The Heart of Amateur Golf: Community, Competition, and Camaraderie

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Amateur golf is more than just birdies and bogeys—it's about the friendships, the shared experiences, and the unforgettable moments that happen between the shots. In this episode, Tim Newman and Chris Rocha bring you stories from the Golfweek Amateur Tour that showcase the power of community in amateur golf tournaments.  

🏆 Kevin Odom from Louisiana North shares his thrilling playoff victory at Stonebridge, but more importantly, he talks about the camaraderie that makes competitive golf events so special. He even jokes that his fellow players will be "carrying his coffin one day"—a true testament to the friendships formed on tour.  

🎸 Jeff Helbig, Nashville Tour Director, takes us to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail hosts some of the best local golf tour stops in the country. We dive into the Fighting Joe and Schoolmaster courses, their affordability, and the area's legendary music history—where artists like Aretha Franklin and Bob Seger recorded their biggest hits.  

🔥 Other episode highlights include:  

✔️ Why Louisiana’s golf scene is about more than just great courses—it's about family.  

✔️ The Shoals Regional tournament—an unbeatable opportunity to play championship courses at an incredible value.  

✔️ The importance of supporting our golf community through tough times.  

✔️ The hidden golf gems of Nashville and why its golf scene is a sleeping giant.  

✔️ Fun golf strategy talk, including why aiming for the bunkers (yes, really) might be the right move on some holes.  

Whether you're chasing a trophy or just looking to connect with fellow golfers, the Golfweek Amateur Tour is where competition and community come together.  

📢 Call to Action:  

Don't miss your chance to experience the best in amateur golf competition! Find a Golfweek Amateur Tour event near you and become part of this incredible golf community. Visit AmateurGolfTour.Net to register for upcoming golf tournaments and follow the action! 

🎧 Subscribe and listen to "Golfweek Amateur Tour - The Podcast" wherever you get your podcasts! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Ladies and gentlemen, golf Week Amateur Tour proudly
presents Golf Week Amateur Tour,the podcast talking about all
things Golf Week Amateur Tour,including interviews with tour
directors, players and courseprofessionals.
Interviews with tour directors,players and course
professionals Now here are yourhosts Tim Newman and El Paso Las

(00:41):
Cruces tour director, chrisRocha.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Tim, welcome back.
How's your week been so far?
I know mine's been real tough ahouse full of sickness, but
getting better, getting readyfor our events, but how you been
?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I've been good.
You don't sound real good.
You better get it fixed beforeSaturday, because if you get the
tour members sick then that's areal problem.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Right, right right.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
So I don't really care about you, I just want to
make sure that the players don'tget sick.
No, I think we'll be fine.
I mean, worst case scenario,I'll just get my own cart.
And the good thing about golfis you only have to yell four if
you're hitting into somebody.
Other than that, you don'treally have to talk much.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I do hope you feel better and hope the kids are
doing okay.
And you know, here's the oneperson that cannot get sick and
that's your wife.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Right, right.
She's the backbone.
So we always say like I'll takethe sickness off the boys and
deal with it so that they're notsick, but the second she gets
it.
I mean it's chaos and we can'tfigure out what's left and right
and up and down.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
I know it's crazy how that works.
Sometimes.
You know right.
Maybe you know we could.
We could do everything, butuntil she gets sick we can't.
We can't figure out anything,don't know how to do laundry.
Only thing we can make ismacaroni and cheese.
We eat snickers bars forlunches, um it's it's just not
good.
I'm pretty sure the kids likeit because it's easy food for
them but for us it's just notgood.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I'm pretty sure the kids like it because it's easy
food for them, but for us we'rechickens without a head at that
point.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Exactly.
We do have some serious thingsthat we need to talk about.
Our friend, jay Wendell, passedaway recently.
A lot of people may not knowhis name, but I can tell you one
thing he was a friend of ours.

(02:31):
He's a very good friend andsupporter of the tour.
He is going to be really missed.
And how you would know Jay, justas a regular tour member, is,
if you've ever been to Nationalsand you stayed in a hotel and
you got a hotel discount, almostevery one of those hotel

(02:52):
discounts started with JayWendell.
He has been wonderful for thetour.
It's tragic, chris.
He died unexpectedly, um, and Idon't know if other people know
this and if I get in troublefor saying it, I'm sorry, but

(03:12):
his wife is also dying of cancer, uh, she's um terminal, she,
she's terminal, and the the sadpart is they they have a son
who's a senior in high school,um, and so he's he's in a in a
world of hurt right now.
So, as a tour, if we can keepthem in our prayers and I know

(03:32):
Jen shared a post today inFacebook or a couple days ago on
Facebook about people to donateto help their son and his
college tuition costs and thatsort of thing, but it's a sad
story all the way around.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, it definitely is.
And when you told me you know Ihad to take a moment because it
makes you realize that life isprecious and you never know what
can happen.
Because we talked to him beforeNationals last year and he was
telling us know to go say hi andjust just swing by and say hi

(04:10):
and he would show us around andwith the craziness that national
gets you, you don't really havemuch free time, um, so I didn't
get a chance to go out thereand meet him.
But you know, you always sayI'll next year, I'll make some
time, but you never know what.
What can happen within a fullyear.
So so when you texted me, didthat take a moment to reflect on

(04:30):
that, because that interviewwas fun.
He was super excited with therenovations that they were doing
at the hotel and it's just,it's a sad story all around.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
It really is.
It really is.
And then another piece, and Idon't really want to get into
this too much here.
We'll talk about this in theclosing.
But Jennifer's parents are notdoing well and Dennis and
Jennifer have been in NorthCarolina helping and dealing
with some situations there, somesituations there.
So you know, as you'relistening to this, if you know,

(05:11):
if you sent Dennis or Jenniferan email or you're expecting
some goody bag stuff, pleasejust be patient and they'll
respond and get those things outto you as soon as possible.
But you know again, chris,we'll talk about that later.
Let's talk about some fun stuffyou know we're going to talk to
.
We've got a really good episodethis week.
We're going to talk to a playerwho their first tournament won

(05:32):
a two-day major.
That's a good way to getstarted.
We've got another tour directorkicking off his season recently
.
Stick with us.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
You want to go ahead and bring the first guest in.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
First guest of this episode.
We're glad to have him.
We were talking off air beforeyou arrived about me being sick.
He said come to Louisiana andwe'll fix you up real quick.
I mentioned the story about howwe wanted some Cajun food after
the major and they took us to aMexican restaurant and that was

(06:10):
a little out of left field.
But let's bring our first guestfor this event from Louisiana
North, mr Kevin Odom.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Kevin welcome to the show boy.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Doing great.
And I know, look, I love to eat.
Obviously I love food.
But Cajun food for me is man,it's heaven, I love it.
So, whether I'm sick, whetherI'm not, but if you're sick,
that'll get you cleaned out realquick.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
But, Trey, if you're sick, that'll get you cleaned
out real quick.
I'm just going to go out thereand say I've never in my entire
life been disappointed of GinaO'Neill until.
I heard that she brought y'allto a Mexican restaurant.
We're going to throw that outthere right now.
I'm going to have aconversation with her.
I'm going to say, gina, I loveyou, you're the best tour
director in the United States.
We're going to have to work onyour catering menu, I mean

(07:11):
that's just.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
You know, you're not doing mexican food in louisiana
when we have some northernerscoming down, come on well.
Well, let's be fair with it now.
I mean, we we did go go getmexican, but but we also did get
to take part in in the buffetfood that was there at uh, um,
oh at the trails, yeah, yeah, um, at Tomatco Trails, yeah, and
I'm going to tell you what.
I'm going to go right back to it.

