Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 21 | Aug 21st, 2025 - Golf Talk Live

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
The following broadcast is brought to you by the I
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(00:32):
the game's most in depth instruction magazine, including reviews on
the latest equipment, tips from top teaching professionals, all designed
to help you improve from tee to green. Welcome to
Golf Talk Live with your host Ted Oto Rico. Join
Ted each week as he speaks with some of the
best in golf. This week's special guest will join us

(00:52):
a bit later. But first up is another great discussion
on Coach's Corner, So let's introduce tonight's Coaches Corner Panel.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Season thirteen of Golf
Talk Live. I'm your host, Ted ohto Rico, and We've
got a great show for you tonight. We're gonna be
starting things off as we normally do, with a great
discussion on the Coach's Corner Panel and I'm going to
be joined by my good friend. Pete Buchanan is tonight's
special guest panelist, and then tonight's featured guest is Blair Klein.
He's the general manager of golf operations at dun Eden

(01:26):
Golf Club in Florida. He'll be joining me on the
show a little bit later on in the broadcast. But
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Register today at golf tipsmag dot com and become a
premium member. All right, as I mentioned, we're going to
be starting things off here with Coaches Corner, So let
me introduce my very special guest this evening on the panel.
It's Pete Buchanan. He's been teaching golf for over thirty years.
He's also the founder and director of instruction of Plane
Simple Golf, which houses the Plane Simple Golf Circuit and

(02:52):
the Simple Swing Repeater training Brace, and he's been helping
golfers around the globe focus on building a repeatable swing.
And he's among the favorites here on the Coach's Corner panel.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
So Pete, welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Hey, thanks Ted, It's great to be here. Always nice
to be on the show.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
All right, As I say, welcome back, actually I should
have said not welcome. I just said welcome back. As
most of you know if you follow the program. Of course,
Pete and many of the others come back usually once
a month, and occasionally, if they have to jump in
to fill in for somebody else, they might actually make
it on here twice a month. But always glad that
you're able to do that. So I got a really
interesting and I want to just give a very short

(03:30):
backstory on this. There's a really good topic for tonight's show,
and I thought this would be great for you and I.
I actually just posted an article earlier this afternoon on
golf tipsmag dot com under our instructional and it's called
what is the eighty twenty rule in golf? And I'm
going to explain a little bit that. So in golf,

(03:50):
the eighty twenty rule, also known as the Peretto principle,
suggests that roughly eighty percent of your results come from
twenty percent of your actions or efforts. So this principle
can be applied to various aspects of the game, from
swing mechanics to your practice routines, and even core strategy.
So to better understand, here's again just a general description
of Pereto's principle. The eighty twenty rule, also known as

(04:15):
the Puretto principle states that roughly eighty percent of effects
from come from twenty percent of causes. So in simpler terms,
a small portion of inputs or efforts often leads to
the majority of results or outcomes. So this principle, of course,
is just a general guide. It's not strict mathematical law
and can vary. So he could also be ninety ten,
it could be seventy thirty as well, but he worked

(04:36):
on the eighty twenty rule and it can really be
applied in many areas of life. So you're probably asking, Okay, well,
what is this, How does this apply to me? How
does this apply in golf? So we're going to talk
about this first, and it's very interesting. We're going to
cover swing mechanics first, peek, and I'm just going to
give you sort of a little bit of an intro
and then i'll get your thoughts on this. So, as

(04:56):
an example, in swing mechanics, you know, focus on the
vi few elements of the swing that produce the most
sufficient significant results rather than trying to master every detail.
So what I mean by that is, you know, there
are certain fundamentals that we want to incorporate in our
golf swing, but more often not. Most people spend the
majority of their time working on a vast number of

(05:18):
things to the point where it actually is more detrimental
and trying to master every detail. So you know, you
might want to touch on things like the grip and
things like that. I mean, obviously, if you work and
become more proficient on the grip, since that's what's holding
the golf club, then that's going to help a lot
of other areas of your golf swing be a little

