The Zack and Jim Golf tournament

Taking a look back at the Annual Zack and Jim Golf Tournament and the Chris Kyle American Valor Foundation.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, everybody at Zach and Jim, Welcome to our podcast. We called
it off Air with Jim and Zach. It's stories and memories we can tell
off air without getting into a wholelot of trouble. And you know our
podcast, we've talked about our Zachand Jim Travel Club, our trips with
the military, over to our rackand Afghanistan, some crazy stuff how we
started. But you know, oneof the things that stands out over the

(00:21):
years is our Zach and Jim golftournaments. And it started many many years
ago out at James Connolly Golf Course. A young Kenny Duran was out there
in charge and we started with Kenny. By the way, we'll talk with
Kenny later in the podcast. Butwe've had a lot of charities that we
give money to, but the latestcharity that we've had for the last several

(00:43):
years is the Chris Kyle American ValorFoundation. You know, we talk a
lot about the American Valor Foundation,but we really don't get into depth about
exactly what all of it encompasses andwho all they help. And that's why
we have the patriarch of the Kylefamily, mister Wayne Kyle, on the
line of this today. Now,Wayne, I say the patriarch of the
family, but not necessarily the onewho's in charge. That's probably missus Kyle.

(01:06):
Would I'd be correct you, Gott, but you'll just a hired hands.
A lot of folks may know,and maybe there are some that really
don't know. But let me readjust a short little piece here about your
son. Christopher Scott Kyle was theUnited States Navy seal sniper. He served

(01:26):
four tours in the Iraq War andwas awarded several commendations for acts of heroism
and meritorious service in combat. Hehad one hundred and sixty confirmed kills,
was awarded the Silver Star, threeBronze Star Medals with V devices for valor,
a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medalwith V Device, as well as
numerous other unit and personal awards.And I know that's very just a very

(01:48):
short synopsis of your son's life,but maybe you'd like to touch a little
bit more about Chris. Well,one thing that I guess stands out one
thing that you mentioned as far asthe confirmed kills, that was something that
whenever Chris went on TV, radioor whatever, they would always throw at

(02:13):
him. As far as you know, being something amazing. Chris always said,
I don't care about things like that. He said, I would really
like to know how many lives Isaved, exact and that that was the
true Chris. Yeah, Chris wasal. He was, you know,

(02:35):
one of the toughest people out therelike many others, but he had such
a soft heart and he always wantedto give back. He wanted to do
something for those that were less fortunateat what he may be. And that's
what he was doing when he waskilled. He was he was giving back,

(02:58):
he was helping veteran and as aresult of that, that's when Debbie
and I and Jeff got together andtalked about in doing something and we wanted
to carry on Chris's legacy, andthat's why we started the American Valor Foundation.

(03:19):
Now, you mentioned Jeff and theother night at Painting with a Twist,
you told us something very interesting aboutJeff, about the hard times she
kind of went through and give usthat little story and about what Jeff is
doing today. Well, Jeff servedin the Marine Corps and he enlisted in

(03:40):
the year two thousand, got outin two thousand and eight, spent eight
years in the Corps, and asmany of your listeners will know that when
you spend that much time in themilitary and that type of community, when
you walk away from that, it'salmost like you're losing part of your own

(04:02):
family, because your brothers and sistersand arms become your family. And Jeff,
Jeff did good. Jeff is Imean, he's a leader, he's
strong, he's a survivor, he'sa true warrior. But he struggled with
actually finding his niche and did differentthings. But then he got to be

(04:30):
close friends with several of the WacoPolice officers and they encouraged him to apply,
and so finally he did and wasaccepted and now is a Wicco Police
officer and is loving it. Well, that's awesome and just another example of

(04:54):
how the Kyle family gives back tothe community with Jeff serving as a Wicco
PD officer. Wayne's talk about theAmerican Valdor Foundation, Now, what how
what does it encompass? What doyou folks do with the American Valor Foundation.
What we do is, I guesstalk about our mission statement. We

(05:15):
support veterans and first responders and theirperspective respective families, and what we do
is we find out usually by wordof mouth. When it comes to individuals,
you know, a specific need thatmay be out there, and so

(05:36):
what we do is investigate the individualthat has been recommended to us. We
vet everybody one hundred probably one hundredand fifty, and when we're completely satisfied
that they're legit, their needs arelegit, then we determine what we need

(05:59):
to do to help them. Andas far as individuals are concerned, like
I said, we will not presentan individual with a check or money or
whatever. Now, we'll pay theirbills. And what we've done with several
of our Heros Heroes families is thatwe've helped with medical bills. We've helped

(06:26):
individuals who have kids who may besuffering from cancer, things like that,
and have to go through a lot, maybe miss work, and so we
step up and we help with themedical bills, will pay mortgages, we'll
pay utility bills, auto loans,things like that, and we've even paid

(06:51):
off vehicles to help people actually getback on their feet or to continue.
So that's that's basically what we do. Well, once again, we're talking
with Wayne Kyle from the American ValorFoundation. Wayne, is there one story
that stands out of somebody that you'vehelped, um or probably a lot of

