Legacy and Inspiration: Honoring John Livoti, and Celebrating Special Olympian Jared Stancil

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What makes a legacy unforgettable? Join us as we pay tribute to the extraordinary life of John Livoti, whose unique character and love for golf left a profound mark on the Golfweek Amateur Tour community. We are honored to welcome Jared Beard, the tour director from Columbia, South Carolina, who brings stories of laughter and warmth, capturing John's indomitable spirit. Reminiscing about Italian restaurants and the unmistakable charm of John's New York accent, we celebrate the man who turned simple moments into cherished memories.

Our episode takes a turn towards inspiration with the remarkable journey of Jared Stancil, a Special Olympics athlete and talented golfer. Jared shares his story of perseverance, from winning eight gold medals to the supportive companionship of the community that fuels his passion for the game. His insights into overcoming challenges and savoring victories on the golf course are lessons in resilience and positivity that resonate far beyond sports. We delve into Jared's world, where determination and love for golf create a bond that transcends competition.

To honor those who embody the spirit of community and sportsmanship, we announce our exciting "National Member of the Month" and "National Member of the Year" contest. This initiative celebrates the outstanding individuals who enhance the tour environment. With reflections on camaraderie and the power of supportive relationships, we invite you to witness the lasting impact of these community members, whose contributions create a nurturing and vibrant space for both the tour and the game of golf.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chris, welcome back.
It's good to see you, bud.
Likewise, I'm glad that you'reback in the driver's seat.
Got to see all the controls youget to deal with on your end
and I'll go ahead and gladlyhand them back.
It's good to have you back,brother.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's good to be back and I'm hoping I didn't get
Wally pipped.
Wally pipped, yeah, you don'tknow about Wally pipped.
No, you don't know about WallyPitt.
No, you don't know about LouGehrig.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, I mean, I've never heard it that way.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
You know why you never heard of Wally Pitt?
Because you've heard of LouGehrig.
See, all you young people thesedays, you don't know anything.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, I'm glad I'm back and you know everybody,
just strap in.
This is going to be a veryspecial episode.
We've got a lot going on Goingto do a tribute to a tour
director, We've got a veryspecial player guest and we're
going to make an announcementabout the contest.

(01:09):
Ready to get started.
Yeah, let's go.
All right, bud, let's do it.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
Ladies and gentlemen, golf Week Amateur Tour proudly
presents Golf Week Amateur Tourproudly presents Golf Week
Amateur Tour the podcast Talkingabout all things Golf Week
Amateur Tour, includinginterviews with tour directors,
players and course professionals.
Now here are your hosts, timNewman and El Paso Las Cruces
Tour director, chris Rocha.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Chris, welcome back.
It's good to see you.
I got to tell you I'm kind ofafraid for my job.
You and Gabe did a great joblast episode, so I'm hoping I
still have a job after that.
You guys really did aphenomenal job.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
I appreciate it.
No, you will.
I know he's been waiting on thesidelines to do this and, like
I said, it seems like once ayear we end up doing it, which
is fine.
But he was super excited when Itold him we were going to do
that and asking you know, wehave a list of questions and I

(02:30):
go no, we're going to freestyleit.
You know, you got a question,just raise your hand and ask it.
And it turned out great.
I had a great time.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, that's really kind of the best way to go.
It's conversational and youknow you can touch on a lot of
different topics and you know,as I mentioned in the cold
opening, I hope everybody strapsin.
You know, this is a this, thisis going to be an episode that
we've not done before, um, andyou know we'll talk about some
things, but we, you know we'vewe've got, uh, um, we're going

(02:58):
to talk about a, a tour directorwho's passed, um, a real
special story about a golferfrom Tampa, and then we'll wrap
things up with some othermemories of John Lovote and
we're finally going to be ableto announce the competition this
year, the contest.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
We've been talking about it for a while and we
finally got the approval, andI'm excited.
It's going to be a fun one.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah.
So let's you know, Chris, Idon't know if there's a good way
to introduce this.
You know we've um over the andover the course of the tour.
You know we've lost a number ofplayers and tour directors.
It it never it.
It's never easy um, and youknow this.
You know this one, you know,for me is is also kind of
personal.

Speaker 6 (03:48):
I mean he's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
He was a good tour director, but he was.
He was a phenomenal person.
And so what I want to do now isis is bring in Jared Beard from
the from the Columbia, southCarolina tour.
There we go, because Jared tookover for John Lovote.

(04:14):
Jared, what's it been now?
Three years.
Now.
This will be my third full year.
Yes, yeah, going into his thirdyear.
John Lovote has been around for, you know, forever, long before
I came around.
I think he originally startedas a Myrtle Beach tour director.
I believe he was the upstatetour director for a while and

(04:36):
then really kind of settled intoColumbia.
And you know, I'll tell somestories about John a little bit
later.
But Jared, first off, welcometo the show.
I appreciate you coming on andtalking about John.
I know he meant a lot to thetour.
But you off, welcome to theshow.
I appreciate you coming on andtalking about John.
I know he meant a lot to thetour, but talk about your
relationship with him and whathe did up there in Columbia.

Speaker 7 (04:54):
Yeah, so I first met John in 2011 when I joined the
tour, got my first event, and hewas an older gentleman then I
think he was probably 70, youknow a little old man sitting at
the table wearing a big brimmedhat and that was, if you know
John, that was his shtick alwaysin a hat.

(05:14):
And you know, as a New Yorkerand as a younger South
Carolinian, there was definitelya difference in some of the
dynamic when we had someconversations and, you know, at
first, uh, I wouldn't sayabrasive, but he definitely had
that, uh, that New York kind oftoying to him and, um, you know,
after the first event he sat,he sat with me cause I stayed

(05:37):
the whole time and, uh, wetalked to her a good bit and, uh
, I really kind of got to knowhim and where he was from.
He started telling me storiesabout, you know, his family and
how he got here and what he did.
And, you know, by the end of myfirst event you know we were
friends already you know he hada really knack for making
friends with people and tellingstories and just, you know, just

(05:58):
being a really great outgoingguy, even though sometimes he
was a little, uh, a littleabrasive on some stuff, but uh,
if, uh, if you liked him, thenyou liked him yeah, and, and you
say that, and john, everywhere,john, when he made friends and
and he, he, he was, he was a fun, fun guy.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I can I'm not gonna be able to tell a lot of these
stories, um, because they'rethey're not necessary for public
consumption, but some of thethings that he would do or say.
I remember one of the veryfirst times that I worked with
John.
We did a combo event with I wasrunning upstate at the time and
we did a combo event withColumbia and Augusta at the

(06:41):
Patriot.
This was 2015-2016, somewherealong those lines and I didn't
know John real well at the time.
I didn't know Phil real well atthe time.
But, first off, phil Robinsonis one of my favorite people of
all time.
I mean, he was just a great guy.
John ranks way up there as well, I would say, maybe a step

(07:03):
below, but two great people andat the time I didn't know him
real well.
And they came, I came up andand the two of them were going
back and forth.
I'm like, wait a second, youcan't be saying those things to
each other.
But but but that was who they.
I mean, they were friends andthat that's just who.

Speaker 7 (07:19):
That's just who they were right uh, yeah, and you
know phil was.
I met him uh several timesthrough, uh, through the tour,
and you know he's another greatguy and you're right, when they,
those two, got together, it'slike, are y'all friends or y'all
like like y'all going back andforth and you're just giving
each other a hard time all thetime.
And you know john was real goodabout, you know, giving people
hard times, um, but you knowthat came out of a place of love

(07:42):
it absolutely did, absolutelydid.
You know, he was, you know, justas my experience.
You know, he'd call me out forlunch occasionally, especially
when we started talking about,you know, transferring the tour
and being with lunch and justsitting down and talking to him,
getting to know him even betterwith lunch and just sitting
down and talking to him, gettingto know him even even better.

(08:03):
Um, again, you know always somekind of story, uh, always, uh,
trying to be helpful with youknow, something that we could do
, moving forward, um, you know,uh, technology wasn't his strong
suit, even though he was in uhcommunications for, uh, I think,
almost all his life.
Um, but as we kind of got intothe computer age, uh, some of

(08:23):
that felt to the wayside.
So, but as we kind of got intothe computer age, some of that
felt to the wayside.
So I had to kind of help himalong a little bit and explain
some things.
But he always was motivatingand trying to get me to just be
better and be better for thetour.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I would say that you nailed it there.
Technology wasn't his thing.
We'll leave it.
Say that you know theirtechnology wasn't his thing and
we'll leave it at that Because,again, I got stories there too.
But you know, when it came downto it, he always wanted the
tour to be better.
Everything that he did wasreally aimed at making the tour

(09:02):
better, the player experiencebetter.
Was was really aimed at makingthe the tour better, the player
experience better.
Um, and you know from he waslike one of the first people
that that I went went to adifferent tour where and others
may have done it too, but he wasone of the first I saw but
always had snacks, always hadbananas, always had water,
always had you know, uh, youknow crackers or something out
for the players.