(05:39):
bit more on track.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
So taking it from that.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Perspective, and and I hopefully I explained everything well enough
in this but but do you agree with that? Do
you understand what I'm What I'm trying to get across
here is that And that doesn't mean that, you know,
we just do twenty percent effort. I don't mean it
that way, But what it means is there we'll get
into it. As we unpack more of it, you'll understand
even more for the audience perspective. But a lot of

(06:05):
times there's a smaller percentage of things that we can
work on overall and not necessarily perfect, but become more
proficient in that's going to help our golf game and
increase the likelihood or the eighty percent that we're going
to be successful out in the golf course, and unfortunately
a lot of people do the opposite and spend so
much time on trivial things like trying to hit the
perfect drive out there every time, or trying to work

(06:27):
on something other part of the string, and they forget
about other key act elements that could improve their scoring.
So give me your thoughts here to open up the conversation,
and then I'll get into some other areas as well.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Under swing mechanics.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Well, I think it's a great topic. You know. I
had a great discussion the other day with one of
my tour guys talking about you know why he's beginning
to teach now, and he's like, why, why do you
feel or what do you feel is the biggest, you know,
hurdle that most amateur players are up against. And I said, well,
you know, arm structure with the shaft angle is probably

(07:00):
the number one thing that they do not do well.
And I say, you can spend a lot of time
just on that and not worried about all those other details.
Get the arm structure right, get the club in the
hands right, and just get the club to swing. In
a better structure with how they're moving their arms back
and forth, and you'll see the impact change right away
and they'll be able to control the ball better. So yeah,

(07:23):
there's a lot of things you can do to you know,
work on simple things, not too many things overall, And
like you're saying that the eighty twenty is really really good.
I had a gentleman the other night just didn't move
the body well enough. And I have a great app
that I'm gonna plug it if it's okay, but use
an XU. We have a center mass that we use,

(07:44):
and on the center mass, we can measure where the
center mass is moving and then I can put it
on live and so he can actually see his center
mass moving while he's taking practice with and so we
showed him where he was off. So all we did
was basically move the lower half and the chest perhalf.
We move those center portions in just a little bit
different fashion for about twenty minutes. Didn't even talk about

(08:06):
the arm structure, didn't talk about the club, the shafts,
any of those and things. And then I said I
hit them and it was a miles different right away.
So there's one little, small specific thing that we can
move on and get that better and better and better,
and not trying to do eight things at once all
the time was one. Yeah. So I think this is
a great topic that, especially with swing mechanics, because people

(08:27):
can get so lost in what's going on and trying
to make everything, you know, move the right way. You know,
there's really two parts to every swing. How the body
moves and now the hands and arms move. And if
the hands and arms aren't correct, it doesn't really matter
how your body moves. You're gonna have a hard time
getting the club back on the ball. So you've got
to get the hands and arms proper. If they move proper,

(08:49):
all of a sudden, the body starts moving a little
bit along with them, and then you can start to
enhance that more by getting the body to move more efficiently.
But I think for me, I spent a lot of
time working on specifics. You know, usually the one area.
You know you've heard me say this before. To me,
the golf swings like having a cold. There's there's a
virus that creates symptoms. Every golf swing has a virus

(09:10):
in it, and so if you don't get to the virus, well,
the rest is the mood point. So we spend a
little bit of time correcting the actual cause of everything
and then you know, piece it together without trying to
do too many things at once and really fix the
big things and all the little things will take care
of themselves.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, a lot of times simple changes can have big impacts,
and that's really what the AE twenty rule is talking about.
So you know, for instance, you know, once you recognize
that a large portion of the swing is a reaction
to initial action, Like I said, if it's a poor grip,
it's going to react. The old swing is going to
be out of sink or what have you. And a

(09:49):
lot of golfers sort of over control the swing rather
than allowing natural reactions to initiate movements. So again, you know,
you want to sort of focus on things like and
this is why so many pros focus on preshot routine,
which of course helps your body remember sort of its
natural swing. You know, my father I can remember growing up,
he would always say to me, he said, you know, Ted,
some of your best golf swings were your practice swings.

