Road to Hilton Head: Contest Challenges, Rule Insights, and Community Spirit

Send us a text

Ready to up your golf game and enjoy some competitive camaraderie? Join us as we dive headfirst into the excitement leading up to the National Championship, now just 30 days away! We also tackle the essential logistics and preparations for the Nationals, and Roger breaks down the vital "two by two" rule for immovable obstructions like sprinkler heads near the putting green.

Curious about the ever-evolving world of golf rules in the digital age? You'll laugh at the antics of the "footy golfer" who spreads incorrect rules online, and learn why it's crucial to verify your information through trusted sources like the USGA website. Hear our expert advice on playing two balls in ambiguous situations and the unique regulations of match play, especially as more tours incorporate it into their events. We also share some fascinating rulings from recent tournaments, including internal out-of-bounds areas, all aimed at enhancing your golf experience.

Celebrate the inspiring journeys of golfers moving through various competitive flights, with stories of growth, learning, and camaraderie. Hear about Chris's rise from C flight to A flight, the rapid progress of players like JP and Sean, and the remarkable consistency of top players like Jacob Hamner. Reflect on the sense of family within our tour, the excitement of the final tournament of the year, and the vibrant community spirit that makes our events so special. Plus, get a sneak peek into our traditions and joyful moments leading up to the National Championship Week in Hilton Head. Tune in for insights, laughs, and a deep appreciation for amateur golf!

Support the show

Podcast Homepage
Golfweek Amateur Tour
Senior Amateur Tour
Facebook
YouTube
Srixon
Jondo Sunglasses

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Ladies and gentlemen, golf Week Amateur Tour the
podcast Talking about all thingsGolf Week Amateur Tour,
including interviews with tourdirectors, players and course
pros.
Now here are your hosts AtlantaTour Director, tim Newman, and
El Paso Las Cruces Director,chris Rocha.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome back, chris.
You know we've got less than 30days to the National
Championship.
We're in the middle of votingfor the shirt contest, which is
fun, and we've got tourswrapping up the season.
A lot of tours wrapped up thispast weekend and everybody else
is wrapping up this comingweekend.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, it's been something that we've been eyeing
for a while end of the season.
It's here and now.
I just can't wait to get overthere to Nationals and see
everybody and have a good time.
Uh, I have one event left ourtour final, um, but after that
it's going to be, uh, I think, aquick turnaround before around,
before we get to nationals yeah, it's gonna be, it's gonna be

(01:23):
real quick.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
I've got, don't get my uh.
Our final tournament comes thisweekend as well.
You know, get that final twoday in and yeah, you get with we
.
We get about maybe two or threeweeks in between, but there's
really there's a lot that has tobe done between you know, now
and uh, when everybody startsshowing up between now and when

(01:46):
everybody started showing up.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Oh yeah, and I mean, like you said, the shirt contest
we got to it.
We made it to the Pick'ems.
We were worried for a whilethere at the beginning, but we
made it.
We got our eight players and Iknow our guest is also one of
them, and it's fun to see youscrolling through Facebook and
seeing them all trying to getvotes.
Yeah, yeah, guest is also oneof them, and you know it's it's
fun to see you scrolling throughfacebook and seeing them all
trying to, uh, get votes yeah,yeah, let's just go ahead and

(02:09):
bring roger in.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Roger, welcome back you, thank you.
You made the final eight andyou know, as we're recording
this, we're.
You still got a couple daysleft of voting in the first
round, but when, when thisepisode goes live, we'll have
already started voting for thesecond round in the first round.
But when, when this episodegoes live, we'll have already
started voting for the secondround in the first round.
You, you've got to get some.
You need some help.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
I need to get my campaign manager on this Cause.
I'm getting trounced right nowby somebody's brother.
Yes, uh, my uh Lyle did sendout a note.
Hey guys, you gotta, uh, youknow, give Roger some props, you
gotta.
But no, I I'm, I'm so farbehind I don't know I might have
to offer some incentives.

(02:50):
Yeah, I'm not counting on thatfor my tour championship payoff
roger, if it makes you feel anybetter.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
I haven't done any voting so well, I'd want to.
I can't vote for him you okay?

Speaker 5 (03:06):
yes, so you can go for the underdog roger.
Yeah, I would appreciate that.
Maybe I need to get a new uhwardrobe manager too, for next
year, at least get a bettershirt there you go, oh yeah so
yeah, but that's been funlooking at that and, uh, it's,
it's been, it's been's been funfor the whole season seeing some

(03:28):
of the shirts that folks cameup with.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, there's some pretty creative shirts out there
.
I don't want to start namingpeople off because they may not
even make the two second roundBecause, as of right now, the
number one seed looks like he'sgoing to be upset.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
Oh, okay, okay, I didn't see that, yeah it's.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, it's very interesting to see how this has
turned out.
I mean, everyone, trust me,I've heard non-stop how he was
the number one seed and howdrake was disappointed to get
the hc, which is which I love tohear, because I mean, that's
what this is all about.
But at the end of the day, um,you know it's, it comes down to
the people and we're going tofind out how that goes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, well, like I said, you know, when this airs,
you know the second round, we'llhave already started voting, so
we'll know how it turns out bythen.
Roger, you know, as we get, aswe wind down the season,

(04:31):
obviously we wanted to have youback on and go over some, some
rules as we, as we head into thenational championship.

Speaker 5 (04:32):
So what do you have for us this week?
Yeah, so, uh, there's been avideo going around and I know
Chris said uh posted thissomewhere or sent it to me about
what they call the two by tworule.
Uh, chris, you remember sendingthat video.
I do yes, yeah, they call thetwo by two rule.
Uh, chris, you remember sendingthat video.
Um, yeah, so it's called thetwo by two rule because they're
thinking, uh, and the video thatyou'd sent describes one thing,

(04:56):
but it's really about somethingelse.
So this is about immovableobstructions and they call that
abnormal course conditions inthe rules, rule 16.
But it's really about, like,sprinkler heads by the putting
green, whether, if they're onyour line of play, you get

(05:16):
relief from them, and in thevideo they showed how basically
not to do it.
Uh, so there's a couple thingsabout that.
The actual sprinkler head hasto be within two club lengths of
the putting green itself andthen your ball has to be within
two club lengths of thatsprinkler head also, and it has

(05:39):
to be on your line of play.
On your line of play and thinkabout, if your ball's on the
sprinkler head, it's reallysomething else that comes into
effect, and that's the abnormalcourse conditions.
That means the sprinkler headis interfering with your stance
or your swing and under theregular set of rules you get

(06:01):
relief for an abnormal coursecondition.
You find the closest point ofrelief and then you get one club
leg.
But let's say, on your line ofplay that sprinkler head is
right there but it has no effecton your swing or your stance.
And people are thinking a lot oftimes this comes up pretty

(06:21):
often.
They're thinking well, I getrelief, don't I?
It's on my line of play andunder the normal, just the
regular rules of golf, you donot get relief.
That's not a regular rule, it'sa local rule and, like I've
always said in the past, localrules there's so, so many of
them and unless somebody tellsme that there's a local rule in
effect, then I would rule.

(06:43):
No, you don't get relief, butthere is a local rule and it's a
local rule five F, five dashone Not that there'll be a quiz
on that later and that is ifyour ball is, if the sprinkler
head is within two club lengthsof the green and your ball is
also within two club lengths ofthat sprinkler head and it's on

(07:06):
your line of play, then you getrelief from that.
But you just got to rememberthat that's a local rule, it's
not just automatic.
And that's the biggest thingthat guys automatically think
they get relief and they don't,because it's not a local rule
and honestly I don't know.
On our tour, I mean, some toursmay play that rule and other

(07:28):
tours.
I mean, you know regions.
I'm not sure what you guys doon your tour if you have that as
uh, as a rule now we.
I hope other tours don't do it,but we don't yeah so, uh, it
does come up and it's the lineof play and and you remember
that's pretty there's not awhole lot of area there when you
talk about that.

