September 18, 2023 • 26 mins
LPGA Maddie Szeryk
Enjoy the joint podcasts of Advocacy In Motion and Hit It Where They Mow...Talking Golf In Texas with Pat Wheeler from the Ascendant LPGA Benefiting Volunteers of America Media Day. Rising LPGA star, Maddie Szeryk, joins the program along with VOA President Mike King, and Niagara Conservawtion VP, Jenni Steel. Great conversation about all thing LPGA and many up coming open to the public tournaments and events.
Enjoy the joint podcasts of Advocacy In Motion and Hit It Where They Mow...Talking Golf In Texas with Pat Wheeler from the Ascendant LPGA Benefiting Volunteers of America Media Day. Rising LPGA star, Maddie Szeryk, joins the program along with VOA President Mike King, and Niagara Conservawtion VP, Jenni Steel. Great conversation about all thing LPGA and many up coming open to the public tournaments and events.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to a very special edition ajoint podcast of Advocacy and Motion and hit
It where they Mowe Talking Golf inTexas with Pat Wheeler and welcome Pat as
my co host today. Thank you, Tommy. It's great to be out
here at Old American Golf Club,the Tribute actually clubhouse for the media day
for the It probably has the longestname of any term on the LBCA.
(00:31):
Who are ascendant LPGA Championship benefitting Volunteersof America, And of course our first
guest is the CEO of Volunteers ofAmerica, mister Mike King. Welcome there,
you thank you people to be here. Yeah, you're looking very CEO
with that sports cup. Well,I've got I've got a fly to my
(00:52):
office this afternoon then Washington, DC, and so I have to actually look
real, you know, look likeI'm doing real work. You know,
I can't look of just walking offthe golf course and stuff. But this
is the most fun part of thejob is right here, is right here.
This is going to be a reallyfun month coming up for Volunteers of
America and for the LPGA. Uhtell us about you've been with them.
(01:15):
Volunteers America from the beginning from dayone, how'd that come about? And
yeah, you know, I'll seeexactly how how how it came about?
Uh. I'd always said to friendsof mine and frankly board members of mine
that if ever, uh there wasan LPGA tournament back in Texas, uh,
(01:36):
I wanted our charity, Volunteers ofAmerica to somehow be a part of
it and be related to it.Uh. And then a second piece of
that was and also I wanted tosee if there would be a way of
us getting uh the all time leadingchampion of professional golf, Kathy Whitworth with
eighty eight tournament wins, getting hurtinvolved because she lives here. Uh and
(02:00):
and and and no one was reallywriting about that very much, even talking
about that very much. Well,and then one day I looked at the
newspaper in the sports session, andit said, you know that the LPJ
had decided to put a tournament inTexas and uh uh and it was it
was called the Shootout. It wasgonna be called the uh uh uh the
Texas Shootout. And so I Iwent to my ad agency and said,
(02:24):
look, find out who's putting thaton, and get me a little lunch
with and so that's exactly what happened. And we had lunch at another country
club where was hosting the tournament thenwhere we were yesterday, and and UH
we had lunch, I said,what what can we do? You know?
And we would UH. We wevolunteered to sponsor, to do it,
to be a partial sponsor, UH, and UH put some money with
(02:46):
it, and have our names onthe flags of all the pens. And
so from the very first year wewere involved. And that that was a
very sort of low end level,if you will. UH, but they
were very generous with us and workedwith us for like two years on that
basis. And during that time.UH, during one of those during the
(03:08):
program I had I had walked withMike Juan, who was at that point
in time the LPGA commissioner, andhe said, you know this, this
could become the Volunteers of America ClassicUH at some point. And I said
really, And so we had aninteresting conversation. And then sure enough,
six months later, Mike cause meabout two weeks before they're due to release
(03:30):
the schedule, the new schedule,and there had been a change in sponsorship
of this tournament, and said,we need a sponsor and we can make
you a heck of a deal becausewe're we're we're up against a wall of
needing to make a decision and needingto publish a schedule, UH that includes
this tournament. And so I talkedwith a few of my board members and
we and we jumped in at thelast minute, and it became and in
(03:53):
those days it was I think itwas the North Texas Shootout my Volunteers of
America as it was, it wastermed. And so that was about about
the third year end to this tothis tournament history. UH. So we've
we've we we've gone the full routeof being a partial being, being the
title and now sort of being atthe end of the title uh as the
(04:16):
as the beneficiary. UH. Andof course, uh, Kathy's involvement,
Kathy Whitworth's involvement, UH was itwas a blessing, an absolute blessing.
