October 2, 2024 • 51 mins
IUP head golf coach Dan Braun joins Rich to talk about his time at Indiana Country Club, the path to IUP, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rich Conwell Golf Show.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This week, the President's Cup is obviously going on in
the wide world of golf.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And there are some.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
There are some interesting storylines there, but not really anything
that's going to light anybody's chimney on fire. So in
keeping with what we are trying to do all the
time here, we try to get very interesting guests in
the world of golf, and I'm very successful and very
happy to announce this week that we are joined by
(00:33):
Dan Brawn. Dan is the head men's golf coach at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Dan is
a PGA professional and Dan is actually a very very
very good guy. And not only that, but he's got
some really really cool stories and has some great experiences
in the game of golf. So Dan, first off, I
just want to say thanks for coming on.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I appreciate it well, thanks for having me Rich, and
thanks for the glowing introduction. I don't know that anybody
said those nice things about me before, so it's it's
definitely appreciated. For sure. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
You'll get a bill, it'll be it'll be like for
sixteen dollars and I'll just say compliments on it. So,
I mean, because I gave you four of them, so
it's four dollars, I'll send you a bill. So Dan
as we as we do this all the time every
time I have a guest on, talk to me about
how you got your start in golf.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, I started playing the game very young. I mean
there's pictures of me at like age three with left
handed plastic clubs. Uh. And then from there I just
kind of my dad played, my brother's, my oldest brother played,
my middle brother played at it a little bit. But
(01:49):
so I was introduced to it at a very young age.
And funny thing is is that, you know, I got
to be about how old are you? In fifty grade.
The summer between fifth and sixth grade, I was playing
a little bit here and there, and my dad always went.
I'm originally from Murraysville, so my dad always went and
(02:13):
played at Rolling Fields on Wednesday nights. He and a
couple of my uncles and my brother and I wanted
to join along, and I think I was just a
little bit too young. He hadn't come to grips with
that side of it yet. So you know, tagging along
a fifth grade kid or sixth grade kid. So I
(02:34):
wanted to go play. And you know, I had a neighbor,
Sam Wiley, who's actually the head golf professional at Weeburn
in Connecticut. We would play golf. He lived across the
street from me, and we had courses set up between
our two houses. So one of my holes went from
(02:54):
the front yard to the backyard and I happened to
put one. My dad didn't take me with him rolling
fields on Wednesday. So I played our one hole and
I hit it right to our front window into the kitchen,
yet into the kitchen, and proceeded to try to blame
somebody else throwing a rock. Well, the golf ball was
sitting there. So how I got my start was my
(03:17):
dad that I should have taken you with me. I
won't make that mistake again. He wasn't. There was some
more colorful language and some descriptions that I'll save you from.
But I started to play every Wednesday night with my
dad at Rolling Fields in Stardust, So it was it
was funny and I just fell in love with the game.
(03:40):
And from there I just you know, Sam. I got
Sam involved with the game too, and we started to
play at at Meadow Wing, and my dad belonged to
River Forest and Freeport, so I'd play up there on
the weekends with he and my cousin and my dad
and my uncle, and play Wednesday nights with my dad,
(04:03):
and then Sam and I would play at meadow Wink,
And I actually started to work at Meadow Wink once
I got into high school. So goes back a long way.
But I fell in love with the game early and
have not fallen out of love with it yet. That's awesome,
not so a couple of times, you know, we all
go through that.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Actually, I think what that is is falling out of
love with us. We always love it. It's like a
love hate relationship, and like we always love it, but
it hates us every so.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Often, and that's why it's that way.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's interesting that that, you know, I asked this question,
and I ask it of everybody, and from Chris Smith
who won on the PGA Tour, to Chris Cheddar who
won the LPGA Tour, Missy Berdiatti who I know, you
know who won on the LPGA Tour, And invariably, invariably
it always comes back, not always nine out of ten
(04:55):
is our father, and like and my mine, mine was
my father too. I mean we took my older brother's
worked at Rolling Hill, so I went and played with
them when I was younger. But you know, the first
time around, the first part I ever made was my dad,
you know, so like you remember stuff like that, and
like just sticks and I don't know what. I can't
figure out the relationship. I know the relationship, but I
(05:18):
don't know. It's amazing to me how frequently it starts
with your dad.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, really, And.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's interesting because Bob Ford was on and actually the
golfer and his family was his mom. Wow, yeah, exactly,
And he told me on the show, he's like, my
dad didn't play like barely at all, you know, like
you said, your brother played at it, like his dad
didn't didn't do that, but his mom, his mom played
a lot. And his mom they belonged to the club
(05:47):
in Philadelphia, and that's how he got.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Hooked into it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And it's really interesting, like he's the and not that
it's a big deal and it's it's one more thing
that separates Bob Ford from you and I. But you know,
aside from the massive amounts of talent that he hasn't
about everything he's ever done. But but but it's he's
the only one that their mother.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Wow, it was really really.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Interesting talk for many people that that that learned. You know,
there's been a few here and there. Who they are.
I probably can't tell you off the top of my head,
but yeah, very very seldom, is it. Uh, you know,
through the through the interest funnel, through the moms. It's mostly, Yeah,
through the fathers. That's what I've always heard through through
(06:34):
years and years. Whether it's a boy or a girl playing,
you know, whether it's a male or female playing, it
typically comes through the through the father.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
It's really interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So Okay, so I got you to high school, So
so then what are you starting to figure out?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You're pretty good at this?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I did I you know, I made I I I remember.
I remember it like it's yesterday, going to my first
team tryouts at Franklin Regional in ninth grade. Uh, you know, nervous,
you know he could turned coal into a diamond, right right,
(07:12):
And yeah, I I made the team, and you know
it was it was great. I competed all through high
school and we had a pretty good team. Sam Wiley
was on that team. You know, like I said, he's
at we Burn and then Chip Swanson who's found at
the Spring Island in hilton Head, you know, near hilton
(07:36):
Head at Old Tabby Links. So there's three PGA professionals
on our high school team. Uh. And we had another
who tried to play on the mini course for a
little bit. So you know, we were we had a
pretty good team. Yeah, and uh we had a lot
of fun, that's for sure. And we played at Meadow
(07:57):
Winks so it was wonderful. And then from there I
went and played at Penn State for Mary Kennedy, who's
you know, Mary Kennedy Zerkey And she was a wonderful
coach and a wonderful influence on on, you know, my life,
especially now and making the transition from from you know,
(08:21):
a club professional to a coach. You know, her influence
really played a big role on in my interest in
doing something like that. But a great four years up
at Penn State. Uh, and then from there I I
just you know, you wonder how you get into into
(08:47):
the line of work that you do, and and you know,
I think everybody looks back and what if I would
have done this, or what if I would have done that?
But I just never saw myself doing anything other than
something that had to do with golf. I just love
(09:07):
the game and I love people, you know, uh, And
and that the the opportunities that golf gave me to
really come out of my shell. And because I was
a shy kid, you know. Now my brothers told me
I was a magpie, but I was really kind of shy.
(09:30):
But working at Meadow Wing brought me out of my shell.
And I think that's why the business was always so
you know, I was always drawn to the business because
it really helped me grow at a young age and
and really develop a personality and to be outgoing and
(09:51):
to be able to deal with people and relate to
people of different ages, whether they were older than me
or younger than me. So I think that once I
got out of school, that's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to have something to do with the game
but also something to do with people, and it's just
(10:12):
a perfect marriage there. So I stayed up in State
College and did kind of an internship for Dave Redmond,
who was the golf professional and actually the State College
elks up there, and I was there for six months.
It was it was It was a great the greatest
assistants job in the world because I worked thirty seven
(10:35):
hours a week.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Wow, congratulations, congratulations, you stole one.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Back in those times. You know that that didn't happen
back then. I played golf every day and he was
wonderful to work for. I mean I every assistant. We
had two assistants there, and on Saturdays, one assistant would
get the entire day off, oh my god, so that
they could watch, you know, do whatever they wanted to do.
(11:02):
This is during football season, and the other assistant worked
till twelve Oh my god. So you could either go
to the game. You could go to the Penn State game,
or you could watch it on TV, or play golf
or do whatever he wanted to do. I mean that
that just it was. It was like Heaven, I'm playing
(11:23):
golf every day, I'm working thirty seven hours a week,
and I'm getting paid a salary.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
It wasn't even an hourly pay. I mean I was
getting a salary, which you know, wasn't that much, but
I didn't really care.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It's called guaranteed money, baby, guaranteed money.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah. So from there, I came to Indiana as as
an assistant. An assistant position opened up here, and my
dad was a contractor, you know, he built homes for years,
and his business partner was from Indiana. So I was
familiar with the area and we had come down here
(11:59):
to play at iup tournament, you know, several times. So
I was familiar with the club, and I came and
interviewed peer and I got the assistant's job. I was
twenty two and I moved to Indiana and then from
there I worked here two years as an assistant. The
(12:19):
man that I worked for resigned and went into sales,
and the next thing you know, I'm getting called in
by the president and the vice president of the club
and they offered me the job at twenty four.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
So, I mean again, you know, part of it is,
you know, what do you do? I mean, do you
go work somewhere else as an assistant? I had opportunities.