(07:32):
I mean, I love it all, but I'mgoing to go right back to the
bread pudding, because you don'tget true authentic bread
pudding everywhere, but you goto Louisiana and you're going to
get some real good breadpudding, so I'm going to keep
bringing that up.

Speaker 4 (07:50):
Yeah, we do that well , but I'm I'm gonna give her
some grief over the mexican food, and we have good mexican food
down here.
It's a little tex-mex, but I'mgonna give her some grief, I'm
gonna.
Gina, this is the first timeyou've ever disappointed me, and
that's it's been a lot.
I've known her for a long time,so uh, anyway, well, let's
throw chris under the bus forthat.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
for even bringing that up, hey that's a fond
memory.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
You know it was Taking second place B-Fly.
You know first place in theSkills Challenge and then going
to Mexican food in Louisiana.
It's a story that you can'tjust miss.
The punchline on that one.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
That's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
But that was.
I mean, gina did a really goodjob with that regional last year
at Tumaca Trails.
Tumaca Trails, you know, tookcare of us.
Gina did a great job.
It was a heck of a lot of funthere.
I'll tell you that right now.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Yeah, so Tumaca is always on our schedule every
year.
It's always in good shape.
They take care of us as a tour.
You know Gina just does such agood job at every tournament.
I love her like family.
Everybody on the tour does.
It's just one of those thingsthat every I is dotted, every T
is crossed, and then they alwaysmake sure that our tour is

(08:57):
taken care of at the tournamentsthat we're at or the courses
we're at.
Yeah, Tumaca's a good one.
I'm glad y'all got to see thatone.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
yeah, me too.
What I'd actually like to do isget back there another time
when we don't have, when we'renot doing the podcast, and we
can actually have a little bitmore fun with everybody that's
here, because there's got to besome level of professionalism

(09:30):
for afterwards, as opposed todoing all the Tim Tim when in
Louisiana when in Rome you know,

Speaker 4 (09:40):
I mean Tim at least I'm there and we won't go eat
Mexican food, you know make sure.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Hey, at least our podcast was in the clubhouse,
not in the men's locker room.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
OK, so that's true, we're one step ahead.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
So, kevin, you started the 2025 season off
right?
I mean, you guys had a two daytournament there this past week
at stonebridge and, uh, you wonin the playoff.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
tell us about that yeah, it was, man, it was fun.
I mean it's you know, it's myhome course.
Uh, you know I felt good cominginto it, been playing some
really good golf, uh.
Uh, you know, the first dayfirst day was, you know, it was
kind of a grind, like it is inthe first day of every major
tournament and you kind of tellyourself it's a marathon, don't
do anything stupid, keepyourself in it.

(10:28):
I missed a lot of short puttsthe first day.
The greens were slick, I mean,they were fast, but I was one
shot back after day.
One Never looked at thescoreboard the whole time, was
kind of hanging around all day.
It was a shotgun start.
I was on three, uh, birdied 16,17, part 18, which is a tough

(10:49):
hole, and, uh, you know, hit itright down the middle and one is
like you know what, let's takea look at the scoreboard and see
what we need to do, which is,you know, just the Achilles heel
and had a three shot lead withbasically one and a half to play
and go double bogey, bogey.
You know, because I am whatthey refer to as an amateur
golfer and it was just didn'tmiss very much all day and I saw

(11:12):
that I was like you know, andno, you know, I hit a putter
from 40 yards out on one shot.
And after I won in the playoff,one of the guys came up to me.
He's like dude, what were youthinking?
Back there?
I was like I wasn't thinking, Ididn't know what was happening.
I blacked out, you know.
But no, I mean it was fun.

(11:32):
We went to the playoff with twoof my really good friends,
really good golfers, hit three,one of the toughest holes out at
Stonebridge, dead in the wind.
You got to go over one waterand then on your shot to the
green, another water.
It's just a really tough hole.
Uh, just hype, three gooddrives in a row.
Uh, ended up, you know, winningin the playoff.

(11:52):
But, um, you know it was socool about our tour it was the
guys in my group.
After I made double bogey withyou know, two to play, they're
like dude, just just you knowtwo to play, they're like dude,
just you know.
Just make birdie on the lasthole, you're good.
You know the guys in my groupwere cheering me on.
I knew they were out of it.
So they're cheering me on, youknow.
Then we go to the playoff and wehave a three person pop.
There's 50, 60 people aroundthe green.

(12:14):
You know they're all watchingthe playoff and every time
somebody hits a shot, you knowthey're.
You know it doesn't matter whohits it, they're like you know,
it's just, it's, it's just somuch fun, right, I mean it's um,
I think it starts with Gina.
She's everybody's cheerleaderand then that filters down to
everybody on the tour which allof a sudden becomes I'm cheering

(12:35):
for these other people.
Uh, you know, playoff hole.
Um, I hit my tee, shot down themiddle.
The guy that I'm playing withone of my close friends named
john wilson great golfer, reallygood golfer uh, hit his tee
ball, got a bad break, hit thetree, you know, threw it out of
bounds and uh, he comes up.
He goes hey, man, just go go upthere, hit your ball.

(12:56):
If you knock it on the green,I'll concede.
You know, of course.
You know they were like look,you know, technically you're out
, so either you can concede oryou can go re-tee.
He's like well, I'm going to gore-tee.
So he re-teed and hit it downthe middle, knocks it on the
green.
I knocked mine on the green, sowe're pulling up.
He goes, man, he's like it'sgood.
He's like let's just pick themup.

(13:17):
I said, buddy, I said, look, I'mnot 15 footer and I three put
my 20 footer, which I three putthis weekend more than once.
Yeah, we're going back to thetee box.
You know what I do.
That's why I love you.
Let's finish it out.
And he missed his not to put.
So, man, it was just a goodweekend, had some things go my

(13:39):
way and it was a lot of fun.
You know, that's one of thethings I love about this tour is
there's people that I met fouryears ago on this tour that will
probably be carrying my coffinone day.
You know, I mean, that's whatthat I didn't know before this
tour.
So it's just, you know, it'sjust a good time, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
You know, it's so true in those things that you
said I don't want to think aboutcarrying anybody's coffin, um,
but but but you're right.
You know the, the, the peoplethat you meet really do do
become family and and and again,like Gina, you're not the first
person that has told us thatthat Jean is everybody's

(14:16):
cheerleader, I mean.
So that's, I mean we.
We hear that all the time.
Um, you know from from players.
You know whether it's from fromyour tour, or people that have
gone and played, you know, atone of your events, or Gina and
Trey have gone to play in otherevents.
That's, that's who they are andit's it's, it's what you should

(14:39):
know is it's not just you guys,it's that, that's who Gina is
all the time and and peoplenotice that and that that says
some.
That says a lot about who Ginaactually is, you know, as a
person.
It's not fake, it's not just ontournament day in Louisiana
North, it's, it's everywhere shegoes.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
No, I, I can definitely, you know, validate
what you're saying, because whenwe were at at the regional, you
know, and I was in contention,the other three guys that
weren't in contention in mygroup were kind of cheering you
on, uh which you know, I'm not ascoreboard leader or scoreboard
watcher, but when you havethree guys cheering you on, it's

(15:17):
like all right, there'ssomething brewing here, um, and
I mean even with gina, like theplayoff we had at nationals for
the tour director cup, I meanshe was out there on the hill
and her bright orange get upthat she wears, and it's like,
gina, you better move, becauseif I, if I top this thing, it's
going right at you.

