October 1, 2025 • 48 mins
Rich covers a couple different things on his own this week. He previews the Ryder Cup, remembers a past guest who recently passed away, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Rich Kalmgov Show. This week, as we
push October first, I have postponed my guest until next week.
I'm gonna fly solo this week. We're going to talk
about three major topics, and the first and unfortunately one
(00:23):
of the topics is sad, but we will we will
do that later because we don't want to start the
day sad. So the first thing we're going to do
is we're going to talk about the Ryder Cup. It's
this weekend unbelievable competition. For those of you who don't
(00:43):
know anything about that, it is a competition. Twelve men
on each team. There's a European team the United States team,
and they play three days of competition. The third day,
which is Sunday, they play singles matches head to head,
(01:04):
twelve versus twelve one v one twelve six matches I'm sorry,
excuse me, twelve matches, and then there will be six
matches for thirty six holes. On Friday and Saturday, they
played better ball partners and they play alternate shot. It
is very, very very intriguing to watch it. It is
great history, great history, and you would think that since
(01:25):
I'm the history guy, I would know when it started,
but it was nineteen twenties so, and for the longest
time it was Great Britain and Ireland versus the United States,
and then Jack Nicholas as the United States continuously won
one one one and it wasn't really that competitive. Jack
(01:50):
Nicholas expressed a desire to expand it to the to
the European continent, and that's when it became much more competitive.
Guys like Sevi Ballisto's osim Olfabo could play. Those guys
got Bernhard longer from Germany, ol from Spain. Guys like
(02:13):
guys like that could play. So now it became much
more form of a formidable competition. So interestingly enough, the
teams are obviously released. European team is deeper, uh is deeper,
has more Ryder Cup experience, and but the American team
(02:39):
is Scotti, Scheffler, JJ Spahn, US Open champion from Oakmont,
Xander Schaffle, Russell, Henley, Harris, English, Bryson d Chambeau, Justin, Thomas, Colin, Morikawa,
Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantley, and Sam Burns. So
if the interesting thing about that is those last six
(03:03):
that I mentioned, Thomas Morikawa, Griffin, Young, can't lay and
Burns are captain spicks. So that's that's that with that,
you know, So the the European team is Rory McElroy,
(03:23):
Robert McIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Holguard. It's Hoguard,
excuse me, Tyroll Hatt and Shane Lowry, Sepstraca, Ludwig Aberg,
Victor Howland, Matt Fitzpatrick and John mom So you probably
know if you, if you pay attention to golf at all,
you probably know more of the names on the European
(03:47):
roster than you do on the USA roster. Europe is
going to win. I think they are going to. They
won't blow them out because they're everybody's very good players
and they're pretty even no matter what. But Europe is
going to win. Not in a landslide, but they're gonna win.
(04:10):
I use this phrase with my son in regards to
certain football games. I don't think Europe's ever gonna be
in danger of losing. Now. I could be. I could
be shocked. I could I could be absolutely shocked. I
could be completely wrong. You know. It could be USA
(04:31):
just dominates. I just don't see it that way. I mean,
they have Rory, Tommy Fleetwood playing very well off his
first PGA Tour win. Tyroll Hatton always plays well in
the Ryder Cup. Ayburg and Hofland are unbelievably good players.
(04:54):
John Ram unbelievably good player. So I'm just going with
on surface, on paper, on face, I'm going with Europeans.
As I said that, the team analysis, the consensus is
that Europe has better depth, more Ryder Cup experience. CBS
(05:16):
Sports favors the United States, Golf dot Com favors Europe.
I often think they do that on purpose so they
can make sure everybody bets on each side, because you know,
that's the way they make their money. They make sure
(05:36):
that a million people bet for Europe, a million people
bet for and actually they don't really care about how
many people they bet, they met, how many dollars are
bet And while I'm on the topic of betting, every year,
every year, at this time of year, the first few
weeks of the football season, there is a fascinating phenomenon
(06:00):
that occurs where very very very large programs Power five, Alabama,
Ohio State, Penn State, Texas, they play teams that they
should beat handily, and they put point spreads out I
believe that. I believe that Ohio University was a fifty
(06:27):
four point underdog to Ohio State. They lost by fifty five.
How do you do that? I have no idea how
they do that. They are so good at that. That's
just a remarkable thing for me. But anyway, that's off
the topic. So my guess is that the Europeans will win. Now,
(06:52):
because I do not claim to be an expert analysis
of the Ryder Cup, I'm going when you talk about
something that actually in the Ryder cover that they will
not talk Actually they'll talk a decent amount about in
a certain way. But there is something that we need
(07:13):
to know. Okay, Each player on the US team, including
the captain, will receive five hundred thousand dollars. Three hundred
thousand dollars is your mark for charity of their choice
a player's choice. Two hundred thousand dollars is stipend to
the player. Historically, the United States players have been given
(07:42):
to they have been there's been a two hundred thousand
dollars donation of charity in their name for playing. Now
we've decided to quote unquote modernize this and we up
it to five hundred thousand dollars, two hundred of it
is written directly to the player, and three hundred thousand
dollars directly to a charity of his choice or his choice.
(08:05):
I don't know that, you know, Scotti Scheffler says he's
gonna give the whole five hundred thousand dollars to charity,
local community kind of thing. Great Europe gets paid nothing.
Their captain said, it is not the week to get paid.
(08:25):
And I have a real problem with this. And I
realize that I'm probably shouting at the wind and probably
nobody really cares, but I'm gonna do it anyway. PJ
of America is estimated to make five hundred and fifty
million dollars this week on America. Now, there's a lot
(08:46):
of expenses. I get that, you know, I get I
get that. Okay, that's what they're projected to make in
some circles. So let's say it's half that fifty million
dollars in a week. Why do we have to pay people? Now,
(09:14):
I'm not saying that I want to PGIM America to
keep the money. I'll get to that in a minute.
And actually the second segment really get into it. But
I want to know why it's not enough to play
for your country. I want to know. I'll never get
(09:37):
to ask them and if they, if they did answer,
they would give the right answers. You know, we're paid athletes.
I get all that. How much are we paying the
four by one hundred delay in the Olympic team? I
(09:59):
don't know. I don't know, but I know it's not
that amount. I just don't know. I think this, I
think this just this just doesn't sit well. That's a
really nice way to say it doesn't sit well. And
actually it detracts from the prestige of the event because
(10:24):
now it's another paid event. Now it's another paid event.
You want to make the tea because they're going to
write a check for five hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, you're
gonna give someone with the charity, but nobody is actually
gonna come to your house and want you give the
check to the Boys and Girls Club or whatever. So
(10:50):
I don't understand why. I think the goal of the
event is to have an international golf event, and for
one week a year, can we just not talk about money?
(11:12):
Can we just not talk about money? I just I
just wish it didn't I wouldn't say a bird's ugly
head inject itself into the conversation. And I don't know why.