(07:48):
That's within two club length.
So if it's a sprinkler head onyour line of play, you know out
when you're pitching, you knowyou're not going to get relief
for that, it's just it's on yourline of play.
And the reason that isinstituted is because if it's
that close to the putting green,a lot of times the choices a
player will choose to putt theball and if you think if a
sprinkler head is on that line,then that's definitely going to

(08:12):
affect being able to putt it.
So that's kind of why they putthat rule into effect.
And what you do there, whenthey were talking about two by
two, that the two is the withintwo club lengths of the putting
green and then your ball withinthat two club lengths, not two
club lengths away, do you get todrop.
That's what that video wasshowing.

(08:34):
You again find your closestpoint of release and then you
drop your ball and that's, youdrop your ball from that spot
and that's your two, two by tworule.
Um, it's not two club lengthsaway, you don't drop two club
lengths away, unless, for someodd reasons, two club lengths is

(08:54):
the closest point of relief,then yes, but that's normally
not the case.
So it's, uh, that's the two bytwo rule, other than that one.
I really just wanted to talk alittle bit about things golfers
can do in the off season orthings they shouldn't do.
Also, in the off season, I'vementioned to you guys that the
best, the starting point, thatalmost ought to be a, uh, that

(09:16):
ought to be a what do you callit?
A qualification of joining ourthe golf week tour.
Load that app to your phone.
Maybe you guys can see uh, it's, it's free, it's easy.

(09:37):
There's a regular, there's theapp, and then there's an expert
section which gives all theclarifications and all that
stuff.
And, um, it's downloadable onall your phones and it's, it's
pretty easy to use.
It has, you know, all the rules.
It has qualified, uh, which notqualifications, um,
clarifications, um, and it.

(09:58):
It pops up fast.
You can.
There's a search bar in it.
So if you're not exactly sure,put a couple of words in and
it'll come back with what theythink you might be asking about.
So that's the USGA Rules ofGolf app.
And on the opposite side ofthat.
Believe it or not, you know whatinternet trolls are, or people

(10:23):
that just try to cause trouble.
I'll put it that way.
There's this one guy and it'sbeen going around and he's
called maybe you guys could lookit up, or anybody listening.
He's called the footy golferand I think he came up with that
name like using a foot wedge toget your ball out of the woods
or something you know.
Give yourself free.
Yeah, so he posts videos and thething about it is he's so

(10:48):
serious and if somebody justcame across him, he posts these
videos and it looks legitimate.
But the rules that he placedthat, he says, are totally
they're not within the rules atall.
Like he'll say you know, know,if you're in a penalty area and
the grass is long, if it'slonger than, say, your knee

(11:10):
length, you get a free drop outof that penalty area and you
don't even have to drop the ball, you can place it and that.
That is like one that he didrecently, but he's so serious
about it.
And then he just like ends thevideo and he's like he looks
like a normal guy, and then youjust read all the comments and

(11:32):
everybody's like you don't knowwhat the f?
You're talking about this.
This is not true.
Why would you post her?
And then he has lots of these.
So, um, that's, that's theother thing.
So you gotta be careful whatyou see on the internet is what
I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yes, you do.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
And then you know, on the flip side there are I mean,
like there's tons of these outthere but there's facebook, uh
chat groups about the rules ofgolf.
One's called the golf rulesamaritan and that's probably
the highest level.
It has officials that are usgathat I've seen been to the
workshops and the guys that makethe comments.

(12:12):
They are the top of the top, um.
And then there's one justcalled golf rules.
There's a bunch of them outthere and the only problem with
them is I almost I go on themoccasionally when I'm kind of
like, I guess, when I'm bored.
You know, golf nerd that I am,golf rules nerd that I am, but
somebody will ask a question andit'll be a pretty simple

(12:34):
question with a pretty simpleanswer.
But people start going downrabbit holes like they twist the
question a little bit and youmight learn something.
They twist the question alittle bit and you might learn
something, but you never.
Like.
If you start reading thesethings you'll get confused
because there'll be a simpleanswer to a question but then
you'll have literally there'llbe 75 or 80 replies because

(12:55):
people will throw in thingsabout local rules or they'll
throw in things about what aboutthis or what about that?
So what I really like to do isuse that usga website and use
those videos that um, oh shoot,I forget the guy, the guy who
does the great videos from theusga um, I can't think of his
name right now, it'll come to me, but his little short videos

(13:17):
are so good.
Uh, they really, they reallydescribe things the right way
and and you can go to just theregular old USGA website and
there are lots of videos thatare very easy to understand and
very easy to learn a little bitabout the rules.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
And for us and what we do.
That's pretty much really whatwe need the players to do to
understand the basics.
And obviously you know ifthere's could be some some more
technical or some morecomplicated issues, then you
know that that's where the youplay the two balls and get
rulings and and other peopleinvolved comes into play.
But but knowing the basic stuffis is really what we need our

(13:58):
players to do exactly, yeah,that.

Speaker 5 (14:01):
Yeah.
It's funny.
You mentioned about the playingtwo balls.
That comes up a lot in thesechat groups.
They say you know people don'tdo that enough and they really
should, because that you know,play two balls and you know, yes
, it's going to take a littleextra time, but that's probably
the right thing to do.
Our tour we have a really nicethree-day match.

(14:23):
It's not what we used to call alava cup.
We're doing something else.
So learning a little bit aboutmatch play in the off-season is
a fun thing to do too, becausematch play has its own set of
rules, some of them that areunique only to match play, and
it's good to know those becausethose match play events are so
great and so many tours aredoing them and we don't discuss

(14:46):
those that much because we don'tplay that on our tour, we do it
outside.
But it's really good to knowand it's nice when you get to
watch.
You know the President's Cup iscoming up soon, so it's good to
know.
Like you know, somebody justcasual watcher might watch like
why didn't he have to put thatone?
And they don't realize.

(15:11):
It's okay, you're allowed toconcede putts and or whatever it
might be so um, nice to learnabout match play a little bit.
If you don't know about it.
Yeah, really that.
That was it for that I wasthinking about towards the end
of the year here, just you know,learning the usga rules website
.
Download that app and um it'll,it'll really put you in a good
place when you want to learn alittle bit more about the rules.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, let me just bring up a couple other if you
don't mind, roger.
You know, with the tourchampionship that happened back
at Eastlake a few weeks ago, youknow there were a couple of
strange things that thecommittee did with making, you
know, playing the ball out ofone fairway, actually out of
bounds oh yeah yeah, can youtalk about that a little bit?

Speaker 5 (15:50):
so the course can have internal out of bounds, um,
if, uh.
So what they did, as I recallthey they had a, um, I think
they said it was really forspectator safety.
They said I think what theydeclared was it was like the

(16:12):
edge of a fairway, anything pastthat was internal out of bounds
.
I think, as I recall, and acommittee has a lot of options,
they can set many things and thecommittee is the committee,
they're the ones that set theserules.
And I remembered I didn't Iremember seeing about the the

(16:35):
out of bounds there.
But you know, on, on somecourses, you know you could hit
it all the way across thefairway and you'd still be in
bounds.
But as I recall, I think whatthey did was say they didn't
want players to be, uh, theywere basically taking a shortcut
.
So they didn't want players tobe taking a shortcut, like it
was, let's say, a dog leg andyou could go, you, if you went

(16:56):
the normal route of the course,you know you'd hit it out to the
fairway and then turn right andhit it to the green.
But they said, you know theydidn't want players just driving
it right through the turn orwhatever.
So they made an internal out ofbounds where if you put it
there, you're going to bepenalty, you're going to be,
you're going to be going out ofbounds.
That's how I recall it.