(15:37):
So either you're quick or we'llsee what happens.
But I mean, even then, you knowshe's the loudest screamer when
you hit a good shot, and it'sjust awesome.
And she was regardless of whereshe took us out to eat.
It was a top-notch tour,top-notch event.
And, like you said, tim, I'dlike to go back again.
I got to enjoy a little bitmore than you as far as being

(15:59):
able to be myself on the golfcourse and then have to put the
professional podcast hat on when, when the cameras were rolling,
but, uh, it was fun.
Minus the humanity, though.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
when, when, when, me and my wife walk out of the here
we go to the airport and we goat the same time.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
It's a little different, but uh, I had a good
time, okay, but I don't thinkthere's ever been an episode,
and we're 60 deep now that Chrishasn't complained about the
weather no there's been a couple.
There's been a couple.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
It's too hot it's too cold, it's raining it's windy.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Well, I mean, I was born and raised here and it does
get a little humid down here,but just bring a shirt to change
into and you know you're goodto go.
Shirt, socks, undershirt,underwear, you know whatever.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
So were you paired with either John or Steven, you
know, during the second round,or were they together and you
were in a different?

Speaker 4 (17:03):
group.
So here's what's crazy is theywere paired together ahead of me
, they were in the group aheadof me, they finished one, oh,
and they knew they had a oneshot, or they were one shot
behind me.
Uh, and the hole that Ifinished on is our number one
handicap hole and and I mean youknow, and so my guys, we get on
the t-box.
I'm like kevin, you got a oneshot lead dude, you got this.

(17:23):
You've been piping.
I'm like Kevin, you got aone-shot lead Dude, you got this
.
You've been piping it all day.
Just hit it up, killed my teeshot.
One of the best shots I hit.
One of the best drives I hitall day until we got to the
playoff, the three playoffdrives, guys, I hit drives I've
never hit in my life.
End of the win.
John Wilson looked at long I'm,I'm, I'm amped up.

(17:47):
You know, I'm just, I'm ampedup right now.
He said I don't know what'sgoing on, but you need to back
it down.
I'm like no, dude, but but.
But on the last hole, I mean Ihit it right down the middle.
You know I'm sitting in themiddle of fairway, you know,
it's just a, it's a little.
You know driving range eightiron and I hit the ugliest snap
hook eight iron you've ever seenin your life.
Left of the green.
And John and Steven they'resitting on the back of the green

(18:09):
because they know that I'm oneshot ahead of them and they're
just sitting there watching.
They want to know what's goingon.
I hit one of the best pitchesI've hit all day long for about
30.
I was 30 yards left of thegreen.
That's how bad of a snap hook.
It was Wow.
And I, the green.
That's how bad of a snap hook.
It was wow.
And I lock it up there threefeet from the hole and I'm
walking out.
I got my chest poked out, youknow, I was like.
I was like and john looks at meand he's like yeah, he's about

(18:32):
to make this, because that'swhen they sit around you.
That's kind of what I do.
I'll miss it a hundred times ifthey're not there, but if
they're there, there's a goodchance it's going in and, uh, I
hit the putt, I go to get it outthe hole and it rims out and I
miss it.
And they stand up and john waslike was that kind of a jerk
move?
I was like nah, dude, you didexactly what you need to do to
get to that next tee box.
So let's go do this, you know.

(18:53):
But uh, I mean it was, you knowit was, it was fun.
You know it was fun.
It was nothing but laughs anduh, uh, but yeah, that was, that
was the last hole.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
That was kind of how it ended oh, that's awesome
again being able to be to be inthose situations and have the
pressure, but have the fun, havethat camaraderie, you know it's
, it's what keeps coming backevery week, right so there's,
there's, there's actually a, ad-flighter.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
Her name is Tracy Ryan.
It's her first year on the tourand she won her flight this
year in her first tournament byone.
She won her flight by one.
And I looked at her and I saidare you hooked?
And she goes, oh, I'm hooked.
She was like this was so muchfun.
Like at one point she had aneight-shot lead and she looked
at the scoreboard and then kindof went the other way.
After she looked at thescoreboard she's like why did I

(19:45):
do that?
I was like don't do that againand uh, but she won d flight.
She came to me it's her firsttrophy she's ever won and she's
like I'm hooked, I'm absolutelyhooked.
So you know, it's justsomething special, you know
that's cool.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
That is awesome.
That I mean to to win yourfirst time out.
That's pretty awesome, yeah.
So, tracy, congratulations, godbless you.
You got to do it again Now.
You got to go for two in a row,right, and now the pressure's
on.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Right, I mean, you can't win them all if you don't
win the first.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Exactly, Exactly.
So what's your favorite coursethat you guys play on a regular
basis?

Speaker 4 (20:26):
On a regular basis.
Man, I love, I mean, the nicestcourse that we play in, the
toughest, which I've neverplayed well on.
I've never had a, you know, topfive finish at Mystic Creek
over in.
It's actually an Arkansascourse that we travel over to.
It's beautiful, but I mean meantamaca is just so good, it's

(20:49):
always good.
It kicks my butt, you know itreally does, but it's, it's
always in good shape.
The fairways are always good,the greens are always good.
Um, oak wing and links on thebayou in, uh, in alexandria,
they're both just always good.
Um, I mean they just.
I mean they do a really goodjob of picking up courses that

(21:09):
are that focus on, at the veryleast, making sure the greens
are good.
You know, and that's, you know,that to me that's what's
important, right?
I mean, if, the, if, the if, ifthe course is in good shape,
great, I love it.
But if the greens are good,that's all I really care about.
I want to be able to put onsomething that's smooth and true
.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
That's what really affects the play, more than
anything else anyway, right.
I've heard Trey and some of theguys talk about Oakwing a lot.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Well.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Trey likes.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Oakwing, because I think that's his only win.
So you know well, Trey likesopening because I think that's
his only win.
So you know, I gotta say that Ilove me some, uncle Daddy I
mean, that's what we call him,uncle Daddy he's fun to hang out
with too, that's for sure.
He's as good as they come.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
I don't know if it's a Louisiana hospitality thing.
You know because my brotheralso lives in Louisiana.
He lives down by Fort Polk inDeRidder.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
I don't know where that is, yeah absolutely Armpit,
you know, middle of nowhere.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
I don't know why he lives there, but God bless him.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
Well, that's the armpit that uses deodorant.
So there's another armpit,that's the armpit that uses
deodorant.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
So there's another armpit, but but everybody, I
mean I don't think I've run intoanybody in Louisiana that that
is not hospitable and nice andand you know all those things
that that we that is traditionalfor for being down South Right,
but you actually have that inLouisiana and that's just true.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
So from my perspective anyway, I appreciate
that and I really I feel likewe try to do that when people
come visit us, you know fromother tours and we have people
that come over from the Arkansastour.
We had several from theArkansas tour that came and
played in the opening season,major, and you know they just
they're like you know, it's justkind of a different feel.
You know you, you know we, youknow it's really it.