I mean, I asked the president of the PJA of
America off the radio show, asked him straight up, let
(11:33):
me ask you this, and he came back at me
with modernization. They're highly paid. They're taking a week off.
Where were they going to play nowhere? I'm not taking
a week off. You know. National Hockey League players play
(11:57):
in the Olympics. NBA players playing in the Olympics. I don't
know whether they get paid or not. I don't know,
but I do know that, aside from the charitable donation,
for the last thirty years, American players were not pay
(12:20):
to play in the Ryder Cup. When the European team
says it's not the week to get paid, means it
means more to them. I truly believe that many people,
many people have said, from Laura Davies to other prominent
(12:45):
people in the world of golf that this is actually
just poor form, bad form, poor taste. Now I think
back to the only Ryder Cup player, Well, I actually
have talked to two of them, three of them. A
(13:06):
mirror played in one. So I have talked to three
of them, but mister Hogan was a three time captain
and played in several. And Johnny Palmer from North Carolina,
the guy I knew North North Carolina played in one
of them, played for Hogan in forty nine. I asked
him where his Ryder cup bag was. Johnny told me
he sold it. Needed the money. Hmm. I realized it
(13:32):
was seventy years ago, seventy five years ago. But it's
just too bad because now he did not pay expenses
to go to England, that's where they played it that year.
He did not pay expenses to go there. But he
(13:54):
did not get paid for it either. Now they fed
them and they clothed them, and they hells them and
all that fun stuff, and gave him transportation and all
that fun stuff, but they can't get paid. And oh,
by the way, when you have to sell the golf
bag because you needed the money, he probably could have
done something that week in North Carolina or Oklahoma or
(14:18):
wherever he was to make money, but he chose to
not do that. It was an honor to be named. Now,
if you really wanted to make it difference, in my opinion,
refuse the money, all of it, you guys, take your
(14:41):
five hundred thousand dollars and do whatever you want with it.
I'm playing for the country. We're not gonna do that though.
We're not gonna do that though, and and and that's
that's too bad because the event cannot be overshadowed for
fine answers or capital gain or charitable donations. Nobody should
(15:09):
care about that. We should care about, Well, what's Harris
English going to do with his charitable or piece of it?
Why is it even an issue? Don't make an issue.
You don't get paid you, how much you get paid nothing,
You qualified love you for you to play, and actually
(15:31):
not even love you for the play. You're gonna apply,
You're gonna apply. Who would say no? But now I
guess that's the modern world we live in. And that
stems from the PGA of America, which is a another
(15:52):
another great great, great great feather in their cap. They
screwed this one up. So I would tell you may
she watched Ryder Cup, great competition. These guys are playing
for playing well. The Europeans are so again prediction here,
Europe wins. Europe is never in danger of losing the
(16:13):
Ryder Cup. When I come back, we are going to
talk about the PGA of America. This is the rich
Como Gulf Show. Welcome back to the rich Como Golf Show.
We are going into Ryder Cup week Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
I am by myself this week. I am going to
(16:34):
take the next few minutes and not bore you, but
actually make myself angry. And by extension, I already know
they or others angry about this. Anybody who listens to
this show, anybody's ever heard this show, doesn't take long
(16:56):
to figure out. I'm a PJ professional. I'm a Class
A member, soified member of the PGA of America. I've
been on the board of directors of the tri state
Section forty one sections. I'm up for election for another
term on the board. I've applied for national committees because
(17:17):
I think I can help. I want to help. I do.
I want to help. I'm a twenty five year member
of the PJ of America. So why am I talking
about this? Because the way the PGA of America operates
(17:46):
is broken. It's just broken. We pay dues, It's just say,
six dollars one hundred and fifty of it goes to
the national office. The rest goes to my section. I
(18:07):
can't get an exact count how many members there are,
how many dues paying members there are, I really can't.
But if there's twenty five thousand, twenty three thousand, twenty
eight thousand, I don't know. But the amount of money
(18:30):
isn't the point. The point is that the PGA of
America is broken. I get a magazine, I do. I
get a monthly magazine. I've been in a couple of times.
We have some national programs, PGA Hope for the Veterans,
(18:52):
which is being defunded, not defunded, but diminished spending for that.
We have drive Chip and Putt. We have PJ Junior
League Drive Chip and putt. The winners it's like Punt
(19:14):
Pakiston Kick for golf. The winners end up at Augusta
National the week of the Master's unbelievable opportunity. Shout out
to Eli West, she finished third and in the regional
doesn't go to Augusta but finished third. But there are
no grassroots programs. There is no funding of the sections
(19:44):
to each professional. Now, I've never been in a union,
and I'm not advocating America becomes unionized. I'm not decrying
unions I'm not doing any of that. I'm just stating facts.
If you remember the Plumbers Union, you paid dues to
be the plumbers union because they create working conditions and
opportunities for you. I'm an association, not a union. I'm cool,
(20:10):
I understand it. But my question is this, why aren't
they creating they being the PGA of American National Headquarters,
creating more opportunities for average member. Why not? I don't know,
(20:31):
I don't know. I am absolutely I am absolutely disappointing
the benefits of being a PGA member. We're a nonprofit
organization with an income of one hundred and seventy two million,
two hundred forty four thousand. To earn ninety four thousand,
(20:51):
seven hundred dollars one hundred and seventy two million, two
hundred and ninety four thousand, seven one hundred dollars, we
paid well. Okay, So if as Don Ray was on
my show, and I'm not that good at math, and
(21:14):
I probably should have set my office on a rainy
day in McDonald, Pennsylvania and done the math. But if
only one hundred and fifty dollars of my dues goes
to the national office, and there's twenty eight thousand members.
(21:36):
Let's figure this out. One hundred and fifty times twenty
eight thousand, it's four million, two hundred thousand dollars and
that profit and they're a nonprofit Wohl, the income of
one hundred and seventy two million dollars to turn forty
four thousand, seven hundred dollars. Oh, by the way, that's
on the tax return. I'm not making this up. It's
(21:56):
on the tax return. You can find it. So less
than one percent of our income is member dues. I
don't think we're nonprofit. So let me ask you this question.
(22:17):
How about if I told you that of the one
hundred and seventy two million to URN ninety four thousand
and seven hundred dollars, we put it on the tax
return income, we paid over seven million dollars to four employees.
Four We paid more out employees to employee to for
employees than his income for members dues. To the math,
(22:44):
to the math, something's wrong. But let's go a little bit.
We let's go a little bit further. I am required
to in order to maintain my membership. I am required
(23:07):
to have continuing education points. My wife is a dental hygienist.