(10:11):
And he said, but as soon as you stepped over
that ball, all of a sudden, it was like I
don't know who was standing there, but it was not
the same guy there, you know, two seconds ago. So again,
you know, we also have to remember that gravity plays
a little bit of role as well, and the weight
of the club helps. So maybe you could touch on that.
You know, the old saying what goes up comes down,

(10:32):
so you know, gravity plays a big role, believe it
or not, a lot of people try to muscle you know,
the golf club and muscle the golf swing, thinking that's
going to generate more power. But a lot of times
just using the natural weight feeling the way to the
golf club through the golf swing is all you really
need to do. And again there's certain key factors have
to be in place, of course, but this is really
the principle of the eighty twenty rule. So again, maybe

(10:53):
you could touch on a little bit of that from
from mechanics again from the golf swing and talking about
you know, really understanding some of the uh I guess
larger portions of the swing and how the initial actions
can affect them.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Oh, without question. I mean you look at so many
players they're trying to you know, use the arm speed
to try to hit it as far as they can
distances mass time's velocity squared. And most amateur golfers don't
use the mass at all. They don't use it properly,
and so without using the body function, they can swing
as hard as they want. It's not going to go
anywhere as far as what they really need. But as
soon as you get the structure right and get the

(11:32):
hands and arms moving, you know, there's there's side to
side and up and down. I mean, that's really if
you want to simplify the golf swing, that's what we
have up and down is the arm function and the
chaft function. But we can't have two up and down. Obviously,
there's a there's a limit to that. Yeah, But if
you can get the arm structure in a pretty good
spot and then utilize as you talked about, the ground force,

(11:55):
utilize the body to move properly, well, now you're creating
a whole different energy. Well that's coming up from the
ground into the golf club. And now a lot of
times you've seen it before, Ted, We've all seen it.
You take a guy that's swinging ninety miles an hour,
you move him down to eighty and he hits it
twenty yards further because now we've switched him to a
position where he can feel what he's doing. He can

(12:15):
move better eighty miles an hour. We can put the
body in, get the function right of how everything sequences together,
and now he's got more leverage and more power with
what feels like a slower golf swing, which it really is.
But it's not always about trying to take the club,
you know, and try to force it and make it go.
You've got to let the club fall into place and
utilize the body with it. And now you can create

(12:38):
so much more leverage and like you said, like gravity,
help you let the gravity, let it bring the club down.
You know, from the top of the swing. If you
move the body right, the club will fall into position
and it'll repeat its path time and time and time
again if you put the sequence of movements together. So
you can actually take a golf swing and very simply
put it in a decent spot, even if it's you know,

(13:00):
a lot of players today would be better off taking
the batsmen three quarter length versus full. And I've always said, really,
the new full is three quarter, so you should take
it three quarters back because you're going to be in
a more leveraged position from there, and then as you
move the body, the club will naturally fall into place,
so it'll fall right into the right path. And so
you can now repeat better ball flight shots because now

(13:22):
you're utilizing you know, easier solutions to move in the
body letting the club fall into place, and now it's
just going to be more efficient overall.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, well said, and you know, again, really what I'm
the reason I want I wrote the article that also
wanted to touch on this, and it's a very straightforward article.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
It's not it doesn't get into a lot of the weeds.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
And obviously there's room for uh, you know, adaptation if
you will, and we'll get into some of that a
little bit here, but there's really four components. We talked
about swim mechanics again, do a lot of that because
really that's something that you need to work with your
pro with and get into some of the specifics. But
this is just really meant to be. This article was
meant to be really a guy. So we're gonna get

(14:03):
into practice routine, so, you know, prioritizing the practice areas
of your game that are going to yield the most
significant improvements of your score. So We've talked about this before. Yeah,
it's nice to bomb and long drive out there, but
that represents a very small portion of the game. And
really over fifty percent of your game is with the
short clubs, well over fifty percent, So if you're not

(14:25):
very proficient, right, and so again, I think it's a
matter of trying to teach people to prioritize those areas
that twenty percent of the game that people don't touch
on and bring that so that you're going to yield
eighty percent results positive results. Of course, so maybe could
touch about the short game a little bit, and again