(23:10):
Our tour is a family.
Gina says it all the time You'refamily, we're family, you know
you, you, you celebrate whenthings are good with each other,
you hurt with each other whenthey're not.
But it's, it really is a familytour for us and I think the
people that come in we treatthem the same way because we
want them to be a part of ourfamily.
And I think, like you saidearlier, one of the best things

(23:33):
I think I've heard you say allday and you said a lot of really
good things, but with Gina it'snot fake, right?
I mean what you see is what youget and it's true and it's real
.
And I think that translates tothe rest of our tour.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, I think so too, Because you know I've talked
about this, chris, with you alot.
You know we get a lot offeedback from other players
about tours and I've never heardanything bad about Gina ever in

(24:05):
Louisiana.
North.
Never not once, except Mexicanfood, that's not bad.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
And I just count what Drew says anyway, I'm texting
her as soon as we get done withthis.
I'm like how could you?
And I'm going to put a jalapenoemoji.
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
She's going to be mad at me.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
You're going to get me in trouble now she's going to
be mad at me.
You're going to get me introuble now.
Well, she's going to get me.
She's going to get me.
I'm within slapping distance.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Give us your best safe for public consumption.
Story about something thathappened on tour Sure uh,
non-consumption story butsomething that's safe to be put
out on on the podcast.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Okay, um all right, well, let's go with this.
Uh, so the first, the first, uh, man there's.
So there's so many I could give.
We're going to okay.
So so the first, the first winI ever had on tour it was four
years ago.
A guy that I was riding with.

(25:13):
We met that day.
Gina's like hey, you're goingto love this guy.
His name's Justin Rushing.
Fantastic guy, You're going tolove him.
He's going to ride in your golfcart with you because it's
Stonebridge.
He shows up and it was my firstyear on tour.
I was trying to make friends,didn't really know anybody, and

(25:35):
I said, hey, the big white golfcart is lifted, Going to have
free, uh, uh, fireball shotsbefore we take off.
You know, just, you know,trying to get people to come out
.
He's the only one that showedup and he was riding with me and
we got a little over served onthe fireball shots.
I won.
I won the tournament.
Um, I got the trophy, drank abeer out the trophy and then
lost my gift card.

(25:55):
That that, uh, you know that I,that I won from winning the
tournament.
I had to get my wife to comeget me.
She was so disappointed.
My kids were so disappointed.
Um, but fat flash forward fouryears.
Um, because he he had to dropout of the tour for a little bit
of job change and young kidsand other things Flash forward
four years.
And he rode with me at thetournament this past weekend.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
How was?

Speaker 4 (26:18):
that.
And day one he shows up andhe's like Fireball.
I'm like, why not, let's go?
So we did it again this time.
Like I said, I haven't seen himin you know, three, four years
and you know, here we are again.
I don't know.
That's probably the best storyto tell that you know I got a
little tipsy and lost my giftcard, but you know.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I thought you were about to say that he had your
gift card and four years laterhe ended it back to you.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
That would have been a much better story, you know,
like, if we could get that, likethat tail end to come back,
because I would love to get thatgift card back.
I think what happened is Ithink I actually used it to buy
everybody in the you know in theclubhouse drinks and just told
my wife I lost it.
But you know who knows?

Speaker 3 (27:04):
We don't know.
Again, that wouldn't be thefirst time or the last time that
happens.
Again, that wouldn't be thefirst time or the last time that
happens.
You would be surprised how manytimes after tournaments I'll
get a phone call from somebodywho gets home and whatever.
They say, well, I had too muchto drink, or whatever.
I can't find my gift card.
Did you give it to me?
I say, yeah, I gave it to you.

(27:25):
Go check your golf bag, gostart tearing everything apart.
It happens all the time.
Everything apart, it happens,it happens all the time.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Yeah, it happens.
Now we did have one.
I hit a hole-in-one in thepractice round and I had to buy
everybody drinks, because if youget a hole-in-one you've got to
buy everybody drinks.
And we stayed up there until 10o'clock at night.
Gina calls me the term issupposed to tee off at you know
eight o'clock, shotgun.
She calls me at you know seven,51.
She's like Kevin, where are youat?
I said I'm looking at you rightnow and I was walking up with

(27:55):
my bag on my shoulder, both my,uh, my shoes in my hand,
barefoot, no socks, and she goeswhat happened?
I said I hit a hole in one.
She goes that makes sense,don't get in the cart Was that
this past weekend?
No, no, no, this was a couple ofyears ago, oh okay, oh, my
goodness.
She's like what am I going todo with you, ko?
I said, gina, only you knowthat's awesome.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
That is awesome man.
So we've talked about Oak Wing,we've talked about Tamaka, but
if somebody could only come toone tournament in Louisiana
North, what If somebody couldonly come to one tournament in
Louisiana North?

Speaker 4 (28:35):
what would it be this year?
Or just in general?
In general, in general, man, Iwould say either Oak Wing or
Tamaka.
I mean they're both Alexandria.
Oak Wing is really good, that'salways in good shape.
I would probably say Tamaka, uh, it's, it's a casino course.

(28:57):
You've got, uh, you know,you've got the restaurants in
the casino.
Um, they're always puttingmoney into the course.
It's always in good shape.
I mean it's a tough course, Imean it's a challenge.
Uh, you know for, uh, no matterwhat flight you're in, doesn't
matter if you're champ abcd,it's, it's, it's a challenge,
you know, for, no matter whatflight you're in, doesn't matter
if you're champ ABCD, it's justa tough setup and it challenges
you as a golfer.
But at the same time it'salways set up well to where you

(29:21):
know it's not the golf course'sfault why you don't play good,
if that makes sense like it's onyou.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Well, kevin, thank you so much for taking some time
with us tonight.
I really do appreciate it.
Um wish you the best rest ofseason.
Hopefully we'll see you inHilton head in October.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeah, absolutely, guys Appreciate you guys.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Y'all have a good night All right, Send best
everybody down there inLouisiana, and and uh don't,
Don't be too hard on Gina andTrey.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
It's getting crawfish season, so y'all need to get
down here soon.
Oh, tell me about it.
See, I just got chills when yousaid that yeah, all right,
buddy, you take care of yourself.
You too, guys, thank you.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
Let's take a break from the show to hear about
Strixon's ZX Mark II irons.
A great iron set needs morethan good looks.
It's got to be fast and got tobe pure, but good looks never
hurt either.
The all-new ZX Mark II ironsfrom Strixon.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Tim, all I'm going to say is Kevin's one guy that I
regret we didn't hang out withat the regional last year.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Yeah, he seems like a fun dude man.
Um, and I I can't rememberwhich movie it is, but it's it's
bill murray's.
He's going around talking, itwas stripes, he was, it was in
stripes and he says I want toparty with that dude.
That's the, that's the guy Imean.
He.
He sounds like he's a fun guy.

(30:50):
Oh, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
It would have been a good time with him, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Big supporter of the tour, and you know, what really
struck me is when we startedtalking about his win, the first
thing that he said wasn't abouthimself, right, which?
Is cool because it was aboutthe D-Flight player Right, which
is cool because it was aboutthe deflate player, right.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
How awesome is that?
No, it is awesome becausethat's the hospitality you get
from that tour.
It's not about me.
We're going to take care ofeverybody and we're going to
have a good time.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah.
So, gina, you know, keep doinggreat things.
Kevin, you know, like I said,if you get to three wins in a
row, we'll start talking abouthaving you on every week.
So you know, chris, go aheadand talk about our next guest.
He's got a regional coming upand we'll talk to him about it.