She has to go so much continuing education. I know
doctors have to do continuing education. I know that lawyers
have to do continue education. I know that accountants certainly
have to I know all that police officers do. Law
enforcement officers do. My organization makes money on the education
(23:33):
of its members. I think there's something wrong there. Okay,
so so let me ask you. Okay, so let's boil
it down to this. This is crazy. Okay, this is
a bad analogy, but this is crazy. Your local township
or your local police station has six officers, sixty officers.
(23:55):
I don't know where you live. But let's say there's
eighteen officers and they have to take safety training once
a quarter, and then they have to take then they
(24:18):
have to take I don't know, community relations training once
a quarter. I don't know what they have to do.
Do you think the township that they live in would
make money off of that education? Hey, this community relations
training and this safety training costs the township one hundred
(24:38):
thousand dollars, So we should charge the officers that are
required to take it. There's twenty of them, five two
hundred dollars. No, we brought in one hundred and seventy two,
two hundred and ninety four thousand dollars in one year
in income. Some of that income has made on members education.
(25:03):
That's crazy. Now I could be reading it wrong, but
I don't think I am. I'm a reasonably intelligent person.
I'm a reasonably intelligent person. Less than one percent of
our income gets back to members. So let me ask
(25:25):
this question. This is, and I say this whole time,
the mission statement of the PGA of America is to
grow playing opportunities for all. Yes, it's important that we
play for a lot of money. Yes, it's important that
my friend, my friend from Ohio, my friend from North Carolina,
(25:47):
has the opportunity to playing the Club Professional Championship. I
love that he has to pay five thousand dollars to
go do it, because he's got to fly to California
to do it. But I love that. I love that.
But what would happen? Let's do some math. This is
really cool, This is really cool. Okay, one hundred and
(26:15):
seventy two million dollars in income. Let's say we had
eighty million dollars in actual expenses, Like, well, we just
bought this monstrosity of a building in Texas and whatever
you want to say. Okay, even including paying the for
(26:37):
employees over over seven million dollars, that's fine. Okay, Let's
just say at the end of the day, after expenses,
which we found expenses, we bought tires and we didn't
need to buy tires, whatever it is, we're down to
fifty million dollars net profit. What happens? And again I'm
(27:02):
not that good at math, but let's say there's thirty thousand,
there's thirty thousand members. Okay, what would happen if we
gave every member one thousand, six hundred and sixty six
dollars and you have to use it to grow the game?
(27:28):
Huh h? How much in schools are we doing? How
many junior golf programs get built, how many underserved populations
get built? How many more programs can we do? How
(27:58):
many junior league teams can be funded? But but why
would we do that? We're supposed to grow the game, right,
That's what that thing said. That's what that's that thing
the mission statement said, grow the game. What happened? We
(28:20):
lost our way is what happened. We spent an enorma
amount of money and redoing our logo we went away
from the traditional crested logo to this, I don't know.
I call it Jetson looking Jetson's looking thing. But but
but and I'm not blaming anybody, Actually I am, but
(28:44):
I'm not going to blame them on on the radio.
But I'm not blaming anybody. But let me ask you something.
How in the world do we not look around and go, Okay,
we lost our way? You know, what's that thing talk
that kittens lost their mittens and and that we lost
our way and we all have to come back to
the campfire. Why can't we do that? Why can't we
(29:10):
do that? You know? Why why can't we Why can't
we offer education programs for free? Why can't we? Oh wait,
we could. We just have to restructure our entity. This
(29:33):
is like plain at day to May, there would never
be an unfunded Hope Pja Hill program. And oh, by
the way, I've been around them, around and around with
you people about why that's important. Veterans do themselves harm
and an alarming amount of rate, an alarming rate. And
if one golf program can save one of them, why
(29:56):
wouldn't it be Why wouldn't it be Why wouldn't it
be a good thing. I just don't understand. And if
you can't run the program to grow the game, then
(30:17):
you don't get the money. And we talk about our
you know, the PGA of America as a headquarters always
talks about you know, professionals income and got to maintain
income and this and that. Okay, why why why are
you making us pay for education? Then you're hurting our income.
(30:40):
You know, this whole playing thing that makes no sense
to me because if I played eighteen events and made
seven thousand dollars in twenty twenty four, I probably paid
four or five thousand dollars in entry fees and lost
just because it wasn't at home. It wasn't back in
(31:02):
my place teaching or running a grow the Game program.
And that's a choice you can make. If you don't
want that money, you don't run the program. But at
the same time, PGA of America should give you the
opportunity to make that dang choice. But no, we're gonna
(31:22):
talk down to rich Conwell when we get people on
the phone, and we're not going to return phone calls
to other members that I know they haven't returned phone
calls to because that's the way We've always done it.
That's called ego. And I'm smarter than you, and I
think the change is coming and I want to be
(31:42):
part of the change because I love the PGA of America.
I think you could do so much. All you do
is look on TV and see how things are crooked
in this country. And I'm not saying golf is the
golf is the alix or the magic elixir, but healthy
(32:04):
activities might be. So I will keep you posted on
those changes that are coming. And it may require me
to fly to Texas, and you know, I might be
I don't know, but I'll keep you posting. This is
the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich
(32:24):
Combo Golf Show. I wanted to spend the last segment
with you this week as I wrap up very quickly
of the first two segments number when I talked with
the Ryder Cup, and I think it's I think, what's
what the matter? What what the issue with the Ryder
Cup is is is morphed away from pure competition and
we're going to start to pay people now and it's
(32:46):
just going to change it to be like everything else,
to like everything else, and that bothers me greatly, not
nearly as much as what bothers people are going on
with what's going on with the PGA of America, because
is I believe that they are? They are. I know
they're listed as a nonprofit and they're acting as if
they are. They're acting as if they're nonprofit, but they
(33:11):
have high, high, high amounts of income, and they have
incredible amounts of opportunity to grow the game and improve
the association. I think we're burying our head in the
sand the hope and nobody notices. But we'll get into
that in a different on a different day. Well, actually
we'll continue to get into that in future days. So
(33:34):
last segment I want to talk about. You know, I've
been very fortunate to have great guests on the show.
I really have. I've had what is believed to be
the best golf professional ever in Bob Ford. I've had
people that one on the PGA Tour, one on the
(33:57):
LPGA Tour, play us amateurs, just incredible, incredible professionals, incredibly
accomplished people, some that will never receive national awareness or
national notoriety, some already have, some will. But I was
(34:20):
reading my PGA magazine one day and I sent an
email to a person and I said, I asked him
if he would come on my show. He wrote back
to me and he said, thank you for thinking of me.