(14:47):
we'll we'll get into some other things as well, but
maybe you could just sort of unpack that a little
bit more.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
Well sure, I mean, you know, no one who's ever
scored well did so without putting well. I mean, you
always have to put well if you're going to score well.
And I always used to tell the players, you know,
one place that you're not going to be bothered very
much is on the putting green because there's hardly anybody
on there. So you get over there and get some
practice on that. The better you can roll putts, the
more confidence you have in what your putting style is

(15:14):
and rolling the ball in the right direction. The more
putts you're going to make, the lower you're going to score.
And you have to always get let the other shots
chipping and pitching, those should provide you an opportunity to
put So you want to make sure that you can
get profission at your chip shots. You can get it
close enough that you're confident enough to make those putts. Pitching, yeah,
you're going to have a little bit more distance, but
still you want to be able to give yourself a

(15:36):
decent opportunity to make that putt from those shots. But
when you really look at how you're playing the game,
I mean really, if you played the game relative to
the scorecard, I mean, half your game would be putting
because you two put every green. But then we're going
to take into consideration you're going to miss some greens.
So now instead of being fifty percent of your score,
and the short game is going up because you're going
to miss some greens, you're gonna have to get up

(15:57):
and down. And then you know, if that short game
is a way higher percentage of your score, that means
wasting too many shots around the green. So we want
to keep that to a minimum. As we can and
let those short shots really, you know, dictate what's going
on eighty twenty. It's it's always good in there because
you know, you get proficient at the short shots, especially chipping.

(16:19):
And I say chipping because you know, I think you
can take the chipping technique to about twenty yards off
the green and still hit very proficient shots. You know,
you don't have to make giant swings to make you know,
a lot of great short game shots. Just watch it
on TV. You don't take you know, close to the green.
They're not taking big swings unless they're being rough or
something that's different. But you know, they're so proficient at
moving the club from waist high to waist high. And

(16:41):
if you can perfect just that motion alone, it opens
up a whole world of shots around the green that
you can use depending on the loft that you take.
And now you're going to be so much more efficient
at putting shots on the green and making putts that
your scores are going to go down, you know, like crazy.
And I've seen it time and time again where you
have someone who it's a decent round hitting the ball

(17:03):
from Tina Green, but oh good grief, it just falls
apart around the greens and the score just goes up
like crazy. So and then you know, of course, then
they come back said, you know, if I can just
drive it further, I can score better. I said that.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Well, well, and here's something.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Let me just interject real quick here, and I apologize
for interrupting you, but you know, we interview a lot
of the Epsent Tour players on the other program I
do on Tuesday mornings with Cindy Miller on The Women
of Golf Show. And what's interesting is very few of
them will come out and say, well, I'm a terrible
ball striker. I can't drive the ball very well. Probably

(17:38):
ninety percent of them say I need to, you know,
become a better potter. And that's not to say they're
not a good putter, but that's the area. Sometimes it
might be chipping in that, but usually every other part
of their game is pretty solid, but putting is usually
what lets them down. And it's interesting because that's what
they're focusing on. And it brings me to this other
point is you know, instead of focusing on everything, focus

(18:01):
on the twenty percent of your game that gives you
the biggest return in terms of scoring and so it
could be you know, you know, as you just reporting
it a second ago, you might be a really good
shipper and maybe you are a good putter, so okay,
you don't have to spend as much time, So maybe
you want to work on other areas a game. Maybe
you need to be a better driver, so you need
to focus a little bit more on your the long game.