I had members that were looking out for me, right,
But you know, that opportunity presented itself to me. And
(13:02):
you know, at the time, I didn't I knew my
friends around here, but I didn't know anybody in the PGA.
I didn't know anybody, right, you know, I didn't know,
I didn't know what to do, so I took the job.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. I didn't know what else to do,
so I just said, yes.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Right, I just took the job. I figured how bad?
You know?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I right, that guy just quit. I can do better
than that.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I go along with him. I don't like the clothes
that he carries in the shop. I think I can
carry some nicer stuff. But how am I going to
finance it?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Right? Right, exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know, I'm twenty four years old. I got a
retail operation that I've never you know, the only thing
that I ever did was, you know, dust and make
some displays and unpacked shirts and price them. So, you know,
now I'm thrown into trying to run a business and
you know, run the golf operation up here, and uh,
(14:01):
you know, twenty seven years later, I was still here.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Right, So you mustn't you know, you were getting pretty
good at it. By that, you're getting pretty good at it.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
But either that or the people in Indiana are just
incredibly patient.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, patient patient, or or just not really that smart.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Let's be really clear. Maybe there's not that smart.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
But no, I look back at some of the you know,
I mean I look back, it's it's twenty four to
twenty five years old, and you know, I mean it was.
I couldn't have done everything right. I know I didn't,
but I knew how to make it sound like I did.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I love that, you know, before we go, before we
go to break, because we're gonna go to break and
then we're going to talk about Indiana Country Club a
lot more. But it's interesting you said something about the
Elks bringing you out of I'm not the Elks, but
but everywhere when you were younger, bringing out of your shell,
and metal Wing brings you out of your shell, and
and you know, you and I had discussions, you know,
(15:01):
about finding assistance and finding young guys that want to
be in this business. And it's interesting that you hit
on that because it popped into my head. It's interesting
that one of the things you said is you like people,
and so do I like people a lot, you know,
and like and I think that's the difference between you know,
if I could just say that's the difference, but it's
(15:22):
not one of the major differences between when you were
twenty four twenty twenty six and now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
You still like people.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I don't know that many twenty two year olds and
twenty four year olds that really are really immersed in
people basically kind of like society. I mean like you know,
you walk into a room and then like everyone's on
your phone. I did, don't make eye contact. They text
each other from.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Across the room.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I just think it's really fascinating that, Yeah, it's people first,
and you figure out everything else out.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
You're right, And I remember playing it. You know, I've
played every day at Meadowing too. You know, so I
played with back then it wasn't so siloed. I mean
now it's every people only want to play with people
that they know and people of like abilities or people
of like whatever. Right, So I remember playing with with
(16:25):
young guys.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh ladies.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Guy, they were seventy years old, and they invited me
in because you know, we could talk right, and you know, men, women, young, old,
didn't matter. Everybody was just kind of playing because you
love the game. Hey do you want to play? Sure,
(16:48):
I'll play right.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It didn't matter if you're any good or not. It didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
No, there was one guy that he got better. He
was about a fourteen handicap. But I'll tell you what.
One day I played. He played in the morning and
at the turn he got a Gin and Tonic and
a six pack for the back, and then he came
in and it got something to eat and then went
(17:14):
out played. Now I played the next round with him,
so he had another Gen and Tonic, another six pack,
came in at the turn, another Gen and Tonic, another
six pack, and I was like, how's this guy stand
ending and speaking and playing right? Function fifteen handicap? We
end up playing. He plays forty five poles that day,
(17:37):
and that last nine he started out with a Gin
and Tonic and had a six pack and shot thirty seven.
He's the fifteen handicap. He's been boozing it all day, right,
I mean I think he ate a hot dog, a
hot dog, hard boiled egg or something, and he goes
(17:58):
out and shoots thirty seven. The continues on, So that
those are the types of characters that you ran in.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That because you're willing to go be with people, be
with people who cares.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
We had so much fun and we laughed about it,
and we we I always had fun with whoever we
played with. And and you're right on there, Rich, I mean,
it's and it's you know, it's no disrespect to the
individuals that we're that we're talking about because society has
changed and influences have changed, and I like to refer
(18:32):
to it as you know, somebody's sphere of influence right right,
you know, and and they've they have changed dramatically in
the last twenty thirty years for where you know, between
social media, first with cell phones and then social media
and everything else that you're right, it's it's when you
(18:55):
find somebody that uh likes people, that really likes people
and can stand and talk and and I'm starting to
I'm beginning to see more young people that are able
to do that now. So maybe they're maybe the impact
of because the all those things that we just mentioned
or are, you know, they're there and it's established that
(19:19):
maybe you know, these young people's personalities are starting to
come out again. But there's several young guys up here
that you know, they're in high school and I can
stand and talk to them, and you know, they have
the gift of gab right and very accommodating and stand
(19:40):
there and talk to you. You know how somebody some
people stand there and talk to you, but you can
see them looking at the door right there trying to
enter over the door. And you know me well enough
that I'm never at a loss for words too often.
My wife would agree with that too, you know, so
I could stand there and talk to you know, the
(20:02):
wall lead.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
So, but you know these kids now that there are
several up here that just stand right there and you know,
they're willing to talk. They're not trying to get away.
So that's encouraging to me. And hopefully that means, you know,
some of these young guys are that love.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Golf, are coming through the circle.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Maybe maybe they can see the benefits and and the
differences that the game has made in their lives, and maybe,
you know, they make the decision to become a PGA member.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
There you go, all right, Dan, When we come back
from this break, we are going to talk about a
lot more about the PGA of America and a lot
more about your time at IUP I E P not
there yet at Indiana Country Club, and we'll have some
we'll have some fun stories going through that. This is
the Rich This is the Rich Conwell Golf Show. Welcome
back to the Rich Comwell Golf Show. We are having
(20:58):
a great discussion with the Braun who is currently the
head men's golf coach at Indian University of Pennsylvania, which
is a Division two NCAA program, a very successful.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
One at that.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But right now we left off before that break at
Dan had just accepted the job at Indiana Country Club
when we were talking about you know, being a young
professional and things like that. So so, okay, Dan, So
you get the job at twenty four, right, and you wake.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Up and you have the job.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
So what's the what's the first thing you remember doing
besides pinching yourself to say, oh my god, I have
this job?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Probably sweating. Now, Yeah, I found Mike. I had to
find an assistant, so you know, that was my first
My first concern was who's going to help me? Who's
going to be my partner in crime up here?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So I found Mark Anderson was his name. He had
at IUP and he was good friends and a teammate
of a good friend of mine, David Myers, and David
actually suggested him to me. So he lived in Braintree, Massachusetts,
which is, you know, outside of Boston. So I picked
(22:19):
up the phone and called him, and he had graduated
from IUP and he was just kind of up there.
I don't know what he was doing. I don't think
he was working. But he was like me, loved the game,
loved to play, and was a very loved people as well.
(22:40):
So you know, he was my first ask and I
just asked. I don't even think I interviewed him. I
think I just asked him, Hey, come here, you got
to be my assistant. He said sure, So he moved
down here and obviously he was familiar with the town.
But he worked for me for three years and he
(23:03):
did a wonderful job. And now he's he's He went
from here and and went to Center Hills and State
College and worked for Jeb Boyle. Then he got his
own job out at UH Golden Oaks and reading. Sure, sure, yeah,
And he went to Heidelberg out there, Uh and then
(23:28):
he started to teach. He was at the Cricket Club
and he taught out there, and Ben he became the
penn women's golf coach. But now he's the director of
instruction at Saint David's in Philly and he's still coaching
Penn women's team and they have a very successful team.
They do great.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
But Helberg, yeah, Reading Pennsylvania. Guess what I got married there,
did you really? My wedding reception was there.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It was wedding.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
My wife is from there. My wife is from West Lawn,
which is, you know, right next to all that's the
you know that that that's like Peter's township, Mount Lebanon
like that stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
It's like right next to everything. And yeah, that's I
got married. My reception was.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I didn't get married there. I got married in the
Catholic Church with nineteen priests and I think the Pope
was there because my mother and uber into that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah. He like he.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Even took down the he even took down the bullproof
glass to say something while he's in there. So all right,
so you hire him and did you ever?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Did you ever?
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Like? Okay, so I'm gonna ask you a question now
because you're you're away from it.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
What's the most important.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Thing that a PGA professional brings to a private club.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I think leadership, I think friendship. I think loyalty, uh, guidance,
helping the club. You know. Somebody told me in an
interview one time, which was which was interesting, and it
(25:02):
wasn't an interview. It was more of a discussion about
a place, and you know, we talked about it a
little bit, and it's like, you know, you go in
there and you tell, you know, you're going to tell
somebody how you're going to lead them to the promised land.