This is excerpts Now I have received quite a bit
(34:47):
of attention because of my health issues and a terminal
cancer diagnosis. And he went on to explain to me
that he tries to play golf every day and he's
an unbelievably good player, unbelieve a good teacher. I don't
believe be proud of being a PGA member, faced with
(35:13):
the rest of his life in a feeding tube, and
he got to chemote therapy and ment head on and
things were really good. And he said, you bet, I'll
be on your show. And he came on the show,
and he talked to me about being the first PGA
(35:37):
head golf professional to graduate from Farris State University, how
proud he was, how proud he was to be from
Farris State University, how proud he was of anybody that
would recognize him, how proud he was of his accomplishments,
and the players that he taught, and the high school
players that he taught, and the college players that he taught,
(35:58):
and the guy who took the guys who took over
his academy when he retired and he wasn't feeling his
best and his accomplishments on the golf course of his
own golf clubs and being able to meet his heroes
like Dave Hill and Mike Hill who wanted the PGA
Tour and the Senior Tour, and he talked about being
(36:21):
upbeat and setting goals for himself, like I try to
walk nine holes every day. I'm trying to make it
to my next anniversary. And it impacted me greatly because
I immediately sent the interview and the show to the
(36:47):
Michigan PGA section and they sent it out to everybody
and their brother and their section and their world. And
I also sent up to Farri State University. And I
got a phone call a day after I sent at
to Ferris State University from the director of the Professional
Golf Management Program, guy named Joe Hatch, and Joe came
(37:07):
on my show and we talked about this person, and
we talked about the golf business in general, and Joe
has a healthy, healthy, healthy love for the golf business,
healthy love for the pg of America, so do I,
which is why it disappoints me so much because I
love it so much. And our love for the golf
(37:34):
business and the PGA of America pales in comparison to
the person I'm talking about, and the way he just
looked at in the eye and he used to say
to me, he says, I'm going to make it to
my next wedding anniversary, I'm going to make it to
my grandchild's birthday. And he knew the dates. Damn many days,
how many times, how many walks he was gonna take.
(37:58):
He had a great saying, I can't ford to give
up walking because maybe that's the day that that exercise
beats that cancer back. Now think about that. I mean,
that's incredible. And this is a guy who won every
(38:22):
award you could win in the PGA of America, every
one of them. I mean, he just wouldn't stop winning stuff.
He was so beloved. He was he was. He's in
the Michigan PJ Hall of Fame, He's in the State
of Michigan Hall of Fame. He is a hometown Hall
(38:47):
of Fame. The people he impacted unbelievable, and he did
it in such a way that he used to say,
you don't sure you can you know, you think you
can win an event, Sure you can. You just gotta
(39:11):
it's gotta do it. You gotta believe in yourself, you know,
because if you don't believe in yourself, who will? And
kind of full circle. I caddied in a junior Tour
(39:33):
event the other day for the young lady from from Wheeling.
Her name is Ellie West Ellie sorry. And and after
(39:54):
I caddied for her, I sent her some notes. One
of them was, you will believe you will go as
far as you believe you can. You didn't play golf
swing for fifteen holes. It was awesome. Positive self talk
(40:17):
is really important, but you have to believe it. The
person who speaks to you to speaks the loudest truth
to you is yourself. I didn't come up with those
that guest I was talking about. Did. He told me those?
(40:40):
And he impacted so many people from the moment you
walked on a fair State and before that he used
to say to me. He said to me on this show,
I never wanted to embarrass myself, but I always wanted
to make everybody around me proud of me, and he did.
(41:06):
His name was Dave Kendall. And I say was because
on September sixteenth, twenty twenty five, Dave died. Dave knew
all along that this was the end result of this.
I knew it, He knew it, his family knew it.
(41:32):
But it's interesting. This is a guy who actually said
to me in writing and said to me verbally the
day all this changes when I got a chance to
get chemotherapy. Who looks forward to chemo therapy. Dave Kendall
did because he believed that he could get better, and
he did. I used to say to him, I'd send
(41:58):
him text message or email and say, hey, listen, you
need somebody to walk with. Just call me. I'll go
be there tomorrow. He said, I'll never ask you, but
I know you would. It's people like Dave Kendall and
(42:20):
the impacts they make. He's the reason PJ professionals or heroes.
He's the reason PJ professionals how they are. We talked
to another PJ professional last week, Jim Ankowitz. He said,
PJ professionals want to help. I believe that Dave Kendall
did help, only did he want to He did help.
(42:48):
How can you how do you how do you write
something about the guy you don't He's Dave. He was dead,
And I know there are people who are way more
sad than I than I am, and they should be
(43:10):
because because they've known him for many, many, many years,
many years, and they played against him, played with them,
played for him. He was a he, he was well known.
He wasn't a hermit. He was out in front of it.
(43:34):
He had a sophageal gillial geal sophageal cancer. That's a
pretty ugly one. Couldn't eat for a while, couldn't talk.
So I just I guess maybe I look at it
(43:58):
like this. I'm sad obviously that Dave is gone. But
I'll tell you what, how glad are we that we
knew him? And I didn't know him that well. He
made a tremendous impact on me through about six or
(44:20):
seven emails, in about three or four conversations. And when
I quit hearing from this was really interesting. I quit
hearing from him about two months ago, two and a
half months ago, and I knew the cancer had turned.
I knew it was. I knew it was painful. I
found out later how painful I knew it was. It was.
(44:43):
It was let's just say it winning. It was winning
because he couldn't be his Hey, look, we can get
their self. He couldn't. So when he couldn't be himself,
he just pulled back a little bit. And I knew
(45:08):
in my heart of hearts or some logical level, I
was going to get a text from somebody that says, hey,
I want to let you know Dave died. Yeah. I
got that text. And I got that text from the
director of the professional professional golf Management program at Fair Estate.
(45:31):
And he took that that day and the next day
to tell every one of his students great Dave Kendall stories,
so those that positive impact could keep going. And I
guarantee you in heaven Dave was smiling. You know. I
(45:58):
guess maybe if you look at Dave and go, Okay,
what do you think? How was it? I had a
great life. My dad used to say that too. I
had a great life. But the cool thing about Dave,
the great thing about Dave is he made other lives great.
(46:20):
He and even now, you know, I mentioned Joe Hatch,
I mentioned myself, I mentioned other people that that knew
Dave interacted with Dave. They he will silently obviously he's
not here anymore, he will silently push them to make
other people's lives better too. Dave was one of the
(46:43):
only people you'll ever meet that wanted you to be
better than you wanted to be. If you ever grab
onto somebody like that, if you ever run into somebody
like that in your life, grab on to him, because
if they want you to be better than you want
to be, they're all in. So I wanted to take
(47:06):
a few moments, took a little longer than I thought
it would, but to just say thank you to Dave.
Because Dave made an impact on me. He's top three,
probably top ten players ever from the state of Michigan,
and he's a top five golf professional ever, and that
(47:31):
is really, really, really neat. So I wanted to take
a moment and give him his just due and memorialize
Dave Kendall a little bit, and just know that golf
in Michigan and in this country is better because and
the PGA of America is better for having people like
(47:51):
that in the in the PGA of America. So final
thing is thanks, Dave made us better and we will
continue to try to carry on your legacy. This is
the Rich Combo Golf Show.