(09:23):
And he said what he told me wasyou know, if you do something
small like this, it doesn't costa lot of money, but that goes a
long way into the playersappreciating and wanting to come
back for the tour because it'skind of a low cost value add.

Speaker 7 (09:41):
Yeah, and you know we continue that to this day.
Yeah, and, and you know we wecontinue that to this day.
Um, and on that point, you know, uh, before the live scoring um
system, we we had scoreboardsright and so players would sit
around and, uh, you know, watchthe scores come in and be put up
on the board.
But in the meantime, you know,john would buy you know,
sometimes buy beers for theplayers and you know the players
would sit around and they'dchat and they'd tell them about

(10:03):
whatever golf stories they hadduring the day and um, you know,
just like the camaraderie andum the, the friendship and the
fellowship was was superimportant to him, you know, not,
not, uh, any, it's a value add,I guess.
But you know, I think he wantedthat and he wanted the for the
players to, all you know, betogether and and talk about
their times.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Give me a funny story , a funny appropriate story
about John that you could tellin here, just so that the
listeners who don't know.

Speaker 7 (10:43):
John could get an idea of who he really was.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
I got to think of the appropriate ones.

Speaker 7 (10:49):
So you know, he was, let's see, just in communication
.
He was talking about someadvertising stuff one day, about
you know how he was up in NewYork and kind of how he got
started and talking about hiskids and his love for baseball
when he was younger and, um, youknow he, he went straight into,

(11:10):
uh, the advertising andcommunications business right
out of uh, right out of highschool and, um, he stayed there
for forever.
He was started in new york andI think he went out, uh, mid
Midwest somewhere and then hegot a job at WIS, I believe in
the 70s, and he moved toColumbia and that's where he
stayed and I think he met his Ican't remember where he met his

(11:34):
wife, but he always told reallygreat stories about his wife and
you could tell that he really,really cared for her, especially
in the last few years.
But he always talked about hisfamily, he thought about his
nephews, he talked about his allhis sons.
Uh, he was a very, very lovingfamily person and I did meet,

(11:54):
you know, several of his familyalong the way and, uh, you could
just tell that he was a reallyhe really, it really really
meant a lot to him, likeeverybody in his life, whether
it be the players or whether itbe his family, you could really
tell that everything reallymeant something to him.
And, um, you know, I think ifwe all could, you know, do a

(12:14):
better job of of, uh, makingpeople feel appreciated, and um,
so he, I think that's what heleft on me, yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
You know, Chris, you were up at Western Straits one
year, but the year before youcame up, John called me and said
Tim, he didn't call me Tim, hecalled me Skinny is what?

Speaker 6 (12:41):
he called me.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
So let's be real and honest.
I mean he calls he callseverybody kid, right.
But if you got a nickname, thatmeans you're good, right.
So he would call me skinny, Idon't know why, um, and he said
I want to come up to whistlingstraits Straits with my son
Thomas.
I said, okay, let me know whatyou need.

(13:06):
He said well, he's not a memberand I'm going to need you to
help me out.
I said, okay, just tell mewhatever you need to do.
We'll make it work.
And so we got him in and I saidJohn, are you going to play
with him?
I think Thomas is either achamp flight or an A flight
player.
He was pretty good.
He said are you going to playwith him?

(13:28):
Do you want to play too?
He said no, all you want to dois just walk around and watch
the sun, play with somestraights.
That's all he wanted to do.
And you know, the first day upthere was Friday.
They played in the Skins gameand it was brutal, brutal cold.
I mean cold Wind was blowing.
They played at the Irish courseand John lasted, I think, two

(13:51):
or three holes and then wentinside in the bar area and we
hung out there for a little bit.
Saturday was pretty uneventful,but he walked on Sunday at
Whistlin' Straits and you couldjust feel the bond, that and the
love that John had.
Just to be there and experiencethat with his son was

(14:16):
incredible.
We went out to dinner with himFriday night after the Skins
game and it was, I say we, itwas Jen and me, and me and and
john and and thomas, and we wentto this italian place and
obviously john did all theordering.
I don't know how he knew theplace, but he knew the place, he
, he, he did, he did all theordering.

(14:38):
You know it was up there prettymuch everything is is local and
fresh and and so he wasspeaking with the chef and did
everything.
And that experience right there, you know, just getting to know
John and talk with him and hisson, there was one of my
favorite memories of him.

Speaker 7 (14:58):
Yeah, another memory from John is as a trumpet player
and as a musician.
I think one of his uh, hisgrandchildren were in band, but
john really loved, uh, reallyloved music and loved jazz and
um, and, like I said, as a as amusician myself, he would burn
me uh cds of of these thingsthat he's listening to and he

(15:20):
always this is amazing, this isand we talked about music and
stuff like that and uh, I don'tknow if many people knew that,
but he really had a deep love ofmusic and jazz and apparently
he could dance too, but I neversaw him do that.
That might have been a goodthing.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
You know he made Jen CDs and sent them to him, sent
him CDs to Jen like once a week.
I didn't know he was doing forother people too.
I thought he was just hittingon my wife.

Speaker 7 (15:49):
I got stuff I still listen to in the truck.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
That's awesome, that's awesome.
We were at and Chris, you'vedone this before.
You stayed in the house withother tour directors, right.
One year I was staying in thehouse with other tour directors,
right, and one year I wasstaying in the house with them.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
It was a bunch of us in there.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Bruce had already passed at this stage, so it was
me, john, dan was there andthere were two other people
there.
And I get home late at night andJohn's sitting on the couch and
he hadn't started calling meskinny at that point yet he said
that guy.

(16:33):
He said, kid, I need you to,need you to fix the shower for
me.
There's no water coming out ofthe shower.
I said we need a water comingout of the shower and in these
houses, with some people don'tunderstand these houses are
phenomenal and that that theshower that john was in was one
that had shower heads on bothsides, you know, a high one on

(16:54):
each side and low on each side,and john couldn't figure out how
to turn the water on.
So I go in, I turn the water on.
I mean it's, it's the one whereyou just pull the thing out.
That's all you have to do isjust pull it.
And I said, john, it's workingfine.
I said, just pull it out.
And he said, okay.

(17:15):
He goes in 10 minutes later andsays, tim, I can't get the
shower turned on.
What are you doing?
I said John, pull the littleknob out.
That's all you have to do.
And he's pulling out the wrongside.
So he's standing on the wrongside of the wall pulling the

(17:37):
thing out.
It's not working because hehits a switch.
He's thinking about turningaround and pulling out the other
.
I on, john, I mean it's, it's,it's not too hard to shower head
.
I mean it's, it's, it's aplumbing, it's things like that
that you know just were the waythe way he approached things and
the way he dealt with them.

Speaker 7 (17:55):
Was was just all john , but but funny as hell, just
funny as hell yeah, um, hedefinitely had a knack to um,
knack of telling you, uh, hisway or um, figure it out kind of
kind of deal.
Um, exactly, especiallyespecially with some of the
players.
Uh, you know, frustrating,frustrating things that happen

(18:17):
during tour events and he's, youknow, like john, just like just
get over it or get out, kind ofthing sometimes.
Uh, you know he was, he wasusually in the right, but uh,
sometimes he's he said it in ain a different way, but yeah,
that was just who he was.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Uh-huh, yeah, with the new york accent, and, and
you say abrasive, but and I getit because I'm, I'm from up that
way too, and it's, it's justhis way, it's just wait, then it
comes off.
Um, that's just who he was.
I mean no nonsense to tell youhow it is and and move on.
And he would have, he wouldtell you how and get that smirk

(18:54):
on his face.
You know, you know that smirk.
Okay, chris, how well did youknow, john?