And I think that you know, you go in there
with the attitude that you can bring the vision of
(25:27):
how you can take the club to the next level
and make it a successful place, and not just financially,
but just just building a bond with the membership and
being the glue for all the members. You know that
maybe they don't have much in common with each other,
(25:48):
but the thing that they have in common is they
have a strong relationship with the professional and through that
then their bond with each other grows. And sometimes they
realize sometimes they don't, but it's kind of like you know,
the so I guess what I'm saying is you become
the nucleus of the operation and the nucleus of the
(26:11):
club because we're in a position of such a position
of influence. And I think more so than a lot
of like gms that aren't EGA members aren't involved in
you know, golf operations as much because you know, golf
(26:31):
professionals pretty much have it nice. We don't have to
say no to too many people.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Correct, We don't, We don't.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
You know, managers have to say no on a couple
of different levels. You know, you get into the alcohol
stuff and we want to do this, and we want
to do They can't really do that where you know,
we're just dealing with golf a lot of times, and
we do deal with other things and then not that
I've you know, we have to say no to. Typically
(27:01):
the stuff that we're saying no to is is less
less of a lightning broad than you know, yeah, right, exactly, Yeah,
they can't. You know, when when you.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Say no, when you say no to keeping the shop
up until eight o'clock at night, okay, right, I get that.
But when you tell mister Jones and mister Smith that,
by the way, we're closing at seven thirty tonight because
you guys have probably had too much a drink. And
I know an uber I'm calling him now. Now you're
the bad guy.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
You're the bad You're the enemy exactly. You're actually spewing
common sense. He's spewing energy. Enemy.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
So yeah, and I always myself, you know, I always
thought of myself as being here to assist our gms too, right,
you know where I'm I'm the glue between them and
the membership too, and the superintendent because we stand there
and we listen to it all day. You know, if
the superintendent makes a decision that people like, well, they
(28:04):
don't drive down to the maintenance building and talk to them.
They're coming into the shop, and we got to be
able to support them and take that for them. And
that's something that maybe some people roll their eyes at,
but I always welcomed that. I was always I wanted
that role, right, you know, I wanted the ball right
at Indiana, I was the guy that I wanted the
(28:26):
ball all the time. I wanted to make as many
decisions as I could because I felt like I knew
the membership, I had built the relationships with these people.
I knew what they wanted, I knew what they needed,
and I think they knew that too, right, So you know,
I was willing to take the arrows for anybody, and.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's them, That's that's yeah, right, because you because you
had you had the armor.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Because you had the armor.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
It's interesting because you know you say, you know you
start I asked you that question as it really open
ended question. Like what's the best thing you can ring?
And all those things that you brought you mentioned are
all people skills, loyalty, willing to willing to communicate, you know,
being glue, having relationships.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
It's all people stuff, I mean.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
And and it's interesting that, you know, I I don't
tell the story often, and I'm sure you have one
similar to it, but but I know that I was
told by a grandmother that I saved a kid's life
because he.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Was going through some stuff. And we just drove.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
We just drove a golf cart and and got a
candy bar and hit you know, drank some pepsis and
and hit twelve golf shots, you know, I mean, that's
all we did. We did it for six straight weeks.
That kid had no interest in playing golf, but he
had a lot of interest in not doing the other thing.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
And right, and I.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Happened to be there, you know. And and and we've
all been through the veterans things, and it's.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
All about related.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
It's all about people, right, you know, It's like it's
about people. And and it's it's interesting that that. I'm
so happy you answered it that way, because like it
further adds to me to the thought process of of.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
You know, it's it's people. It's people. It's because people,
don't you know, like like I have, Like.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I'm at Wheeling, right, and you were at Indiana and
and x y Z and and Bob was at Oakmont,
and Phil was at Saint Clair and and and wherever.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
But the thing of it is they're all different.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
People, and like not everybody is an I UP professor
or not everybody is an executive at West Banco and Wheeling,
they all have different things. But if if we can
be the if we can be the the run throw, then.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Then we'll win. Then then then the club will be successful.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, So if you're if you're the cornerstone, you know,
to use the White House term, you know, you're you're
good to go, I mean right, So all right, So
obviously at Indiana for twenty seven years, if I remember correctly,
so tell me, like you had some really good players
come out of there, you really did. So tell me
(31:04):
about tell me about one of your biggest success stories.
You get to pick, it doesn't matter. This is a
real casual.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
You have to tell me, Oh, from my years at
Indiana County.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
When you're you know people you've taught like who have
you who have you like like like Ford Ford mentioned
Bob Friend. Now obviously I you know, I don't think
you turned. Maybe you did, but you know, I mean
like that's that was his kind of he taught to
other people too, but that was kind of his go to.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, yeah, I look at it a couple of different
ways too, Rich. I mean, as far as playing goes,
I would say probably Matt Aluda who's down in Florida,
you know, trying to make a career out of playing,
but he went to Rutgers and played and had a
(31:53):
had a nice career there, you know, and playing wise,
you know, maybe we've had players go to Robert Morris
and play with Kyle Groove and C. J. Hughes plenty
the Youngstown State. And then there was players that didn't
play in college, you know that that came up through
(32:14):
our junior clinic and you know had had just nice
amateur careers. I mean, Doug Bradwell and I have worked,
you know, while he was here, we worked on his
game and he's played in you know a number of
USGA championships. Uh so, and and Don Erickson, who's a
(32:37):
great senior player in the state you know, we've been
friends for a long time, and I would like to
think that I helped him along the way a little bit.
But you know, a lot of those guys had the gift.
So you know, I'm standing there, you know, scraping balls
in front of him and making a couple of suggestions.
But they had the gift, all all of those people
(32:57):
that I mentioned. You know, it's you know, it's funny
to take credit for Tiger would right, you.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Talked about you talked about six months. The other six months.
I spent six months in New Hampshire right out of college,
and we had a kid named uh Je. The guy
nam Jeff Julian and Jeff won twice on the Hogan
Hogan Tour and Jeff Jeff eventually unfortunately died of Luke
Gerrit's disease. But but Jeff would say, hey, you know,
come come look at this, and I'd stand there, I'm
twenty one years old. This kid, this kid had just
(33:27):
come off of finishing second in the New England Open,
he had just walked on at Clemson and I'm stand
there going and he's like, what.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Do you think. I'm like, yeah, check your alignment. He's like, yeah,
that's right, you're right.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I'm like, oh my god, like I taught a tour player. No,
right now, it got to be a little bit more
than that. But the first time he ever said that
to me, I'm like, check your alignment, and like he's like,
that's really good. That's really good.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I'm like, okay, if you say so, man.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Like, dude, you got you got, you got, you got
more talent in your in that shoelace right there then
I might ever see in my life.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
So it's it's funny. It's funny.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
And again it goes it goes back to just you know,
and you put yourself out there.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
You know. It's it's like, hey, I'll try to help you.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And I'm not I'm not ever gonna say that I'm
I'm Hank Haney or whatever, but I can I'll help
you if I can.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
So, all right, Dan, fundamental stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
No, I know it is. I know it is.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
The better they are, the more fundamentally it is. Right,
you know, people talk about like I talked to Jack Ham.
I've been for something to teach Jack cam the game
a little bit of a game of golf, and and
and he said to me, he said that was the
one big thing with Chuck Nole, he said, people don't
realize like, yeah, we had really good players. He goes,
but you look at the fundamentals the way we played football,
he goes. That's all we ever talked about was fundamentals.
(34:45):
Talk about fundamentals. How you stand, how you get ready,
how you prepare. All that stuff is fundamentally important. So
like if you can kind of track them back to
their fundamentals, Man, you do look like a genius.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I I gotta be honestly, I look like a.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Genius, all right, Dan, So when we can come back,
we're going to talk about how you transition from you know,
highly and we're going to talk about I'm going to
talk about Indiana Country Club in for a minute, and
then we're going to talk about your experiences.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
At I up. This.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
This is the rich Comwell Golf Show. Welcome back to
rich Congwall Golf Show. We are joined by Dan Brawn,
who is currently the head men's golf coach at Indiana
Country Club and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who's a former
head professional in Indiana Country Club.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And before we move away from.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Indiana Country Club, Dan, you I do have to say
that there is nobody in the section that doesn't know
how good of a job you did at Indian Country Club.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
And you know, you know that, you.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Know I have, and I know I haven't really conveyed
it to you. I kind of the sentiment was always there,
the massive respect that I've had, I have for what
you what you did there, and all of us have
for what you do there and what you're doing now.
But just know that you carried that place too to
(36:07):
really really heights that probably nobody really thought could ever
happen without a certain PGA professional, which is you.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Well, I've that's very kind, and I appreciate that there was.
There was a lot of partners with me, you know,
people on the board and and you know, great superintendents
and everybody, but we were you know, my main goal
when I was here, Rich was just to make all
(36:36):
the members proud of how I represented the club and
and proud to come here and and really feel a
sense of of uh, you know, friendship and and and
togetherness while they were here. And and I knew that
creating an experience for the members to come here every
(36:59):
day and their guests to come here every day didn't
cause a dime you know, it was all like we
talked about it, you know, focusing on the people and
and and focusing on building relationships with not only the
members but their guests and their families and their kids.