Welcome to the Rich Kalmgov Show. This week, as we
push October first, I have postponed my guest until next week.
I'm gonna fly solo this week. We're going to talk
about three major topics, and the first and unfortunately one
(00:23):
of the topics is sad, but we will we will
do that later because we don't want to start the
day sad. So the first thing we're going to do
is we're going to talk about the Ryder Cup. It's
this weekend unbelievable competition. For those of you who don't
(00:43):
know anything about that, it is a competition. Twelve men
on each team. There's a European team the United States team,
and they play three days of competition. The third day,
which is Sunday, they play singles matches head to head,
(01:04):
twelve versus twelve one v one twelve six matches I'm sorry,
excuse me, twelve matches, and then there will be six
matches for thirty six holes. On Friday and Saturday, they
played better ball partners and they play alternate shot. It
is very, very very intriguing to watch it. It is
great history, great history, and you would think that since
(01:25):
I'm the history guy, I would know when it started,
but it was nineteen twenties so, and for the longest
time it was Great Britain and Ireland versus the United States,
and then Jack Nicholas as the United States continuously won
one one one and it wasn't really that competitive. Jack
(01:50):
Nicholas expressed a desire to expand it to the to
the European continent, and that's when it became much more competitive.
Guys like Sevi Ballisto's osim Olfabo could play. Those guys
got Bernhard longer from Germany, ol from Spain. Guys like
(02:13):
guys like that could play. So now it became much
more form of a formidable competition. So interestingly enough, the
teams are obviously released. European team is deeper, uh is deeper,
has more Ryder Cup experience, and but the American team
(02:39):
is Scotti, Scheffler, JJ Spahn, US Open champion from Oakmont,
Xander Schaffle, Russell, Henley, Harris, English, Bryson d Chambeau, Justin, Thomas, Colin, Morikawa,
Ben Griffin, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantley, and Sam Burns. So
if the interesting thing about that is those last six
(03:03):
that I mentioned, Thomas Morikawa, Griffin, Young, can't lay and
Burns are captain spicks. So that's that's that with that,
you know, So the the European team is Rory McElroy,
(03:23):
Robert McIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Holguard. It's Hoguard,
excuse me, Tyroll Hatt and Shane Lowry, Sepstraca, Ludwig Aberg,
Victor Howland, Matt Fitzpatrick and John mom So you probably
know if you, if you pay attention to golf at all,
you probably know more of the names on the European
(03:47):
roster than you do on the USA roster. Europe is
going to win. I think they are going to. They
won't blow them out because they're everybody's very good players
and they're pretty even no matter what. But Europe is
going to win. Not in a landslide, but they're gonna win.
(04:10):
I use this phrase with my son in regards to
certain football games. I don't think Europe's ever gonna be
in danger of losing. Now. I could be. I could
be shocked. I could I could be absolutely shocked. I
could be completely wrong. You know. It could be USA
(04:31):
just dominates. I just don't see it that way. I mean,
they have Rory, Tommy Fleetwood playing very well off his
first PGA Tour win. Tyroll Hatton always plays well in
the Ryder Cup. Ayburg and Hofland are unbelievably good players.
(04:54):
John Ram unbelievably good player. So I'm just going with
on surface, on paper, on face, I'm going with Europeans.
As I said that, the team analysis, the consensus is
that Europe has better depth, more Ryder Cup experience. CBS
(05:16):
Sports favors the United States, Golf dot Com favors Europe.
I often think they do that on purpose so they
can make sure everybody bets on each side, because you know,
that's the way they make their money. They make sure
(05:36):
that a million people bet for Europe, a million people
bet for and actually they don't really care about how
many people they bet, they met, how many dollars are
bet And while I'm on the topic of betting, every year,
every year, at this time of year, the first few
weeks of the football season, there is a fascinating phenomenon
(06:00):
that occurs where very very very large programs Power five, Alabama,
Ohio State, Penn State, Texas, they play teams that they
should beat handily, and they put point spreads out I
believe that. I believe that Ohio University was a fifty
(06:27):
four point underdog to Ohio State. They lost by fifty five.
How do you do that? I have no idea how
they do that. They are so good at that. That's
just a remarkable thing for me. But anyway, that's off
the topic. So my guess is that the Europeans will win. Now,
(06:52):
because I do not claim to be an expert analysis
of the Ryder Cup, I'm going when you talk about
something that actually in the Ryder cover that they will
not talk Actually they'll talk a decent amount about in
a certain way. But there is something that we need
(07:13):
to know. Okay, Each player on the US team, including
the captain, will receive five hundred thousand dollars. Three hundred
thousand dollars is your mark for charity of their choice
a player's choice. Two hundred thousand dollars is stipend to
the player. Historically, the United States players have been given
(07:42):
to they have been there's been a two hundred thousand
dollars donation of charity in their name for playing. Now
we've decided to quote unquote modernize this and we up
it to five hundred thousand dollars, two hundred of it
is written directly to the player, and three hundred thousand
dollars directly to a charity of his choice or his choice.
(08:05):
I don't know that, you know, Scotti Scheffler says he's
gonna give the whole five hundred thousand dollars to charity,
local community kind of thing. Great Europe gets paid nothing.
Their captain said, it is not the week to get paid.
(08:25):
And I have a real problem with this. And I
realize that I'm probably shouting at the wind and probably
nobody really cares, but I'm gonna do it anyway. PJ
of America is estimated to make five hundred and fifty
million dollars this week on America. Now, there's a lot
(08:46):
of expenses. I get that, you know, I get I
get that. Okay, that's what they're projected to make in
some circles. So let's say it's half that fifty million
dollars in a week. Why do we have to pay people? Now,
(09:14):
I'm not saying that I want to PGIM America to
keep the money. I'll get to that in a minute.
And actually the second segment really get into it. But
I want to know why it's not enough to play
for your country. I want to know. I'll never get
(09:37):
to ask them and if they, if they did answer,
they would give the right answers. You know, we're paid athletes.
I get all that. How much are we paying the
four by one hundred delay in the Olympic team? I
(09:59):
don't know. I don't know, but I know it's not
that amount. I just don't know. I think this, I
think this just this just doesn't sit well. That's a
really nice way to say it doesn't sit well. And
actually it detracts from the prestige of the event because
(10:24):
now it's another paid event. Now it's another paid event.
You want to make the tea because they're going to
write a check for five hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, you're
gonna give someone with the charity, but nobody is actually
gonna come to your house and want you give the
check to the Boys and Girls Club or whatever. So
(10:50):
I don't understand why. I think the goal of the
event is to have an international golf event, and for
one week a year, can we just not talk about money?
(11:12):
Can we just not talk about money? I just I
just wish it didn't I wouldn't say a bird's ugly
head inject itself into the conversation. And I don't know why.