(17:18):
And on my course there's one ofthe courses I play there's a
sign right off the tee boxPlayers are not allowed to cut
across this lake for fear.
Because there's a sign rightoff the tee box, players are not
allowed to cut across this lakefor fear because there's a
putting green to the right ofthe putting green of the hole
that we're playing and they'reafraid people are going to get

(17:38):
hit on this other putting green.
So they make it a penalty thatyou can't cut across this lake.
Basically, you have to hitstraight to the fairway.
You can't cut across this lake,basically you have to hit
straight to the fairway.
Um, and so then that actuallycame up in one of these golf
rules tests well, how do youavoid that?
And it came up that a lot ofthat has to do with the design

(17:58):
of the course, like, why didthey make it so that you could
drive over that?
And the suggestions were well,why don't they put up a fence
next to the tee box so you can't, like, cut across and a lot of
courses don't want to do that,for the aesthetics of it doesn't
look good.
And then other courses werelike we put trees up there, we
put a row of bushes, and thatsolved some of the problems.

(18:22):
But, like the course I'm at,they just put a sign up and said
you're not allowed to do it, soit's up to the player to.
Yeah, you know, you policeyourselves.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
So, um, that that's what I recall about that.
I think now, with with thetalent that players have um
being able to to think of ofroutes like that and driving it,
I don't think they wereexpecting that when they built
the courses.
And now they have to put thesenew rules in to kind of help
with the, like you said, theaesthetics of the course and the

(18:55):
way it's supposed to be played.

Speaker 5 (18:56):
Exactly.
Yes, that's exactly what thisone was reminding me of.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, and then the other one was Sahith Tagala
called a pound lead on himselfbecause he thought he may have
brushed the sand when he was ina sand trap.
I thought that was kind ofinteresting because he wasn't
even sure if he did it.
But you know, to play it safe,he called that penalty.
It cost him two strokes and itdidn't cost him the tournament,
but it did cost, you know, acouple of spots in the money.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Yeah, and that's you know.
Know it's up to the player todecide.
You know it's.
You know the onus is on theplayer and kudos to him for
doing that.
Yeah, I, I do remember seeingthat, though, and, and other
players like they never saw itor that it was even hard to see,
like in the video or anything,or I don't even know if they had
the video.

(19:46):
Yeah that, but he, he said hedid so, and you know who knows.
But good on him if that was thecase.
You know you, the regular golfer, is gonna be like wow, that's
just like I'd never call that onmyself, but that is the rule.
So, uh, you know you can, youcan take it.
It isn't.
You can hit it in the backswing, but not while you're

(20:06):
setting up the ball.
Or, you know, because it might.
You know you can, you can takeit, it isn't.
You can hit it in the backswing, but not while you're
setting up the ball.
Or, or you know, cause it might, you know, and the reason for
that is they say it couldimprove your lie.
Uh, some, you know, if you put,if you put the sand down a
little bit behind the ball, thenit might be easier to hit the
ball, that kind of thing, and soyou know a couple of pebbles of

(20:29):
sand though it's just wow, thatwas, that was a tough one.
Yeah, yeah, it probably costthem with with that kind of
money they were playing for inthat tournament.
It probably was tens ofthousands of dollars.
Yeah, yeah, for sure that wasjust a player calling it on
himself yeah, I mean that'stough.
That's tough to do.
Glad we're not playing for thatbig kind of well.
Maybe we are at Nationals.
How much are we playing for atNationals?
Hope everybody's honest downthere.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, me too.
We know that they are.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
Yeah, yes, lyle set up a neat tournament this coming
weekend.
He set up a tournament justlike that end of season
tournament, the end of seasontournament that the PGA Tour did
Our flight winners.
They're starting at minus 10,and then they go to minus 8,
minus 6, minus 5.
So he's doing a two-daytournament this coming weekend,

(21:19):
just like that, and he's gotsome nice prize money signed up
and guys are pretty excited.
We've never done that eventbefore, so that's a pretty
exciting.
And he's got a nice turnout forthat one too.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's a good idea.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
That'll be fun.
Yeah, good idea.
Yeah, the tour.
I forget forget what the nameof it.
He called it, but uh, he's gotat least Wow.
So where are you in that field?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I didn't make the I think I'm, I think I have to add
strokes to Mark?

Speaker 5 (21:53):
I don't know how that is here my.
Roger, I'm sorry, I know.
Yeah, you know it's funny aboutthat I text.
After my final round of theseason I said, or no, it wasn't
the final, it was up going intothe last tournament.
I said to him well, listen, uh,I'm qualified to drop down a
flight and I hate to do it, butput me down a flight.

(22:13):
He said you can't, it's thelast three tour.
I guess you can't in the lastthree tournaments of the season.
So he said it's uh, you gottawait till next year to move down
.
It's like, okay, I know I'llmove right back up again after I
shoot a good score, but I waslike, ah darn, it's been a kind
of a rough year on tour for me.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well, that happens, and there's always next year.

Speaker 5 (22:37):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah Well, roger, thanks so much for everything
you do for us.
This year has been great, and Ilook forward to seeing you in
the winner's circle for theshirt contest there you go.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
I'm gonna start sending out my incentives soon
and get with my uh, can't saymanager.
Thank you guys very much.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
I appreciate all the time you let me have on here all
right, buddy, you take care andwe'll talk to you soon yep, bye
now j now Tim.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
another successful interview with Roger.
You know, as golf keeps gettingplayed, there's other rules
that keep coming up that we havequestions for, and I'm glad we
have an expert in that field tohave on the podcast.
And I know at the regional Ihad a lot of guys come and thank
me for having somebody thatknows the rules on as they

(23:25):
listen, you know, every at leastonce a month.
So, uh, great to have him backon here again.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, and you know what a lot of people don't
realize is.
You know we have Roger on, youknow, once a month, but the
interaction that we have withhim when he's not on is is a lot
more.
You know he and he is veryfreely giving up his time.
You know we give him somethingand he'll go research it and

(23:50):
come back with an answer andreally comes back with answers
pretty quick with some of thesethings that we're asking him and
you know some of them doesrequire a little.
You know it's not just cursoryresearch.
I mean, he's got to go digaround for some stuff.
Oh yeah, definitely, but heknows where to go and if you're

(24:14):
listening and you don't havethat app, I'd suggest go get it,
because it has greatinformation it really does, and
it's so easy to use and one ofthe things that USGA did is they
put in those diagrams that arevisual.
So you don't necessarily andI'm laughing as I'm saying this
you don't have to actually beable to read anymore.
If you can look at a picture,it tells you you know what the
ruling is and where you'resupposed to drop and what you're

(24:35):
actually supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Right.
The diagrams help a lot andit's quick and easy and able to
make the determination,especially for us directors
after a round when we have, youknow, numerous scorecards
getting turned in and thingslike that.
It just makes it a whole loteasier.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, yeah.
And again, you know I tell ourguys you know you don't need me
to make judgments about you.
I don't need you to do a wholelot of adding.
You know when the scorecardscome in, just put the.
You know, you know what thenumber that you got on the hole.
Don't add it up.
You know I'm a public schoolguy too, so so just don't worry
about adding it up.
Computer will do that for you.

(25:13):
Yeah, it will.
Yeah, anyway, so we we've gotanother first time guest with us
.
This week it's JP T fromLouisiana, south Tour.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Jp, welcome to the show bud, hey bud, how y'all
doing.
Thanks for having me man we'redoing great.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thanks for taking some time with us tonight.
I know we kind of caught you ata bad time.
You got some.
You know we don't want to giveaway, but you got some friends
over for your weekly gathering,so take some time with us.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
No, yeah, yeah nights we got a group of friends that
always get together some of thegolf tour guys and a few other
people.
We play a little cards and oneof us cook.
Every other week it's a goodThursday night meal.
You don't go home hungry.
You might go home broke.
You ain't going home hungry.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Hey, you know what?
The next time I'm in town, Ineed to be invited to that,
because I'm all for a game ofcards.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Chris says you can definitely do that.
Yeah, we always bring a crowd.
So yeah, you'd definitely beinvited.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, that's great.
So, jp, you've been a member ofthe tour for what?
10, 11 years now, right?