Speaker 1 (19:01):
um, not as well as both of you, that's for sure, um
, but I think once he stoppedbeing director is when I was
slowly making my way in um.
So I met him a couple times,but not not stories that that
you all have, unfortunately.
But I do love jazz music, sothat would have been awesome to
have somebody to talk to youabout.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, I've been thinking about this just over
the last couple of days withJohn.
If we look back and I haven'tbeen with the tour as long as
actually Lyle, I think, has beenwith the tour the longest at

(19:46):
this stage Before that it wasTom Myrus who just stepped down,
and before that it was John andso forth.
And as we've grown and gotten alittle bit older, some of the
things that happened Jared, youjoined the tour in 2011.
Things are very different nowand even from the tour director

(20:07):
perspective, things were verydifferent.
We were smaller and the tourdirectors were, I wouldn't say
maybe we were a little bit moreclose-knit, but maybe because
there wasn't so many of us,there was a lot more interaction
there, which allowed us to getto know people like you know,

(20:29):
like Bruce, chris I don't knowif you ever met Bruce, put it
this way you put Bruce andLivoti in the same room.
Not only will you not have tosay a word, your stomach is
going to hurt from laughing sohard.
Not have to say a word, yourstomach is going to hurt from
laughing so hard.
And just remember one time atNational Championship this is a

(20:51):
different house and I don't know, I can't remember what was
going on, but something wasgoing on in baseball and the
talk turned to handicaps in golf, and I don't know how that
switch happened either.
Okay, but Livoni and Bruce weregoing at each other handicaps
in golf, and I don't know howthat switch happened either.
Okay, but but Livoti and andBruce were going at each other,
I mean about handicaps and, andneither one of them were right,

(21:13):
they were both wrong.
And Dennis walks in and remembernow, this is like 11 o'clock at
night on, let's just say, aFriday or Saturday night at
national championship, andeverybody knows 11 o'clock at
night on national championship,whether it's friday, saturday,
to you know whatever night we'veall had.
You know, you know a couplebeverages and dennis walks in.

(21:34):
Dennis walks in, he hears this,he tells them both to shut the
fuck up excuse me, it's probablynot and he turns and leaves and
both Lovoti and Bruce started,you know, cussed Dennis.
And then 10 seconds later theyboth start going back at each

(21:56):
other talking about handicaps.
You know so, without reallyskipping a beat, I mean fun, fun
times, times, just put that wayyeah, he was always.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
He was always a fun guy to be around and uh, again,
just just a great, great person.
Um.
You know I don't know if peopleknow this or not, but uh, he
worked with uh the, the localprison system, and it always
seemed to be a different storyum, but you know, he, he would
go into uh the prisons and umfor the, for the people who were
coming back into society, andhe would sit there and talk to

(22:28):
him.
I think he did that maybe oncea week.
Um, he was very, uh, veryinvolved with that for a while.
Um, but he was just trying togive back to back to the
community and um, in the waythat he he thought he could,
yeah, that that's a that's thankyou for saying that, because I
forgot about that.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
But yeah, he did that for a long, long time and, you
know, just trying to help thoseguys to reacclimate and, you
know, give them some advice.
You know the short Italian fromNew York, you know, but that's
how much he cared about people.
I mean, john was somebody whotruly, truly cared about other

(23:08):
people and you know you couldfeel that just from any
interaction you had with him.
Absolutely so well, jared,thanks so much for taking some
time and sharing some of yourmemories with him.
You know we're going to misshim.

Speaker 7 (23:25):
I know he's been gone from the tour for a couple of
years, but he's still beenaround, he's still been on my
ear, he's still trying to tellme what to do.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, that'll go on for a while.
That will definitely go on fora while.
All right, my friend, you guysgot anything good coming up in
Columbia?

Speaker 7 (23:44):
Yeah, tour we start our first event on the first of
the month, I think, and I'mlooking at a couple more courses
, but we got our schedule prettymuch filled out.
Hope to see everyone back.
We got some new membership.
We got some players returningthat haven't been with us in a
couple years, so that's good tosee.
Yeah, hoping to have anothersuccessful year and keep on

(24:06):
growing.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, I'm disappointed we couldn't get
Savannah Lakes back on this year.
It was a scheduling issue.
The date that we had used lastyear was taken and we only had a
couple other open dates andthose were taken as well.
So hopefully next year we canget that back on the schedule,
because I thought that eventcould turn into something pretty

(24:29):
good.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
I do want to say one thing real quick I played my
first regional events last year.
I've been on the tour for solong but never have gone and
played regional.
But I played three regionalslast year and, for anybody
watching, if you've not played aregional, go play a regional If
the one's close to you or youhave to travel.
Um, they are up, they areoutstanding, they are extremely

(24:51):
well done.
Um, I played the frip one lastyear in hilton head.
Uh, I played.
Uh, where else where we go?
Oh, sequoia, um, sequoia is afantastic golf course up in the
Smoky Mountains, if you can getout there.
And then we actually traveledout to Indiana and played French
Lake and that was just anawesome time.
All three events were fantastic.

(25:14):
So, anybody watching, if you'venot played regional, I highly
recommend it.
It is a great experience.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
That's a good point.
I remember seeing you out at.
I remember seeing you a trip upat Indiana.

Speaker 7 (25:30):
French Lake.
French Lake yeah, that's rightSaw you there.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, yeah, and again , you said a lot.
I don't even have to addanything, but thanks for doing
that and again, thanks fortaking some time with us today
and I appreciate it.
We'll talk to you soon, yeahabsolutely.

Speaker 7 (25:47):
Y'all have a great day.
Thank you everyone.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Let's take a break from the show to hear about
Strixon's ZX Mark II irons.

Speaker 8 (25:54):
A great iron set needs more than good looks.
It's got to be fast and got tobe pure, but good looks never
hurt either.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
The all zx mark ii irons from strixon tim, like you
said before, you know ourprevious guest, um, it's gonna
be a little, uh, somber momentsin this episode, but, um, I
think the stories are cool and,uh, you know, I wish I knew that
.
Um, he liked jazz as much,because I'm a huge jazz guy

(26:25):
growing up, played saxophone,jazz bands, you name it so it
would have been cool to havesomebody to be able to talk to
within the tour about that.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, you know, I knew he was into music and other
types of things because, like Isaid, he's been sending Jen CDs
probably for two or three years, you know, once a week, maybe
once a month, whatever, and alldifferent types of music and

(26:59):
things.
We're not even going to talkabout some of the they're not
safe for I about some of the notsafe for I mean, but you're
dating it by saying he wouldsend CDs.

Speaker 7 (27:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
As Jen was heading to the funeral yesterday, she said
, do we have a CD player in thecar?
And I looked at her and said,honey, we haven't had a CD
player in the car since we gotrid of the Pathfinder, and that
was like three years ago.
So, yeah, uh, john, John, I'mtelling you was was a character
and I mean I'm, I'm going tomiss him.
Uh, you know, we, wecommunicated, uh on a regular

(27:40):
basis.
You know he wasn't doing well,um, and but we, we thought that
he was, he was.
You know he wasn't doing well,um, and, but we thought we
thought that he was, he was.
You know, coming to the otherside of things and um, and to
hear, to hear what happened,it's, it's uh, it's sad um but
we've got, we've got the goodmemories.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
right, right, and and that's that's what the tour is
all about is building, you know,not just those golf friends,
but like they become family allacross the country, all across
the country, all across thecountry.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
And I said at the top of the show that this is going
to strap in because we've gotsome good ones today and we're
going to go from one Jared tothe other.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
I am so inspired.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Saba, let me introduce the kid.
I'm really inspired by our nextguest.
When Shane from the Tampa Toursent me his information, I
looked at it and I said we'vegot to have him on and his name
is Jared Stancil.
He's been on the tour.

(28:44):
This is his second year.
Let's just go ahead and bringhim in and introduce him, jared,
welcome to the show.
Bud.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
You know I'm really impressed with the things that
you've been doing.
Let's start.
How long have you been playinggolf?

Speaker 3 (29:02):
14 years.
14 years.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Longer than me.
Hey, chris, you better watch,he's gonna be able to beat you
here in a little bit, all right,all right, well, we'll save
that till the end.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
So so, jared, tell us about a little bit about the.
You know your your time withthe special olymp Olympics and
the medals that you won there.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
That's a good question.
I would say being part ofSpecial Olympics is showing
other people how to compete andhow to be a better person.
Play golf and we can show theworld.
We can try to be the.

(29:47):
They can try to learnexperience and they can put
their self and have faith initself yeah, I won, like 14,
eight gold medals.
Fourteen.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Eight gold medals.
How many gold medals?
Eight, eight oh my goodness,jerry, that's amazing.
Yeah, that's awesome.
You know the whole idea of andI'm glad you said that the whole
idea of Special Olympics, maybewhat a lot of people don't know

(30:24):
it's.
You know there's thatcompetition.
It's a lot like the tour, right, chris?
You know the competition isimportant, but it's not just
about the competition.
It's about, you know, going outthere and trying your best and
giving it everything that you'vegot and the relationships that
you're building and the skillsthat you're building and the

(30:45):
skills that you're building andall those other things combined.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
No, I mean, I agree with you.
I have a co-worker who wonsilver at this last Special
Olympics in France and hebrought that thing to the store.
Man, those are some nice medals.
Thanks, man, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
So what is it that you like about GameGolf?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
The reason why I'm going to bring this up.
I love the name Golf becauseit's kind of like my future and
I want to be a part of the golffamily and I really want to have
experience in and of myself.
I can go out there and becompetitive and I just want to

(31:35):
focus and just keep on doing mybest and never give up and just
persevere.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, and that's part of it.
So I'm sure you're better thanI am right now and you're almost
better than Chris.
But how do you handle adversityon the course?
I know this wasn't somethingthat we talked about before, but
how do you handle adversitywhen you hit a bad shot or you
miss a putt or things like that,because that's part of this as

(32:06):
well, right, yeah?