I mean, I asked the president of the PJA of
America off the radio show, asked him straight up, let
(11:33):
me ask you this, and he came back at me
with modernization. They're highly paid. They're taking a week off.
Where were they going to play nowhere? I'm not taking
a week off. You know. National Hockey League players play
(11:57):
in the Olympics. NBA players playing in the Olympics. I don't
know whether they get paid or not. I don't know,
but I do know that, aside from the charitable donation,
for the last thirty years, American players were not pay
(12:20):
to play in the Ryder Cup. When the European team
says it's not the week to get paid, means it
means more to them. I truly believe that many people,
many people have said, from Laura Davies to other prominent
(12:45):
people in the world of golf that this is actually
just poor form, bad form, poor taste. Now I think
back to the only Ryder Cup player, Well, I actually
have talked to two of them, three of them. A
(13:06):
mirror played in one. So I have talked to three
of them, but mister Hogan was a three time captain
and played in several. And Johnny Palmer from North Carolina,
the guy I knew North North Carolina played in one
of them, played for Hogan in forty nine. I asked
him where his Ryder cup bag was. Johnny told me
he sold it. Needed the money. Hmm. I realized it
(13:32):
was seventy years ago, seventy five years ago. But it's
just too bad because now he did not pay expenses
to go to England, that's where they played it that year.
He did not pay expenses to go there. But he
(13:54):
did not get paid for it either. Now they fed
them and they clothed them, and they hells them and
all that fun stuff, and gave him transportation and all
that fun stuff, but they can't get paid. And oh,
by the way, when you have to sell the golf
bag because you needed the money, he probably could have
done something that week in North Carolina or Oklahoma or
(14:18):
wherever he was to make money, but he chose to
not do that. It was an honor to be named. Now,
if you really wanted to make it difference, in my opinion,
refuse the money, all of it, you guys, take your
(14:41):
five hundred thousand dollars and do whatever you want with it.
I'm playing for the country. We're not gonna do that though.
We're not gonna do that though, and and and that's
that's too bad because the event cannot be overshadowed for
fine answers or capital gain or charitable donations. Nobody should
(15:09):
care about that. We should care about, Well, what's Harris
English going to do with his charitable or piece of it?
Why is it even an issue? Don't make an issue.
You don't get paid you, how much you get paid nothing,
You qualified love you for you to play, and actually
(15:31):
not even love you for the play. You're gonna apply,
You're gonna apply. Who would say no? But now I
guess that's the modern world we live in. And that
stems from the PGA of America, which is a another
(15:52):
another great great, great great feather in their cap. They
screwed this one up. So I would tell you may
she watched Ryder Cup, great competition. These guys are playing
for playing well. The Europeans are so again prediction here,
Europe wins. Europe is never in danger of losing the
(16:13):
Ryder Cup. When I come back, we are going to
talk about the PGA of America. This is the rich
Como Gulf Show. Welcome back to the rich Como Golf Show.
We are going into Ryder Cup week Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
I am by myself this week. I am going to
(16:34):
take the next few minutes and not bore you, but
actually make myself angry. And by extension, I already know
they or others angry about this. Anybody who listens to
this show, anybody's ever heard this show, doesn't take long
(16:56):
to figure out. I'm a PJ professional. I'm a Class
A member, soified member of the PGA of America. I've
been on the board of directors of the tri state
Section forty one sections. I'm up for election for another
term on the board. I've applied for national committees because
(17:17):
I think I can help. I want to help. I do.
I want to help. I'm a twenty five year member
of the PJ of America. So why am I talking
about this? Because the way the PGA of America operates
(17:46):
is broken. It's just broken. We pay dues, It's just say,
six dollars one hundred and fifty of it goes to
the national office. The rest goes to my section. I
(18:07):
can't get an exact count how many members there are,
how many dues paying members there are, I really can't.
But if there's twenty five thousand, twenty three thousand, twenty
eight thousand, I don't know. But the amount of money
(18:30):
isn't the point. The point is that the PGA of
America is broken. I get a magazine, I do. I
get a monthly magazine. I've been in a couple of times.
We have some national programs, PGA Hope for the Veterans,
(18:52):
which is being defunded, not defunded, but diminished spending for that.
We have drive Chip and Putt. We have PJ Junior
League Drive Chip and putt. The winners it's like Punt
(19:14):
Pakiston Kick for golf. The winners end up at Augusta
National the week of the Master's unbelievable opportunity. Shout out
to Eli West, she finished third and in the regional
doesn't go to Augusta but finished third. But there are
no grassroots programs. There is no funding of the sections
(19:44):
to each professional. Now, I've never been in a union,
and I'm not advocating America becomes unionized. I'm not decrying
unions I'm not doing any of that. I'm just stating facts.
If you remember the Plumbers Union, you paid dues to
be the plumbers union because they create working conditions and
opportunities for you. I'm an association, not a union. I'm cool,
(20:10):
I understand it. But my question is this, why aren't
they creating they being the PGA of American National Headquarters,
creating more opportunities for average member. Why not? I don't know,
(20:31):
I don't know. I am absolutely I am absolutely disappointing
the benefits of being a PGA member. We're a nonprofit
organization with an income of one hundred and seventy two million,
two hundred forty four thousand. To earn ninety four thousand,
(20:51):
seven hundred dollars one hundred and seventy two million, two
hundred and ninety four thousand, seven one hundred dollars, we
paid well. Okay, So if as Don Ray was on
my show, and I'm not that good at math, and
(21:14):
I probably should have set my office on a rainy
day in McDonald, Pennsylvania and done the math. But if
only one hundred and fifty dollars of my dues goes
to the national office, and there's twenty eight thousand members.
(21:36):
Let's figure this out. One hundred and fifty times twenty
eight thousand, it's four million, two hundred thousand dollars and
that profit and they're a nonprofit Wohl, the income of
one hundred and seventy two million dollars to turn forty
four thousand, seven hundred dollars. Oh, by the way, that's
on the tax return. I'm not making this up. It's
(21:56):
on the tax return. You can find it. So less
than one percent of our income is member dues. I
don't think we're nonprofit. So let me ask you this question.
(22:17):
How about if I told you that of the one
hundred and seventy two million to URN ninety four thousand
and seven hundred dollars, we put it on the tax
return income, we paid over seven million dollars to four employees.
Four We paid more out employees to employee to for
employees than his income for members dues. To the math,
(22:44):
to the math, something's wrong. But let's go a little bit.
We let's go a little bit further. I am required
to in order to maintain my membership. I am required
(23:07):
to have continuing education points. My wife is a dental hygienist.
She has to go so much continuing education. I know
doctors have to do continuing education. I know that lawyers
have to do continue education. I know that accountants certainly
have to I know all that police officers do. Law
enforcement officers do. My organization makes money on the education
(23:33):
of its members. I think there's something wrong there. Okay,
so so let me ask you. Okay, so let's boil
it down to this. This is crazy. Okay, this is
a bad analogy, but this is crazy. Your local township
or your local police station has six officers, sixty officers.