(18:21):
So you have to find out what areas are going
to yield the biggest result. So if you're already a
pretty good short game person, then obviously you need to
get yourself in a position to capitalize on that. If
you're not a very good short game person, then you
need to do the opposite. You need to start looking
at okay, working on the putting, working on the shipping
and pitch shots, things like that. And that doesn't mean that,
you know, we're not saying to neglect the areas that

(18:42):
you're good at then saying don't ever hit a drive
on the range, But you have to allocate more time
to the areas that need improvement. And that's what people
don't do, right, I mean, you've seen this people raking
and hitting balls on the range.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Well, yeah, absolutely, And the other point of that is
you know, your short game work is is continual. It's
not that you just go hit chip shots one day
and then you're done. Because I practice it. You have
to keep doing those because you've got to have conditions
and feel and you know, weather and green conditions. You
have to keep doing those shots time and time and
time again. It should be an integral part of your

(19:16):
overall practice. The short game should always be a piece
of practice. When you go to hit balls, you should
spend a part of that practice doing some kind of
short game shots because you're going to need those all
the time. And yeah, and you have to be able
to practice efficiently, you know, in really taking into account.
That's why I like today You've mentioned before and other

(19:37):
shows that've got stats. Now, I mean you you can
track your whole round and now you can really pinpoint
exactly where you're having the most troubles. I had a
gentleman the other day. He said, you know, I'm having
my most trouble from from ninety to one hundred and
fifty yards, A great, great stat to have. I said, well,
that's that's great to know. Yeah, so let's figure this out.

(19:57):
Why you know, what clubs are we using what's what's
the process you're trying to do from ninety to one
hundred and ten hundred and twenty. Let's figure out, you know,
a way that we can attack that and you know,
now you're going to be way more efficient. So you know,
those stats were detrimental for him to figure out that
there's actually a distance from the green that he's never
good at.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Well, and don't sell short the benefit that you know, uh,
instructors or you know, coaches like ourselves having that information
as well, because you know, if we don't know the
player statistics, if we don't know where they're they're good
or more proficient or not you know, lacking in, then
we're spending a lot of times potentially on areas of
the game that maybe they really don't need. I mean,

(20:39):
certainly a trained professional is going to be able to
look at it and see, okay, this guy's a good
ball striker, so we don't need to focus on that.
We need to focus on here. And it's not that
it can't be uncovered, but if we're getting if we're
seeing patterns, you know, like let's say one week, he's
you know, chipping the ball really well, so we think, okay,
we don't need to work on that. But the next
round he's gone out and it's just falling, you know,
to hell in a handbasket. You know, then we have

(20:59):
to take a look at it. Okay, why is he
you know, yeah, he's making some good chips, but he's
not consistent, so we need to we need to improve
his consistency. You know, maybe he's driving the ball really
good for a couple of weeks and then all of
a sudden, you know, the wheels fall off the bus.
So you know, Potter, Potter's always get a little streaky,
doesn't matter what level of player you are. So again,
using this sort of eighty twenty rule will help you

(21:20):
be more focused on what you need to work with,
so certainly with the stats, and this comes into things
like course strategy, so you know, concentrary, as I said,
on the aspects of the game that are going to
create the biggest impact on your score. So for an example,
you know, and I'm going to let you unpack this
in a second, but you know, if you've got a
few well placed drives and maybe some solid approaches, and

(21:44):
you know, in an efficient short game, that's going to
significantly lower your score. So you know, as you point out,
you want to get your ball closer to the whole
and so forth. So again, using this eighty twenty rule
can also be used to guide club selection, you know
that sort of thing. So again, strategy is important, but
you could touch on that. I've given you sort of
a few things you can draw from that you can

(22:05):
use if you want your explanation. But this is an
area as well course strategy. I mean, again, knowing your
strengths and weaknesses when you're out there is critical.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
Oh, there's no question. I mean there's a lot of
times you can probably get somebody, you know, obviously depending
on the level, but for most players, you can probably
get them five to eight, maybe ten shots better just
by giving them the right club at the right time.
You know, so many times they'll be in a situation
where they'll try to play a shot that really doesn't
fit you know, first of all their ability to level,
but it just doesn't fit the situation that they're in.

(22:36):
So being able to go out and you know, look
at each hole, design each hole. I try to break
this down for all my players when they I say, well,
where are you playing next week? So well, I got
a tournament at substances. I'll pull it up on Google
and I'll pull all the holes up and I'll go
through every hole and I'll say, look, here's our strategy.
Here's where you got to hit it off the tee. Well,
why what do you mean to hybrid off that one?