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Whatever, if you hit a bad shot, which he says pick
me up and move on and nibble.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
I tell you what Everyone needs.
To learn that Exactly.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Just put it aside, Good Chris.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
There it is.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
This is from Seattle and this one is from Orlando, my
hometown is from Orlando, myhometown, so we went back to
back and we were examined, wewere out there doing our best

(32:58):
and, like you said, just be youand just have confidence.
What I did back then wasmagnificent.
It was kind of encouraging, itinspired everyone.
In the name of Florida.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Absolutely, absolutely, you know.
So what's the best part of yourgame right now?
I?

Speaker 3 (33:21):
would say my driving.
Yeah, why do you say that?
Because I really want um tohave confidence in my driving,
because I really want to developmy skills and hit it straight
and I can get more power, getmore frames and I can be hit the

(33:44):
ball and just go out there andjust have a good time.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
There again.
Hit the ball straight and havea good time.
It's very easy to have a goodtime when you're hitting the
ball straight, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Chris, yes, yes, it's very easy when you're hitting
it straight and hitting all thegreens, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Oh man, and what part of your game are you working on
right now to try and get betterat?

Speaker 3 (34:12):
I want to work on my out and down putts and my iron
shots because I really want to,like I said before.
I just want to like when I hit,I just want to consider the
ball and I can take some deepbreaths and take my time and

(34:33):
don't rush through it.
Just be you, just be a part ofthe game you love.
I'm not going to quit the gameI love Very good.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
From my perspective.
There's no quitting golf.
No, because there's alwaysanother hole to play.
There's no quitting golf?
No, Because there's alwaysanother hole to play, there's
always another round to play,and at least you know here on
the tour you know there are somany different people that you
can play with.
Is there anybody on the tourhere that you really enjoy
playing with?

Speaker 3 (35:06):
I would say to that, I would say play with Howard,
howard, yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
He's nice too, All right.
And what flight's he in?
You're in the C flight now,right, yes.
And what flight's Howard in C Cflight?
So I mean, does he know thathe's now been highlighted on the
podcast?
We can let him know that so wecan get this out to him.

Speaker 6 (35:34):
Oh, he was a really nice guy, he was.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Awesome, okay, did you beat him?

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yes, I beat him, so let's talk about that.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
You got your first win on tour this past week,
right, yeah, yeah, and you shotat 84.
Let's go ahead and showeverybody the picture here of
that.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
That's a solid score for sea flight.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
It is so.
He shot an 82 last year, didn'tyou?
I think you shot an 82 at atournament last year in the sea
flight.
Yeah, at Plantation Palms lastyear in June, you shot an 82.
Here's the thing, Chris youshot an 82 and finished in
eighth place.

Speaker 6 (36:21):
I think that sport, though, was a little bit off
because I think it was raindelay.
There was a storm in Tampa.
Down here we had summer storms.
I think that was only for 16holes, ok, well.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
I mean, that's still not not bad.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
I mean, 82 is like 7 holes for me.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
I mean so, jared, let me ask you this with that
trophy, have you used it as aglass to drink out of?

Speaker 3 (36:48):
yeah, I mean, it's a glass to drink out of.
Yeah.
I mean it's a shit thing.
I don't drink, but.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
I don't drink beer or wine, I don't do that I'm not a
drinker.
But you could do soda in there,you could do water I mean I
don't drink either, right, and Imean we used it for a couple of
Occasions.
Yeah, just to show off whenArizona guys are around, things
like that.
Yeah, like my mom, for exampletoo, you gotta tell the guys.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
When they announced that he won over the weekend.
You gotta tell them what.
The most important thing youtold Shane was what are you
gonna do with the win?
I said I would save it for myhoneymoon.
You told Shane was what are yougoing to do with the?

Speaker 3 (37:31):
wedding I said I would save it for my honeymoon,
whoa.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Do you have a girl lined?

Speaker 3 (37:40):
up already.
Yeah, because I have agirlfriend.
I've been with her for sixmonths now.
There you go, and I think myrelationship with her is doing
awesome and I think she's theone for me.
I just want to put her in theuniverse I just love.
She's inspiring by people,she's kind, supportive, and I
just want to keep on loving.

(38:01):
That's the most important part.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, you know and I'm glad you say that, because
Chris and I talk a lot about ourwives and how we can't do what
we do without them and theirsupport, and it's always good to
have somebody in your cornerlike that, you know, because we
can't do everything by ourselves, and you know the support that

(38:28):
comes from our family and thepeople that we love.
It's also good to be able tocelebrate these high points with
them as well.
Now let me just give you alittle piece of advice.
I don't know if your mom'slistening.
So when you have winnings likethis you know I'm not saying

(38:48):
that you don't tell the truth topeople have winnings like this,
you know, I'm not saying thatyou don't tell the truth to
people, but you know you makesure that you keep some of that,
you know, some of that cash inyour side pocket.
You know, you know, for ever,ever, in case you just need, you
need.
You need some extra skin money,right, or have passion, passion
, absolutely, absolutely,absolutely.
See, that's awesome.

(39:14):
So you won the playoff.
Tell us about the playoff andkind of how you felt going into
that.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
I didn't know I was going to win part of the action,
because that's what tells me isI just want to be a part of,
like the golf and be morecompetitive.
I just want to surround theuniverse because I just love

(40:07):
playing golf, because winningthis playoffs, I will say, if I
still want a 10, I will returnon this one, because what I did
was magnificent.
I didn't give up and I did mybest and that's what matters.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
You're absolutely right.
Whether you win or lose, you goout there and you do your best,
and it's always good to win.
But winning a playoff is also alittle bit special too, because
it's kind of like match playit's do or die and it's just you
against maybe one or two otherpeople at that point, Chris.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I agree.
Yeah, no, I've been in manyplayoffs in my golf week career
and I remember my first one.
It was nerve-wracking, but onceyou get that first victory in a
playoff, it's a lot of weightoff your shoulders.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
I agree with you on that one, because when I see
professionals on TV and they'rein a playoff, they just tap it
in, they're excited, they talkabout it, they just spread and
be the moment, just be thenicest golfer you can be.
That's what the world wants.

(41:27):
What the world wants is we haveto show ourselves what we can
do, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
And dancing too.
Now I'll tell you my mostnerve-wracking playoff was at
Nationals for the Directors' Cup, having 30 directors watching
the green to see what's going tohappen and cheering.
Yeah, you know, when youthree-put, going to happen and
cheering.
And yeah you know, when youthree put to win it's always
great, but it's embarrassingwhen it's in front of everybody,
Right?

Speaker 2 (41:59):
I thought.
I thought you're going to sayit was most nerve wracking
because I was telling you tohurry up.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
That too, I mean, you were, you were pressuring me,
we had to get the podcast.
I was just like let's get thisover with.
But that's one that I'llremember because I you know,
when you have people watchingand that's great being a
director, because we get to pickthe hole that they go to
playoffs and usually it's 18.
So they have to come back tothe clubhouse and guys go and
watch and it's a good time or goon the range and practice

(42:26):
whoever wins or whoever theylose.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
They have to be a good sportsmanship.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Then show gratitude and have growth you know, I
think that's one one thing aboutabout golf.
You know the majority of people, especially on the tour, you
know sportsmanship is not reallyan issue because I mean, we're
all, we're all cheering eachother on, we all want each other
to do well.
It's not a, you know, it's nota cutthroat.