We wouldn't talk more about that,which it was an absolute blessing. And
she became our major ambassador. Herand frankly Judy Rankin uh both became major
ambassadors of this of this tournament,both Royal Golf Hall of Fame members and
(04:42):
just for some whom I know aboutKathy Whitworth, and I think this is
our first tournament without her. Shetrashed away this past year. She won
eighty eight LPGA events. Uh SamSnead and Tiger Woods are tied for the
PGA Tour with the eighty two.Kathy won eighty eight. And she had
(05:03):
such wonderful stories going you know,back to the I guess her careers fan
maybe the late sixties. Up untilthe late eighties. She had a run
similar to Jack Nicholas in length.Yeah, and you wouldn't meet a more
humble, gentle person in your life. And she was out to hug every
player on that first tea. We'regonna miss her this year, that's right,
(05:25):
that's right. She's she's a major. And you know, I just
had a belief that you know,I felt like and still do believe that
this record is sort of our versionof the Joe Dimagio fifty two game hitting
streets. Yes, you know,the record that's probably never going to be
broken, if if there is one, you just you just don't see that
happening in anytime soon. And yetI don't think the golf world talks about
(05:47):
that record enough. And so Iwanted us at least in her hometown,
right in her backyard, to liftthat up and lift her up as much
as we could. And yet Iknew she had never left us do the
whole Byron Nelson things, So youwouldn't like us call it to Kathy Whitworth
tournament because she's too humble for that. So we came up with the next
(06:09):
best thing, and that was whatif we named the trophy after Kathy and
h I mentioned that idea to theLPGA the first year we were involved,
and they mentioned it to Kathy andand said she kind of Hymnden Harden wasn't
real enthusiastic about that. And soat the first gathering of of of of
(06:29):
sponsors and potential groups to attend thetournament of the following year, I walked
up to Kathy and said, look, I know the LPGA's bothering you about
something, and I want to letyou know it's my fault because it's my
idea. But if you just letus name the trophy after you, you
won't have to do squad. Andwhen I said that, she broke out
laugh and said, all sure,go ahead, go ahead. And so
(06:53):
from that point forward we had wehad lunch two days later, and she
designed the trophy on a napkin andshe literally wrote that wrote the design of
the trophy with the texts of thestate of Texas and the horseshoe and all
of that. All that came rightoff, right out of Kathy's penmanship on
a napkin from lunch. Uh.And and so from that point forward,
just been the Whitworth Trophy, greatstuff. Yeah, and and and and
(07:15):
and and she's presented it, youknow, the winners trophy every year and
uh. And it's a meaningful thingto the players because a few years ago
we were they were interviewing Jenny Shenn, one of our winners, yes uh,
at our Korean media day, andthey asked her what was her greatest
thrill in golf. She said,oh, it was it was getting my
(07:38):
winner's trophy from the all time winner, Kathy Whitworth. Wow, that was
her biggest thrill in golf by thisyoung professional. And so it's it's it's
been meaningful to people. Just anothercouple of tidbits about Kathy Whitworth. She
had twelve lost playoffs, so shesaid, oh, you had to bring
that up. But if she hadwon those twelve tournaments, she would have
(08:00):
had a cool one hundred wins,but it's eighty eight is impressive enough.
And then I was at a dinnerone night in Longview, Texas, and
she was a speaker, as wasJim Dent, the big long hitting golfer,
and so he knew the answer tothe question. But he said,
Kathy, how many different putters didyou use to win those eighty eight tournaments?
(08:20):
She said, I used one putter, the same putter all those years.
And she was of the theory areHarvey Pennett told her if you played
poorly, blame me first as yourteacher, didn't blame herself, then blame
your club. So anyway, yeah, we're gonna really miss her. But
I just want to congratulate you onembracing that history and making that meaningful.
(08:45):
And that's wonderful to hear that.Jenny Shinn said that, Yeah, it
is amazing. Yeah great, Yeah, it's so great. Yeah, Kathy,
Every every day I miss Kathy Andshe ended up becoming one of our
best friends, and which we neveranticipated that that that would be such a
gift. But uh, it's it'sit's it'll be a challenging year. But
but but the but the organizers andthe guys that worked the staff, uh
(09:09):
from from Andy's team have done agreat job of coming up with ways to
honor Kathy during the tournament. UH. And so it's it's it's it's gonna
be good. We donna have someguests coming up today they're gonna talk about
those various events honoring Kathy. Yeah, and there's a great number of them.
Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be. Like we said, it's gonna
be a really fun month coming upleading up to the tournament, and of
(09:30):
course the tournament itself. You're atthe tribute, Yeah, in that same
vein. Uh. This is theeleventh playing of the tournament, and you've
had I think you've had two Texaswinners. You had uh Shyanne Night in
twenty nineteen, and she just wonanother tournament this year. So we're happy
for her. She's like fifty thirdI believe on the CME UH points list
(09:54):
to get into the finals, whichis the top sixty players. The end
of the year event in NAP wasFlorida in November, but also Angela Stanford
during the COVID year when it wasplayed. That's right, I think you
had one of the coldest tournaments ofall time in twenty twenty, followed by
one of the hottest hotties at twentytwenty one. But I love the October
(10:15):
days. It's October fifth through theeighth here at Old American Golf Club,
which is part of the tribute inthe colony. Yeah, but how about
as st Stacy Lewis, Oh mygod, Stacy Lewis has been a winner
way back there. I bog youthat one. Yeah, yeah, I
bog you that. We've we've beenwe've been blessed. And then plus at
a time when she was, youknow, virtually the best player in the
(10:37):
world, Innby Park was a waswas a multiple winner of our tournament and
also just an incredibly gracious person.Yeah to work with on that because she
was being pulled a lot of differentdirections. She was one of the literally
the best players in the world atthe time, and and easily the best
putter in the world. Uh.And so she was a really great champion.
(11:01):
And right after that she won thegold medal at the Olympics. And
so we've we've been very blessed,yes, very blessed. Now, my
Inde Park story was during that COVIDyear. I came out on a Tuesday
to walk the course and I waswalking across the road to the I don't
know, I guess the second holdor I don't know exactly, but whatever
hole it is, I was theseventeenth hold coming in and Indie Park drives
(11:24):
by an suv her husband's driving,and she's sitting in the passenger's seat knitting.
I thought, that's what I need. I needed more calm but golf.
Yeah, she's a wonderful there yougo, Yeah, yeah, she
is. She is terrific. Oh, she's one of those that literally when
when she won the gold medal atthe Olympics, Uh, I sent her
(11:48):
an email, uh like within maybethirty minutes that I've seen it on TV,
to a congratulator, and I gota reply in fifteen minutes. Nice.
I mean literally, I mean it'sshe's She's one of those kinds of
people. Uh. And and justjust a was a blessing to our tournament.
Well, I know you're busy heretoday. We've got a lot going
(12:09):
on out here, a media dayat the Tribute. You've got a great
field coming in this year. Uh, you're playing right after the Solheim Cup.