(31:43):
But the Shoals Regional inAlabama is going to be a good
time.
Uh, the Shoals regional in inAlabama is going to be a good
time and I'm interested to seewhat he what he says about.
You know the, the history, ifhe, if he knows it, or let's
talk about anything about thehistory of the Muscle Shoals
area.
I don't know if you know aboutthis.
That's at one point was, it wasa got a lot of history in music

(32:06):
.
Um, a lot, a lot of old timerecording studios, some of the
some of the biggest names inmusic, a lot of old-time
recording studios, some of thebiggest names in music ever.
That's where they got theirstart and it's in Muscle Shoals.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
That's pretty cool.
I'd be interested in learningabout that.
That's pretty awesome.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Let's go ahead and bring in our next guest, the
Nashville Tour Director.
Thank you very much.
Glad to be here, jeff.
Welcome to the show bud.
You know you've got thisregional coming up and I don't
know if you heard me say it'sgoing to be a good time.
You've got two really goodcourses up there.

(32:40):
But what I mentioned was thatthe history of Muscle Shoals and
the music industry and musicscene there at one point that
was the place to be, if you were.
Oh, absolutely.
If you wanted to be a recordingartist.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
First, a lot of people don't even know where
Muscle Shoals is.
So to give everybody kind of aframe of reference, muscle
Shoals is a city that's rightalong the Tennessee River as it
dips down into Alabama.
So the Tennessee River kind ofcuts Tennessee in a third from

(33:14):
the Memphis side and then theriver turns and goes parallel
along the Tennessee-Alabama lineabout I don't know about 50
miles in and then it goes allthe way over and then cuts back
up through Chattanooga and thenit goes all the way over and
then cuts back up throughChattanooga.
So the Shoals area was a lowarea when it was a river and now

(33:45):
they've taken the TennesseeRiver.
Since the 1940s, after WorldWar II, during the great deal of
improvements in the TennesseeValley area, they put two dams
and the area of Muscle Shoals isnow a lake and you actually
have to cross the dams off amajor interstate or a major road
to get back over to MuscleShoals.
Muscle Shoals is on the southside of the Tennessee River and

(34:07):
there's a county seat of, Ibelieve, lauderdale County in
Alabama, that's Florence,alabama, and Florence Alabama is
the home of North Alabama StateUniversity.
So the golf courses and they'reabsolutely great golf courses,
sit above a bluff that looksdown over the lake.
On a good clear day when you'reout the back of the clubhouse

(34:30):
you can look straight back over,see the other side and lots of
boats and people out having agood time on the lake.
So that's where Muscle Shoalsis Also to give people.
If you're coming in your northside of the state you're kind of
parallel to Huntsville, so ifyou actually fly in, if you're
going to fly in to get to MuscleShoals, you would fly into

(34:53):
Huntsville International Airport.
It's about an hour drive westand you cross I-65 interstate
and you go through a town calledAthens and you go to Florence
and then there's some bridgesthat get you back over to the
Muscle Shoals side.
For people who want to stay,lots of hotel options that are
in Florence, alabama, there's areally beautiful Marriott that's

(35:18):
got one of those circularrestaurants that overlooks the
lake.
Lots of people stay there andthey've got in their bar area
down below.
They normally have a live bandthat plays every weekend and
they're called the Swampers.
Wow, and that's a note back tothe formation of Muscle Shoals
and the music industry in the1960s.
Muscle Shoals and not to gettoo deep into it.

(35:41):
In the 1960s there was a legendin the music industry by the
name of Ricky Hall and he neededto try to come up with
recording studios and a way toget some business going down
into that area of the country.
And so they established a majorrecording studio it's called

(36:04):
Fame Recording Studio in MuscleShoals and they had a lot of set
players that would come in andso they had background music and
people that could perform andthey had some major major
players in the early musicindustry of country music that
came up.
One of the most famous is agentleman by the name of WC

(36:26):
Handy.
There's a park named after himand I'm trying to think of some
songs like Walking in Memphis.
There's a reference to WC Handyand it's really kind of cool.
They have all that still there.
Again, if you're in Florence youwant to go and hear some good
live music, go to the Swampers,which is in the Marriott

(36:49):
downstairs, but there's lots ofother places to stay.
They have lots of hotels, lotsof good restaurants.
Again, the Swampers, therotating restaurant above the
Marriott.
There's one down.
There's a marina.
That's right down as you crossone of the bridges.
They've got a great restaurant.
It's got a wonderful steam potthat I like to get when I'm down

(37:15):
there and if you're in thatAlabama area you've got to try
the Alabama white sauce on yourbarbecue.
So it's really a good time.
We normally do a couple oftournaments out there every year
.
It's one of our majortournaments in the summertime.
I have it scheduled for the endof June, normally for the
regular tour, and we've packedit out.
This year we moved it up forApril to get a little bit better

(37:37):
weather, because sometimes inthat June time frame in Muscle
Shoals it can get a little hot.
Especially one of the coursesdoesn't have a lot of trees
about the biggest thing out.
There's a thistle, uh, but it's, it's.
You know.
It's got a lot of ponds to chumit over the.
I had posted a couple ofpictures where there's some par

(37:58):
threes that you're clearing alot of water, um and uh, but
it's a.
It's a tough track and, uh,it'll lead to some pretty good
play well, tell us about theother courses as well.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
I mean, you've got both.
Those courses are really good.
I mean, that's not even aquestion which is your favorite
course and why out there, andwhich course is going to produce
the lowest scores.

Speaker 6 (38:24):
It's interesting.
Okay, first let me explain tosome folks because this is going
out and a lot of people mayhave heard or have.
It's pretty famous.
It's Robert Trent Jones inAlabama.
There's a little bit of historyto that.
One too is that it wasformulated in the 1990s, I think

(38:45):
they broke construction for theset of courses built, which
would have been around nine, butit was the brainchild of a
gentleman in Alabama who wastrying to find the Alabama
consolidation system for thethroughout the.

(39:07):
So he also wanted to build atourist destination and so he
went to golf and what theydecided to do was to build two,
three, even smaller shortcourses around their major seas
and they started constructionand these are very affordable
public play and they were wellbuilt.

(39:28):
You know we're at 25-yearanniversary coming through now
and as playable now as they havebeen when they opened and
they're fantastic layouts.
And if you've ever been in anRTJ course you have them at
Hilton Head.
They're well done and wellmaintained.
So there's major RTJ golf trailcourses in Alabama in their

(39:50):
major cities.
They've got them from Mobilecoming up the interstate.
They've got three wonderfulones in Montgomery and
Prattville.
Opelika has some that arefantastic.
That's over by Auburn territoryComing up to Birmingham.
There's two different sets ofcourses in Birmingham, but kind
of the hidden jewel is the onethat we get in the Nashville

(40:14):
tour.
It's about two hours fromNashville in Muscle Shoals.
The courses are named theFighting Joe.
And the Fighting Joe is namedafter ooh, I cannot remember.
He's a Confederate general andhe actually he's a general and
the Confederacy dissolves butthen he reaches the exact same

(40:34):
rank in the Union Army after thewar.
So he's well-respected in thearea and they named the course
after him.
Course and, uh, schoolmaster isnamed after um, president
woodrow wilson, I believe, andbecause he was a that was one of
his nicknames, I believe, inpolitics was being a

(40:56):
schoolmaster.
Because he was a teacher, hewould teach people and so that's
where the names come from.
All right, so to just kind ofdescribe the courses uh, the
fighting joe, uh, which if youwere looking out the clubhouse
and the river or the lake, ifyou're looking out the Fighting
Joe, is kind of to the left andit's more open.