(37:21):
That I think that that that really helped because then
people want to do things, you know, people want to
help make it a special place. And and you know,
I appreciate your kind words that that means a lot
to me. But I can't take credit for all of it,
for sure. But if I had anything to do with
(37:42):
the success of Indiana over those years, I'm flattered, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And it's you deflected that well, but you should be
flattered because because you did and and so, and I've
I applaud applauded the concept.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Hell a lot of help.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
We all have a lot of help, but we all
need help, there's no doubt. But you were like you
were the guy you had the ball, and yeah, and
you did and you did so all right, So then
I have to transition to the next move. So then
you decide one day, I guess I don't think he
decided in one day, but maybe he did to transition
to being a full time.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
College golf coach. So where was the motivation there.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, how does that happen?
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, because because I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
You know, I'm a part time college golf coach. I
can't even imagine the brains, the actual synapses that we're
firing when this decision was made.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
But go ahead, I'm gonna let you go.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Well, you know, Fred Joseph was the coach of IUP
for twenty seven years and he was a he was
a volunteer, oh my god, you know, he was a
retired financial aid director, okay, and he was an assistant
(39:00):
for when Don White was a coach, and Don White
was a volunteer kind of you know, back at day.
He was an insurance guy who then later became a
state senator. But he was a coach for five years
really when I was at when I was at Penn State,
Don was the coach and Fred was his assistant. And
then Don stepped aside and they they gave it to Fred.
(39:24):
And Fred went on to have a Hall of Fame
coaching career. But he was getting to the point where
he was he was going to be done. I mean,
he was in his he was eighties, in his early eighties,
and he had talked to me about it, and you know,
I was like, well, you know, I got my business here,
I got you know, I mean I would I have
(39:46):
loved to have coached. Yeah, absolutely, but I A I
knew that he was a volunteer. So that wasn't going
to work because I wasn't gonna I wasn't going to
straddle the line, you know. I mean, if you you
have if you have half of an employee at both places,
you got nothing, you know. So I wasn't going to
put Indiana in that position, and I surely wasn't and
(40:09):
I wasn't going to put I up in that position.
So I thought about it, and like I said, Mike,
I would have loved to have coached because Mary was
a great influence on me. Okay, so Steve Roach was
the athletic director at the time, and it talked to
Fred about it, and it turns out that they were
(40:29):
making it a full time position. So then my interest
piqued a little bit because it's something that I always
really wanted to do, but I really didn't think seriously
about it. But I was. I was here for so long,
(40:51):
and that's what they did. They made it into a
full time position and there were some things that you
know through the whole process that that I had to
come to terms too, and and you know, I didn't
know it was the hardest it was. It was a
(41:16):
very exciting decision to make, but it was a hard,
very hard decision to make. It's like leaving home, you know,
the like the first the first kid in the family
that ever leaves home, right. The whole it was the
question I had to answer myself was is my role
at Indiana Country Club is it what I do or
(41:37):
is it who I am?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Interesting?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
And if it's who I am, I don't think I'm
going to be able to leave right. But if it's
what I do, I can. I think that there's more
to do in my life. I thought that there was
just more for me to accomplish outside of you know,
(42:01):
playing the role that I played here and performing the
role that I did. Where I really looked at it
and said, you know, I think I can make a
difference not only from a golf performance standpoint and be successful,
but also to help these kids get along in life
(42:24):
and prepare them for what's down the road, both athletically
and you know, in their professional careers, whether they're going
to try to play or whether they're just going to
use their degree right out of school. It was just
one of those things. It was very intriguing to me.
(42:45):
And honestly, the I think I was I was getting
to the point where, you know, I needed a change
in my lifestyle because I was so I was so
tied to the club and I loved it so much.
I wouldn't leave, right, you know. And it was to
(43:06):
the point where, you know, my kids were, my stepdaughters
were gone and out of the house. We had a granddaughter,
and it was one of those things where I couldn't
bring myself to outside of here, lived my life at all. Yeah,
you know what I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Do, I do. I know exactly what you mean. I
had a conversation with this last night. I know exactly
what you mean.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
And nobody asked me to do that. And it wasn't
it wasn't any pressure from I was here because I
wanted to be here. You know. I worked the hours
that I worked and I was here because I wanted
to do That's how I wanted it to do to
be because I was in control, right, I was in
control of my schedule, I was in control of my business.
(43:52):
I was in control of everything that was going through here.
So you know, when I describe it like that, you
can start to get the point. Yeah, it was it
was a control issue and I needed to take control
of my life away from here. My wife had never
even mentioned it, She never complained about it at all.
(44:13):
She knew that it was important to me. But I
I started to think in terms of, you know, I
always wanted to do this. I always wanted to coach.
Now's my opportunity to do it. And by the way,
you know, I think that I I think that, you know,
(44:35):
my my existence will change a little bit because all
have more time at certain times of the year for
her and grandchildren and stepdaughters and their husbands, maybe taking
the people that I was friends with here right.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Right, Yeah, So you're you're, you're basically you're you're you're
staring at the definition.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Of paradigm shift. Here it goes.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yes, there is nothing that will not change.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
And when I make this decision, So how long did
you think about it?
Speaker 3 (45:11):
I thought about it. The process started probably I knew
that Fred was going to retire, maybe the fall before,
So like I started in iup January of nineteen, so
(45:34):
this would have been probably October of twenty seventeen, right
where I started, where I knew that he was going
to announce his retirement. So then I had to start
thinking about what I was going to do because I
knew that Steve, you know, I had got win that Steve,
you know, and Fred. I knew Fred wanted me to
(45:58):
take over. I knew he did. It was just is
it going to work, you know on a business level, you.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Know, how do we make how do how do we
how do we fit these pegs in these holes?
Speaker 3 (46:11):
Right? So I started thinking about it then, and it
was a It was an odd that last year here
was a little bit odd because I was just kind
of off, I don't want to say off kilter, but
I was distracted a little bit. And I had a
member come to me after I had taken the job
(46:32):
and said, you know, I knew something was going on
with you, and I was amazed. He said, you know,
we all know you pretty well here, and you know,
he's like, I've spent a lot of time with you
and been around a long time, and he said I
could tell something was different, and I didn't see it.
(46:55):
I didn't feel I felt a little bit differently, but
I didn't think it changed my dem at all. But
I thought it was so cool that that they knew
me so well that they could tell that, And that
actually made me feel really good. I built relationships so
close to people that that they could notice something like.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Even a subtle change was noticeable.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Yeah, that they cared that much. Yeah, you know, so
it was I'll tell you what rich. The hardest thing
was when when I went through the interview process, and
I you know, I had one hundred percent confidence that
I was going to go in there and interview well,
you know, and it all went well. And what the
(47:44):
hardest thing for me to do is I typed a
letter to the membership telling them that I had pulled
the board, that I was resigning, and I had to
send it out. And the hardest thing for me to
do was to hit send.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Now I had already accepted the jump, right, so there
was no going back. It's not like you can't hit send.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
The barn door's open. Boy, here we go.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
But it was hard, you know it it was hard,
and I didn't know my biggest fears. I didn't know
how everybody here was going to react to it, right,
And you know, the first call that I got was
from a good friend of mine who's a member, and
he said, well, congratulations, you just made my wife cry
(48:28):
right right there. I felt bad in a sense.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
But you felt good too.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
But I felt good about it that somebody cares.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
He cared that much to cry.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
And and you know, and I don't know that she
actually cried, you know, or he was pulling my leg,
but you know, he was happy. And and the neat
thing was is that the reaction that I got from
the membership was very, very positive. And you know, it's
just kind of like getting somebody's blessing from so many
(49:00):
people that mean so much to you, that have been
through that battle with you for twenty seven years, right, right,
And it was a good battle. I don't mean to
make it sound like that. It was a it was
a great run, right and we did a lot of
great things. And to have them say, Okay, you're leaving us,
but you know we're not you're leaving us in one respect,
(49:23):
but you're not really leaving us on a human level,
and we're not leaving you. So it was really cool.
That's great, And you know, since then, it's just been
it's been a wonderful wonderful relationship between the program and
the membership here.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
You know that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, well, Dan, you know what, We're out of time,
so I'll tell you that we did okay, didn't.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
We We did okay.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
So what we're going to do is I'm going to
call you probably in we're going to probably start the
spring season, and I'm going to you and you can
jump back on here.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
We're going to talk about just I up. But I
did want you to know, like this is this is
really really good to you to do this.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
And again, mad respect to everything you've ever accomplished in
this world. But you know you are the you are
the definition of a PGA professional and and that's that's
exactly that's exactly what you exude every day.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
So I just I just want you to know that.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
I appreciate that, and I'll leave you with this, and uh,
this is truly the way I feel that I appreciate again,
your kind words. I always look at it like, you know,
there's there's nothing special about me. It's just I've been
put in positions where I've had the ability to build
(50:48):
some great relationships with people and been in a position
where I can influence people I think in a positive
way and like I said, any role that I can
play and making something even a little bit better, I'm
fortunate and I'm flattered that somebody would think that. So,
(51:11):
but thank you you.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Bet Dan, thanks again, and I shall be talking to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
All right, rich all right you too.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
Okay, all right. This is the Rich Combwell Golf Show.