(22:58):
I said, Well, if you drive it sixty yards from
the green, you're not very good at those, So why
are you gonna put yourself sixty yards from the green.
Let's hit a hybrid off the t So you're one
hundred and ten out and now you're good at wedges
from one hundred and ten yards, So let's put you
where your strengths are. So yeah, that's definitely something that
a lot of players, you know, they have to understand
first of all, where their weaknesses are, you know, and

(23:21):
their strengths. I mean, you know, and it's hard sometimes too,
because you know, you get done with the round and
most most people will tell you where they you know,
all I missed it, you know, put on seven, I
three pointed six. I you know, I hit that one
shot over the green on four. But they don't remember
they made you know, seven, you know, ten footers. Where's
the good stuff? Don't remember? The good stuff, because that's
a big piece of it, and those are the parts

(23:43):
that are going to help you along. But you know,
you also have to, you know, understand in some of
those situations. You know, if you had a shot into
the green that you didn't perform, well, what was the distance?
Is that something that you're pretty good at? And if
you're not, could you have avoided that yard? And so
we should I get better hitting that shot? And said, yeah,
over time, we're going to get better hitting that shot.

(24:04):
But in the in the heat of the moment, if
you're not good from seventy yards, then don't put it
seventy yards from the green. You know, either put it
twenty yards or one hundred and fifteen or twenty or
whatever your strength is hitting irons into the green. So yeah,
course strategy is huge and trying to get players to
understand how to score better. And I know you've come
across this, and I've come across this. You go up

(24:26):
with somebody on the course on the playing lesson, and
it just blows them away. While we talk about well
here's how I play this hole, they go, really, you
play it this way? Yeah, it's the most efficient way
to play the hole you're gonna bomb a driver down there. No,
she doesn't do me any good. It doesn't fit this hole.
But you know there's a lot of times too. The
home course I grew up on, I only hit driver

(24:47):
on four holes, Yeah, because that was the only four
we needed, you know, the other ones, the driving errors
were so tight and if you missed the driver, goodness gracious,
that second shot was brutal. You hitting that Kentucky Bluegrass rough,
It's like hitting out of barb wire. So you know,
you had to really place the golf ball around the
golf course. And so yeah, I mean I had a driver.

(25:09):
I was pretty good at driving the ball. I mean
not a high percentage of fairways hit, but you know
there's holes that you know, if you mishit it, well,
you're in deep trouble. So to score better, you had
to take the course apart and really utilize different clubs
on different tees to be more efficient in your score.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
You know what always baffles me just to pick up
on that.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
What always baffled me a lot with players is that
they'll play you know, their favorite course, you know, weekend
week out, maybe their member, and they don't really analyze
the course they just go out there. Remember that, you know,
I scored pretty good in this hole and that's it.
They don't really, you know, do a deep dive or

(25:50):
there's somebody that maybe plays multiple courses and they don't
they've never played the course before, and they don't do
any research like you did with like you said, going
on Google and researching the course, seeing how it's laid out,
see how can I best you know, set that up.
And you know, I want, I want to bring something
else because you were talking about, you know, setting things
up properly, you know, with whether hitting a driver or
what have you. And you know Clint Right of course,

(26:10):
who you know, has been on the show many times
and as you have, and you've been on with him
a number of times, and he always talks about, you know,
sort of working back from the hole. So he says, Okay,
what's my favorite yardage when I'm approaching the green? So
I it's one hundred yard shot or one hundred and
ten yard shot? Then I want to work my way
back and say, hey, what club do I need to
get me to one hundred and ten? So is it
going to be one shot? Can I get within that range?