(41:21):
It's not a lot of trees You'regoing to have carries.
It actually has the longesthole on the whole Alabama Robert
Trent Jones golf trail.
It's over 800 yards and thegood news is it's all downhill
and the good news is our guysaren't planted at 800 yards.
I believe that's for apotential US amateur and really,

(41:45):
really tough of me.
I'm going to tell you what.
You got water all up the rightside as you get down there and
the green's kind of tuckedbehind the water.
So it's a tough, tough hole.
There's a lot of holes that arelike that.
Another one that I like on theFighting Joe is there's a course
a couple of holes past or, yeah, maybe a couple of holes past

(42:07):
that that has.
It's a par four.
It's kind of short.
It's got a set of bunkers on ahill right in front of you that
you kind of use as the aimingpoint.
But if you look really close atthose bunkers, they're shaped
in the form.
There's five bunkers.
They're shaped in the form of apaw print and that's a

(42:28):
symbolism for a north alabamastate university which is their
mascot, I believe the tigers.
So they they own us to that.
I will tell you this when you'replaying that hole, aim for the
bunkers, aim for the bunkers.
You know it because thefairways to the right you hit it
on that fairway shot.
You're going to end up in somewater.
Just go right over top of thebunkers, um, and then the
finishing hole is not a lot offinishing holes are par threes.

(42:52):
This one is, and boy it issomething else.
You come out, you got the wholelake to the right side and it
is a classic Redan style with.
To the left you've got somebailout area, but you're
covering a ravine which has alittle path that goes down to a

(43:15):
boathouse.
That's at the lake level andthe lake level is well below you
.
So you got to play that thatkind of tough shot.
It's not long.
It's going to play about 150,140 yards, but it's.
It is definitely a little bitintimidating, but it's a great
way to finish a round.

(43:36):
So that's the Fighting Joe side,and again more wide open, not a
lot of trees.
Now the Schoolmaster side,which is again, if you're
looking out from the clubhouse,it's going to be on the right
side.
It's wooded.
It was built a little bitthrough a wooded area that sits
there, so you've got a lot ofshade and that, but you get that

(43:56):
classic park woodland.
And let me say this too thesecourses are in the middle of the
country.
Around them are cotton andsoybean fields.
There's some houses that youcan see off of, I think number
16 on the Fighting Joe.
That's about it.

(44:18):
What else you're going to seeout?
There is farmland and farmtractor supply stuff, so they're
out in nature.
I've played the schoolmasterbefore.
I've seen foxes running acrossthe fairways.
I've seen all kinds of things,lots of different types of bird
species, especially coming rightup over off the lake.

(44:39):
So it's pretty pristine andit's nice to be able to be in a
residential area and get outthere and just have good, like
we all love to do, a good walkin nature with some golf clubs
and hitting a golf ball.
But again, schoolmaster, morewooded, again, some really
really tough holes.
The second hole Par 3, has thisbeautiful waterfall that sits

(45:02):
behind it, so you're kind ofhitting right into that and a
nice overview, and it hasmultiple teeing areas.
Into that and a nice overviewand it has multiple teeing areas
.
You've got some holes that goup under a road and go on to the
other side and then you comeback.
There is the exact same thingin terms of it finishes looking

(45:25):
the bluff on the right side andit climbs up a hill and turns
right the whole way and it's gota nasty false front to it.
So that flag is kind of thatinitial deep into that green.
And for both of these coursesthe greens run fantastic.
They're the hybrids that we'reusing down in the Tennessee

(45:47):
North Alabama area.
They're the hybrids that we'reusing down in the Tennessee
North Alabama area.
They're the champions for thecourses or holes like that.
So they run true and theyreally run pretty fast,
especially under certainconditions.
These two courses are reallygood.
Challenges of golf.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Well, again, like I said, you can't go wrong with
those courses and the price isright too.
Well, that's one of the other$375 to play those two courses.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
One study was especially in my area.
We're getting such a populationinflux into our area really
putting a lot of pressure on thegolf courses and they're
raising rates like crazy.
I think that's happeningprobably everywhere, but these
courses have kind of maintainedtheir rates and kept them down.

(46:36):
Now I don't know what willhappen in the future, but I'll
keep fighting them and saying wecan keep this right the way it
is, we can keep getting thesetournaments and getting our guys
nationally to come on down andplay, because you know, being
earlier in the year, I mean, Iknow some of our tours are just
now starting back up.
You know the Milwaukees and theChicago's of the world.

(46:56):
So, hey guys, hop a plane, flyinto Huntsville, come on over,
and we got two great golfcourses and pretty good weather
in April.
The main thing we have to dodgein April is just rain showers.
Most of the cold weather knockon wood is gone, even though
this winter has been kind oftough on all of us.
Even Hilton Head, you guys gota lot of snow.

(47:17):
Yeah, so we've gotten coldstreaks, but nothing major.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
We got some snow a couple weeks ago and that's
about the worst that we've had.
Yeah, but you can't go wrong bygoing to this regional.
You really can't.
So hurry up and sign up, get ondown to the Shoals and play In
Nashville.
What's going on in Nashville?
What I noticed is and I knowyou guys play here every year is

(47:46):
at the Hermitage but the golfshop.
This is Chris guy.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (47:51):
Chris Bears, he's something else.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
You got to, you got to do something with him.
I mean, I mean, he's what he.
I love the guy.
I mean he's phenomenal Justwatching, watching his reels and
those types of things.
And then I saw him do aninterview a couple weeks ago and
he just seemed like he's just afun guy to be around.
Yeah, he, he's pretty goodgolfer.

Speaker 6 (48:17):
um, he's in the clubhouse.
He runs the the pro shop side.
Um, he's the uh tour tournamentdirector.
He's got other people with himtoo.
But um, he, uh, and for peoplewho have not seen him, you've
got to check it out, check outInstagram or the reels and look
up Hermitage Golf Course.
And one of the things too thisis, a lot of people don't know

(48:39):
Hermitage.
There's two courses andactually tomorrow at 9.30, I've
got a straight tee start out onthe President's Reserve for our
regular tour and we're going tohave a good time.
But if you don't know, 30, I'vegot a straight T start out on
the President's Reserve for ourregular tour and we're going to
have a good time.
But if you don't know, it's wayback in the day and this was
back in the 70s the first coursewas built.
It's more of a Parkland-stylecourse and it's called the

(49:01):
General's Retreat.
Now these are located withinabout five miles of the
Hermitage.
The Hermitage is AndrewJackson's home and so it's
across the street a little bitfarther up and that's why it's
called Hermitage.
So the courses are both namedfor Andrew Jackson.

(49:22):
So you got the General'sRetreat, which I'm not sure
Andrew Jackson ever retreatedfrom and then you got the
President's Reserve.
Now the President's Reserve wasAndrew Jackson.
One of the things when hesettled in that area was horse
racing.
He had a horse racing track butthey had a lot of wildlife in
the area and hunting.

(49:43):
The President's Reserve, whichwe're playing tomorrow, was an
old duck hunting reserve and soa lot of the bridges when you're
going over and it's prettyswampy.
But when you're going over someof the bridges you're going to
see duck blinds out there, lotsof geese out there even now.
So that's why it has that name.
And then the other thing thatmakes Harman's kind of-known is

(50:07):
the owners brought in someblack-faced sheep about 10 years
ago, maybe even longer thanthat, and they have this herd of
sheep and they are.
Whether you think anybody elseowns them or not, they own those
golf courses and they just gowherever they want to.

(50:28):
I take Meredith and Amelia outthere and they always want to go
up to the sheep and they'rereal tame.
You can pet them and everything, but it's their golf course and
they'll wander between bothcourses and just do whatever
they want to do and eat whateverthey want to eat.
And then at night they comeback over to the President's

(50:48):
Reserve side where their mainpens and get their real official
food.
But that's after they'velounged around on the course and
watched you hit a golf ballquite a bit.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
I think that's hilarious.
I really do and I like historyand I talked about the Shoals
and the music history there.
But if nobody's ever been overto the Hermitage, you know it is
home.
They do a really good job ofwalking you through history and
around the property andeverything that goes on now and

(51:23):
went on at that time period.
They do a really good job overthere too.