Many of Solheim Cup team members aregoing to be here. Tell us
a little bit about what you expectfor the tournament this year, what we
can look forward to. You know, Well, it's it's, it's it's.
It's kind of cool because one ofthe stronger Solheim Cup members from the
(12:33):
European team uh is Charlie Hull,who really started her her winning ways with
US a year ago. Uh andshe's she's been on fire ever since and
this and it is pretty hot rightnow and is one of their leading players
and so, uh, I thinkthat's kind of cool. And she and
she's got a direct connection back tous, and she was the last person
(12:54):
to get the Whitworth Trophy from KathyWhitworth exactly, and so I think I
think that's kind of cool the wayyou get it connections back to solhim uh
uh And and so it's you know, and it's kind of funny with the
with the Solhi and piece. Whenyou've been involved with them in a tournament
like this, they're all your players. It doesn't matter what country they come
(13:16):
from or when they were born.You know, they're all your players and
you root for all of them.And so uh, you still embrace them
even though there's this exhibition competition ifyou will, uh between different countries.
Uh, you don't. You don'ttake that as seriously as you might have
otherwise, you know, because you'veseen them all as human beings and seen
(13:39):
them be good sports and and andand wonderful people. So you root for
all of them to have a greatcompetition and and and enjoy the competition and
then go back to normal life rightafterwards. And we're the first really opportunity
for going back to normal life,you know, as they come back home.
So my my goal is to embraceeveryone, uh, not just the
America but literally everyone. Absolutely.I'm not going back to those first tournaments
(14:03):
and being in so many committee meetingsand stuff. That was the intention from
the beginning. It's a universal,global tournament and has really really worked out
well for everyone. It's just awonderful tournament. Yeah. And that's and
and that's why when they're started toto to creep into the golf world,
uh so almost uh negative feelings towardsnon Americans winning tournaments. We decided to
(14:26):
celebrate the multicultural aspect of the ofthe l P Jitori and started having our
own Korean Media Day UH in AsianMedia Day to really celebrate all all the
integration from from folks from other countriesand in particularly the Asian countries that have
been so successful because they you know, those are the folks we want our
granddaughters to model, you know,are these are these incredible young women.
(14:52):
So we have UH still a verylarge media day planned this this coming year
UH for the Korean community, andwe've gotten great support and the organizers are
sitting right next door to us hereand I think it's one of the best
things we've ever done, is tostart that and and really celebrate that.
(15:13):
Yes, well, thank you somuch for your time. I know you've
got to get up stairs, youmedia day and get that kicked off.
And you guys keep up the goodwork. So I listen to you.
It's great, all right, thankyou, So let's for joining heed.
Welcome back to a very special editionof Advocacy and Motion and Hit It Worthy
Talking Golf in Texas with Pat Wheeler. And I'm here with Pat, and
(15:37):
each week you'll hear us talking abouthow much we appreciate the support of Niagara.
You may know that Niagara is theleading manufacturer and distributor of water saving
money saving products and we were veryspecial guest today is a vice president of
marketing for Niagara, Jenny Steele.Welcome, hi and in person, thank
you for all your support for myshow, for pat show, and all
(16:00):
you do for THEVA and all we'redoing for nonprofits. Absolutely, thank you
guys for putting these nonprofits first andhaving them get a voice. They really
need it. So this is awesome. It's a great partnership. So how'd
you get involved with the Volunteers AmericaAnd how did all this come about?
I know you're a big supporter anda sponsor of theirs. Now, well,
it started with an old friend ofmine named Tommy Fan and I came
(16:23):
to him with a problem saying,you know, we're this company that we
we're a family run company, Niagarais we've been around. Next year will
be our fiftieth year, and we'vegotten to a point where we've just we're
ready to start being philanthropic. Andhow do we find a way in our
business and then our market to beable to be philanthropic but also make a
(16:44):
difference when it comes to finding theright demographics and who to go to.
And Tommy came to me and hesaid, there is a great guy I
know. I want you to meethim. They're actually looking for a sponsorship
and maybe this is something that wecan talk about. So one of our
owners and I went to lunch withMike King, and I got to meet
the most genuine, awesome man I'veever met in my entire life. And
(17:07):
we start talking and we're realizing somuch need and affordable housing, and how
we served affordable housing almost accidentally whenpeople need to save water, and what
we could do together to combine forces. And so when Carl and I left
that meeting at lunch, we said, this is it. We've got to
help the OA, and we've gotto sponsor things, and we've got to
(17:29):
figure out how to work with themto get all of their properties saving as
much water as they can. Becausein our business, saving water obviously is
very important. It's one of ourkey pillars that we work towards. But
when these affordable housing properties come in, they're on a very set budget and
they're all bills paid. Generally speaking, so our toilets only flush point eight
gallons of water per flush, comparedto the one point six and one point
(17:52):
two eight that you see in themarket now, and some of those older
properties and affordable housing, they haven'tbeen getting the funding to be able to
keep up with renovations. So someof those toilets are up to five gallons
of flesh. So when you startadding that up in water and them paying
those water and utility bills, we'vefound an area where we can help them
and we can help save them thatmoney on their utilities so they can help
(18:15):
more people. So when we connectedthe dots with Mike at that lunch and
then we went back to the officeand we realized that we could put a
program together to help and partner,it was just the rest was history.
And it's only been a year sofar, but we've worked on a couple
of properties that are new construction withthem. We're working with them on some
of their more wasteful properties across thecountry that we can help them identify so
(18:40):
that they can start saving that moneyand repurposing it towards the community. Very
good. I know that your involvementVA and sponsorship dollars that up go back
to VA directly, Yes, tohelp them so many projects they have across
the board and you are now Ihave been asked to be on the board
of direct of the LA Texas.That is wonderful. How does that work
(19:03):
for you? I love it.It's actually from my own career perspective.