Speaker 4 (26:22):
Yeah, yeah, it's been about 11 years now.
I've been running the tour forthe last.
This will be my fourth year, so, um, you know, I I've been
around the block and back um asa player and it's now a tour
director for sure.
Um, it makes it a little easierknowing all the guys beforehand
.
You know we play together, um,when we're not, when it's not a

(26:44):
golf week event, you know, onthe weekends they got a good 10,
12 of us that just go play andhave a good time.
So, yeah, it's definitely agreat little thing to be a part
of.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
And you started off in the C flight, chris.
So, chris, you know, jp is oneof the guys that we really like
to talk about.
Starts in the C flight and he'smoved all the way up to the A
flight.
Like to see him get to champ,you know.
Yeah, I've seen a few of thosein the last scores and it's got
a little bit of work to do.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
But, uh, but making this, but seriously making that
jump from c flight to a flight,is really what we like to see
yeah, you know, it's uh, firststarting out in the tour, it's
going to add a few strokes beingout there with some competition
with you and you know, playingby the rules totally, you don't
get the old mulligan and thecouple, uh, drop out your pocket
balls that you and your buddiesplay with.

(27:33):
But, um, no, it's honestly thefirst event.
I was pretty spooked about it.
You know, a little nervous andyou know.
But I think on the first hole Ilearned about six different
rules about golf before I got tothe green, which with my, with
my, uh, you know, my, my othercompetitive partners and uh, so,
but everybody in the group youknow what I'm saying it really

(27:55):
was a helpful playing with thoseguys and kind of understanding
competitive golf compared tojust weekend golf and to realize
that, man, you know we're justall out here having a good time
playing by the rules and, uh,you know, just to work your way
up.
So, like I say, yeah, I know alot of people on the tour
because I've been through everyflight except for d and champ,
so, uh, and I can work my way toeither one just as quick so but

(28:18):
no, it's like I go to nationals, I go anywhere.
They're like man, I rememberplaying you and c flight,
whatever you and a now and I'mlike, yeah, but I'm trending
back, don't worry.
I got one of those fluctuatinghandicaps from like a 6 to a 12.
There's no consistency thereyou go.
But we're going to hope thatchanges this year for Nationals
for sure.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
You know what I started in D and I'm already in
B and I've said it to Timnumerous times, I think I'm
going to start next year in A,because once you, you know, once
you move up, it kind of forcesyou to get better, or else
you're going to be in a lot oftrouble real quick.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah, well, the good thing about it is when you start
moving up you start playingwith better competition to where
tempo and everything else youstart seeing good golf shots it
makes you want to hit good golfshots, you know.
Seeing good golf shots, itmakes you want to hit good golf
shots, you know.
And it, you know, it just kindof works its way out and then
you kind of get to that level towhere you feel like you're
peaked.
But you know you can be get alittle more out of it and uh,

(29:14):
that's what most of us do, youknow.
And and but uh, I've had a guy,matter of fact, that was
started in d and in two seasonshe's up in b.
So you know he's been movingquick.
That's awesome.
He bought himself a simulatorman.
He started putting him swingsin after work.
There you go, and he juststarted coming man, every
tournament he was like he waswinning.
He was, he hadn't won.

(29:35):
He's the only guy I know thatgot bumped from D to C to B
before he won a trophy.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Wow you get, you get bumped up without even winning.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
Yeah he would come in second or third with a great
score.
Somebody would out-shoot himthat day just by a stroke or so
and it meant it was just theluck of the draw, it was just
against him.
And finally he came through andhe's like man.
When I told him the first timehe got promoted from D-Flight
he's like man, I can't go toC-Flight.
I said why Sean he D-Flight?
He's like man, I can't go toC-Flight.
I said why, sean?
He said I hadn't won a trophyin D-Flight yet.

(30:07):
I said well, unfortunatelythat's not how it works.
So work hard in C-Flight, man heshot up through the ranks like
just putting in good scores andman he's actually a pretty
consistent golfer.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
now I can only imagine the look on his face
when he told him he was going toC to B without winning.
That's right, that's exactlyright.
We're having this conversationagain.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah, and the crazy thing, he lives down the road
from me.
So you know I see him a goodbit on his way home and stuff,
and man, he would stop by allthe time and just give me a
little hell about it.
You know I was like, look, man,just the way it is.
I said you know, friend or nofriend, that's just the way this
stuff works.
I don't pull punches for nobody.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
So you've got some pretty good sticks in your champ
flight.
You know, looking at yourplayers, like Jacob Hamner he's
a minus 2.9.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Yeah, he's a little, he can play some golf man, he
don't lose his ball and he's notthe longest guy but he's the
most consistent guy.
His ball's is gonna be in themiddle of the fairway and in the
middle of the green and then,if he's feeling it and he starts
bringing off some birdies, man,he could, he could really shoot
.
He um, he pretty much wins agood 90 of our champ flight

(31:21):
tournaments and uh, but yeah, heis a stick for sure.
He um, he is very, verystraight with his ball.
I don't care what club it ispitching, wedge seven, nine four
iron driver, it's gonna be downthe middle, maybe 10 yards, a
little left or right.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
He don't lose his ball well, that's one of the
keys.
You know, chris, how many champlike guys that we talked to,
that says control your shot.
You know, pick your spot, hityour spot and you're gonna be be
fine, right, and you know whenyou can do that.
And, jp, if he doesn't hit theball, far you to me, that's when
I talk to guys that you knowwhen, when they get bumped up

(31:56):
just like the guy we just talkedabout up on, from D to C and C
to B Well, I don't hit it as faras everybody else.
Okay, you may not hit as far aseverybody else.
Okay, you may not hit as far aseverybody else, but maybe you
can putt better than they can.
Yep, maybe you can chip, chipbetter than they can.
It's about finding what worksfor you and what's what the
strength of your game is, andyou and you worry about that.
Don't worry about how far youcan, how far you can hit it.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, oh right, he puts it out there, but he don't,
he don't try to over swing, heputs it in the middle of the
fairway and, like I said, itdoesn't matter to him if he's
hitting a five iron in or he'shitting a six, uh, a seven iron
in both of those clubs.
He just all in his mind is it'sa different trajectory, right,
he's gonna.
He's gonna swing it the same,he's gonna hit it the same.
So you know the irons in hisbag, you know, until you start

(32:39):
getting into your short weewedges, but the irons in his bag
, he plays them all the same,man, and he he's definitely
consistent on hitting the centerof the club face hey, I'm.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
I'm a short hitter and I believe you know it
doesn't matter how far you hitit.
Now, um, I've.
What I've started to do with mygroups is you know how people
bet on how many putts you do.
I bet on how many fairwaysyou're going to hit because I
know I'm going to hit more thaneverybody else.
So it's all about beingconsistent with what you know
you can do.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
A lot easier to hit the ball when there's not a
chunk of grass laying betweenthe face and the ball.
You still got to keep itstraight though you still got to
keep it straight.
Oh yeah, 100%.
We just played Cushota and theisland back-to-back, which is
notorious for the rough, and I'mgoing to tell you what if you
get off in any of that, youmight as well just punch it out.