Speaker 6 (51:27):
I should have also brought up originally the first
course.
The president's reserve wasbuilt about 15, 10, 15 years
later.
Uh, general's retreat, when itwas originally built, when it
was opening, um, they contractedwith the lpga and there was an
lpga event that started there.
Um, one of the stories I givepeople is on the General's

(51:51):
Retreat.
I remember going out there towatch and Ray Knight, the third
baseman for the Cincinnati Reds,was there.
Well, ray was married to NancyLopez and he was walking around
and I started walking to him andat the time I think I was
coaching some baseball orsomething.

(52:12):
We were just talking to have agood time but we were watching
Nancy play and we got to holenumber 11, which is par five.
That runs right along the fenceline which on the other side of
that fence line now is theother course.
But that hole is par five.
We're pretty good tee shot toget it out there.
Then decision time, especiallyfor the ladies, to even try to

(52:35):
go for it in two.
It's a pretty long par five.
Most ladies, even the pros atthat time.
I would never see them evenattempt a shot like that.
Ray Knight and I are up fartheralong the rope line about midway
on that hole and we get upthere and he looked over at me
and goes she's going to go forit Because she had hit a pretty

(52:55):
good drive and she smoked athree-wood and it hit the front
bank because there's waterprotecting all the whole front
and right side of that green.
It hit the front bank andjumped right up onto that green
and I don't think she eagled it,but she got a birdie and it
helped her coming down thestretch for that.
That course hosted that eventfor quite a long time and then

(53:21):
it moved, I think, to the otherside over toward Franklin or the
Legends Club, which is nowowned by Vanderbilt.
They have two courses overthere.
It's some of the better publicgolf courses in the Nashville
area and they've hosted somepretty good events.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah, jeff, I don't think a lot of people truly
understand the quality of golfthat's in Nashville.
It's kind of a sleepy giant.
I mean, there's a ton of reallygood solid horses out there
that nobody has really heard of.

Speaker 6 (53:55):
Absolutely.
One thing though with Nashvillethere's a whole lot of private
clubs.
So we get a lot of privateclubs, yes, and actually we got
some that are getting built.
Real quick story.
An add-in on my senior sideUsually later in the summer we
do an event down in the Memphisarea.

(54:15):
For years we would go down toTunica, which is a little bit
south of Memphis, where thecasinos are.
Most of those casinos have shutdown or moved.
Now there's another casino ornewer one that got built in
Arkansas across the river.
A lot of people go to it now.
But the Tunica National GolfCourse was a great venue and
we've done that event for quitea few years.
But we moved it this year andwe moved it to a course that's

(54:40):
kind of northeast of Memphis inthe Millington area and it's
called Miramichi.
Interesting story on MiramichiMiramichi originally was owned
and opened up and was a prettygood venue, and then Justin
Timberlake bought it and sunk aton of money into it and really

(55:02):
turned it and enhanced the valueof it quite a bit.
Then I think he sold it back toMillington and Millington is
just south of a military townand we're moving our Tunica
event.
We're going to play and I'mpartnering with the senior tour
in Arkansas and we're going todo a two-day event down there.

(55:25):
That's going to be I think it'seither last weekend in August
maybe, or the first weekend inSeptember in and around.
I'd have to look at theschedule.
I don't have it in front of me,but that's when we're doing
that event.
Is another Justin Timberlaketurnaround is he's now bought
property in the Nashville areawith a private club and they're

(55:49):
opening that up.
That should, I think, about ayear.
I think it's under constructionnow and I think it'll open up
soon.
But we've had a lot ofinvestment with private clubs.
Another one is Brant Snedeker's, real big with the Golf Club of
Tennessee, which is a veryelite private club.

(56:09):
Then we've got a gentleman whoowns Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.
If you ever heard of Tootsie's,tootsie's is downtown Nashville,
right on Broadway.
It is a honky-tonk.
Okay.
So for people who don't knowwho honky-tonks are, it's a
small, skinny room.

(56:30):
You walk in.
It's not very big and normallywhen you walk in you come
through those front windows thatoverlook the outside.
That's where the band sits.
They sit and they're facingtoward the audience with their
backs to the people who arewalking on the street and they
sing country music and we've gotquite a few of those and those

(56:50):
were made famous.
Back in the fifties Honky Tonkswere opening up.
Tootsies is one of the originalones and it's so popular now.
They now have opened up theirroof.
They've got a roof skyline thatlooks over, looks to Cumberland
River.
There's a whole lot of fungoing on most of the time and

(57:10):
it's right behind the RymanAuditorium, which was made
famous back in the 50s too as anauditorium where a lot of
performances occurred.
A lot of country music would goto the Ryman and perform, so
you can actually walk out theback door of Tootsie's.
Well, I leave this all to say.
The gentleman by the name ofSteve Smith owns Tootsie's.
Well, he bought one of theprivate clubs that was the old

(57:34):
DuPont plant sitting out veryclose to where I live, and
renovated it and it's a privateclub and they did a fantastic
job.
And now he's even bought somemore, another golf course up in
the middle Tennessee centralarea, up near a lake, and
they're renovating it and thatone is really big into.
They've renamed it.

(57:54):
It used to be called I can'tthink of it Now it's called
Honky Tonk.
I have to look it up, but it'sthe big guy out of Arkansas.
The golfer, john Daly, is realbig friends with Steve Smith and

(58:16):
they've done a lot of videos.
If you look them up you'll seethat I think they had who's the
young guy in the live tour thatdid really well in the US Open?
He's big friends with Bryson,yes, and they've got some videos
where they're having a blast.
You know Daly's driving aroundwith a golf cart that's got a

(58:38):
front trunk full of beer and heeats a whole lot of.
M&Ms and he's smoking acigarette.
But all that connection we'reseeing a whole lot of golf and
golf ideas and things coming outof the Nashville area that have
really, really prompted anupsurge and a lot of play plus

(58:59):
the population movement in.
So if we could build about fiveor 10 more courses, that'd be
great.
Uh, it would house thepopulation.
But uh, we fight for everythingwe get.
We have good courses.
Uh, especially our public side,and uh, enjoy it.
Anybody wants to come down andplay?

Speaker 3 (59:14):
we'd love to have you well, jeff, thank you so much
for for joining us and sharing alot of really good information.
And and again, sign up forShoals.
Don't regret missing it.
And you know, again,nashville's got a lot of hidden
gems.
So again, jeff, thank you somuch for joining us and we'll
talk to you soon.
All right, thanks, guys.

(59:34):
Talk to you later.
Let's take a break from theshow to hear about Strixon's ZX
Mark II drivers.
Z ZX Mark II drivers.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
ZX Mark II drivers are for major players, major
winners, major power.
All new ZX Mark II drivers onlyfrom Strixon, chris, you know.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
I'm glad we got Jeff on and talked a little bit about
the Shoals Regional.
Again, that's really a hiddengem, sounds like it.
The price is right, it's low,you can't beat those two courses
.
And then just the history ofthe area.
If you've got some time, gothey do some recording studio

(01:00:20):
tours.
Go they do some recordingstudio tours.
Just kind of as a just kind ofas an idea.
Some of the songs that wererecorded in Russell Scholes Old
Time Rock and Roll by Bob Segerthat was recorded there.
A bunch of Etta James songs,clarence Carter songs Sitting in

(01:00:43):
Limbo by Jimmy Cliff, hey Judewith Wilson Pickett, aretha
Franklin.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Yeah, do Right Woman, do Right man.
Lots of really good songs andartists came through there and
did some recordings MustangSally, how about that one?
Yeah, that's a good one when aman Loves a Woman.
So, again, lots of good historythere.