Welcome to the Rich Conwell Golf Show.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This week, the President's Cup is obviously going on in
the wide world of golf.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And there are some.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
There are some interesting storylines there, but not really anything
that's going to light anybody's chimney on fire. So in
keeping with what we are trying to do all the
time here, we try to get very interesting guests in
the world of golf, and I'm very successful and very
happy to announce this week that we are joined by
(00:33):
Dan Brawn. Dan is the head men's golf coach at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Dan is
a PGA professional and Dan is actually a very very
very good guy. And not only that, but he's got
some really really cool stories and has some great experiences
in the game of golf. So Dan, first off, I
just want to say thanks for coming on.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I appreciate it well, thanks for having me Rich, and
thanks for the glowing introduction. I don't know that anybody
said those nice things about me before, so it's it's
definitely appreciated. For sure. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
You'll get a bill, it'll be it'll be like for
sixteen dollars and I'll just say compliments on it. So,
I mean, because I gave you four of them, so
it's four dollars, I'll send you a bill. So Dan
as we as we do this all the time every
time I have a guest on, talk to me about
how you got your start in golf.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, I started playing the game very young. I mean
there's pictures of me at like age three with left
handed plastic clubs. Uh. And then from there I just
kind of my dad played, my brother's, my oldest brother played,
my middle brother played at it a little bit. But
(01:49):
so I was introduced to it at a very young age.
And funny thing is is that, you know, I got
to be about how old are you? In fifty grade.
The summer between fifth and sixth grade, I was playing
a little bit here and there, and my dad always went.
I'm originally from Murraysville, so my dad always went and
(02:13):
played at Rolling Fields on Wednesday nights. He and a
couple of my uncles and my brother and I wanted
to join along, and I think I was just a
little bit too young. He hadn't come to grips with
that side of it yet. So you know, tagging along
a fifth grade kid or sixth grade kid. So I
(02:34):
wanted to go play. And you know, I had a neighbor,
Sam Wiley, who's actually the head golf professional at Weeburn
in Connecticut. We would play golf. He lived across the
street from me, and we had courses set up between
our two houses. So one of my holes went from
(02:54):
the front yard to the backyard and I happened to
put one. My dad didn't take me with him rolling
fields on Wednesday. So I played our one hole and
I hit it right to our front window into the kitchen,
yet into the kitchen, and proceeded to try to blame
somebody else throwing a rock. Well, the golf ball was
sitting there. So how I got my start was my
(03:17):
dad that I should have taken you with me. I
won't make that mistake again. He wasn't. There was some
more colorful language and some descriptions that I'll save you from.
But I started to play every Wednesday night with my
dad at Rolling Fields in Stardust, So it was it
was funny and I just fell in love with the game.
(03:40):
And from there I just you know, Sam. I got
Sam involved with the game too, and we started to
play at at Meadow Wing, and my dad belonged to
River Forest and Freeport, so I'd play up there on
the weekends with he and my cousin and my dad
and my uncle, and play Wednesday nights with my dad,
(04:03):
and then Sam and I would play at meadow Wink,
And I actually started to work at Meadow Wink once
I got into high school. So goes back a long way.
But I fell in love with the game early and
have not fallen out of love with it yet. That's awesome,
not so a couple of times, you know, we all
go through that.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Actually, I think what that is is falling out of
love with us. We always love it. It's like a
love hate relationship, and like we always love it, but
it hates us every so.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Often, and that's why it's that way.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's interesting that that, you know, I asked this question,
and I ask it of everybody, and from Chris Smith
who won on the PGA Tour, to Chris Cheddar who
won the LPGA Tour, Missy Berdiatti who I know, you
know who won on the LPGA Tour, And invariably, invariably
it always comes back, not always nine out of ten
(04:55):
is our father, and like and my mine, mine was
my father too. I mean we took my older brother's
worked at Rolling Hill, so I went and played with
them when I was younger. But you know, the first
time around, the first part I ever made was my dad,
you know, so like you remember stuff like that, and
like just sticks and I don't know what. I can't
figure out the relationship. I know the relationship, but I
(05:18):
don't know. It's amazing to me how frequently it starts
with your dad.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, really, And.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's interesting because Bob Ford was on and actually the
golfer and his family was his mom. Wow, yeah, exactly,
And he told me on the show, he's like, my
dad didn't play like barely at all, you know, like
you said, your brother played at it, like his dad
didn't didn't do that, but his mom, his mom played
a lot. And his mom they belonged to the club
(05:47):
in Philadelphia, and that's how he got.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Hooked into it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And it's really interesting, like he's the and not that
it's a big deal and it's it's one more thing
that separates Bob Ford from you and I. But you know,
aside from the massive amounts of talent that he hasn't
about everything he's ever done. But but but it's he's
the only one that their mother.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Wow, it was really really.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Interesting talk for many people that that that learned. You know,
there's been a few here and there. Who they are.
I probably can't tell you off the top of my head,
but yeah, very very seldom, is it. Uh, you know,
through the through the interest funnel, through the moms. It's mostly, Yeah,
through the fathers. That's what I've always heard through through
(06:34):
years and years. Whether it's a boy or a girl playing,
you know, whether it's a male or female playing, it
typically comes through the through the father.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
It's really interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So Okay, so I got you to high school, So
so then what are you starting to figure out?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You're pretty good at this?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I did I you know, I made I I I remember.
I remember it like it's yesterday, going to my first
team tryouts at Franklin Regional in ninth grade. Uh, you know, nervous,
you know he could turned coal into a diamond, right right,
(07:12):
And yeah, I I made the team, and you know
it was it was great. I competed all through high
school and we had a pretty good team. Sam Wiley
was on that team. You know, like I said, he's
at we Burn and then Chip Swanson who's found at
the Spring Island in hilton Head, you know, near hilton
(07:36):
Head at Old Tabby Links. So there's three PGA professionals
on our high school team. Uh. And we had another
who tried to play on the mini course for a
little bit. So you know, we were we had a
pretty good team. Yeah, and uh we had a lot
of fun, that's for sure. And we played at Meadow
(07:57):
Winks so it was wonderful. And then from there I
went and played at Penn State for Mary Kennedy, who's
you know, Mary Kennedy Zerkey And she was a wonderful
coach and a wonderful influence on on, you know, my life,
especially now and making the transition from from you know,
(08:21):
a club professional to a coach. You know, her influence
really played a big role on in my interest in
doing something like that. But a great four years up
at Penn State. Uh, and then from there I I
just you know, you wonder how you get into into
(08:47):
the line of work that you do, and and you know,
I think everybody looks back and what if I would
have done this, or what if I would have done that?
But I just never saw myself doing anything other than
something that had to do with golf. I just love
(09:07):
the game and I love people, you know, uh, And
and that the the opportunities that golf gave me to
really come out of my shell. And because I was
a shy kid, you know. Now my brothers told me
I was a magpie, but I was really kind of shy.
(09:30):
But working at Meadow Wing brought me out of my shell.
And I think that's why the business was always so
you know, I was always drawn to the business because
it really helped me grow at a young age and
and really develop a personality and to be outgoing and
(09:51):
to be able to deal with people and relate to
people of different ages, whether they were older than me
or younger than me. So I think that once I
got out of school, that's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to have something to do with the game
but also something to do with people, and it's just
(10:12):
a perfect marriage there. So I stayed up in State
College and did kind of an internship for Dave Redmond,
who was the golf professional and actually the State College
elks up there, and I was there for six months.
It was it was It was a great the greatest
assistants job in the world because I worked thirty seven
(10:35):
hours a week.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Wow, congratulations, congratulations, you stole one.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Back in those times. You know that that didn't happen
back then. I played golf every day and he was
wonderful to work for. I mean I every assistant. We
had two assistants there, and on Saturdays, one assistant would
get the entire day off, oh my god, so that
they could watch, you know, do whatever they wanted to do.
(11:02):
This is during football season, and the other assistant worked
till twelve Oh my god. So you could either go
to the game. You could go to the Penn State game,
or you could watch it on TV, or play golf
or do whatever he wanted to do. I mean that
that just it was. It was like Heaven, I'm playing
(11:23):
golf every day, I'm working thirty seven hours a week,
and I'm getting paid a salary.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
It wasn't even an hourly pay. I mean I was
getting a salary, which you know, wasn't that much, but
I didn't really care.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It's called guaranteed money, baby, guaranteed money.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah. So from there, I came to Indiana as as
an assistant. An assistant position opened up here, and my
dad was a contractor, you know, he built homes for years,
and his business partner was from Indiana. So I was
familiar with the area and we had come down here
(11:59):
to play at iup tournament, you know, several times. So
I was familiar with the club, and I came and
interviewed peer and I got the assistant's job. I was
twenty two and I moved to Indiana and then from
there I worked here two years as an assistant. The
(12:19):
man that I worked for resigned and went into sales,
and the next thing you know, I'm getting called in
by the president and the vice president of the club
and they offered me the job at twenty four.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
So, I mean again, you know, part of it is,
you know, what do you do? I mean, do you
go work somewhere else as an assistant? I had opportunities.