(33:29):
And so, yeah, I would muchrather be down the middle, lose
a little bit of distance, thangain that 15, 20 yards and be in
the rough left or right,Absolutely, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
When I joined the club up in Pennsylvania before I
moved down to Atlanta, we hadthese weekend group games and
most of the guys that wereplaying were like 65, 70 years
old and they would beateverybody because they would.
Just, they can dunk right ondown three or four times in one
putt, you know, and walk awaywith their bogey and we're

(34:01):
spraying the ball all over theplace.
And that's where I reallylearned that you know, it
doesn't really matter how faryou hit it.
You got to hit it straight, hityour spot and don't lose your
ball.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Don't take a big number.
Well, that's the thing.
Going to nationals, we don'tplay a lot of those courses here
.
We've got a few.
That's pretty.
That's kind of tight when youstart getting a little bit
towards Mississippi.
But a lot of us, we're a lot offlat land.
We don't have a lot of treesand a lot of courses.
If we do, it's nothing likethat.
It's a big difference of justtuning your game to where you

(34:36):
want to hit it straight.
We all go out to these coursesdown here and it's grip and rip
on a lot of them.
If you can get an extra 15yards, so what?
When you go up there to hiltonand a lot of these guys first
time I try to tell them like,look, man, this is target golf.
You go out, you hit spotsthat's all you do here is hit
spots.
You hit in the middle and youhit spots and uh.
So I'm interested to seethere's a few newcomers coming

(34:58):
this year.
But, um, also I feel confident,I think.
I think, as far as la south,we're gonna do pretty well this
year.
This year we got a few littleregional winners in there and in
the group, and so we'll see howit goes.
But I can't wait.
So who are your regionalwinners?
Wally Bird just won French Lick.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Oh, that's right.
You know what?
I interviewed him up there,that's right.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
Yep and Jared Chason won Vegas at Paiute.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Okay, how about that?

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah, that's two good showing by two of them, for
sure.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So.
You're heading into your finaltournament of the year this
coming weekend, so that'll beover by the time this airs, but
what would you say is somehighlights of your year this
year?

Speaker 4 (35:48):
We've had some nice tournament with some playoffs.
We've had some good playoffsthis year.
I'm going to tell you, probablyabout one every three
tournaments it seems to behappening.
We've had one, two playoffschamp flight or A flight and C
flight or B and D.
We've had a good bit ofplayoffs through the year, which
makes it exciting becauseeverybody's there waiting and
then when they guys go out,we've got they've got groups

(36:09):
following, you know.
So it kind of pumps everybodyup, you know.
That's that's a good thing.
And and the most thing for usis that you know, we got through
the year we was a little bitdown, you, but it picked up with
all the core group.
Everybody was there everytournament.
We're a big family down here.

(36:30):
We hang out when we don't hangout.
It's just one of those thingsand honestly, that's the reason
I took the tour over when I didthe four years ago.
I've got a job, I've got kids,I've got a lot of things on my
plate, but also I enjoy thepeople that I was around in this
tour and I didn't want to see,I didn't want to see it go

(36:52):
downhill, I wanted to kind ofsee it, you know, stay where it
was at at least at minimum, ifnot grow it, and that's what
we've been trying to do.
But, um, you know, it's just abig core of us that enjoy Hilton
head every year, um, head everyyear, um, and we play golf on
the way up.
So it, you know it's, it's agood reset for the year, um, for
life, from life, oh yeah, andand especially going up there,
you know, just to, for nine dayswe go, let go and not a care in

(37:15):
the world, and then we comeback to reality and and work our
ass off for for an extra weekbecause you know we're behind,
we're about a month behind, whenwe get back from taking a week
exactly soit's one of those things.
But but I tell you what that'sall my guys they play.
We got a lot of camaraderie inour tour.
We got a lot of trash talking,but it's all friendly and

(37:38):
there's not too many people onour tour that can talk bad about
anybody else.
Everybody's there to kind ofhelp everyone out and enjoy
ourselves, because we all spendthe money to go do this Right.
So, like I tell everybody allthe time look, you could be
having a bad day, don't make theother three guys in the group
have a bad day as well.
You know we've all been there,so and and I think the way we've

(37:59):
all been together for so manyyears, not everybody holds
everybody accountable, right, soit's so it's kind of a great
thing.
It's a great thing to, like Isay, be part of my tour man.
I wouldn't trade it for theworld man, there's some good
people.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
That's good to hear, but I do have a question for you
, because Gene and Trey fromNorth Louisiana they fly out.
So do you drive out or do youfly out?
Oh we drive.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
Okay, yeah, we drive.
Okay, yeah, we got a group, wegot 12 of us.
We'll go to Kinderloo Forest.
We're going to Kinderloo Forestover there in Valdosta.
We'll play 36 on Saturday andthen we'll wake up Sunday, drive
into Hilton Head.
We'll play 18.
I think we're going to play atRobert Trent and then we turn
around on Sunday, and you know,we just well, sunday we play

(38:49):
that morning, sunday morning wedrive to Hilton, we play that
morning, then we go check in andthen we do our Ryder Cup, our
Heritage Cup against Michigan.
We do a practice round Mondayand then we're 36 on Tuesday, 18
on Wednesday, and then Thursdaywe all say we're going to take
a break, but we always find afoursome to get in.

(39:10):
So, go home, we startNashville's noodle armed, you
know, like every other year.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
I, I did that one year and never again, never
again.
I have to take Thursday offbecause I want to at least try
and swing a ball Friday,Saturday, Sunday.
Well, and swing a ball Friday,Saturday, Sunday.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
Well, I said I was going to take Thursday off this
year and we're going to see if Ihold to it.
But you know, I'm like a kidman.
I'm almost a 47-year-old kid.
It's like if I don't go I'mgoing to miss out somehow on
something.
I have some clowning around orsome funny story that I'm not

(39:45):
going to be part of, so I forcemyself to where I say I'm not
going to be part of.
So I force myself to where Isay I'm not going to go.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
And then when they when this truck starts man, I'm
jumping in the back I gotta go,I gotta go, yeah, yeah, because
the one time you don't go,that's going to be the one time
that something happens.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
And you, you're really going to miss it and I
missed it.
That's exactly right, exactly,yep so I'll sleep one day.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
So here's what you do , and hopefully these guys
aren't listening, or hopefullythey are and they catch on.
But um, the guy who doesn't go,you, you all just show up at
the end.
You just make up some randomstory of a alligator chasing you
down fairway 15 and the guy'slike no, I missed it and it's
just a story that you guys keepgoing on all weekend the only
problem is that whole group thatI'm with.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
They're just like me we'd'd be running in circles,
man we're.
You know each of us isfollowing the next one.
You know what I'm saying.
So we'd be running in circles.
Nobody wants to miss nothing.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Well, jp, it's funny you mentioned Kinderloo Forest,
chris, you remember, you know,last episode we had Donnie
Thomas on and he said what agood course that was.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
I remember that, you know and you know.
I guess that tells you in andof itself that they make that
special trip out there to playthat course.
Now, jp, I've never played itbut I've heard about it and you
know, I've got, you know, one ofmy members who lives down that
way.
He wants us to do a tournamentthere, but it's too far from
Atlanta, it's more in Donnie'sneck of the woods, and so Donnie
plays there every year.
It's beautiful.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Yeah, it's a real nice course.
We played it two years ago andwe try to switch it up and here
and there we'll go to differentplaces.
But that's a good halfway pointpretty much for us.
So it takes us five and a halfhours to get there somewhere in
there.
So we kind of stopped there,reset.
And this year what we're goingto do is Friday we're going to

(41:31):
go to Biloxi, I think, and playFallen Oak Friday evening, and
then we're going to get upSaturday morning and drive to
Valdosta and, like I say, it's afive and a half hour ride and
we're going to play golf.
We're going to play probably 36.
And then we'll turn around and,uh, probably go get a little
dinner, get to bed, wake up andhit the road and, uh, play again
when we get to hilton head.
There you go, you know.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
You see, you guys are talking about five hour drives
being too long.
I drive anywhere, in anydirection, five hours and I'm
still not in another town.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
So I don't want to hear it well, it's 12 hours for
us, to be fair, to get there 11and a half.
But uh, yeah, I'm not driving.
I'm not driving out west.
I go to vegas every january forthat regional.
You know we got a group of usthat use that go and uh, there's
no way.
And I got a brother-in-lawwants to hook up campers and go
out west.
I said you lost your mind, I'mnot driving, we can go out west

(42:20):
anytime you want to.
But uh, you know there's plentyof airplanes that fly that way.
You know, there, no way I'mgoing to drag a camper for 20
hours.
That ain't going to happen.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
JP, jen and I are full-time RVers, right yeah.
And one year, right after thenational championship, we were
trading our rig in and we weretrading it in Phoenix.
So we hopped in and drove fromHilton, from hilton, head out to
phoenix and back and jesus yeah, and we and we did that in a

(42:53):
week.