(01:01:11):
And the general he was talkingabout was General Joseph Wheeler
Right, joe, that's who it was.
But anyway, again, a lot ofhistory there, a lot of history
up in Nashville, you know.
And Herbert brought up thewhole idea about going to Andrew
Jackson's homestead.
That's a really good tour upthere, let alone, you know,

(01:01:33):
going over to the Hermann's golfcourses and golf shop.
This is Chris, you know golfshop.
This is Chris.
Yeah, I mean Chris.
Yeah, I mean the guy's freakinghilarious.
So you know, if you're in thearea, work for Nashville,
nashville, you should stop inand try and play.
Jeff runs a good tour, a goodtournament, and glad we finally

(01:01:55):
got him on.
It's been we've had him onbefore, but it's been a while,
so glad we could get him in.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
It was a good time talking to him.
I am concerned that he saidthey have white barbecue sauce.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Yeah, you don't disrespect barbecue that way
coming from a Texas guy, that'skind of like having Mexican when
you go to Louisiana.
True.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
True, true, true.
But you know, I'll let himenjoy that white barbecue sauce
and I'll Hopefully one day I canmake it out there.
I'd love to play a course inevery state, so I got to go
there eventually.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
You should do it alphabetically.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
I should what.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
You know, do it alphabetically.
Start with what you know.
Do it alphabetically Start withTexas and go backwards.
There you go.
Oh boy, how's things in El Paso?
I know you had a torment.
Did you get better?

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
I did better.
Yeah, lately we've been gettingdust storms like crazy you can
barely see across the street.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Yeah, that picture you sent me yesterday.
I was like, oh my God.
Yeah, I don't want to be ableto breathe.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
You can't, and I think that's what got me sick.
But it's tough, but it'ssupposed to pass.
Today we have events coming up,some first majors, and continue
grinding, trying to get outthere as much as I can at least.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
So is this like a season, like a dust, storm
season, or is it just they rollthrough and out again?

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
I mean, every once in a while they roll through, but
for the most part it's windyseason, but it's never been this
bad.
I don't know if it's theconstruction around the town
that's causing all the dirt toget loose, but it's been pretty
bad lately, Probably globalwarming.
At least we didn't get snow.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Yeah well, it doesn't bother me'll just stay inside,
chris, I dust, dust, storms,tim's inside snow, inside rain,
inside you know right, but whenthe dust gets through your ac,
vent and yeah, it gets intoeverything oh my god, it's not
fun I don't.
I don't know if I told you aboutthe time we were in.
We were in arizona and we wereplaying it and, of course, and

(01:04:23):
then all of a sudden I can'tremember it, but we were staying
on the 18th tee box.
It was jen and I and we saw itrunning in rolling in and she
said we should, we shouldprobably go.
I said no, we're going tofinish this hole.
It was 18th hole.
We finished it.
You know, drive over to the car, jump out of the golf cart, get
in the car just as it's hittingus and it, I mean it gets in

(01:04:46):
everything.
It gets in through the vents.
Yep, you can taste it, it's.
I mean it gets it got in, Imean it literally got into
everything.
It was disgusting.
I believe you told me thatbefore, but yeah, it gets it's
everywhere, yeah, so well youknow I mentioned earlier about

(01:05:06):
Jennifer's parents and again,you know, yeah, they're doing
the best they can.
You know, give them a littlebit of leeway, they'll get back
to you when they can.
And you know us as tourdirectors, uh, you know, we, we,
we can handle a lot of thethings anyway.

(01:05:27):
So just come through us and,and you know, we'll take care of
you the best we can until they,until they can get back online
and take care of things thatthey need to take care of yeah,
I mean just remember.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
You know, life happens to everybody.
Situations come up and Just gotto respect the time as it is.
But the train will get back onthe tracks, hopefully sooner
Than anyone Would hope for.
But just keep that in mind and,like you said, go to your

(01:05:59):
directors.
I'm pretty sure we can get youthe answer A lot quicker than
going through the support emailand just bear with them.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
Yeah, it'll be all right, but again it is what it
is.
I feel all for them, knowinghow they've been dealing with
this situation for actually fora few years, and it just comes

(01:06:29):
time.
So thoughts and prayers go outto them and they'll get back to
some normalcy, hopefullysometime soon.
Yeah, definitely soon.
Yeah, definitely Now.
Normally, this episode we wouldbe announcing the February
Player of the Month.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
We already know who it is, but we've got to keep it
a secret and he will beannounced on our next episode.
Yes, he will.
I actually have to get in touchwith him and let him know he's
going to be ecstatic about itand generally how this is going
to go, where the original planhow this was going to go was, uh

(01:07:12):
, what dennis is going to choose.
So we take all the identifiedinformation off of the emails
that we get, send them over toDennis he chooses.
And then the original plan washe would come on and announce it
and we would have that playerand their tour director on the
show Because of what's going on.

(01:07:38):
That's why it didn't happenthis time.
Hopefully for the April,hopefully in April for the April
, hopefully in April for theMarch Player of the Year.
We can do that.
We'll just have to modify that.
He will still be choosing them,but the announcement will be a
little bit different.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
If they're still, but we've been getting a lot of
responses for March already, sothat's pretty cool.
Here's the one thing I wouldsay.
But I mean, we've been gettinga lot of responses for March
already, so that's pretty cool,Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Here's the one thing I would say, and I think I'm
going to send out to all thetour directors Be a little bit
more specific, Give us a littlebit more detail of what they've
done.
We've got good responses so far.
Like you said, us give us alittle bit more detail so that
we can truly get into who thesepeople are, and that may be a

(01:08:33):
differentiator as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
So everybody can go out there and help you set up or
ask to to tear down or help youread score cards, but like what
?
What's that one thing thatseparates them from everybody
else?

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
Yeah, so so um, as I, you know, as I think about it,
if, if I were Gina, I wouldnominate Kevin Odom, right, I
mean, and it goes back to whathe said, the very first thing he
said was not about himself, itwas.
It was about a different playerin a different flight and, and

(01:09:12):
championing that, that personand congratulating that person
for winning.
Uh, that's that to me.
So, so, gene, if you'relistening, you know you, you can
submit them if you want.
I would if I were you.
But again, we don't choose,right, right, but those are the
types of people that you knowwe're looking to really
highlight and honor, because, tome, that made a big impression

(01:09:39):
on me, on who Kevin is and whatthe tour means to him and what
he means to the tour Agreed, Athousand percent Agreed.
So well, listen, buddy.
First thing I want you to do isstop being sick and get back to
being awesome.
Thank you, Appreciate it.
All right.
And if you're going to playtomorrow and you're not feeling

(01:10:02):
good, be careful.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
I will, I will.
I have too much running on theline to do something stupid.
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Yep, yep, yep.
So All right, my friend, youenjoy yourself.
All the best to the family.
Tell them to stop being sickand get back to being awesome.
Tell Diane don't ever get sickand always stay awesome.
That can't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Can't happen.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
Can't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
But no, I appreciate it, thank you, I'll let them
know Be safe.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
Take care.
Talk to you soon, yep.
Thank you.