(42:58):
You know I want you to do bad.
Everybody wants everybody toplay well and everybody's very
encouraging.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
I agree.
And having courage, just havingcourage to put yourself out
there and be a good citizen andadapt all the time and be the
best person or golfer you can be, just having that attitude is
hard.
Having Dancer Young Star justlike this, this win I had was

(43:32):
kind of inspiring to people.
That's what I'll say to this,because deep down inside they
just always want to be a bigpart of the Golf Week family.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah and you are and you know, um, when, when shane
sent, sent your information tome.
This is before you even evengot that win and you know.
So that should tell yousomething that that shane really
, uh, appreciate you being apart of the tour and loves
having you, and I'm sure therest of the guys feel the same

(44:10):
way.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, I agree.
I just can't imagine thisbecause I can't believe we have
a God who makes people and wejust want to have life and have
a good attitude and have likethe best sense of humor and the

(44:33):
good, a good example foreveryone and they know who
actually they are well and hey.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
Another thing too, guys, I'll add, is the guys out
there on the tour have been verywelcoming to jared and like you
said tour have been verywelcoming to jared and, like he
said, everybody's kind ofrooting them on and you know,
yeah, it it's been a great,great uh thing for jared to
participate in.
You know we were looking forsome competitivists, you know,

(45:01):
to keep them fresh intournaments he's playing some
high school golf and that's, butthat's only in the fall.
So the guys out there have beengreat with them that's.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
That's really really good to hear.
And and um, chad I, I would bereally upset if it was, if you,
if you had said the opposite ofthat.
Um, I mean, there's you whatyou know.
We you know chris and I talk alot about how inclusive golf is

(45:32):
and how we need to make surethat we are including everybody.
That goes from having femalesand kids, and anybody who wants
to play is welcome here, andwe've got a spot for everybody.
And it's the one or two timesthat I've had to say something

(45:54):
to people about.
You know, you need to cut itout and leave some people alone.
Once they realize what they'redoing, they feel bad about it
and that's just not who we areas a tour.

Speaker 6 (46:09):
Right about it and and it's, that's just not not
who we are as a tour.
Right, and you know anotherthing that happened over the
weekend when um, a gentleman andhis name's there and I don't
know his last name, but he cameup to jared after the round and
um, he was just you could tellhe was inspired by jared because
he said you know, I worked inspecial education for 25 years
and he gave Jared a hat and he'slike you know, my wife worked

(46:35):
with special ed kids for like 39years.
So you know, it's those momentsthat you see, when you know
Jared touches people and I don'teven think he realizes it, but
it's just special when thathappens.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
It really is and again, that's so good to hear.
It's hard to explain to peopleabout what the tour is until
they've experienced it like that, about what the tour is, until
they've experienced it like that.
You know, because you talk topeople and they think it's one
thing and that's why I think ifyou can get people to come to

(47:17):
one tour, they're going to comeback because they see how the
tour is, they see how the touris run, they see how people are
accepted.
And you know we've got peoplefrom all walks of life on tour
From a few years ago.
We had a 12-year-old win thenational championship.

(47:39):
We've had females win thenational championship, we've had
people qualify for US SeniorOpens and USGA events and now
Jared with uh, with his win andwinning special uh, winning gold
medals for special Olympics Imean that shows that to me that
the tour is.

(48:00):
It's what makes a tour what itis.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Completely agree.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
So, Jared, what one more question before we let you
go?
Um, what's your?

Speaker 3 (48:14):
favorite course to play on.
I got two favorite courses.
I would say we've run golfnight.
And the second one is um sarahnoah from a paper pva journey.
Those are two of my favoritecourses.
Are they both in Florida?
Yeah, they are.

(48:34):
When's your next tournament?
I would say River Runs betterbecause I want to be with my dad
, because he is fired toward me,because I want to keep on
loving my game, just want tokeep on showing the course how

(48:57):
it's meant to play and be onethankful person on earth.
I will say this just havingDastydom is hard.
Because I love playing golf,because my relationship with
golf, I want to take it easy andbe a part of it because I would

(49:22):
run, I'm like a family to them,because they know what they
want from me and they take goodcare of me.
They know what they want fromme and they take good care of me
and I just want to be with mydad because he is a nice father
and husband and a good tally andgolfer and I just want to keep
on doing it.
And once I said I want to be apart of the community and have

(49:47):
live experience and have liveskills.
Well, jared, we love having youpart of our community and have
live experience and have liveskills.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Jared, we love having you part of our community, part
of the Golf Week family.
And, Chris, I think that's theperfect way to wrap it up For
sure.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
I completely agree.
You know, if we make it out toFlorida, I'm going to have to
meet you you know, person toperson, because it's very
inspiring to talk to you today.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Jared, thank you so much for spending some time with
us.
I love your story and we'lltalk to you soon.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Let's take a break from theshow to hear about Strixon's ZX
Mark II drivers.

Speaker 8 (50:28):
ZX Mark II drivers are for major players, major
winners, major power.
All new ZX Mark II drivers Onlyfrom Strixon.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Tim, you know, having a conversation with Jared, I
know he's been in the works fora while, but to actually see the
news report that you sent meand talk to him, um, it's
inspirational, honestly, and uh,it's just like you said, it's
crazy how uh people with specialneeds, how much love they have

(51:08):
for other people in thesituation they're in.
If everybody in the world couldjust take 10%, like you said, I
mean it would be so much easierand I mean I'd like to play a
round of golf with him.
That'd be fun.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
How about that?
You know it's so inspirationalto see somebody like that, you
know, to see somebody with themental handicap that he has to

(51:45):
have his priorities the way thatthey are, to be happy and
smiling.
By the way, it cracked me upwhat he said he was going to do
with his weddings.
I swear, I swear.
I thought he said he was goingto give it to his dad.
I thought that was going tocome out of his mouth.
He shocked me with that.
But good for him, good for him.
So hopefully he learns to takea couple shekels and, you know,

(52:09):
put it in the right pocket rightright, you know what I'm saying
, but, um, it is veryinspirational, so happy for him.
And in between the time that wedid the the interview with him,
uh, shane sent me a text okay,and I'm not gonna read the whole
thing, um, but it has to dowith Dr Howard, the guy that he

(52:35):
beat in the playoff, and Shanesaid he didn't know anything
about the hat, but he said thatHoward says all he has left is
his Wilson staff hat, but hewants to play with Jared again.
Yeah, that's what we've beentalking about for forever and I

(52:57):
think that he is the epitome ofwhat we're looking for in a tour
member Somebody who loves golf,loves a tour, loves people, is
encouraging other people, wantsto get better, wants to have a
good time, wants to competition,is happy to be out there, all

(53:18):
those things Win or lose, win orlose.
He didn't even understand whatI was talking about.
When he hits a bad shot, youknow about getting upset, right?
So I'm the guy putting negativethoughts in his head.
He's just like it is what it is.
Move on to the next hole, let'sgo, okay.

(53:39):
Oh, my God, yeah, I'm so happyfor him, so proud of him, and
you know and Shane, this is foryou, because I do know that you
listen Thank you so much forsending that to our attention,
because, again, those are thetypes of things that we really
do like to to highlight and,chris, that kind of leads us
into the competition.
Now the contest yeah it does.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
I mean we've we've been brewing on it for a while
and and I'm excited to to getthis announced because it's
going to be fun this year Me too.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
And God's honest truth.
God's honest truth.
We've been working on this fora little over two months and it
just so happens that we got thisconversation with Jared, so we
didn't plan it like this right,did not plan it like this.
But this is, you know, we'vebeen working on it and trying to

(54:29):
make sure that we get it right,and so here's the deal.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Well, first off, let's put it this way, the
shirts last year were great tosee.
It was, they were great to seeand you and me learned a lot
with having our first contest.
Yes, A lot, a lot.
So, um understand, you know, aswe, when we wanted to do part
two of the of the contest, um,we took a lot of the uh ups and

(55:00):
downs of feedback that we gotfrom everybody, especially at
national office or nationalchampionship, Um, and I think we
we landed on a solid idea thisyear.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
And and it kind of goes along with what we just
talked about what are we lookingfor in our tour members?
So here it is.
I think it's going to be a lotof fun and I think it's going to
be a game changer for the touras we start to really think

(55:32):
about our members and what wevalue, because we talk about
this a lot, but how often do weactually highlight some of these
things?
We do, you know, I think localtour directors do a really good
job of highlighting it locally,locally correct.

(55:52):
So, tour directors, I think wedo a great job of highlighting
it locally.
I think we need to take anotherstep.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
And so here it is.
So we're going to have acontest to be the national
member of the month and we willhave a national member of the
year.
So with 6,000 members, let'sthink about how we can go about
doing that.
And this is going to be theprocess.

(56:22):
So each tour director, you haveto submit at least one member
as a nomination for the nationalmember of the Month contest
during the year.
So this is what that means youdon't have to submit somebody
every month, but you have tosubmit at least one person
between now and August.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
And that's 50 plus tourists and that's 50 plus
torches.
So it's going to be goodcompetition, but, at the same
time, these are the people thatwe want to highlight, because
they are what we've been talkingabout with the torches.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
And so here's the criteria, and this is just
somewhat of a list.
So you're going to submit thename and you're going to tell
you know, give the idea why thisperson should be member of the
month or member of the year.
Right, it's really simple.
No-transcript, yeah, shamelessplug, yeah.