(07:15):
them stand right, Well, there'sthere's one. There's one story. I
guess. We Uh, we weremade aware of a family that had a
young sixteen year old sixteen six yearold daughter who was suffering from cancer,

(07:42):
and um, you know, havinga family of our own, we understand,
you know how hard that hits.And so we stepped up and uh
and got to know the family andeverything, and we helped them tremens league
with the medical bills, different thingslike that, and got to be close

(08:09):
friends with them. And that wasoh, six seven years ago, I
guess, and we remained very veryclose friends up to this date. And
the little girl is doing fine.In fact, last year she went she

(08:31):
went back for her five year checkout I guess or whatever they do,
and she was actually certified cancer free. So that, yeah, that was
a tremendous blessing too. And tosee the progress that was made, you

(08:52):
know, with her in her condition, and like I said, just being
close to the family and when youhelp somebody like that and get to know
them, then that becomes part ofyour life. Now. One thing I
think it's important for folks to knowabout the American Valdor Foundation is that there

(09:15):
are probably little to absolutely no administrativecosts, so the money goes where it
needs to go. Yes, wehave no paid employees whatsoever. Everybody is
volunteer. We give We state everyyear that we're going to double our board

(09:37):
members salaries and it's easy to dobecause when you don't pay anybody anything,
you can easily double it. Andso with doing that, you know,
with not having any paid employees,we're able to give back so much of
what we receive and that is great, mister Olive as this, are there

(10:01):
other events that the Chris Call AmericanValor Foundation do throughout throughout the year.
Yes, we have. In fact, next weekend on May sixth, twenty
twenty three, we're going to haveour excuse me, our tenth annual Chris

(10:24):
Column Memorial Benefit. It's a it'san event that we started. It was
the very first event that we everhad once we started the foundation, and
it's an annual event like it says, and I guess it's our biggest fundraiser
and we usually have anywhere from oldlet's say, I think the very first

(10:50):
and we had like one hundred andfifty people and the most we've ever had
is in excess of eight hundred andso we have that every year, and
then we usually have a clay shootin the fall, and then there's there's
other events that we have throughout theyear that people may step up and say,

(11:16):
hey, we'd like to do afundraiser for you and so forth,
and we feel very very blessed thatpeople are wanting to include us and things
like that. Well, I know, we were looking back at a memory
that popped up on Facebook this morningand what gym seven years ago? Six
years ago? Yeah, I could, I can find it here real quickly.

(11:37):
It was several years ago we presenteda check to you guys for like
thirty five thousand dollars. Well,this year we're hoping to maybe double that
amount at our All American Uros golfturner. We hope, we hope.
We're keeping our fingers crossed. Wow, that's awesome. That is absolutely awesome.
And just imagine how many people thatyou're helping and the people that take

(12:03):
part in it are helping. Andyeah, that was two it was two
thousand and seventeen, thirty five thousanddollars. So yeah, we're really looking
forward to more than that coming upthis year. And now, how can
folks get a hold of you?They want to donate, maybe just to
the American Valor Foundation, or maybethere's somebody that's in need of help and
they want you to help them.How do they get in touch with you?

(12:28):
They can reach out to us,to our website American Valor Foundation dot
org, and they can donate.They can sign up for a newsletter that
we do every month. And alsoif they know somebody that needs assistance or

(12:50):
if they are stepping up and sayingthat they need help themselves, reach out
to us at American Valor Foundation atgmail dot com. Thank y'all, appreciate
everything, y'all do so, allright, Wayne Kyle from the American Valor
Foundation benefiting Chris Kyle. Now,we got our general manager of Cottonwood Creek

(13:11):
Golf Course here in Waco, misterKenny Duron, who's the general manager,
the head bottlewasher, he's the guythat goes ball retrievers. Yes, he
cleans up the ball retriever thinking Idon't know. Hello Kenny, Good morning,
y'all. We've been talking about lookingback over the history of the Zakajim
golf tournament and you were part ofthe very beginnings. Yeah, no doubt.

(13:33):
Back at Conley Golf Course over twentyyears ago. Yeah, it brings
I try to think back in olderI get it's harder to think back,
but I remember try to the earlydays, and we were not related or
helping out a military thing. Itwas just four man teams. I do
remember that. And you were sokind to us and so nice to us.

(13:58):
But one of the things that willalways stand out to meet Jim and
Kenny is one year that we andby the way, how many years did
we do it out at Connolly?Well, you are asking somebody with no
well no memory to a lot,but I want to say at least two
or three, right, at leastI think at least Yeah, definitely.