(23:55):
I don't know where you live. But let's say there's
eighteen officers and they have to take safety training once
a quarter, and then they have to take then they
(24:18):
have to take I don't know, community relations training once
a quarter. I don't know what they have to do.
Do you think the township that they live in would
make money off of that education? Hey, this community relations
training and this safety training costs the township one hundred
(24:38):
thousand dollars, So we should charge the officers that are
required to take it. There's twenty of them, five two
hundred dollars. No, we brought in one hundred and seventy two,
two hundred and ninety four thousand dollars in one year
in income. Some of that income has made on members education.
(25:03):
That's crazy. Now I could be reading it wrong, but
I don't think I am. I'm a reasonably intelligent person.
I'm a reasonably intelligent person. Less than one percent of
our income gets back to members. So let me ask
(25:25):
this question. This is, and I say this whole time,
the mission statement of the PGA of America is to
grow playing opportunities for all. Yes, it's important that we
play for a lot of money. Yes, it's important that
my friend, my friend from Ohio, my friend from North Carolina,
(25:47):
has the opportunity to playing the Club Professional Championship. I
love that he has to pay five thousand dollars to
go do it, because he's got to fly to California
to do it. But I love that. I love that.
But what would happen? Let's do some math. This is
really cool, This is really cool. Okay, one hundred and
(26:15):
seventy two million dollars in income. Let's say we had
eighty million dollars in actual expenses, Like, well, we just
bought this monstrosity of a building in Texas and whatever
you want to say. Okay, even including paying the for
(26:37):
employees over over seven million dollars, that's fine. Okay, Let's
just say at the end of the day, after expenses,
which we found expenses, we bought tires and we didn't
need to buy tires, whatever it is, we're down to
fifty million dollars net profit. What happens? And again I'm
(27:02):
not that good at math, but let's say there's thirty thousand,
there's thirty thousand members. Okay, what would happen if we
gave every member one thousand, six hundred and sixty six
dollars and you have to use it to grow the game?
(27:28):
Huh h? How much in schools are we doing? How
many junior golf programs get built, how many underserved populations
get built? How many more programs can we do? How
(27:58):
many junior league teams can be funded? But but why
would we do that? We're supposed to grow the game, right,
That's what that thing said. That's what that's that thing
the mission statement said, grow the game. What happened? We
(28:20):
lost our way is what happened. We spent an enorma
amount of money and redoing our logo we went away
from the traditional crested logo to this, I don't know.
I call it Jetson looking Jetson's looking thing. But but
but and I'm not blaming anybody, Actually I am, but
(28:44):
I'm not going to blame them on on the radio.
But I'm not blaming anybody. But let me ask you something.
How in the world do we not look around and go, Okay,
we lost our way? You know, what's that thing talk
that kittens lost their mittens and and that we lost
our way and we all have to come back to
the campfire. Why can't we do that? Why can't we
(29:10):
do that? You know? Why why can't we Why can't
we offer education programs for free? Why can't we? Oh wait,
we could. We just have to restructure our entity. This
(29:33):
is like plain at day to May, there would never
be an unfunded Hope Pja Hill program. And oh, by
the way, I've been around them, around and around with
you people about why that's important. Veterans do themselves harm
and an alarming amount of rate, an alarming rate. And
if one golf program can save one of them, why
(29:56):
wouldn't it be Why wouldn't it be Why wouldn't it
be a good thing. I just don't understand. And if
you can't run the program to grow the game, then
(30:17):
you don't get the money. And we talk about our
you know, the PGA of America as a headquarters always
talks about you know, professionals income and got to maintain
income and this and that. Okay, why why why are
you making us pay for education? Then you're hurting our income.
(30:40):
You know, this whole playing thing that makes no sense
to me because if I played eighteen events and made
seven thousand dollars in twenty twenty four, I probably paid
four or five thousand dollars in entry fees and lost
just because it wasn't at home. It wasn't back in
(31:02):
my place teaching or running a grow the Game program.
And that's a choice you can make. If you don't
want that money, you don't run the program. But at
the same time, PGA of America should give you the
opportunity to make that dang choice. But no, we're gonna
(31:22):
talk down to rich Conwell when we get people on
the phone, and we're not going to return phone calls
to other members that I know they haven't returned phone
calls to because that's the way We've always done it.
That's called ego. And I'm smarter than you, and I
think the change is coming and I want to be
(31:42):
part of the change because I love the PGA of America.
I think you could do so much. All you do
is look on TV and see how things are crooked
in this country. And I'm not saying golf is the
golf is the alix or the magic elixir, but healthy
(32:04):
activities might be. So I will keep you posted on
those changes that are coming. And it may require me
to fly to Texas, and you know, I might be
I don't know, but I'll keep you posting. This is
the Rich Combo Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich
(32:24):
Combo Golf Show. I wanted to spend the last segment
with you this week as I wrap up very quickly
of the first two segments number when I talked with
the Ryder Cup, and I think it's I think, what's
what the matter? What what the issue with the Ryder
Cup is is is morphed away from pure competition and
we're going to start to pay people now and it's
(32:46):
just going to change it to be like everything else,
to like everything else, and that bothers me greatly, not
nearly as much as what bothers people are going on
with what's going on with the PGA of America, because
is I believe that they are? They are. I know
they're listed as a nonprofit and they're acting as if
they are. They're acting as if they're nonprofit, but they
(33:11):
have high, high, high amounts of income, and they have
incredible amounts of opportunity to grow the game and improve
the association. I think we're burying our head in the
sand the hope and nobody notices. But we'll get into
that in a different on a different day. Well, actually
we'll continue to get into that in future days. So
(33:34):
last segment I want to talk about. You know, I've
been very fortunate to have great guests on the show.
I really have. I've had what is believed to be
the best golf professional ever in Bob Ford. I've had
people that one on the PGA Tour, one on the
(33:57):
LPGA Tour, play us amateurs, just incredible, incredible professionals, incredibly
accomplished people, some that will never receive national awareness or
national notoriety, some already have, some will. But I was
(34:20):
reading my PGA magazine one day and I sent an
email to a person and I said, I asked him
if he would come on my show. He wrote back
to me and he said, thank you for thinking of me.
