doing here?
And yeah, like I can't. Like obviously I'll never play
neither will you. You'll never play.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
As well as Gary Player did. But but I mean
my whole.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Thing is like, look, man, I understand you're on a
mountain and doing all this stuff, but did you did
you think that there was a hole after this one?
Because right now I kind of feel like you designed
one hole and then you came back the next day
and said, what better is that another one? It's just
it's just you know, you talk about flow and because
I had I had an architect, Jim nago On and

(48:07):
and and he's super passionate about that exact thing, like
you just can continually flow through the golf course and
all of a sudden you're on number seventeen, you know,
And it's not that the whole you're blowing by the holes,
but it's just how the whole thing flows into into
each other so you can keep you know, so you

(48:29):
can keep going.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
And and and.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Course design, right, they have you have an opportunity to
to you know, have eighteen chapters in the same book
as opposed to eighteen books. Absolutely, and it's it's pretty cool.
So all right, so you're playing golf now, right, a
little bit more?

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, you know, it's funny, for they chopped me up
pretty good during during all my health issues, and there
was a string there where you know, I did not
play much golf at all for you know, probably about
six years, and so this year has been completely different.
That's pretty funny what a clean bill of health does

(49:11):
for you. But you know, I finally started to feel
good at the beginning of this year, and I will
admit that I have one person to credit for how
much golf I'm playing. My girlfriend, Christina is a big golfer,
a very good golfer, and she kind of was very
instrumental in making sure that I was playing this year.

(49:35):
And she just basically kept saying, Okay, let's play nine holes,
let's go play. And it's been great, and you know,
she's become my favorite golf partner. We've had a great
time and she's got me out on the golf course
so much. And words will never be able to you know,
I'll never be able to put in the words how

(49:55):
grateful I am to her for doing that. And you know,
but she she knows it.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
That's cool, that's good because but I will tell you
this though, that I know for a fact, when you
two sit in a golf cart, her side of the
golf cart is the more talent. That's a deep end
of the talent pool in that golf cart. I'm telling
you right now, okay, because because I've said, like, you're
a good player, man, but I'm just telling you I
can just I just feel like, I just feel like
you are bad. You're fighting up pill battle against her.

(50:24):
I mean, she's just you know, like you're you're you're
you're an easy out for her. She's just like, yeah,
you're two down. Yeah, we're good too.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
She is a very good golfion. She played division on
golf in Mount Saint Mary's and she never really let
off the guests. But after that she uh, she's a
member at a local club down here in New Jersey
and she's actually she just won her twelfth club championship
in thirteen years.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
So she is the deep end of the talent pool Man.
You didn't even need to You didn't even need to
get me through that. We knew that and now we
know that.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Sure, it's so much fun. It's fun watching her play.
But like I said, I uh, it's uh, it's been
a great thing. She's got me out on the golf
course and it's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
That's awesome, all right, Brian, Well guess what we're done.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
So I got to tell you this has been awesome.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
This has been the probably the top three easiest ones
I've done.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
And I want to thank you for that.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
I want to thank you for this was a great honor,
you know, And I'm going to tell you something right now.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
You know I knew.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
I knew back when when you worked with the fifteen
minutes you worked for me that you you had you
had the health scare because I had you after college and.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
All that stuff. But yeah, just know that, just know that.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
And I'm just one guy. There are a ton of
people that are proud of you, and there are a
ton of people that look to you as an example
when they get up against something that like if you,
if you can do that, I can do this.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
So just just I do appreciate that. Yeah, it's uh,
and I will be honest, I have. I've helped counsel
a few guys regarding it, but uh, you know, and
I'm always open to helping anybody. And I know what
I say to everybody, everybody's dealing with something right.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Right, So just know, just know absolutely from the bottom
of my heart, how proud.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Of you I am.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
And thank you very much. That means so much, thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
And and and just just know that I know I
know you're doing good work over there, but beyond that,
I'm just flat proud of you.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
So just just know, just know, just know there's.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
A lot of people pulling for you every day and
they always will.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Well thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
You bet brother.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
All right, this is the rich Conwall Golf Show. This
has been Brian DeMarco. And for those of you who
I'm gonna tell you if you just heard this, make
sure you listen to it again because that's a pretty
incredible young man right there.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
This is the rich Conwoll Golf Show.