(14:18):
But I remember one thing and Idon't remember the person. But we finished
the round of golf and I thinkwe only had one round. There wasn't
two flights. But somebody went andput their full brand new set of golf
clubs in their bag in the backof their pickup truck, came back to
eat lunch, went out afterwards,and somebody had stolen their golf club that's

(14:39):
the only thing I can remember.I gotta tell you, I've never played
golf so good in my life.After that new set of club. Anyway,
I gave him back. So,Kenny, come a long way.
What year did you leave out atConnolly in two thousand and two? And

(15:00):
and you went straight to Cottonwood Creek? Yes, sir, sure did.
And so you've been there a longtime at Cottonwood. Now, when we
left Connolly, we went over toI believe it was called Heather Run or
Western Oaks, went over there forabout a year and then we talked to
you and we moved it over toCottonwood. We've been there for many,

(15:20):
many years. Tell us a yourthoughts about the Zach and Jim All American
Heroes Golf Tournament. Have we comevery far? Is it bigger and better?
Oh? No doubt. I meanthe number of teams will definitely let
you know that. And then theother thing is the bottom line, the

(15:41):
gosh, the volunteers that come togetherto make the Chris Carle Americans. What
is the American Valor heroic American ValorFoundation, Yeah, American Valor Foundation.
Uh. And to see everything cometogether at the event, especially at the
party, UH, with so manylocal people involved, the sponsors, military

(16:07):
first responders. You know, it'sit's got a special place in UH,
in in our staff's art. Imean, it is truly something that it's
UH. It's different because we've beentogether for so long, and it's different
because you can see the efforts beingrewarded to UH, to some of the
people that benefit from the tournament.And even having to fix all the divots

(16:30):
that Zach has left out there,you still you still have us back every
year. They go through a dumptruck of sand every year for me.
But you know, there's not manygolf tournaments that have a big party the
night before with music and food andcocktails and auction, and then two rounds
two flights in the on Saturday withfood and cocktails and lots of fun.

(16:55):
Really, you get more than thanwhat you pay for entry fee. It's
it's one of the best, uh, no doubt, the best value.
And you get a fifth player,first respond their soldier or somebody that goes
along plays along with your team.You get to share time with them and
UH some of the events to takeplace at the party, the raising of

(17:21):
the flag. I mean, howcan you not get chills with chairs absolutely,
and you know, and then ourspeakers that sometimes we get from Fort
Hood who give us you know,what's going on there. And and then
guys like old Russell Clybert uh whois the last person that I know that

(17:42):
is going to make a presence hopefullythis year. Last World War Two veteran
ninety six. Wow, So he'llbe there. Enjoined the fun time.
Well, and we couldn't do allthat, Kenny without you and your crew
at Wood Creek. Here's your chanceto highlight the golf course. You know,
golfers that might be new to thearea might not know about Cottwood Creek

(18:06):
City owned golf course, municipal golfcourse, that's we think one of the
finest municipal courses that we've ever seen. Exactly tell us about the course.
Well, we're coming out of apretty harsh winter courses and we're ready to
go. We just eat some warmweather, we'll be thriving. We're in
good shape, a fun golf coursetypically in good shape year round, and

(18:30):
a friendly staff, a great staffthat will be there to fulfill your needs
in any way, merchandise, practicerange, anyway we can help golf tournaments
anyway we can help. What's thestats on the course, the length and
so forth. Well, we're goingto be at playing about sixty five hundred
yards for the gramble that we'll have, unless you are seniors, then we'll

(18:56):
shorten that up to just under ussix thousand yards. Now, I want
gold, I want backs or whateverthey are. I want the tips right.
Well, you know, one ofthe thing about Cottonwood is our our
distances are anywhere from right at fivethousand yards and we can tip it out
over seventy two hundred yards. Yeah, so it does have it can accommodate
every skill of skill level of golfer. Kenny, is there anything that you

(19:22):
know of that you can share withus that you've talked to, Uh,
those involved in the city planning andso forth. There there any changes?
Yeah, for the future of CottonwoodCreek. We're hoping to uh be able
to do some work on the golfcourse. Uh. You know, the
golf course was built in uh eightyfour, opening eighty five, and uh

(19:44):
it is getting old. It's gettingup there for other time is catching up
with it. So hopefully we canget in the direction to where we can
secure some funds in to do somerenovations to update everything. And uh also,
U, we've got some issues withthe building around this with some drainage
that needs attention, and I'm hopingwe can be able to address that as

(20:06):
well. You know, Jim,I also heard that the city gave the
go ahead for Kenny to get usa flag with our name autographed unit to
hang in the bar area with allthe celebrientals. Never happened. It's full
of celebrities in there. Well,Kenny, thank you so much. We
love Cottonwood Creek Golf Course. Welove you and your staff out there.
They're the best. And we lookforward to many more years of the Zachajim

(20:29):
All American Heroes Golf Tournament. Ohwe do as well. Thank you.
Kenny Dural, the general manager.You know, he said, built in
the eighties and it's getting old.You and I were built in the fifties
and sixties, as I mean,we're getting old. Well, I guess
that's gonna wrap up this podcast,and we thank you for listening. It's
our journey through the Zach and JimGolf Tournament over the last thirty years.
Thirty years it's off air with Jimand Zach stories and memories we can tell

(20:55):
off air without getting into too muchtrouble.