I had members that were looking out for me, right,
But you know, that opportunity presented itself to me. And
(13:02):
you know, at the time, I didn't I knew my
friends around here, but I didn't know anybody in the PGA.
I didn't know anybody, right, you know, I didn't know,
I didn't know what to do, so I took the job.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. I didn't know what else to do,
so I just said, yes.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Right, I just took the job. I figured how bad?
You know?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I right, that guy just quit. I can do better
than that.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I go along with him. I don't like the clothes
that he carries in the shop. I think I can
carry some nicer stuff. But how am I going to
finance it?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Right? Right, exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know, I'm twenty four years old. I got a
retail operation that I've never you know, the only thing
that I ever did was, you know, dust and make
some displays and unpacked shirts and price them. So, you know,
now I'm thrown into trying to run a business and
you know, run the golf operation up here, and uh,
(14:01):
you know, twenty seven years later, I was still here.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Right, So you mustn't you know, you were getting pretty
good at it. By that, you're getting pretty good at it.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
But either that or the people in Indiana are just
incredibly patient.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, patient patient, or or just not really that smart.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Let's be really clear. Maybe there's not that smart.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
But no, I look back at some of the you know,
I mean I look back, it's it's twenty four to
twenty five years old, and you know, I mean it was.
I couldn't have done everything right. I know I didn't,
but I knew how to make it sound like I did.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I love that, you know, before we go, before we
go to break, because we're gonna go to break and
then we're going to talk about Indiana Country Club a
lot more. But it's interesting you said something about the
Elks bringing you out of I'm not the Elks, but
but everywhere when you were younger, bringing out of your shell,
and metal Wing brings you out of your shell, and
and you know, you and I had discussions, you know,
(15:01):
about finding assistance and finding young guys that want to
be in this business. And it's interesting that you hit
on that because it popped into my head. It's interesting
that one of the things you said is you like people,
and so do I like people a lot, you know,
and like and I think that's the difference between you know,
if I could just say that's the difference, but it's
(15:22):
not one of the major differences between when you were
twenty four twenty twenty six and now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
You still like people.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I don't know that many twenty two year olds and
twenty four year olds that really are really immersed in
people basically kind of like society. I mean like you know,
you walk into a room and then like everyone's on
your phone. I did, don't make eye contact. They text
each other from.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Across the room.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I just think it's really fascinating that, Yeah, it's people first,
and you figure out everything else out.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
You're right, And I remember playing it. You know, I've
played every day at Meadowing too. You know, so I
played with back then it wasn't so siloed. I mean
now it's every people only want to play with people
that they know and people of like abilities or people
of like whatever. Right, So I remember playing with with
(16:25):
young guys.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh ladies.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Guy, they were seventy years old, and they invited me
in because you know, we could talk right, and you know, men, women, young, old,
didn't matter. Everybody was just kind of playing because you
love the game. Hey do you want to play? Sure,
(16:48):
I'll play right.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It didn't matter if you're any good or not. It didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
No, there was one guy that he got better. He
was about a fourteen handicap. But I'll tell you what.
One day I played. He played in the morning and
at the turn he got a Gin and Tonic and
a six pack for the back, and then he came
in and it got something to eat and then went
(17:14):
out played. Now I played the next round with him,
so he had another Gen and Tonic, another six pack,
came in at the turn, another Gen and Tonic, another
six pack, and I was like, how's this guy stand
ending and speaking and playing right? Function fifteen handicap? We
end up playing. He plays forty five poles that day,
(17:37):
and that last nine he started out with a Gin
and Tonic and had a six pack and shot thirty seven.
He's the fifteen handicap. He's been boozing it all day, right,
I mean I think he ate a hot dog, a
hot dog, hard boiled egg or something, and he goes
(17:58):
out and shoots thirty seven. The continues on, So that
those are the types of characters that you ran in.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That because you're willing to go be with people, be
with people who cares.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
We had so much fun and we laughed about it,
and we we I always had fun with whoever we
played with. And and you're right on there, Rich, I mean,
it's and it's you know, it's no disrespect to the
individuals that we're that we're talking about because society has
changed and influences have changed, and I like to refer
(18:32):
to it as you know, somebody's sphere of influence right right,
you know, and and they've they have changed dramatically in
the last twenty thirty years for where you know, between
social media, first with cell phones and then social media
and everything else that you're right, it's it's when you
(18:55):
find somebody that uh likes people, that really likes people
and can stand and talk and and I'm starting to
I'm beginning to see more young people that are able
to do that now. So maybe they're maybe the impact
of because the all those things that we just mentioned
or are, you know, they're there and it's established that
(19:19):
maybe you know, these young people's personalities are starting to
come out again. But there's several young guys up here
that you know, they're in high school and I can
stand and talk to them, and you know, they have
the gift of gab right and very accommodating and stand
(19:40):
there and talk to you. You know how somebody some
people stand there and talk to you, but you can
see them looking at the door right there trying to
enter over the door. And you know me well enough
that I'm never at a loss for words too often.
My wife would agree with that too, you know, so
I could stand there and talk to you know, the
(20:02):
wall lead.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
So, but you know these kids now that there are
several up here that just stand right there and you know,
they're willing to talk. They're not trying to get away.
So that's encouraging to me. And hopefully that means, you know,
some of these young guys are that love.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Golf, are coming through the circle.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Maybe maybe they can see the benefits and and the
differences that the game has made in their lives, and maybe,
you know, they make the decision to become a PGA member.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
There you go, all right, Dan, When we come back
from this break, we are going to talk about a
lot more about the PGA of America and a lot
more about your time at IUP I E P not
there yet at Indiana Country Club, and we'll have some
we'll have some fun stories going through that. This is
the Rich This is the Rich Conwell Golf Show. Welcome
back to the Rich Comwell Golf Show. We are having
(20:58):
a great discussion with the Braun who is currently the
head men's golf coach at Indian University of Pennsylvania, which
is a Division two NCAA program, a very successful.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
One at that.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But right now we left off before that break at
Dan had just accepted the job at Indiana Country Club
when we were talking about you know, being a young
professional and things like that. So so, okay, Dan, So
you get the job at twenty four, right, and you wake.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Up and you have the job.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
So what's the what's the first thing you remember doing
besides pinching yourself to say, oh my god, I have
this job?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Probably sweating. Now, Yeah, I found Mike. I had to
find an assistant, so you know, that was my first
My first concern was who's going to help me? Who's
going to be my partner in crime up here?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So I found Mark Anderson was his name. He had
at IUP and he was good friends and a teammate
of a good friend of mine, David Myers, and David
actually suggested him to me. So he lived in Braintree, Massachusetts,
which is, you know, outside of Boston. So I picked
(22:19):
up the phone and called him, and he had graduated
from IUP and he was just kind of up there.
I don't know what he was doing. I don't think
he was working. But he was like me, loved the game,
loved to play, and was a very loved people as well.
(22:40):
So you know, he was my first ask and I
just asked. I don't even think I interviewed him. I
think I just asked him, Hey, come here, you got
to be my assistant. He said sure, So he moved
down here and obviously he was familiar with the town.
But he worked for me for three years and he
(23:03):
did a wonderful job. And now he's he's He went
from here and and went to Center Hills and State
College and worked for Jeb Boyle. Then he got his
own job out at UH Golden Oaks and reading. Sure, sure, yeah,
And he went to Heidelberg out there, Uh and then
(23:28):
he started to teach. He was at the Cricket Club
and he taught out there, and Ben he became the
penn women's golf coach. But now he's the director of
instruction at Saint David's in Philly and he's still coaching
Penn women's team and they have a very successful team.
They do great.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
But Helberg, yeah, Reading Pennsylvania. Guess what I got married there,
did you really? My wedding reception was there.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It was wedding.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
My wife is from there. My wife is from West Lawn,
which is, you know, right next to all that's the
you know that that that's like Peter's township, Mount Lebanon
like that stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
It's like right next to everything. And yeah, that's I
got married. My reception was.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I didn't get married there. I got married in the
Catholic Church with nineteen priests and I think the Pope
was there because my mother and uber into that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah. He like he.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Even took down the he even took down the bullproof
glass to say something while he's in there. So all right,
so you hire him and did you ever?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Did you ever?
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Like? Okay, so I'm gonna ask you a question now
because you're you're away from it.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
What's the most important.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Thing that a PGA professional brings to a private club.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I think leadership, I think friendship. I think loyalty, uh, guidance,
helping the club. You know. Somebody told me in an
interview one time, which was which was interesting, and it
(25:02):
wasn't an interview. It was more of a discussion about
a place, and you know, we talked about it a
little bit, and it's like, you know, you go in
there and you tell, you know, you're going to tell
somebody how you're going to lead them to the promised land.