(57:57):
Are they listening to thepodcast.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
I mean, we're doing the contest, why not?

Speaker 2 (58:04):
So those are the things that you should be
looking for and that we'relooking for that you should be
looking for and that we'relooking for.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Yeah, I agree, it's everything that you know.
As we're setting up fortournaments or tearing down or
things like that, it's thosemembers that offer you know, hey
, do you need help with theflags?
Or you know, hey, you did agreat job.
You know, I'm bringing threeguys next week.
Or, hey, I've talked to my 10friends that play every
Wednesday at 2 pm.

(58:33):
It's those guys that we want tohighlight, Not saying that
they're better than everybodyelse, but we want to give them
the recognition that theyprobably don't think they
deserve but they should have,Right, right.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
And I think they deserve.
But they should have Right,right, you know, and I think
about this, and let's just takeLivoti as a for example, when we
made the switch to go toelectronic scoring and doing
some of those other things, hehad a tour member step up and
help him and help him create thenewsletters, help him run the

(59:14):
live scoring and you know where.
Obviously, you know theelectronic stuff wasn't John's
thing.
But you know, without a tourmember stepping up and doing
that, you know, think aboutwhere Columbia would be from
that perspective.
So those are the types ofthings that we're looking for,

(59:35):
right, right, right.
Now, some limitations this iswhere we kind of got caught up
last year.
Right, we didn't really thinksome of the limitations through
Alright Limitations fornomination would be that it's
not open for any tour directorand official assistant spouse on

(59:55):
the contract for any person ormember that helps tour director
in exchange for some type ofcompensation, money, re-entry
into events, etc.
Right, right.

(01:00:15):
So these, so I mean it's one ofthe reasons for that is because
we, we want, want people to um,truly be doing this for the
good of the tour and not thathelping for compensation isn't
for the good of the tour, um,but we want to make sure that
it's.
It's um, it's what I'm lookingfor, just heartfelt, yeah,
heartfelt and member-generated.

(01:00:37):
So just kind of keep that inmind, okay.
So what you'll do tourdirectors and we're going to get
all this information out totour directors and get it posted
for the members so that theysee what's going on.
Basically, what will happen isthe tour directors will send us
their nominations no later thanthe fifth of the next month.

(01:00:59):
So by March 5th we'll have thefirst nominations come through
and, chris, I think I may makeyou know I may.
Maybe we should talk about thisbefore I say it may make an
executive decision.
We'll talk about it offline.
We'll talk about it offlinebefore we do that, okay, because
I don't want to cause too muchruckus on announcement day.

(01:01:26):
So the first nominations will bedue to us by February excuse me
by March 5th.
You and I will collect them,we'll collate them, we'll keep
track of who's submitting them,all right, and then what we're
going to do is we're going totake the names off Of
nominations and we're going topass them off to Dennis, and

(01:01:47):
Dennis is going to look at it,and Dennis is going to choose at
it, and Dennis is going tochoose blind no information, no
knowledge of it once Dennispicks the monthly winner, we'll
make arrangements to bring thatperson on an episode of the

(01:02:10):
podcast, congratulate them, givethem some recognition and go on
from there.
All right, so we will have eightwinners, like we did last year.

Speaker 6 (01:02:20):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
This is why I'm talking about the executive
decision here.
So we'll have one for eachmonth, january to August, all
right.
So I have one for each month,january to August, all right.
And I think we're still talkingabout how we're going to choose
the final eight.
You know, I still maybe want todo the the poll, but maybe do
some restrictions on that.
Let's talk about how we'regoing to do that a little bit

(01:02:45):
later.
And and do this with um withthe winner, the national member
of the year gets free entry intointernational championship I
agree it's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
It brings everybody into the competition because
we're asking all tour directorsto submit at least one person.
I know there's at least oneperson in your tour that you can
nominate.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
And you can nominate somebody each month.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Right.
You're not limited to one.
There's no limit of how many,but at least one, because we
want to recognize all the toursout there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
So start thinking about it, Tour members.
I mean, it's February now, andso tours are starting to pick up
with tournaments.
I've already gone through twoof them.
We'll get back to you, don'tyou get mad at me?
No, I'm not mad at you.

(01:03:53):
I'm not mad at you.
I'm happy for you, but we don'thave time to really get into it
today.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
That's what it is.
Pause.
You're right, we have a busyshow this episode, but next time
we come back maybe I'll have myfirst win in A-Flight Maybe, I
hope so.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
But you know, we just had the senior icebreaker this
past weekend and we're off tothe races, man.
Yeah, we are, it's really goingto start picking up and get
going.
So it was good seeing you.
I'm sorry I missed you, but butagain you know you gave did a

(01:04:38):
really good job.
I, I, you know I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
I appreciate it and I , I would say, I'll tell him
that.
But he better be listening sohe can hear it himself.
And if he doesn't hear it,that's on him, that's on him.

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
Well, you know, as I was editing, I was, I was being
real nitpicky.
I said, well, he should havesaid this here, it should have
said that there.
That's not true, that's nottrue.
Uh, but you, you, seriously,you guys did a really good job,
roger, phenomenal job.
I don't know if you did.
You see the text I sent.
I don't know if I sent it toyou.

(01:05:13):
It had to have been a spoof.
The guy was carrying a tapemeasure in his bag.
Hit the ball.
No, I saw that.
Yeah, I saw that.
I kind of laughed.
Roger didn't reply.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
I mean the guy's thinking out of the box there.
Yeah, can't blame him on that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
But yeah, anyway, my friend, let's go ahead and wrap
this up and roll into somethoughts from tour directors on
our good friend John LaVerti.
Chris, this segment here we'rejust going to hopefully talk to

(01:05:54):
some tour directors from aroundthe country.
You know, giving tribute to, toJohn Livoti, the, the former
Columbia tour director.
You know, like we talked withJared Beard.
You know we had to, we had twoJareds on this, this episode,
but as you know, we we talked toJared Beard earlier.
You know, in the first segment.
You know, everywhere John went,he made friends.

Speaker 6 (01:06:18):
And it's.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
And again, you know, since we're still recording here
, I still can't give all of thestories that I know and some of
the things he would say, but hewas a funny, funny man yeah, I
mean it seems like it just fromhearing you know, being the
outside party of the storiesthat you and Jerry were talking

(01:06:44):
about.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
But I mean that's, would you agree or not, that's
99% of the members on the tour,though that can crack a joke and
not take it serious and have agood time.
I mean, at least from myexperience meeting people you
know, and, yeah, I think when hewas starting to make his way

(01:07:10):
out, I was a new director, sonot as outgoing as I am now, you
know, on the podcast andeverything.
So, um, I've probably seen himaround, but uh, it's one of
those that you just hate to tolose somebody, especially
somebody in in in the littlecircle of tour directors that

(01:07:31):
there is, because at some point,you know, within their tenure
as tour director, they've metyou in one way or another,
whether it's through an email ordirector's meeting or you name
it now.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
And just as we get going on this, my, my
grandchildren just tried tofacetime me, so I gotta tell
them I'm I'm busy don't get over.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
It's like, it's like clockwork with them, isn't it it
?
It is, it is.
You know.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Interviews when it's time forgrandchildren, facetime?
I know, I know, but she sent mea video.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
My four-year-old granddaughter went to the
refrigerator, got the milk jugout, started drinking from the
milk jug.
I was like I'm drinking fromthis cup because I'm allowed to,
and then put it right here.
It's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
She didn't learn that from me.
That's impressive that she canhold up a gallon of milk and not
spill it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
Well, it was almost empty, but you know, that's like
.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
That reminds me of my little one who took the whole
loaf of bread and startedrunning away while eating pieces
out of it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Very nice, very, very nice.
So let me read what Denniswrote about John.
John, the Italian stallion tourdirector, forget about it was
one of the few favorite sayingshe always used, but nothing

(01:09:16):
could be further from the truth.
John was a very caring andgiving man who did so much for
both of his tours in Columbiaand Myrtle Beach.
He taught some of my best tourdirectors the ropes and made all
our players feel special forthat day on the golf course.
He will be truly missed, aswell as infectious smile.
I'm fortunate to have known himand can call him a true friend.