It's my first time to sit ona board. It's amazing the whole group,
their priorities in every single meeting,or what can we do to help,
where can we serve, how dowe make it better? And everyone
on the board was so welcoming tobegin with, and then just to be
(19:23):
able to work together. Yesterday wehad one of our more our bigger fundraising
event, which was a golf tournament, and we got to play in the
golf tournament and see it happened.So the team for the Texas Affiliate,
we're out there at five thirty inthe morning setting up to make sure I
think it was close to one hundredand twenty golfers were set to go and
(19:44):
ready and all of them enjoyed thedifferent fundraising events that we're going on before
check in and then after the tournament, we all sat around and got to
network for lunch and it was amazingto see all of the participation. And
this has been several years they've beendoing it, so this was the VOA
Texas Tournament supporting first responders in Hellon ninety eleven. Yes, and you
(20:07):
guys are part of that, andI think it was a great, great
tournament and something they do and helpingveterans is just one of many VOA platforms,
and so I think so happy thatyou guys get involved in that side
of it as well. Absolutely so. It's it's been great to see and
learn because, like we talked aboutearlier, you know, one of the
things that we knew as a businesswas the affordable housing, but not what
(20:30):
VOA did across the country for everyoneelse in so many other ways. So
to see the wide breadth of servicesthat they provide and what they do is
a really big deal. He toldme not to ask you how you played
yesterday, but oh geez, butyou had fun and ask for a great
golf had a great time. Ilearned that I am gripping my club too
hard, which is the bruise thatI've got on my hands. So thank
(20:52):
you very much, Pat Well.I was going to ask for about her
golf game because even though she didn'tscore, maybe, well, you tell
me you were like long drive orsomething. I was a foot away from
the longest women's drive. I wasso close, but I got it.
Next year, I'm ready. I'mready. I'm gonna get some more lessons.
I'm gonna get out there more andsee. I have to prove myself
this year, guys from the programperspective, because I remember Tommy videoed me
(21:18):
on the very first hole of thepro am where I missed the ball completely,
but he stopped the video just intime to make it look like I
had a good swing. So thisyear, I'm going to get a swing.
And I have to say, youare following Lexi Thompson and you can't
tell the difference in those ways.Oh I bet you can. Well,
we want to thank you so muchfor joining us and for everything you do
(21:38):
for supporting our podcast or in VLAand so many nonprofits across the board.
Absolutely, we are honored to doit and we're honored to be a partner
with you guys. Thank you somuch. Thanks Juliet. Well, what
really honored to have Matty Zurich withus a guest, and she's a two
time qualifier as an amateur for thistournament. And now this is your rookie
(22:03):
year or second year on tour,second year on tour second year. Yes,
and I noticed doing my homework thatyou're like ninety third on the CME
lists, so you still have ashot at you into the finals. Yes,
and I know it's a course thatyou're familiar with having played it before,
and you're having a pretty darn goodyear anyway. Yeah, thank you.
(22:23):
Yeah, what are your thoughts goinginto the tournament. I'm so excited
to get to play at, youknow, a home course because I practice
and play here. I'm very thankfulthat they let me out here, and
it's a great course, it's agood test, and you know, be
able to stay in my own room, my own bed, and i'd be
with my family is always great becauseyou know, it's always okay we're at
a hotel or you're in this airbnband we have great host families as well,
(22:48):
but to actually get to stay athome is unlike anything. That's great.
Tommy, you said you remember Mattiegoing way back. Yeah, we're
talking about that. We've been tothe public relations for the first few tournaments
and that's some great pictures of herqualifying as a high school qualifier and now
back here is a good tender.Awesome, Thank you, one of those
high school qualifiers went on to winthis tournament Cheyenne Nights, Yes, yeah,
(23:12):
from Alito and she won in twentynineteen. And I noticed, you
know, for a long time thiswas the only LPGA event in Texas,
but this year the Chevron Championship wentto the Houston Woodlands area. Yes,
and you had a very good finishtheirmont a nice check. Yes, So
(23:32):
that must make you happy that you'llbe able to go and play that course
again. Would you like to gospeak to that a little. Oh,
it was so cool to have.That was my first major to plan as
a professional, and there I alsogot to stay with good friends Brook mcdougald's
family, so from the like Houstonarea Woodlands and my parents came down to
watch, and it was just greatto have such a strong finish and you
(23:55):
know, the first major of theyear and just really kind of set the
year off strong. That's that's wonderful. Tell us about your game? What
what I'm not as you're not avery big person, but we know we
uh. Stacy Lewis is one ofour favorite golfers and she's about your size,
maybe as small and plays wonderful golf. So tell us about your your
(24:18):
game, what your strengths are.Yeah, putting is everything is. Yeah,
putting is definitely my strength. Andyou know, everybody hits it really
well on this level and about averageon distance. But that's you know,
good enough. Everybody wants lane.But it's really the short game that you
know, makes or breaks it foryou. It's if you're not putting well,
(24:38):
you're not making those clutch putts,it's it can really you know,
set you back a little bit.But you know, I've been putting really
well, so just hopefully and knowingthese greens too, I think will be
a great advantage. That's great.What is your game plan for this term?
What what do you look for ingoing forward in this time right here?
(24:59):
I think just a I really solid. I'm excited that I know the
course and you know that again Iget to stay at home, and you
know, I want to have agreat finish. I need a good you
know, last couple of tournaments tosecure my card. But I'm really excited
that it's you know here and thenI get that opportunity to hopefully secure it.