(26:32):
Or do I need to take two shots. See if
it's on a par five, you know, instead of hitting
a good drive and then trying to line it on
the green and hope for the best, especially when you
got a lot of trouble, he says, I would rather
lay up to that perfect yardage for me, So I
do the math backwards. So it might be two shots
to get me there, it might be only one, But
I want to know what yardage I'm going to come in,

(26:52):
as you said, if you're coming in at seventy to
seventy yards as opposed one hundred and twin well, one
hundred and ten's my favorite distance with my wedge, not seven.
That's a shot I'm not very proficient in. So why
would I want to hit a ball and run the wrist.
I'm going to put it in that seventy eighty yard
range when I can lay up a little bit and
get it in the one hundred and ten and know
I'm going to come off with a good shot. So again,
course strategy is very, very important, and this is again

(27:12):
where this eighty twenty guide or this eighty twenty rule
if you will, can really guide your club selection and
help you sort of map out what you need to do.
And this brings into our final point, and that is
identifying weaknesses. And I know we've talked a little bit
about this, but it's so important to analyze your game
to pinpoint those areas that are holding you back, you

(27:33):
know what, part of the game. And instead of spending
you know, too much time on areas that you're already
again very proficient in and and rather than focus on
areas that you know weak areas that could be done.
So when you're doing that again, you want to create

(27:54):
a plan, if you will, not just for yourself but
through your coach as well. Is together you want to
identify those weakness So things like stats and those types
of things have a conversation. As you always said many
times on the show, let's have a conversation, where's the
areas that you're finding most difficulty with and then let's
drill down on those for a little bit. Let's work

(28:14):
on those and get them up to even if they're
not quite as much to the same level as what
your stronger points are, let's get them up a lot more.
If you're eighty percent here on this area, drives and whatnot,
and you're only thirty percent down here with your putting
and your chipping.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well we got quite a gap.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
Right right, yeah, no question.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
So when you're working with somebody, let's talk about this again.
When you're working with somebody, the first thing you want
to do is you want to identify where those areas
that they're struggling with the most.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
That's fir.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
I mean obviously you want to, you know, first time golfer,
you want to do an assessment. You want to see
overall what their game looks like, if they're swinging the
club property and identify. But once you've done that, really
what you're looking for is what weak areas of their
game and then how can we asked provide a solution
to help them become a more not just a better
ball striker, but a better player overall. So maybe just

(29:07):
walk us through a little bit what you would work
with a student, how you would approach it.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
Well, I mean, you made a good point there, because
a lot of times when they start to describe to us,
you know, the good and the not so good parts
of their game, you can already you know. For me,
I've been around enough swings to know if I start
hearing certain things they're struggling with I know what their
golf swing looks like because it's a definite you know.
You know, I say pattern that goes in there. And

(29:35):
that was one of the great things about working at
golf schools for so many years is there's all patterns.
Everything's patterns. You see it all over the place. If
guy swings it here and the dawnswing goes there, I mean,
it just happens. And good players have different patterns and
they're better at different things than not so good players.
But yeah, you have to be able to identify where
where you need the most help. And a lot of

(29:56):
times when i'm you know, I'm such a big you
know for me, most people come to me because they
know from a full swing standpoint. I mean, that's really
what I'm known for. Even though I coach the number
one part in the world, I'm still known for the
full swing guy. But there's so many times where I'll
wash them hit balls and they're striking it really well,
and I'll just pull out a wedge and say, here,
I want you to hit it to that flag where

(30:17):
there's forty three yards. Hit me a few balls over there. Well, yeah,
aren't we working on my full swing? I said, that's
already Yeah, we already did that. So I want to
see how you do for forty yards because I know
you're not very good at it. How do you know that? No,
trust me, I know. So then we'll give them something
else to do. And and you know you have that
too a lot of times. How good is you're pitching?
Really good?

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Well good as relevant? Let's see what well you're good
when you have to hit, as you know, a ninety
yard full shot. But if I'm putting you at thirty yards,
how good are you? You know? So really, and I
think times with most people is is you know, you
have to be a little bit more honest with yourself
too when you're describing what your game is, because you know,

(30:58):
you know what areas you're not good at, and you know,
ego I think comes in a little bit the place
you say, now, you know, I think I'm pretty good
at those shots, but you shoot ninety five. So you're
not really proficient enough at those good shots because you're
trying to get under eighty. And there's no way with
those areas you're gonna get under eighty because this is
killing your score. And so we have to dig down

(31:19):
into you know what really are the weaknesses, you know,
and if and if and you and I've been around
this game long enough to know that we can we
can answer, you know, Uh, We'll ask them a question
and then we'll give them another question when they give
us an answer, and we can keep questioning until we
pull it out of them. And so we finally figure
out what their weaknesses are, and then we have to