And I think that you know, you go in there
with the attitude that you can bring the vision of
(25:27):
how you can take the club to the next level
and make it a successful place, and not just financially,
but just just building a bond with the membership and
being the glue for all the members. You know that
maybe they don't have much in common with each other,
(25:48):
but the thing that they have in common is they
have a strong relationship with the professional and through that
then their bond with each other grows. And sometimes they
realize sometimes they don't, but it's kind of like you know,
the so I guess what I'm saying is you become
the nucleus of the operation and the nucleus of the
(26:11):
club because we're in a position of such a position
of influence. And I think more so than a lot
of like gms that aren't EGA members aren't involved in
you know, golf operations as much because you know, golf
(26:31):
professionals pretty much have it nice. We don't have to
say no to too many people.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Correct, We don't, We don't.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
You know, managers have to say no on a couple
of different levels. You know, you get into the alcohol
stuff and we want to do this, and we want
to do They can't really do that where you know,
we're just dealing with golf a lot of times, and
we do deal with other things and then not that
I've you know, we have to say no to. Typically
(27:01):
the stuff that we're saying no to is is less
less of a lightning broad than you know, yeah, right, exactly, Yeah,
they can't. You know, when when you.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Say no, when you say no to keeping the shop
up until eight o'clock at night, okay, right, I get that.
But when you tell mister Jones and mister Smith that,
by the way, we're closing at seven thirty tonight because
you guys have probably had too much a drink. And
I know an uber I'm calling him now. Now you're
the bad guy.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
You're the bad You're the enemy exactly. You're actually spewing
common sense. He's spewing energy. Enemy.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
So yeah, and I always myself, you know, I always
thought of myself as being here to assist our gms too, right,
you know where I'm I'm the glue between them and
the membership too, and the superintendent because we stand there
and we listen to it all day. You know, if
the superintendent makes a decision that people like, well, they
(28:04):
don't drive down to the maintenance building and talk to them.
They're coming into the shop, and we got to be
able to support them and take that for them. And
that's something that maybe some people roll their eyes at,
but I always welcomed that. I was always I wanted
that role, right, you know, I wanted the ball right
at Indiana, I was the guy that I wanted the
(28:26):
ball all the time. I wanted to make as many
decisions as I could because I felt like I knew
the membership, I had built the relationships with these people.
I knew what they wanted, I knew what they needed,
and I think they knew that too, right, So you know,
I was willing to take the arrows for anybody, and.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's them, That's that's yeah, right, because you because you
had you had the armor.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Because you had the armor.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
It's interesting because you know you say, you know you
start I asked you that question as it really open
ended question. Like what's the best thing you can ring?
And all those things that you brought you mentioned are
all people skills, loyalty, willing to willing to communicate, you know,
being glue, having relationships.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
It's all people stuff, I mean.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
And and it's interesting that, you know, I I don't
tell the story often, and I'm sure you have one
similar to it, but but I know that I was
told by a grandmother that I saved a kid's life
because he.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Was going through some stuff. And we just drove.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
We just drove a golf cart and and got a
candy bar and hit you know, drank some pepsis and
and hit twelve golf shots, you know, I mean, that's
all we did. We did it for six straight weeks.
That kid had no interest in playing golf, but he
had a lot of interest in not doing the other thing.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
And right, and I.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Happened to be there, you know. And and and we've
all been through the veterans things, and it's.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
All about related.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
It's all about people, right, you know, It's like it's
about people. And and it's it's interesting that that. I'm
so happy you answered it that way, because like it
further adds to me to the thought process of of.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
You know, it's it's people. It's people. It's because people,
don't you know, like like I have, Like.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I'm at Wheeling, right, and you were at Indiana and
and x y Z and and Bob was at Oakmont,
and Phil was at Saint Clair and and and wherever.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
But the thing of it is they're all different.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
People, and like not everybody is an I UP professor
or not everybody is an executive at West Banco and Wheeling,
they all have different things. But if if we can
be the if we can be the the run throw, then.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Then we'll win. Then then then the club will be successful.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, So if you're if you're the cornerstone, you know,
to use the White House term, you know, you're you're
good to go, I mean right, So all right, So
obviously at Indiana for twenty seven years, if I remember correctly,
so tell me, like you had some really good players
come out of there, you really did. So tell me
(31:04):
about tell me about one of your biggest success stories.
You get to pick, it doesn't matter. This is a
real casual.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
You have to tell me, Oh, from my years at
Indiana County.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
When you're you know people you've taught like who have
you who have you like like like Ford Ford mentioned
Bob Friend. Now obviously I you know, I don't think
you turned. Maybe you did, but you know, I mean
like that's that was his kind of he taught to
other people too, but that was kind of his go to.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, yeah, I look at it a couple of different
ways too, Rich. I mean, as far as playing goes,
I would say probably Matt Aluda who's down in Florida,
you know, trying to make a career out of playing,
but he went to Rutgers and played and had a
(31:53):
had a nice career there, you know, and playing wise,
you know, maybe we've had players go to Robert Morris
and play with Kyle Groove and C. J. Hughes plenty
the Youngstown State. And then there was players that didn't
play in college, you know that that came up through
(32:14):
our junior clinic and you know had had just nice
amateur careers. I mean, Doug Bradwell and I have worked,
you know, while he was here, we worked on his
game and he's played in you know a number of
USGA championships. Uh so, and and Don Erickson, who's a
(32:37):
great senior player in the state you know, we've been
friends for a long time, and I would like to
think that I helped him along the way a little bit.
But you know, a lot of those guys had the gift.
So you know, I'm standing there, you know, scraping balls
in front of him and making a couple of suggestions.
But they had the gift, all all of those people
(32:57):
that I mentioned. You know, it's you know, it's funny
to take credit for Tiger would right, you.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Talked about you talked about six months. The other six months.
I spent six months in New Hampshire right out of college,
and we had a kid named uh Je. The guy
nam Jeff Julian and Jeff won twice on the Hogan
Hogan Tour and Jeff Jeff eventually unfortunately died of Luke
Gerrit's disease. But but Jeff would say, hey, you know,
come come look at this, and I'd stand there, I'm
twenty one years old. This kid, this kid had just
(33:27):
come off of finishing second in the New England Open,
he had just walked on at Clemson and I'm stand
there going and he's like, what.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Do you think. I'm like, yeah, check your alignment. He's like, yeah,
that's right, you're right.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I'm like, oh my god, like I taught a tour player. No,
right now, it got to be a little bit more
than that. But the first time he ever said that
to me, I'm like, check your alignment, and like he's like,
that's really good. That's really good.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I'm like, okay, if you say so, man.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Like, dude, you got you got, you got, you got
more talent in your in that shoelace right there then
I might ever see in my life.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
So it's it's funny. It's funny.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
And again it goes it goes back to just you know,
and you put yourself out there.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
You know. It's it's like, hey, I'll try to help you.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And I'm not I'm not ever gonna say that I'm
I'm Hank Haney or whatever, but I can I'll help
you if I can.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
So, all right, Dan, fundamental stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
No, I know it is. I know it is.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
The better they are, the more fundamentally it is. Right,
you know, people talk about like I talked to Jack Ham.
I've been for something to teach Jack cam the game
a little bit of a game of golf, and and
and he said to me, he said that was the
one big thing with Chuck Nole, he said, people don't
realize like, yeah, we had really good players. He goes,
but you look at the fundamentals the way we played football,
he goes. That's all we ever talked about was fundamentals.
(34:45):
Talk about fundamentals. How you stand, how you get ready,
how you prepare. All that stuff is fundamentally important. So
like if you can kind of track them back to
their fundamentals, Man, you do look like a genius.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I I gotta be honestly, I look like a.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Genius, all right, Dan, So when we can come back,
we're going to talk about how you transition from you know,
highly and we're going to talk about I'm going to
talk about Indiana Country Club in for a minute, and
then we're going to talk about your experiences.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
At I up. This.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
This is the rich Comwell Golf Show. Welcome back to
rich Congwall Golf Show. We are joined by Dan Brawn,
who is currently the head men's golf coach at Indiana
Country Club and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who's a former
head professional in Indiana Country Club.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And before we move away from.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Indiana Country Club, Dan, you I do have to say
that there is nobody in the section that doesn't know
how good of a job you did at Indian Country Club.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
And you know, you know that, you.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Know I have, and I know I haven't really conveyed
it to you. I kind of the sentiment was always there,
the massive respect that I've had, I have for what
you what you did there, and all of us have
for what you do there and what you're doing now.
But just know that you carried that place too to
(36:07):
really really heights that probably nobody really thought could ever
happen without a certain PGA professional, which is you.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Well, I've that's very kind, and I appreciate that there was.
There was a lot of partners with me, you know,
people on the board and and you know, great superintendents
and everybody, but we were you know, my main goal
when I was here, Rich was just to make all
(36:36):
the members proud of how I represented the club and
and proud to come here and and really feel a
sense of of uh, you know, friendship and and and
togetherness while they were here. And and I knew that
creating an experience for the members to come here every
(36:59):
day and their guests to come here every day didn't
cause a dime you know, it was all like we
talked about it, you know, focusing on the people and
and and focusing on building relationships with not only the
members but their guests and their families and their kids.