Then okay, very good. Wellwe want to thank you very much
for stopping by and We're gonna watchvery closely and we hope that you have
(25:22):
a very very successful tournament. Thankyou so much. I appreciate it,
Thank you, thank you. Thanksall right. Pat, I think we've
had a wonderful show here today.I appreciate you being here, and I
too want to thank our sponsors.Niagara we heard a lot from Jenny Steele
has been such a support throughout andfrom veronah Haven Energy Wellness and Gifts for
(25:44):
Soul, a wonderful little gift shopin downtown Richardson. They've been with us
from the beginning and allow us tobe here today sponsoring the Volunteers of America
and through all our sponsorships throughout theyear. So thank you Pat, thanks
for being here. Well, thankall our guests today and uh it's been
a fun day. Thank you.M
Welcome to a very special edition ajoint podcast of Advocacy and Motion and hit
It where they Mowe Talking Golf inTexas with Pat Wheeler and welcome Pat as
my co host today. Thank you, Tommy. It's great to be out
here at Old American Golf Club,the Tribute actually clubhouse for the media day
for the It probably has the longestname of any term on the LBCA.
(00:31):
Who are ascendant LPGA Championship benefitting Volunteersof America, And of course our first
guest is the CEO of Volunteers ofAmerica, mister Mike King. Welcome there,
you thank you people to be here. Yeah, you're looking very CEO
with that sports cup. Well,I've got I've got a fly to my
(00:52):
office this afternoon then Washington, DC, and so I have to actually look
real, you know, look likeI'm doing real work. You know,
I can't look of just walking offthe golf course and stuff. But this
is the most fun part of thejob is right here, is right here.
This is going to be a reallyfun month coming up for Volunteers of
America and for the LPGA. Uhtell us about you've been with them.
(01:15):
Volunteers America from the beginning from dayone, how'd that come about? And
yeah, you know, I'll seeexactly how how how it came about?
Uh. I'd always said to friendsof mine and frankly board members of mine
that if ever, uh there wasan LPGA tournament back in Texas, uh,
(01:36):
I wanted our charity, Volunteers ofAmerica to somehow be a part of
it and be related to it.Uh. And then a second piece of
that was and also I wanted tosee if there would be a way of
us getting uh the all time leadingchampion of professional golf, Kathy Whitworth with
eighty eight tournament wins, getting hurtinvolved because she lives here. Uh and
(02:00):
and and and no one was reallywriting about that very much, even talking
about that very much. Well,and then one day I looked at the
newspaper in the sports session, andit said, you know that the LPJ
had decided to put a tournament inTexas and uh uh and it was it
was called the Shootout. It wasgonna be called the uh uh uh the
Texas Shootout. And so I Iwent to my ad agency and said,
(02:24):
look, find out who's putting thaton, and get me a little lunch
with and so that's exactly what happened. And we had lunch at another country
club where was hosting the tournament thenwhere we were yesterday, and and UH
we had lunch, I said,what what can we do? You know?
And we would UH. We wevolunteered to sponsor, to do it,
to be a partial sponsor, UH, and UH put some money with
(02:46):
it, and have our names onthe flags of all the pens. And
so from the very first year wewere involved. And that that was a
very sort of low end level,if you will. UH, but they
were very generous with us and workedwith us for like two years on that
basis. And during that time.UH, during one of those during the
(03:08):
program I had I had walked withMike Juan, who was at that point
in time the LPGA commissioner, andhe said, you know this, this
could become the Volunteers of America ClassicUH at some point. And I said
really, And so we had aninteresting conversation. And then sure enough,
six months later, Mike cause meabout two weeks before they're due to release
(03:30):
the schedule, the new schedule,and there had been a change in sponsorship
of this tournament, and said,we need a sponsor and we can make
you a heck of a deal becausewe're we're we're up against a wall of
needing to make a decision and needingto publish a schedule, UH that includes
this tournament. And so I talkedwith a few of my board members and
we and we jumped in at thelast minute, and it became and in
(03:53):
those days it was I think itwas the North Texas Shootout my Volunteers of
America as it was, it wastermed. And so that was about about
the third year end to this tothis tournament history. UH. So we've
we've we we've gone the full routeof being a partial being, being the
title and now sort of being atthe end of the title uh as the
(04:16):
as the beneficiary. UH. Andof course, uh, Kathy's involvement,
Kathy Whitworth's involvement, UH was itwas a blessing, an absolute blessing.
We wouldn't talk more about that,which it was an absolute blessing. And
she became our major ambassador. Herand frankly Judy Rankin uh both became major
ambassadors of this of this tournament,both Royal Golf Hall of Fame members and
(04:42):
just for some whom I know aboutKathy Whitworth, and I think this is
our first tournament without her. Shetrashed away this past year. She won
eighty eight LPGA events. Uh SamSnead and Tiger Woods are tied for the
PGA Tour with the eighty two.Kathy won eighty eight. And she had
(05:03):
such wonderful stories going you know,back to the I guess her careers fan
maybe the late sixties. Up untilthe late eighties. She had a run
similar to Jack Nicholas in length.Yeah, and you wouldn't meet a more
humble, gentle person in your life. And she was out to hug every
player on that first tea. We'regonna miss her this year, that's right,
(05:25):
that's right. She's she's a major. And you know, I just
had a belief that you know,I felt like and still do believe that
this record is sort of our versionof the Joe Dimagio fifty two game hitting
streets. Yes, you know,the record that's probably never going to be
broken, if if there is one, you just you just don't see that
happening in anytime soon. And yetI don't think the golf world talks about
(05:47):
that record enough. And so Iwanted us at least in her hometown,
right in her backyard, to liftthat up and lift her up as much
as we could. And yet Iknew she had never left us do the
whole Byron Nelson things, So youwouldn't like us call it to Kathy Whitworth
tournament because she's too humble for that. So we came up with the next
(06:09):
best thing, and that was whatif we named the trophy after Kathy and
h I mentioned that idea to theLPGA the first year we were involved,
and they mentioned it to Kathy andand said she kind of Hymnden Harden wasn't
real enthusiastic about that. And soat the first gathering of of of of
(06:29):
sponsors and potential groups to attend thetournament of the following year, I walked
up to Kathy and said, look, I know the LPGA's bothering you about
something, and I want to letyou know it's my fault because it's my
idea. But if you just letus name the trophy after you, you
won't have to do squad. Andwhen I said that, she broke out
laugh and said, all sure,go ahead, go ahead. And so
(06:53):
from that point forward we had wehad lunch two days later, and she
designed the trophy on a napkin andshe literally wrote that wrote the design of
the trophy with the texts of thestate of Texas and the horseshoe and all
of that. All that came rightoff, right out of Kathy's penmanship on
a napkin from lunch. Uh.And and so from that point forward,
just been the Whitworth Trophy, greatstuff. Yeah, and and and and
(07:15):
and and she's presented it, youknow, the winners trophy every year and
uh. And it's a meaningful thingto the players because a few years ago
we were they were interviewing Jenny Shenn, one of our winners, yes uh,
at our Korean media day, andthey asked her what was her greatest
thrill in golf. She said,oh, it was it was getting my
(07:38):
winner's trophy from the all time winner, Kathy Whitworth. Wow, that was
her biggest thrill in golf by thisyoung professional. And so it's it's it's
been meaningful to people. Just anothercouple of tidbits about Kathy Whitworth. She
had twelve lost playoffs, so shesaid, oh, you had to bring
that up. But if she hadwon those twelve tournaments, she would have
(08:00):
had a cool one hundred wins,but it's eighty eight is impressive enough.