Speaker 4 (42:54):
It was bad yeah I was never, never again years ago,
when I was I was probably 19 or20 years old uh, I worked in
albuquerque, new mexico, and Idrove from new orleans to there
it was 23.
And Albuquerque, new Mexico,and I drove from New Orleans to
there it was 23 and a half hours, I think is what it was, and we
drove straight through nonstopthere.
And then when we left, we droveback and I tell you what that

(43:17):
was rough, me and my wifeswapping and sleeping and all
that man and she can't sleepwhen I drive or when anybody
drives, so it's like she catches, you know, you know what.
So I said I'll never, I'llnever take a trip like that
again, not driving.
Now, if I had an RV or somethingwhere we could stop a few times
every other state or somethingand chill for a day or so, I
could get with that, but uh, no,not not to straight through

(43:40):
them.
I can't.
We hell.
We go to Indiana and she makesme get a hotel room before we
get to Nashville, so she justcosts me extra money when we go
anywhere over four or five hours, so it's cheaper to fly.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
So, jp, what's the best course that you all play in
on your regular rotation?

Speaker 4 (44:01):
Oh, man, one we didn't have this year that we
enjoy a good bit is English Turnthere in New Orleans where the
tour used to play years ago.
Cushota is a real nicetournament over there and Tamaka
Trails is, honestly, isprobably in the last couple

(44:22):
years has done a one.
You know they took a lot ofbunkers out of there because
they had to hand rake everybunker.
So they was kind of you couldn'tkeep that going, so they was
losing, you know.
So they went and redone it andthey took a probably man, I
would say probably close to 80bunkers out of that place and
made it where the equipment canget in and rake them.
Now, and Matt, you can tell,they got more time to spend on

(44:45):
the course instead of rakingbunkers and, man, that thing's
came alive.
It's beautiful, the greens aregreat.
We got so many nice tracks, man, kind of decent tracks around
here.
But I would say Cushota'sprobably one of my favorite
courses, but English turns rightthere with it.
And next year I'm working withTPC to try to get a TPC

(45:09):
Louisiana on it.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
So, um, hopefully that'll come through yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
That that'd be a good get right there.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
Yeah, definitely, and if I could get some kind of uh
can get a relationship startedwith them, then you know that's
a possibility later on to maybeeven hosting a regional there.
Yeah, so it's uh, you knowthat's a possibility later on to
maybe even hosting a regionalthere.
Yeah, so it's uh, you know it'sa good spot.
People can can get there easily.
It's a lot of uh excitement inthat area.
New orleans you got, you know,everything you want to do, plus
you got the course.
So hopefully that'll besomething in the future.

(45:40):
And you can't forget aboutdancing rabbit you know, that's
dancing rabbit.
That's a little gym in themiddle of nowhere.
You know it's a.
It's a beautiful course.
We got the oaks and azaleas.
The azaleas is kind of mimickedoff of Augusta a little bit
Some stone creeks going throughthe fairway and different things

(46:00):
like that.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
It's definitely a very nice track yeah, I haven't
been out to that one, but I'veheard real good things about it.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
So we had our regional there this year and, um
, no, I'm sorry, it was at ourown waverly and, like I say, we
got, we've got on waverly.
You can't go wrong with either.
Moseo.
We played that as a regionalthis year, me and, uh, jason
from mississippi, tour directorboykins, yep, um.
So we've got some nice tracks.
You know I enjoy them andespecially around the coast.
Jason's got a good bit of nicetracks as well because of the

(46:34):
casinos and a few other things.
Keep them very, very nice.
But the favorite one probably Iwould say would be, yeah, I
would say Cachata would probably, or Tamaka would be one of my
two favorites on this track.
You know, on our schedule thisyear, awesome.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Well, JP, thanks so much for spending some time with
us tonight.
Good luck tonight.
I know you're going to go homefull and hopefully not broke,
and we'll see you here in acouple weeks.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
All right, thanks for having me, fellas.
And remember, go LA South, babywe coming to Hilton Head.
So y'all get ready, remember,go LA South, baby we coming to
Hilton Head so y'all get ready,All right buddy, take care, have
a good one, tim.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Another great interview with another tour
director.
It's just great to start havingthese guys on and ladies, have
them on and get to know them andhave you know our whole Golf
Week membership.
Get to know these new directors, or these directors in general,
so that in case they do travel,they know who their point of
contact is and who they're goingto see.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
We've had some of his players on.
Obviously the winners are theregionals, but we've had some of
his other players onperiodically.
But it's good to have a tourdirector come on and talk about
things from the touristperspective, the courses and
things that they're doing to getget players out to national
championship and uh, you knowother things like that.
You know the, you know buildingthat camaraderie.

(47:54):
You know, like he says, theytravel together.
You know they hang out together.
You know when, you know notduring uh tour events.
You know, just like you know alot of the other tours.
But having that come from thetour director itself is, I think
is really kind of shows theculture of each individual tour.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah, for for sure it's.
It's just great to see and, um,you know, best of luck with
them and their and their eventagainst Michigan.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Yeah, absolutely, and hopefully their arms and back
their arms don't fall off andthey can bend their backs Don't
hurt.
So they you know, by the timeSunday of national championship
they can still turn and hit theball.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Right right.
It's a daunting task foranybody.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
if you're trying to do that, yes, speaking of that,
you didn't get my junk when yousent that text to me the other
night, trying to get on Higgs.
Point I didn't Ask Siri.
I mean, she's the only one whoknows anything.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Well, I mean I got great news.
Yeah, I got on Good.
So it's going to be a funlittle trip back and forth.
I'll give you more details whenwe're at the director's meeting
, because I'm super excited andall it took was a phone call.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
When are you playing that?
Thursday or Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Wednesday Early morning.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Okay, well, good luck .
What do you mean?
Good luck Early morning?
I mean I know who's going withyou and that's why I'm saying
good luck.
I mean getting those guys upand getting moving and actually
getting on the boat and gettingout there.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Oh, I'm getting on the boat.
Whether they're with me or not,that's on them, I'll be there.
Okay, me and my wife will bothbe on that boat and if they're
in the car with us, great.
If not, sorry, charlie.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, enjoy.
It's supposed to be really niceout there.
I've never been.
I can't wait directed meetingthat night and you know we're
live.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Wednesday night too.
We're live Wednesday night.
We're live Thursday night,isn't this shoot?
We might go live Friday,saturday, sunday.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
We'll play it by ear no, no, not Sunday, not Sunday,
not Sunday.
No, I'm not doing anythingSunday, it was Sunday.
We're we're busy Sunday you'renot wrong we're busy.
We're busy, but we do need totalk about.
I mean, wednesday night we goon after the tour director's

(50:13):
awards ceremony, so there's notime for that.
I mean it, we start when theyend, right?