(37:21):
That I think that that that really helped because then
people want to do things, you know, people want to
help make it a special place. And and you know,
I appreciate your kind words that that means a lot
to me. But I can't take credit for all of it,
for sure. But if I had anything to do with
(37:42):
the success of Indiana over those years, I'm flattered, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
And it's you deflected that well, but you should be
flattered because because you did and and so, and I've
I applaud applauded the concept.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Hell a lot of help.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
We all have a lot of help, but we all
need help, there's no doubt. But you were like you
were the guy you had the ball, and yeah, and
you did and you did so all right, So then
I have to transition to the next move. So then
you decide one day, I guess I don't think he
decided in one day, but maybe he did to transition
to being a full time.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
College golf coach. So where was the motivation there.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, how does that happen?
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, because because I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
You know, I'm a part time college golf coach. I
can't even imagine the brains, the actual synapses that we're
firing when this decision was made.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
But go ahead, I'm gonna let you go.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Well, you know, Fred Joseph was the coach of IUP
for twenty seven years and he was a he was
a volunteer, oh my god, you know, he was a
retired financial aid director, okay, and he was an assistant
(39:00):
for when Don White was a coach, and Don White
was a volunteer kind of you know, back at day.
He was an insurance guy who then later became a
state senator. But he was a coach for five years
really when I was at when I was at Penn State,
Don was the coach and Fred was his assistant. And
then Don stepped aside and they they gave it to Fred.
(39:24):
And Fred went on to have a Hall of Fame
coaching career. But he was getting to the point where
he was he was going to be done. I mean,
he was in his he was eighties, in his early eighties,
and he had talked to me about it, and you know,
I was like, well, you know, I got my business here,
I got you know, I mean I would I have
(39:46):
loved to have coached. Yeah, absolutely, but I A I
knew that he was a volunteer. So that wasn't going
to work because I wasn't gonna I wasn't going to
straddle the line, you know. I mean, if you you
have if you have half of an employee at both places,
you got nothing, you know. So I wasn't going to
put Indiana in that position, and I surely wasn't and
(40:09):
I wasn't going to put I up in that position.
So I thought about it, and like I said, Mike,
I would have loved to have coached because Mary was
a great influence on me. Okay, so Steve Roach was
the athletic director at the time, and it talked to
Fred about it, and it turns out that they were
(40:29):
making it a full time position. So then my interest
piqued a little bit because it's something that I always
really wanted to do, but I really didn't think seriously
about it. But I was. I was here for so long,
(40:51):
and that's what they did. They made it into a
full time position and there were some things that you
know through the whole process that that I had to
come to terms too, and and you know, I didn't
know it was the hardest it was. It was a
(41:16):
very exciting decision to make, but it was a hard,
very hard decision to make. It's like leaving home, you know,
the like the first the first kid in the family
that ever leaves home, right. The whole it was the
question I had to answer myself was is my role
at Indiana Country Club is it what I do or
(41:37):
is it who I am?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Interesting?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
And if it's who I am, I don't think I'm
going to be able to leave right. But if it's
what I do, I can. I think that there's more
to do in my life. I thought that there was
just more for me to accomplish outside of you know,
(42:01):
playing the role that I played here and performing the
role that I did. Where I really looked at it
and said, you know, I think I can make a
difference not only from a golf performance standpoint and be successful,
but also to help these kids get along in life
(42:24):
and prepare them for what's down the road, both athletically
and you know, in their professional careers, whether they're going
to try to play or whether they're just going to
use their degree right out of school. It was just
one of those things. It was very intriguing to me.
(42:45):
And honestly, the I think I was I was getting
to the point where, you know, I needed a change
in my lifestyle because I was so I was so
tied to the club and I loved it so much.
I wouldn't leave, right, you know. And it was to
(43:06):
the point where, you know, my kids were, my stepdaughters
were gone and out of the house. We had a granddaughter,
and it was one of those things where I couldn't
bring myself to outside of here, lived my life at all. Yeah,
you know what I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Do, I do. I know exactly what you mean. I
had a conversation with this last night. I know exactly
what you mean.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
And nobody asked me to do that. And it wasn't
it wasn't any pressure from I was here because I
wanted to be here. You know. I worked the hours
that I worked and I was here because I wanted
to do That's how I wanted it to do to
be because I was in control, right, I was in
control of my schedule, I was in control of my business.
(43:52):
I was in control of everything that was going through here.
So you know, when I describe it like that, you
can start to get the point. Yeah, it was it
was a control issue and I needed to take control
of my life away from here. My wife had never
even mentioned it, She never complained about it at all.
(44:13):
She knew that it was important to me. But I
I started to think in terms of, you know, I
always wanted to do this. I always wanted to coach.
Now's my opportunity to do it. And by the way,
you know, I think that I I think that, you know,
(44:35):
my my existence will change a little bit because all
have more time at certain times of the year for
her and grandchildren and stepdaughters and their husbands, maybe taking
the people that I was friends with here right.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Right, Yeah, So you're you're, you're basically you're you're you're
staring at the definition.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Of paradigm shift. Here it goes.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yes, there is nothing that will not change.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
And when I make this decision, So how long did
you think about it?
Speaker 3 (45:11):
I thought about it. The process started probably I knew
that Fred was going to retire, maybe the fall before,
So like I started in iup January of nineteen, so
(45:34):
this would have been probably October of twenty seventeen, right
where I started, where I knew that he was going
to announce his retirement. So then I had to start
thinking about what I was going to do because I
knew that Steve, you know, I had got win that Steve,
you know, and Fred. I knew Fred wanted me to
(45:58):
take over. I knew he did. It was just is
it going to work, you know on a business level, you.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Know, how do we make how do how do we
how do we fit these pegs in these holes?
Speaker 3 (46:11):
Right? So I started thinking about it then, and it
was a It was an odd that last year here
was a little bit odd because I was just kind
of off, I don't want to say off kilter, but
I was distracted a little bit. And I had a
member come to me after I had taken the job
(46:32):
and said, you know, I knew something was going on
with you, and I was amazed. He said, you know,
we all know you pretty well here, and you know,
he's like, I've spent a lot of time with you
and been around a long time, and he said I
could tell something was different, and I didn't see it.
(46:55):
I didn't feel I felt a little bit differently, but
I didn't think it changed my dem at all. But
I thought it was so cool that that they knew
me so well that they could tell that, And that
actually made me feel really good. I built relationships so
close to people that that they could notice something like.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Even a subtle change was noticeable.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Yeah, that they cared that much. Yeah, you know, so
it was I'll tell you what rich. The hardest thing
was when when I went through the interview process, and
I you know, I had one hundred percent confidence that
I was going to go in there and interview well,
you know, and it all went well. And what the
(47:44):
hardest thing for me to do is I typed a
letter to the membership telling them that I had pulled
the board, that I was resigning, and I had to
send it out. And the hardest thing for me to
do was to hit send.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Now I had already accepted the jump, right, so there
was no going back. It's not like you can't hit send.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
The barn door's open. Boy, here we go.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
But it was hard, you know it it was hard,
and I didn't know my biggest fears. I didn't know
how everybody here was going to react to it, right,
And you know, the first call that I got was
from a good friend of mine who's a member, and
he said, well, congratulations, you just made my wife cry
(48:28):
right right there. I felt bad in a sense.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
But you felt good too.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
But I felt good about it that somebody cares.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
He cared that much to cry.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
And and you know, and I don't know that she
actually cried, you know, or he was pulling my leg,
but you know, he was happy. And and the neat
thing was is that the reaction that I got from
the membership was very, very positive. And you know, it's
just kind of like getting somebody's blessing from so many
(49:00):
people that mean so much to you, that have been
through that battle with you for twenty seven years, right, right,
And it was a good battle. I don't mean to
make it sound like that. It was a it was
a great run, right and we did a lot of
great things. And to have them say, Okay, you're leaving us,
but you know we're not you're leaving us in one respect,
(49:23):
but you're not really leaving us on a human level,
and we're not leaving you. So it was really cool.
That's great, And you know, since then, it's just been
it's been a wonderful wonderful relationship between the program and
the membership here.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
You know that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, well, Dan, you know what, We're out of time,
so I'll tell you that we did okay, didn't.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
We We did okay.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
So what we're going to do is I'm going to
call you probably in we're going to probably start the
spring season, and I'm going to you and you can
jump back on here.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
We're going to talk about just I up. But I
did want you to know, like this is this is
really really good to you to do this.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
And again, mad respect to everything you've ever accomplished in
this world. But you know you are the you are
the definition of a PGA professional and and that's that's
exactly that's exactly what you exude every day.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
So I just I just want you to know that.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
I appreciate that, and I'll leave you with this, and uh,
this is truly the way I feel that I appreciate again,
your kind words. I always look at it like, you know,
there's there's nothing special about me. It's just I've been
put in positions where I've had the ability to build
(50:48):
some great relationships with people and been in a position
where I can influence people I think in a positive
way and like I said, any role that I can
play and making something even a little bit better, I'm
fortunate and I'm flattered that somebody would think that. So,
(51:11):
but thank you you.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Bet Dan, thanks again, and I shall be talking to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
All right, rich all right you too.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
Okay, all right. This is the Rich Combwell Golf Show.
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