And then I was at a dinnerone night in Longview, Texas, and
she was a speaker, as wasJim Dent, the big long hitting golfer,
and so he knew the answer tothe question. But he said,
Kathy, how many different putters didyou use to win those eighty eight tournaments?
(08:20):
She said, I used one putter, the same putter all those years.
And she was of the theory areHarvey Pennett told her if you played
poorly, blame me first as yourteacher, didn't blame herself, then blame
your club. So anyway, yeah, we're gonna really miss her. But
I just want to congratulate you onembracing that history and making that meaningful.
(08:45):
And that's wonderful to hear that.Jenny Shinn said that, Yeah, it
is amazing. Yeah great, Yeah, it's so great. Yeah, Kathy,
Every every day I miss Kathy Andshe ended up becoming one of our
best friends, and which we neveranticipated that that that would be such a
gift. But uh, it's it'sit's it'll be a challenging year. But
but but the but the organizers andthe guys that worked the staff, uh
(09:09):
from from Andy's team have done agreat job of coming up with ways to
honor Kathy during the tournament. UH. And so it's it's it's it's gonna
be good. We donna have someguests coming up today they're gonna talk about
those various events honoring Kathy. Yeah, and there's a great number of them.
Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be. Like we said, it's gonna
be a really fun month coming upleading up to the tournament, and of
(09:30):
course the tournament itself. You're atthe tribute, Yeah, in that same
vein. Uh. This is theeleventh playing of the tournament, and you've
had I think you've had two Texaswinners. You had uh Shyanne Night in
twenty nineteen, and she just wonanother tournament this year. So we're happy
for her. She's like fifty thirdI believe on the CME UH points list
(09:54):
to get into the finals, whichis the top sixty players. The end
of the year event in NAP wasFlorida in November, but also Angela Stanford
during the COVID year when it wasplayed. That's right, I think you
had one of the coldest tournaments ofall time in twenty twenty, followed by
one of the hottest hotties at twentytwenty one. But I love the October
(10:15):
days. It's October fifth through theeighth here at Old American Golf Club,
which is part of the tribute inthe colony. Yeah, but how about
as st Stacy Lewis, Oh mygod, Stacy Lewis has been a winner
way back there. I bog youthat one. Yeah, yeah, I
bog you that. We've we've beenwe've been blessed. And then plus at
a time when she was, youknow, virtually the best player in the
(10:37):
world, Innby Park was a waswas a multiple winner of our tournament and
also just an incredibly gracious person.Yeah to work with on that because she
was being pulled a lot of differentdirections. She was one of the literally
the best players in the world atthe time, and and easily the best
putter in the world. Uh.And so she was a really great champion.
(11:01):
And right after that she won thegold medal at the Olympics. And
so we've we've been very blessed,yes, very blessed. Now, my
Inde Park story was during that COVIDyear. I came out on a Tuesday
to walk the course and I waswalking across the road to the I don't
know, I guess the second holdor I don't know exactly, but whatever
hole it is, I was theseventeenth hold coming in and Indie Park drives
(11:24):
by an suv her husband's driving,and she's sitting in the passenger's seat knitting.
I thought, that's what I need. I needed more calm but golf.
Yeah, she's a wonderful there yougo, Yeah, yeah, she
is. She is terrific. Oh, she's one of those that literally when
when she won the gold medal atthe Olympics, Uh, I sent her
(11:48):
an email, uh like within maybethirty minutes that I've seen it on TV,
to a congratulator, and I gota reply in fifteen minutes. Nice.
I mean literally, I mean it'sshe's She's one of those kinds of
people. Uh. And and justjust a was a blessing to our tournament.
Well, I know you're busy heretoday. We've got a lot going
(12:09):
on out here, a media dayat the Tribute. You've got a great
field coming in this year. Uh, you're playing right after the Solheim Cup.
Many of Solheim Cup team members aregoing to be here. Tell us
a little bit about what you expectfor the tournament this year, what we
can look forward to. You know, Well, it's it's, it's it's.