(01:09:37):
Rest in peace, john.
And that's from, that's fromDennis.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
Some big words.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
the Italian stallion yeah, oh, john, I mean he, like,
like I said earlier, yeah, oh,john, I mean he, like, like I
said earlier, you know he called, he called everybody kid and
again, you knew you made it.
If he had a nickname for you,uh-huh, I was skinny, that's

(01:10:09):
what he called me, skinny.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
I know, I know I'm never living that one down for
you see it is what it is.
We laughed about it yeah, Ilaughed about it too when I
heard it that's what we do.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
That's what we do.
That's what we do.
Jen said that there was onefrom Ed, early too, but I don't
see that one, so hopefullyshe'll send that.
One of the first times I metJohn was at National

(01:10:54):
Championship back when it was.
Were you still coming when wedid the first day over at?
Looks like we got somebody in,maybe the where Over at Palmetto
Hall the first day over atlooks like we got somebody in,
maybe over at Palmetto Hall,palmetto Hall over at Barony?

(01:11:22):
oh my gosh, why can't I rememberthis?
We did the skins game and thefirst first round over scoring
over at Port Royal Plantation.
Yeah, so the tour director'sdinner used to be on Thursday

(01:11:45):
after the Skins game, and so myfirst year as tour director I
was was there at the skins game,played in the skins game, and
from there we went over to, uh,the house was on, um, it was in
Palmetto dunes, the huge house,and uh, I needed a ride over,

(01:12:05):
and I took the ride over, whichI.
That was the first time I methim, nice, this was 16, about 16
years ago, and I was thinkingthat, you know, I probably
shouldn't have gotten in the carwith him.
This was 16 years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
No, it was safer then .

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
Yeah, yeah, so that was fun.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
No, I don't remember that.
I just I started when they werehaving it at their house, the
director's meeting, and then wemoved it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Well, when it was over, at those first few years,
there weren't a whole lot oftour directors.
Well, there was a lot, butweren't a whole lot of tour
directors?
Well, I was, there was a lot,but not nearly as many as there
are now.
And, um, it was in a big house.

(01:13:20):
The house was pretty huge.
Uh, it had an elevator in it.
It had, um it it it had like atheater seating.
It was, I mean, probably one ofthe nicest things, nice houses

(01:13:44):
I've seen, but obviously weoutgrew it.
I can believe that here she is,there we go, there, we go.

(01:14:05):
Alright, how are you?
I'm fine so what do you got?

Speaker 4 (01:14:13):
alright.
So the first thing that I'llsay is that I went to the
service and as soon as I openedup the door to go in, I
literally laughed out loud,because I opened up the door to
go to the funeral service andall you heard were people

(01:14:34):
laughing.
Were people laughing?
It was filled.
The room was filled with Idon't know, probably a couple
hundred people all standingaround talking, joking around
and kind of sharing storiesabout Livoti.
So I thought it was veryfitting.
What I wanted to say is andthere's so much to say, but I

(01:14:58):
thought I'd share If you take alook here, I've got all of these
.
I mean, I've got all these CDs.
I've got three, four more thatLivoti made for me.
He said, hey, hey, kid, you'rein the car a lot.
Do you ever listen to music?
And I said, yeah, I'm in thecar driving all the time I

(01:15:19):
listen.
He's like what do you like tolisten to?
I said I don't know.
It just kind of depends.
And if you didn't know this,john was a huge music fan and he
listened.
He loved jazz, and so westarted talking about jazz and
then he would talk about othermusic and each one of these cds

(01:15:42):
has a personal list typed up ofwhat's on it.
He would give me littlestickies to go with it.
I got a typed up letter, youknow, for the first one says Jen
, here are a couple of CDs foryou.
I was trying to get the bigband guys.
Then I found out I don't havetwo of them.

(01:16:02):
Benny Goodman CD I know I had.
His band was the first jazzgroup to play Carnegie Hall and
it was in 1938.
So John would always tell youstories.
He'd give you all sorts ofinformation you know.
So he's going on and on sortsof information you know.
So he's going on and on.
And then he says to me uh, youknow, anybody who knows john

(01:16:22):
knows that he would say thingsthat weren't always appropriate.
He didn't mean anything by it.
That never meant anything by it.
So he would call me his jewgirl because I'm jewish.
And so in this letter I kid younot, this is what it says.
Um other guy was Artie Shaw.
What I realized was that all ofthem were Jewish.

(01:16:43):
So I figured I would puttogether an all Jewish CD for
you.
So he sends that to me.
And then you know we're talking.
And uh, he even threw in one ofmy all time favorites.
He knew I, like I'm a huge ZachBrown fan.
So he sent me a Zach Brown songmixed in.

(01:17:05):
One of his sons, at the funeral,said that you know he always
had this love of music.
And so what would happen ishe'd say to his kids and his
grandkids I discovered a newmusician.
And they'd laugh and say who'dyou discover, dad?
He'd say, have you ever heardof Eric Clapton?
And they'd all laugh.

(01:17:25):
So I'm looking over my list andI have in the music that he
sent me.
I've got Adele, I've got VanMorrison, I've got Eric Clapton,
I've got the big jazz bands,I've got Michael Bublé, I've got
anything you can think of trulyall in these CDs that he made
for me.
So he was just such a specialman, such a place in my heart.

(01:17:51):
And for those of you who wouldsee him on the golf course and
you'd always see him in adifferent hat it hit me at the
end of the service as his 10grandchildren were walking out
Almost every one of them waseither wearing or carrying one
of his hats.

(01:18:12):
That's cool, it was it it waswhat's your?
Special man.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
What's your favorite memory of John?
I mean, I know you've got a tonof them, but when you came down
, I think it was in 2018 or 2019, that's when you about my
interactions with he and Philand how close they were and some

(01:18:37):
of the funny things that theywould do, but you really didn't
start interacting with him a lotuntil 2018, 2019.
So what?

Speaker 4 (01:18:46):
are some of your favorite memories of him.
Well, for me it was when we'dsit down at national
championships and you know,people don't all the the after
hours work that we do and uh, Iwas like one of my favorites was
we were in one of the housesthat uh dennis got where tour

(01:19:08):
directors who were helping werestaying, and so I'm in there and
it was the year that we did uh,we sold shirts and stuff at the
national championship so we hadto inventory them and uh lavodi
was helping me because he had abackground in in sales and he
kind of he knew so much abouteverything.

(01:19:30):
And it was late at night and wewere just sitting and talking.
So he told me about his familygrowing up in New York.
He was really smart.
He skipped a grade, if I'm notmistaken, in school and was in
like the gifted and talentedclasses, and so he would tell me

(01:19:54):
stories, of course, would sayhow he had lots of Jewish
friends because they were inthat class, because they were
all smart, and so it was reallyjust sitting and talking.
We talked about history, talkedabout life, talked about what
it was like growing up, abouthow important family was, you
know, telling stories about hiskids, talking just about his

(01:20:19):
experiences Over the years.
He would come to me with ideasabout the tour and he would say
you know, dennis is a prettysmart guy, he created this whole
thing.
He said maybe he should thinkabout this and he would kind of
throw something out there.
You'd have to look at him andsay you know, that's a really
good idea and would share it.

(01:20:39):
So it was those kinds ofconversations, it's that you
know, we'd go to a tournamentand he'd talk to people and he
had a guy for everything.
He'd start talking.
He'd say I got a guy for thatand he'd say let me introduce
you to so-and-so, and it wasjust his just being around him.

(01:21:05):
And then I would always laughbecause it would be like the
chain letters or you knowsomething like that that you'd
get.
But he started to really send meinformation, like he would do

(01:21:25):
research on topics that hethought I would be interested in
and send it to me.
So when I when I heard thatthat he died, I went and I
looked and the last email that Ihad was from in December and I
pulled it up and he said this isawesome and he sent me a whole

(01:21:47):
magic thing.
It was a show with Penn andTeller and I don't remember who
else, and it was all.
It was a magician and doingcard tricks.
So I have a treasure chest ofemails from levote with little
comments like oh, you got toread this.
Can't believe what are theydoing.
You know political stuff.

(01:22:08):
This is crazy, whatever it is.
But he had sent me all kinds ofof things just because he
thought I'd be interested in it,because it was something we had
in common, because he cared.
And that's just who John was.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
So it was.
Yeah, you know, jen, I don'tknow if I ever told you this
story, but the first year thatthat I went to the masters, you
know Dennis had was lucky enoughfor time to be able to get
tickets and he would, he wouldget them out, and so I got
tickets probably, actually, Ithink I got tickets the last
year that he was able to getthem and, uh, me and my friend,

(01:22:45):
we stayed in a hotel inorangeburg, um, on wednesday we
get.
We were going on thursday, youknow, for the first first round,
and so wednesday I'm in the, inthe hotel and I'm in the
fitness center.
Yeah, chris, I used to work outRight and I was doing the
Stairmaster and I'm listening toSirius XM, Golf Channel Radio,

(01:23:12):
whatever it was called, and Ihear John's voice and I hear
John's voice.
John had called in to the, tothe uh and and and is talking on
on to, to the announcers, on onon golf channel radio or
whatever you know, talking aboutsomething golf related, and he

(01:23:33):
was.
He was criticizing somethingthat that the, that the uh, uh
announcer had said and had saidand was wrong about, and John
was correcting him.
And then they got into talking.
John was probably on thereprobably 10 or 15 minutes, so
way longer than any normalcaller would be, and you know he

(01:23:55):
called he he called in to tocorrect him on something and
then they just got kind of gotinto, you know, a typical John
conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:24:07):
No, you didn't tell me that.
That's the first time I'veheard that story and I I learned
, uh, I learned yesterday that,um, they actually have a name.
Did you talk about this yet,tim?