This is excerpts Now I have received quite a bit
(34:47):
of attention because of my health issues and a terminal
cancer diagnosis. And he went on to explain to me
that he tries to play golf every day and he's
an unbelievably good player, unbelieve a good teacher. I don't
believe be proud of being a PGA member, faced with
(35:13):
the rest of his life in a feeding tube, and
he got to chemote therapy and ment head on and
things were really good. And he said, you bet, I'll
be on your show. And he came on the show,
and he talked to me about being the first PGA
(35:37):
head golf professional to graduate from Farris State University, how
proud he was, how proud he was to be from
Farris State University, how proud he was of anybody that
would recognize him, how proud he was of his accomplishments,
and the players that he taught, and the high school
players that he taught, and the college players that he taught,
(35:58):
and the guy who took the guys who took over
his academy when he retired and he wasn't feeling his
best and his accomplishments on the golf course of his
own golf clubs and being able to meet his heroes
like Dave Hill and Mike Hill who wanted the PGA
Tour and the Senior Tour, and he talked about being
(36:21):
upbeat and setting goals for himself, like I try to
walk nine holes every day. I'm trying to make it
to my next anniversary. And it impacted me greatly because
I immediately sent the interview and the show to the
(36:47):
Michigan PGA section and they sent it out to everybody
and their brother and their section and their world. And
I also sent up to Farri State University. And I
got a phone call a day after I sent at
to Ferris State University from the director of the Professional
Golf Management Program, guy named Joe Hatch, and Joe came
(37:07):
on my show and we talked about this person, and
we talked about the golf business in general, and Joe
has a healthy, healthy, healthy love for the golf business,
healthy love for the pg of America, so do I,
which is why it disappoints me so much because I
love it so much. And our love for the golf
(37:34):
business and the PGA of America pales in comparison to
the person I'm talking about, and the way he just
looked at in the eye and he used to say
to me, he says, I'm going to make it to
my next wedding anniversary, I'm going to make it to
my grandchild's birthday. And he knew the dates. Damn many days,
how many times, how many walks he was gonna take.
(37:58):
He had a great saying, I can't ford to give
up walking because maybe that's the day that that exercise
beats that cancer back. Now think about that. I mean,
that's incredible. And this is a guy who won every
(38:22):
award you could win in the PGA of America, every
one of them. I mean, he just wouldn't stop winning stuff.
He was so beloved. He was he was. He's in
the Michigan PJ Hall of Fame, He's in the State
of Michigan Hall of Fame. He is a hometown Hall
(38:47):
of Fame. The people he impacted unbelievable, and he did
it in such a way that he used to say,
you don't sure you can you know, you think you
can win an event, Sure you can. You just gotta
(39:11):
it's gotta do it. You gotta believe in yourself, you know,
because if you don't believe in yourself, who will? And
kind of full circle. I caddied in a junior Tour
(39:33):
event the other day for the young lady from from Wheeling.
Her name is Ellie West Ellie sorry. And and after
(39:54):
I caddied for her, I sent her some notes. One
of them was, you will believe you will go as
far as you believe you can. You didn't play golf
swing for fifteen holes. It was awesome. Positive self talk
(40:17):
is really important, but you have to believe it. The
person who speaks to you to speaks the loudest truth
to you is yourself. I didn't come up with those
that guest I was talking about. Did. He told me those?
(40:40):
And he impacted so many people from the moment you
walked on a fair State and before that he used
to say to me. He said to me on this show,
I never wanted to embarrass myself, but I always wanted
to make everybody around me proud of me, and he did.
(41:06):
His name was Dave Kendall. And I say was because
on September sixteenth, twenty twenty five, Dave died. Dave knew
all along that this was the end result of this.
I knew it, He knew it, his family knew it.
(41:32):
But it's interesting. This is a guy who actually said
to me in writing and said to me verbally the
day all this changes when I got a chance to
get chemotherapy. Who looks forward to chemo therapy. Dave Kendall
did because he believed that he could get better, and
he did. I used to say to him, I'd send
(41:58):
him text message or email and say, hey, listen, you
need somebody to walk with. Just call me. I'll go
be there tomorrow. He said, I'll never ask you, but
I know you would. It's people like Dave Kendall and
(42:20):
the impacts they make. He's the reason PJ professionals or heroes.
He's the reason PJ professionals how they are. We talked
to another PJ professional last week, Jim Ankowitz. He said,
PJ professionals want to help. I believe that Dave Kendall
did help, only did he want to He did help.
(42:48):
How can you how do you how do you write
something about the guy you don't He's Dave. He was dead,
And I know there are people who are way more
sad than I than I am, and they should be
(43:10):
because because they've known him for many, many, many years,
many years, and they played against him, played with them,
played for him. He was a he, he was well known.
He wasn't a hermit. He was out in front of it.
(43:34):
He had a sophageal gillial geal sophageal cancer. That's a
pretty ugly one. Couldn't eat for a while, couldn't talk.
So I just I guess maybe I look at it
(43:58):
like this. I'm sad obviously that Dave is gone. But
I'll tell you what, how glad are we that we
knew him? And I didn't know him that well. He
made a tremendous impact on me through about six or
(44:20):
seven emails, in about three or four conversations. And when
I quit hearing from this was really interesting. I quit
hearing from him about two months ago, two and a
half months ago, and I knew the cancer had turned.
I knew it was. I knew it was painful. I
found out later how painful I knew it was. It was.
(44:43):
It was let's just say it winning. It was winning
because he couldn't be his Hey, look, we can get
their self. He couldn't. So when he couldn't be himself,
he just pulled back a little bit. And I knew
(45:08):
in my heart of hearts or some logical level, I
was going to get a text from somebody that says, hey,
I want to let you know Dave died. Yeah. I
got that text. And I got that text from the
director of the professional professional golf Management program at Fair Estate.
(45:31):
And he took that that day and the next day
to tell every one of his students great Dave Kendall stories,
so those that positive impact could keep going. And I
guarantee you in heaven Dave was smiling. You know. I
(45:58):
guess maybe if you look at Dave and go, Okay,
what do you think? How was it? I had a
great life. My dad used to say that too. I
had a great life. But the cool thing about Dave,
the great thing about Dave is he made other lives great.
(46:20):
He and even now, you know, I mentioned Joe Hatch,
I mentioned myself, I mentioned other people that that knew
Dave interacted with Dave. They he will silently obviously he's
not here anymore, he will silently push them to make
other people's lives better too. Dave was one of the
(46:43):
only people you'll ever meet that wanted you to be
better than you wanted to be. If you ever grab
onto somebody like that, if you ever run into somebody
like that in your life, grab on to him, because
if they want you to be better than you want
to be, they're all in. So I wanted to take
(47:06):
a few moments, took a little longer than I thought
it would, but to just say thank you to Dave.
Because Dave made an impact on me. He's top three,
probably top ten players ever from the state of Michigan,
and he's a top five golf professional ever, and that
(47:31):
is really, really, really neat. So I wanted to take
a moment and give him his just due and memorialize
Dave Kendall a little bit, and just know that golf
in Michigan and in this country is better because and
the PGA of America is better for having people like
(47:51):
that in the in the PGA of America. So final
thing is thanks, Dave made us better and we will
continue to try to carry on your legacy. This is
the Rich Combo Golf Show.
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