It's kind of cool because one ofthe stronger Solheim Cup members from the
(12:33):
European team uh is Charlie Hull,who really started her her winning ways with
US a year ago. Uh andshe's she's been on fire ever since and
this and it is pretty hot rightnow and is one of their leading players
and so, uh, I thinkthat's kind of cool. And she and
she's got a direct connection back tous, and she was the last person
(12:54):
to get the Whitworth Trophy from KathyWhitworth exactly, and so I think I
think that's kind of cool the wayyou get it connections back to solhim uh
uh And and so it's you know, and it's kind of funny with the
with the Solhi and piece. Whenyou've been involved with them in a tournament
like this, they're all your players. It doesn't matter what country they come
(13:16):
from or when they were born.You know, they're all your players and
you root for all of them.And so uh, you still embrace them
even though there's this exhibition competition ifyou will, uh between different countries.
Uh, you don't. You don'ttake that as seriously as you might have
otherwise, you know, because you'veseen them all as human beings and seen
(13:39):
them be good sports and and andand wonderful people. So you root for
all of them to have a greatcompetition and and and enjoy the competition and
then go back to normal life rightafterwards. And we're the first really opportunity
for going back to normal life,you know, as they come back home.
So my my goal is to embraceeveryone, uh, not just the
America but literally everyone. Absolutely.I'm not going back to those first tournaments
(14:03):
and being in so many committee meetingsand stuff. That was the intention from
the beginning. It's a universal,global tournament and has really really worked out
well for everyone. It's just awonderful tournament. Yeah. And that's and
and that's why when they're started toto to creep into the golf world,
uh so almost uh negative feelings towardsnon Americans winning tournaments. We decided to
(14:26):
celebrate the multicultural aspect of the ofthe l P Jitori and started having our
own Korean Media Day UH in AsianMedia Day to really celebrate all all the
integration from from folks from other countriesand in particularly the Asian countries that have
been so successful because they you know, those are the folks we want our
granddaughters to model, you know,are these are these incredible young women.
(14:52):
So we have UH still a verylarge media day planned this this coming year
UH for the Korean community, andwe've gotten great support and the organizers are
sitting right next door to us hereand I think it's one of the best
things we've ever done, is tostart that and and really celebrate that.
(15:13):
Yes, well, thank you somuch for your time. I know you've
got to get up stairs, youmedia day and get that kicked off.
And you guys keep up the goodwork. So I listen to you.
It's great, all right, thankyou, So let's for joining heed.
Welcome back to a very special editionof Advocacy and Motion and Hit It Worthy
Talking Golf in Texas with Pat Wheeler. And I'm here with Pat, and
(15:37):
each week you'll hear us talking abouthow much we appreciate the support of Niagara.
You may know that Niagara is theleading manufacturer and distributor of water saving
money saving products and we were veryspecial guest today is a vice president of
marketing for Niagara, Jenny Steele.Welcome, hi and in person, thank
you for all your support for myshow, for pat show, and all
(16:00):
you do for THEVA and all we'redoing for nonprofits. Absolutely, thank you
guys for putting these nonprofits first andhaving them get a voice. They really
need it. So this is awesome. It's a great partnership. So how'd
you get involved with the Volunteers AmericaAnd how did all this come about?
I know you're a big supporter anda sponsor of theirs. Now, well,
it started with an old friend ofmine named Tommy Fan and I came
(16:23):
to him with a problem saying,you know, we're this company that we
we're a family run company, Niagarais we've been around. Next year will
be our fiftieth year, and we'vegotten to a point where we've just we're
ready to start being philanthropic. Andhow do we find a way in our
business and then our market to beable to be philanthropic but also make a
(16:44):
difference when it comes to finding theright demographics and who to go to.
And Tommy came to me and hesaid, there is a great guy I
know. I want you to meethim. They're actually looking for a sponsorship
and maybe this is something that wecan talk about. So one of our
owners and I went to lunch withMike King, and I got to meet
the most genuine, awesome man I'veever met in my entire life. And
(17:07):
we start talking and we're realizing somuch need and affordable housing, and how
we served affordable housing almost accidentally whenpeople need to save water, and what
we could do together to combine forces. And so when Carl and I left
that meeting at lunch, we said, this is it. We've got to
help the OA, and we've gotto sponsor things, and we've got to
(17:29):
figure out how to work with themto get all of their properties saving as
much water as they can. Becausein our business, saving water obviously is
very important. It's one of ourkey pillars that we work towards. But
when these affordable housing properties come in, they're on a very set budget and
they're all bills paid. Generally speaking, so our toilets only flush point eight
gallons of water per flush, comparedto the one point six and one point
(17:52):
two eight that you see in themarket now, and some of those older
properties and affordable housing, they haven'tbeen getting the funding to be able to
keep up with renovations. So someof those toilets are up to five gallons
of flesh. So when you startadding that up in water and them paying
those water and utility bills, we'vefound an area where we can help them
and we can help save them thatmoney on their utilities so they can help
(18:15):
more people. So when we connectedthe dots with Mike at that lunch and
then we went back to the officeand we realized that we could put a
program together to help and partner,it was just the rest was history.
And it's only been a year sofar, but we've worked on a couple
of properties that are new construction withthem. We're working with them on some
of their more wasteful properties across thecountry that we can help them identify so
(18:40):
that they can start saving that moneyand repurposing it towards the community. Very
good. I know that your involvementVA and sponsorship dollars that up go back
to VA directly, Yes, tohelp them so many projects they have across
the board and you are now Ihave been asked to be on the board
of direct of the LA Texas.That is wonderful. How does that work
(19:03):
for you? I love it.It's actually from my own career perspective.