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
No, we did not.

Speaker 4 (01:24:22):
Okay, so I learned yesterday that there's actually
a name for what John would do intalking to people.
His family called it the John Dtreatment.
They said he would talk tosomebody.
He would find out everythingabout him where they were from,
you know, liked what they didn'tlike, where they grew up, how
many you know.

(01:24:42):
John would talk to somebody andhe'd know how many times
they've been married, favoritecolor, like everything about him
.
And, uh, that his kids andfamily called it the john d
treatment.
Um, so, so that's what wouldhappen and that, to me, is part
of just those are my fondmemories.

(01:25:03):
Just because he talked to you,just being with him and knowing
that when you were talking tohim, you knew he was honest, you
knew he was sincere, you knewexactly what he thought and how
he felt.
You knew that he was hanging onevery word that you said and he
took it to heart and he wouldremember it.

(01:25:24):
And as just just to who he was.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
Yeah, we got an email from another tour director at
early.
I'm just going to read whatwhat he wrote and then we'll get
back to you in just a secondhere.
This is from Ed Early of theKentucky Amateur Tour To the
family and friends of JohnLivoti.
I never had the honor ofmeeting or spending time with
John.
On behalf of the Kentucky GolfWeek Tour and myself, I'd like

(01:25:52):
to express my sincerecondolences and offer up prayers
for strength and comfort duringyour time of loss.
May God bless you all.
Thanks, ed.
I know John's family is going tobe listening to this and that's
going to mean a lot to them.
So thank you for saying that.
Yeah, but, jen, you'reabsolutely right.

(01:26:12):
I mean, anytime John talked toyou, it didn't really matter.
I mean you knew he waslistening, listening and you
knew he was invested in theconversation.
Whether you were cutting up,whether it was a serious
conversation, which I don't knowthat I ever had a serious
conversation with John thatlasted more than two or three
minutes, because it alwaysdevolved into us having a good

(01:26:35):
time but you knew he waslistening.
You knew you knew he was hadyour best interest at heart and,
um, one of the best for you.

Speaker 4 (01:26:46):
Yeah, uh, his uh, son Thomas, shared, uh, in his
eulogy about their experience atwhistling streets and, um, he
said that, you know, even someof his family members didn't
understand the role that theGolf Week Amateur Tour played in

(01:27:07):
his life, or really how, notthat they didn't understand the
role.
They didn't understand how muchof an impact John had on the
players and how big of a dealthe tour was.
Is, you know, and I just thinkabout any tournament where he

(01:27:29):
was or that people were at, thathe was running, they knew who
he was.
You know, he would always sayor do something that would make
them laugh.
They'd always be able to spothim with his hat.
His son mentioned how and thismade me laugh when I thought
about it his son mentioned howJohn always liked to dress

(01:27:50):
nicely and he always was in, youknow, the golf shirts.
I don't think there was ever aplace where I was when we were
playing golf or at a tournamentwhere he didn't ask me hey, kid,
come here, what do you think ofthis shirt?
Should I get this shirt or thisshirt?
And he always bought a shirt,at least one shirt, at every

(01:28:11):
place he was, and it wasn't alsounsurprising to find out that
he would sometimes get deals onhis shirts too, because he
didn't talk anybody intoanything.
So, uh, you know, I, I don'tknow, I just to me he was, uh,

(01:28:32):
you know he was, wasn't mucholder than my own parents, but
he was like a grandfather to me.
He was the same type, maybebecause you know his family,
recent immigrants my grandfather.
He just had an air about himthat was just like my
grandfather and just part of thefamily and I cried a lot but I

(01:28:56):
also laughed a lot and in theroom you just knew everybody was
there.
Everybody had their own storiesand experiences and I just so
totally feel like he's up therewatching us and he'll always be
with us.
In spirit it's a little tearyeyed, but I love that guy a

(01:29:20):
little teary-eyed but just lovethat guy.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
Yeah, I talked earlier today about, you know my
thoughts on the WhistlingStraits trip with John and
Thomas and you know you and Italked, jen, you and I talked
about this over the weekend whenthe last couple of days, you
know, when we, we, we heardabout John and and, uh, not

(01:29:43):
surprised to hear that Thomastalked about it in his eulogy.
What were your thoughts?
Because that that was classic,john.
That that trip was to me waswas classic John, you know from
from the restaurant that we wentto, um, the way he ordered food
for everybody, the way hecalled the owner over and the

(01:30:04):
chef over, and just, I mean,that was John.

Speaker 4 (01:30:12):
To me it was also knowing.
So here's another thing that Idon't know, tim, how much you
knew or didn't know it would be.
He was always looking out forthe details.
It was always he'd call me andsay, hey, jen, you know I'm

(01:30:36):
gonna book this for you.
Know, my son and I to book thisfor you know, my son and I
we're coming out, this is aspecial trip.
And he'd be asking me aquestion.
And then he'd call me back andhe'd say I just wanted to let
you know.
I made my reservations and thisis where we're staying, this is
why.
And then he'd give me the wholething about it and he'd touch

(01:30:58):
base with me and say I read theemail that you sent out and you
covered this, but you didn't sayanything about this.
And I'm like you're right, I'llmention it to tim, we'll put it
in the next one.
And it was, um, he was soexcited about that trip, um it.
It was because for him it wasbeing able to be there with his

(01:31:22):
son and having that familyexperience.
And part of what Tom Thomassaid at the service was it was a
lot colder than we expectedthat first day.
And he said he looked over athis dad when they were going for
the practice round.

(01:31:42):
Mind you, we were there in Mayand it was cold.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
It was cold.
It was cold and, Chris, youknow I don't like the cold and
when it comes to baby, I'm fullyadmitting that I'm a baby.
When it comes to cold, yeah, itwas cold, but I'll have you
this, I'll let you know this.
I was out on the range thatwhole time, you know, getting
people to their tee boxes.
Make sure they got to the teebox on time, you know, because

(01:32:09):
it was, the Skins game was notshotgun, it was a tee time event
and I stayed out there.

Speaker 4 (01:32:16):
We got everybody off and all I had was was a light
jacket and it was cold it wascold, it was cold and windy, and
so so they were gone out fortheir practice round, which is
one of the details that he hadplanned, that they were going to
play in a practice round.
And so he looks at at john andjohn was wearing every piece of

(01:32:39):
clothing he had brought with himbecause it was so cold, so he
had layer after layer, and assoon as Thomas said that, I
remember that Like I picturedhim and he had shirt and a
jacket and everything, and so hedecided that he was not going
to play that round, he was goingto go sit inside.
And when thomas finished, hecame inside and, uh, introduced

(01:33:03):
thomas to the bartender and toldhim everything he needed to
know about her, as he had satand given her the john d
treatment.
So, uh, you know, but but hewould, he, john would.
Just, he wanted to make everytournament special when he was
thinking about retiring fromrunning the tour and he was

(01:33:28):
lining up the new tour directors.
People don't know it, but hestayed on in the background for
over a year because he didn'twant to give up making sure that
his players were taken care of,and so he would call me
sometimes.
He couldn't get into the system, so I had to help him with that

(01:33:49):
.
But he was, he was watching, hewas paying attention, he was
making sure everybody had whatthey needed.
He was you know another thinghe would do that, oh my God,
drove me crazy as the person whohad to train the tour directors
, because he would send outemails that were all lowercase

(01:34:09):
or all capitalized and run onsentences, and he wrote those
emails the same way.
He talked and put things inthere that should not have been
in an email and I was just like,oh no, please don't do this.
But he was in there justbecause he wanted to make sure
that his players were taken careof, and that's just what he did

(01:34:34):
.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
I think that's a good way to end this.
Jen, I appreciate you coming onand talking about this, talking
about John and your memories ofhim and what he meant to the
tour and how he thought of thetour and the players.
So, thank you all.

(01:34:59):
We'll see you next time.

Speaker 6 (01:35:08):
Thank you.