Speaker 3 (50:20):
well, you know, I do need to probably talk and we're
not staying on as long as we didlast year either no, because I
didn't get any cheesecake lastyear either.
No, because I didn't get anycheesecake last year we didn't
get any dinner last year.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Have you seen me?
Do I need dinner?
I need cheesecake, yeah, yeah,well, anyway, but we do need to
decide what time we're going onon Thursday, and you and I
should talk about it and we'llput that out in the next episode
, so everybody's aware.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Yes, yes, and when we are on there, come say hi.
When you come, check in early,get your welcome package, come
say hi.
We'd like to shake everybody'shand and get as many people on
as we can in a decent time frame, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
I do have to thank all of our listeners again.
We got a really good questionfrom Jeff Pond from the Columbus
tour a little over a week agoand you and I have been going
back and forth on it and we'vekind of gone back and forth with
that a little bit as well.
And let me pull up what theactual question was, that way we

(51:25):
can read it and everybody canhave some understanding of what
he's talking about.
I've been in B in B flight allyear, 13 tournaments and just
took over first place with onetournament left.
I shot 79 and moved to A.
What's your opinion?
To lose all B points andbasically be shut out for player
of the year?
I have not played in anytournaments as an A player.

(51:45):
I agree I should play the lasttournament as an A.
Should I skip the lasttournament?
Number one, jeff, do not skipthe tournament.
Go out and play.
I mean, that's part of you knowat least.
My philosophy is you go out andyou play and chips fall where
the chips fall, when you scorewhich you score and you move up.
And first and foremost,congratulations on being moved

(52:07):
from B flight to A flight.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Right, but that's the main thing.
It means that you're gettingbetter, you're playing better,
you know and you're playing thebest you can, regardless of what
happens, and unfortunately youknow where the chips fell.
They may not have been in yourfavor as far as point trace is
concerned, but I mean, that's aline that every player goes
through when they're close togetting to that new handicap

(52:32):
level and if you stop playing,you're going to lose points and
you're not going to have achance.
If you keep playing the bestyou can, it means you're getting
better and in my opinion,that's a win in itself.
I've told you guys before,especially in this episode, my
goal is to get to a eventuallychamp and if I don't challenge
myself then I'm never going toget there yeah, and, and we

(52:56):
definitely understand thefrustration of losing the points
and being bumped up.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
It happens every year .
It happens every year.
To it, at least from from myperspective, happens every year
to at least one person in one ofmy flights, every year.
Right, right, it doesn't reallymatter and I get the
frustration.
It's a hard issue to solve.
You have to be bumped up soyou're no longer in that flight.

(53:23):
You're no longer in that flightand you know, trust me, you
know we've had these discussionson a regular basis.
You know as tour directors, youknow with the national office,
on a regular basis, on anongoing regular basis.
So, it's not like we just made adecision here and let it go.

(53:44):
You know we're always trying tofind, you know, ways to make
the player experience the bestthat it can be.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
And in this scenario there really isn't a good option
, right?
And I mean, look, you have toput the other shoe on as well
and understand if you were theguy in, let's say, a-flight
that's been leading all year andall year and you've been
playing A-flight all year, andthen a guy who gets bumped up at
the end of the season takes hispoints race away because he had
more points in B-flight thanyou did in A-flight.

(54:22):
I mean, how's he going to feelat that point?
He's been working his tail offin the flight all year and
somebody that just got bumped uptakes it away from him.
So I mean it's a lose-lose onboth sides.
But I would personally say, youknow, take it as a win that
you're getting better, thatyou're playing better, and you

(54:43):
know, ultimately it's going tobe a new challenge to hopefully
you can succeed in this newflight.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
And know that us, as tour directors, are continually
talking to find ways to improveon what we're doing and make
things better.
I just don't know that this isone that there really can be any
change.
I mean, obviously, we talkedabout it, but you know we'll
have to wait and see whathappens.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
It's tough and, tim, I mean the tour has been around
for 30 years and I'm pretty sureit wasn't perfect at the
beginning.
Some people might think it'snot perfect now, but at least we
can say we're having theseconversations and eventually,
soon something will come out.
I mean, I've been a directorfor seven years and I know we've
had so many conversations thatwe've seen progress in in
different areas and sometimes itworks out, sometimes it doesn't

(55:30):
, but at the end of the day it'sthe trial and error that we're
doing to make this tour the bestfor everybody.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Absolutely, and the majority of these changes that
are coming through actuallyoriginate, you know, from UL's
players and come up through tourdirectors Right.
Then they're brought to tourdirectors across the country you
know through the nationaloffice, you know, to see what
what the consensus is.
So it's, there's ongoingconversations and and we're

(55:56):
we're obviously open to makingchanges to make things better.
We make we pretty much makechanges to something every year,
right, chris?
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
Yeah, we, we do, and most of the time it works out.
So we appreciate you askingthese questions.
We encourage anybody else thatlistens to definitely send us
questions, because that's howthose conversations start, and
if you keep it to yourself andalways wondering, guess what's
going to happen, we can't startthese conversations and next

(56:25):
thing you know you're going tobe upset about it for years, but
yet nobody knows what's goingon.
The only way we can get betteras a tour is by our members, you
know, telling us how we can getbetter or giving us suggestions
.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
So keep it up and, jeff, hopefully we'll see you in
Hilton Head in a couple weeks.
Come by, sit down, have a talkwith us.
Love to have that chat.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Definitely I I'm not opposed to it.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
And Chris, you know, we we did something we hadn't
done before.
You know, just a few days agodid the Facebook live with the
seeding of our of our shirtcontest, of our eight monthly
winners, right, it was to.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
it was great.
It was great.
There was some people on theback end that weren't happy with
us for a couple of times, but Imean, just like our first
podcast episode, it's a work inprogress.
It was fun.
I mean, I'm already lookingforward to next year's seating
and see what we get, and there,with a you know, voting's out.

(57:31):
We've already gone through asthis podcast, this episode,
comes out.
We've already gone throughround one, so congratulations to
those winners.
Um, there's some blowouts andthen there's some tight races.
If, if you weren't payingattention, you missed out.
But uh, voting for round two isup and uh, get your votes in,
because I know they all need itand we want you all to help us

(57:52):
decide who is, or who had, thebest shirt of the year.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Right, and don't just vote for one of the contests.
I mean, you can vote forsomebody in each of the
head-to-head matchups.
You know, chris, that's onething that I don't know, if you
looked at it.
Some of the head-to-headmatchups you know, chris, that's
one thing that that I don'tknow, if you looked at it.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
Some of the head-to-head matchups, people
weren't voting in all of them,they were only voting in and
maybe one or two of them right,right, go get in there and look
at all of them and and give themall a vote, yeah, because, uh,
your vote counts it does.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
This is one place where your where your vote
counts.
Why did I go in there?
Why did I go in there?
Everybody only gets one votefor a head-to-head matchup.
For sure, there's no briberygoing on.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
And this is really important stuff.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
This is really important stuff, right here.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
Right right.
They tried to do bribery withgetting strokes taken away and I
don't know how that's workingout, but can't have that around
here.
It's not going to happen allthe time.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Well, again, we appreciate everybody's support
on that and hopefully you'veenjoyed it throughout the season
and we will have a winner herein just a couple weeks.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
Yes, and losing a little weight here, but I can't
wait to see if I get a shirt.
We're going to have them on thewelcome show for sure.
Regardless of who it is, theybetter be there.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Yeah, they got to show up.
That's part of you know.
It's kind of like Miss Americayou know you win and you've got
duties.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
Yep Win.
Whether you like it or not, youhave appointments you need to
make to and, yeah, we expect youthere With a shirt on or you
won't get checked in.
How about that?