It's my first time to sit ona board. It's amazing the whole group,
their priorities in every single meeting,or what can we do to help,
where can we serve, how dowe make it better? And everyone
on the board was so welcoming tobegin with, and then just to be
(19:23):
able to work together. Yesterday wehad one of our more our bigger fundraising
event, which was a golf tournament, and we got to play in the
golf tournament and see it happened.So the team for the Texas Affiliate,
we're out there at five thirty inthe morning setting up to make sure I
think it was close to one hundredand twenty golfers were set to go and
(19:44):
ready and all of them enjoyed thedifferent fundraising events that we're going on before
check in and then after the tournament, we all sat around and got to
network for lunch and it was amazingto see all of the participation. And
this has been several years they've beendoing it, so this was the VOA
Texas Tournament supporting first responders in Hellon ninety eleven. Yes, and you
(20:07):
guys are part of that, andI think it was a great, great
tournament and something they do and helpingveterans is just one of many VOA platforms,
and so I think so happy thatyou guys get involved in that side
of it as well. Absolutely so. It's it's been great to see and
learn because, like we talked aboutearlier, you know, one of the
things that we knew as a businesswas the affordable housing, but not what
(20:30):
VOA did across the country for everyoneelse in so many other ways. So
to see the wide breadth of servicesthat they provide and what they do is
a really big deal. He toldme not to ask you how you played
yesterday, but oh geez, butyou had fun and ask for a great
golf had a great time. Ilearned that I am gripping my club too
hard, which is the bruise thatI've got on my hands. So thank
(20:52):
you very much, Pat Well.I was going to ask for about her
golf game because even though she didn'tscore, maybe, well, you tell
me you were like long drive orsomething. I was a foot away from
the longest women's drive. I wasso close, but I got it.
Next year, I'm ready. I'mready. I'm gonna get some more lessons.
I'm gonna get out there more andsee. I have to prove myself
this year, guys from the programperspective, because I remember Tommy videoed me
(21:18):
on the very first hole of thepro am where I missed the ball completely,
but he stopped the video just intime to make it look like I
had a good swing. So thisyear, I'm going to get a swing.
And I have to say, youare following Lexi Thompson and you can't
tell the difference in those ways.Oh I bet you can. Well,
we want to thank you so muchfor joining us and for everything you do
(21:38):
for supporting our podcast or in VLAand so many nonprofits across the board.
Absolutely, we are honored to doit and we're honored to be a partner
with you guys. Thank you somuch. Thanks Juliet. Well, what
really honored to have Matty Zurich withus a guest, and she's a two
time qualifier as an amateur for thistournament. And now this is your rookie
(22:03):
year or second year on tour,second year on tour second year. Yes,
and I noticed doing my homework thatyou're like ninety third on the CME
lists, so you still have ashot at you into the finals. Yes,
and I know it's a course thatyou're familiar with having played it before,
and you're having a pretty darn goodyear anyway. Yeah, thank you.
(22:23):
Yeah, what are your thoughts goinginto the tournament. I'm so excited
to get to play at, youknow, a home course because I practice
and play here. I'm very thankfulthat they let me out here, and
it's a great course, it's agood test, and you know, be
able to stay in my own room, my own bed, and i'd be
with my family is always great becauseyou know, it's always okay we're at
a hotel or you're in this airbnband we have great host families as well,
(22:48):
but to actually get to stay athome is unlike anything. That's great.
Tommy, you said you remember Mattiegoing way back. Yeah, we're
talking about that. We've been tothe public relations for the first few tournaments
and that's some great pictures of herqualifying as a high school qualifier and now
back here is a good tender.Awesome, Thank you, one of those
high school qualifiers went on to winthis tournament Cheyenne Nights, Yes, yeah,
(23:12):
from Alito and she won in twentynineteen. And I noticed, you
know, for a long time thiswas the only LPGA event in Texas,
but this year the Chevron Championship wentto the Houston Woodlands area. Yes,
and you had a very good finishtheirmont a nice check. Yes, So
(23:32):
that must make you happy that you'llbe able to go and play that course
again. Would you like to gospeak to that a little. Oh,
it was so cool to have.That was my first major to plan as
a professional, and there I alsogot to stay with good friends Brook mcdougald's
family, so from the like Houstonarea Woodlands and my parents came down to
watch, and it was just greatto have such a strong finish and you
(23:55):
know, the first major of theyear and just really kind of set the
year off strong. That's that's wonderful. Tell us about your game? What
what I'm not as you're not avery big person, but we know we
uh. Stacy Lewis is one ofour favorite golfers and she's about your size,
maybe as small and plays wonderful golf. So tell us about your your
(24:18):
game, what your strengths are.Yeah, putting is everything is. Yeah,
putting is definitely my strength. Andyou know, everybody hits it really
well on this level and about averageon distance. But that's you know,
good enough. Everybody wants lane.But it's really the short game that you
know, makes or breaks it foryou. It's if you're not putting well,
(24:38):
you're not making those clutch putts,it's it can really you know,
set you back a little bit.But you know, I've been putting really
well, so just hopefully and knowingthese greens too, I think will be
a great advantage. That's great.What is your game plan for this term?
What what do you look for ingoing forward in this time right here?
(24:59):
I think just a I really solid. I'm excited that I know the
course and you know that again Iget to stay at home, and you
know, I want to have agreat finish. I need a good you
know, last couple of tournaments tosecure my card. But I'm really excited
that it's you know here and thenI get that opportunity to hopefully secure it.
Then okay, very good. Wellwe want to thank you very much
for stopping by and We're gonna watchvery closely and we hope that you have
(25:22):
a very very successful tournament. Thankyou so much. I appreciate it,
Thank you, thank you. Thanksall right. Pat, I think we've
had a wonderful show here today.I appreciate you being here, and I
too want to thank our sponsors.Niagara we heard a lot from Jenny Steele
has been such a support throughout andfrom veronah Haven Energy Wellness and Gifts for
(25:44):
Soul, a wonderful little gift shopin downtown Richardson. They've been with us
from the beginning and allow us tobe here today sponsoring the Volunteers of America
and through all our sponsorships throughout theyear. So thank you Pat, thanks
for being here. Well, thankall our guests today and uh it's been
a fun day. Thank you.M
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