Speaker 2 (59:37):
See what happens.
Oh boy, this is fun.
So we're both wrapping up ourseasons.
This coming weekend.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Give me a wrap up of your thoughts on your season in
El Paso.
It was fast, I think it wasfast.
I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed seeing everybody outthere again.
I enjoyed meeting all the newmembers we got.
We got a good handful of newmembers.
I really loved it.
People bringing guests, Courseswere always in great shape.
I enjoy traveling and hangingout with you for a couple events

(01:00:13):
and having those stories thatwe'll have.
I enjoyed it.
It was great.
It was quicker than I thoughtand, like you said, as we scroll
down and do registrations foreach tournament and as you get
to that bottom of that list,you're like man, this season's
already over with.
I'm ready to go.
So we're at that point now, youknow, got my tour final coming

(01:00:35):
up two-day event and then rest,recover and on the nationals.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
How about you?
Well, before I get to that, youknow you brought up the whole
idea of traveling together andit was great, and I've been
given some inside information.
Oh, we're gonna have a goodtime next year.
I'd like to hear that.
I'm just gonna put it there.
All right, I'll just leave itat that.
You're, I'm just gonna leave,I'm just gonna leave, okay, okay

(01:01:07):
.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
I mean, the last time we did this to me, it ended up
being what we had this year.
So if it's anything like that,I'm excited.
I'm really excited.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
So we'll leave that there.
But you know, wrap up for ushere in Atlanta again went by
very, very fast.
It's almost like, you know, yousnap your fingers and it's over
.
You know, for me things are alittle bit different.
You know, because you know Idon't necessarily, I don't
really live in Atlanta anymore.
So when I go, so what I?

(01:01:38):
When we do these tournaments andI go in and I see the guys,
it's tournament day is the bestday of the week.
Right, because I, you know I'mseeing them.
You know, before, when I livedin Atlanta, I saw them a lot
more and tournament days werestill fun, it was still great.
But when, when you roll up onSaturday, you roll up on Sunday

(01:01:59):
and you get everything set upand guys start coming in, that
is truly the best.
You know the, you know the bestday of the week, and it goes by
so quick you don't even thinkabout it.
You know you hang out withthese guys.
Now the season's over, you'llsee them in a couple weeks in
the national championship andthen that's it for you until the

(01:02:19):
next season.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
Three months, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
You know, you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
I can see that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
You know you, and El Paso, you see your guys.
For the most part.
On a regular basis.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
I mean yes and no, I mean some guys, yes, but you
know we'll keep in contact and,like Jordan, sends me memes at
least like 10 times a day.
It's worse than some people, Iknow.
But yeah, you have the groupsthat you're always staying in
contact with.
And then you have the othergroup, where they may not be

(01:02:54):
from El Paso, las Cruces, theymay be from Truth or Consequence
that we talked about RightAlbuquerque.
We have guys from Alpine,billy's from Alpine.
He comes and drives three hoursa week.
We've got people from Odessa,midland that come out and play.
So it's nice to see them everyweek and, like you said,

(01:03:15):
tournament day is a fun day tobe able to see all these people
and get to catch up and see howeveryone's doing.
So I can understand that, butwith you it is different because
you aren't there except for oneday out of or two days out of
the month.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
And you celebrate wins, right.
And a win may not be just atournament win.
A win could be somebody's firstbirdie.
A win could be, you know,getting moved up.
A win could be a career round,Right, you know, all those
things that are wrapped intotournament days.
It's what makes it, you knowagain, the best day of the week.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
And then you got to take three months off.
Yeah, I don't know about you.
You know, as a director, whenwe're doing awards and a guy has
a career round, you know, oh,the next C-Flighter.
You know your D-Flight champion, Joe Schmo, and getting
everybody riled up for that isfun because you know, like you
said, they have a career round,or they shoot great, or it comes

(01:04:24):
down to a three-hole playoffand they win with a 30-foot putt
that happens to hit the back ofthe cup and fall in.
Those are the fun times,Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
It's been a great year.
If you know, take away some ofthe struggles right, some of the
struggles with getting coursesand some of the things that we
haven't had to deal with beforethis year, and it's still a
great year, you know it was.
It was still just as fun as anyother year.
You know, it was still the, the, the, the highs of giving out

(01:04:58):
awards, seeing the winners.
We had a hole in one and we weI think we had four regional
winners this year what mostwe've ever had.
We just Atlanta.
We had a really good year, whatmost we've ever had.
We just Atlanta.
We had a really good year.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
That's awesome, but but get ready for nationals,
because that's going to be funin itself, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
But we we got to get more, more El Paso guys out, you
know it, it will.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
I'm working on it, it's hard.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
It's hard, it's not like it's a quick trip.

Speaker 3 (01:05:32):
Yeah, it's not a five-hour drive from Louisiana,
like some people, or a walk downthe main road.
For Tim it's a big trip right.
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
What we have to do is get them to understand how much
fun it could be especially howmuch fun it could be if you
bring your family, or how muchfun it could be if you don't
bring your family.
You know what I'm saying, though, right, I understand.
I understand I'm not saying oneway or the other.

(01:06:01):
I mean, it's just NationalChampionship Week is probably
one of the best weeks of theyear, because of the fun,
because of everybody that'saround, because of the
competition it's.
You know, hilton Head inOctober is a great time to be
here Great weather, good courses.

(01:06:23):
You know, you've been here, youknow.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
Yeah, I know, I completely agree.
I mean, from the first time Iwent um and you had to come back
every year, regardless ofwhether I was a director, not
just because of how much fun itis, I mean, but it's you know.
You make it a trip.
I mean me and my brother havehave done it where we've flown
into charlotte and driven downand played a couple courses
before we got to hilton head, orflown into florida, played

(01:06:48):
Sawgrass and then drove up, youknow, three hours to get to
Hilton Head or Savannah, play acourse there.
Like, there's so many differentoptions you can take.
If you make it a guy's trip toplay some courses that you
probably would never play, thatare bucket list courses, and
still have a great time duringthe tournament, I mean, even
then you know it's a flight ofwhat?

(01:07:11):
Maybe 150, 200 people's just inyour flight, not at the, at the
course itself.
And uh, you know what are yourgoals?
I mean, my goal is to make, isto make the money at least.
But first goal is play thebetter course of the two on day
three.
That's.

(01:07:31):
That's, that's goal number one.
And if you know, if you're onthat course, then you have a
really good shot at making themoney because, yeah, there can
only be one winner, but there's30 guys that make it into the
prize pool, so it's.
I mean that those are mypersonal goals and I think I've
accomplished it all, but oneyear when I got moved up to
B-Flight right before Nationals.

(01:07:53):
But it's, it's still fun and atthe end of the day you play
golf, you go, you have a greatlunch at the headquarters and
then you have the wholeafternoon to go hang out or try
this seafood restaurant or gocheck out this beach, or you
name it Go to Pop's Candy Store.

(01:08:15):
I've already told my wife.
She's got it on the list andwe're going to make it happen.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
Well, one of my goals for you is to have you
interview yourself on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
Yeah, that'd be interesting.
I would really love that.
Honestly, I don't know how thatwould work, but that'd be
pretty cool.
I might have to pull you offthe mic, dennis, hold off on a
flight real quick.
I don't know how much you'dappreciate that.
We'll do what we got to do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
And the good thing is , is your wife coming this year?

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Yes, she is.
She's super excited, she'sgoing to get to meet a lot of
people and she's a littlenervous, but uh, we'll make it.
Have a.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Have a good time yeah , don't tell her, don't be
nervous.
Nothing to be nervous about,right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
I tell her all the time, but she, she is what she
does, what she does.
Nothing I can do about that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
I understand.
Alright, my friend, good luckthis weekend, finish it off with
a bang and we'll talk to yousoon.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
Definitely.
I can't wait.
I can't wait to see how therest of this shirt contest
unfolds and then rest for acouple weeks and head out to
nationals.
Sounds good, bud.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Take care We'll talk to you soon.
All right, partner, be safe,all right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Bye, take care, we'll talk to you soon.
All right, partner, be safe.
All right, bye-bye you.