(31:39):
come up with a plan to fix them because you know,
it's not always about you know, doing ABC and I
do a lot of things when I when I have
them leave and I give them drills to do, and
I said, look, your next practice session is only this drill.
What do you mean? Yeah, you're going to spend an
hour doing only this because it's going to be miles
you know gain for you for where we're trying to
go down the road. You have to be proficient at

(32:00):
this motion. So this is what you're gonna do next.
And then once you get that, we're going to go here.
So I think you're right, and you know, getting everybody
to really understand, you know, all of their game, what
they're really good at, what they're not so good at,
and what those weaknesses are. And then you've got to
have a plan to attack them, because you know, you've
got to get those weaknesses better if you're going to
score better. And then you know there's no other way

(32:23):
to do it. You have to get those bad shots
out of there. I know. For me, I mean, you
made a great point. When I played professionally, my best
irons were six, seven, and eight. So I drove it
off the T. So I had a six, seven or
eight in you know, and There'll be guys with drivers
and I'm hitting four and they go, what are you
doing Because I'm hitting seven iron in the stream because
I can play from there. So I always drove it.
So I had one of those irons in there. I

(32:44):
was really good with those, and I knew I was
good with those, so I drive it off the T
so I can hit one of those in there, and
I scored the best when I could do that.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, you have to play to your strengths, and you
have to know what those strengths are first and foremost.
But then you also have to be honest. But you know,
one of the things I always say to people when
I would have them in and have that initial conversation
is the first thing I would say to my mouth
or you know, come out of my mouth is no
matter what you tell me, just be honest, because when
we get out to that lesson, t when we get
out in that range, I'm going to see what's really

(33:15):
going on. So you know, you can try to sugarcoat it,
or you can try to dress it up, you know,
put lipstick on the pig, as they say. But the
truth of the matter is, when you start hitting those
golf balls or we go out for a playing lesson,
I'm going to very quickly be able to identify where
the areas that you're struggling with, So, you know, just
beyond just say you know what, yeah, my putting really sucks,
or you know, my chipping's really bad, you know, or

(33:35):
it's sketchy or whatever the case, just be honest with
it because I can't fix what we can identify. And
if you're just gonna come to me and you're gonna
sort of well, I just want to hit the ball further,
and you're hiding two thirds of your game thinking that
I'm gonna if I hit it just twenty yards more,
then I don't have to play, you know. That's the
other thing. That's the other thing. That, you know, it's

(33:57):
really interesting. Is and again I understand people having their
favorite clubs to work with. But at the same time,
I think people took it a little bit literally, so
they'll start saying, well, I can't hit this club, I
can't hit that club. Well, why is it in your bag?
You know, take it out. If you're that bad, Let's
put a set together that is going to compile with
clubs that you are pretty good hitting and maybe need

(34:17):
some improvement. But if you're if you're you know, if
you're hitting poorly with long irons, what are you doing
with a three two, you know, three four, even a
five iron. Pull them out of the bag, replace them
with a hybrid, you know, like, let's let's be honest
about it. And and again I think it's for for men.
Particularly for women, it's a little bit different. But for men,
I think it's an ego thing. I think it's that

(34:38):
they just don't want to admit that, you know, hey,
I can't I can't you know, stripe these shots and uh,
you know, so this is where you know, this is
one of the reasons why I want to do this
is I wanted to you know, I like to read
certain things and you know, I came across the you know,
Pretto's principle some some years back, the eighty twenty, and
I got thinking about it, and I was thinking about
the other day, and you know, a few weeks ago actually,

(35:00):
and I said to myself, I think if I could
put this together and apply it to golf, I think
it would be really useful for a lot of people.
And again it's very bullet point. There's not you know,
a lot of meat on it, because I really want
them to think about it and then sort of be
honest with themselves and say, Okay, what twenty percent of
my game can I work on That's going to yield

(35:20):
me if I if I improve on that, that's going
to yield me eighty that's going to affect eighty percent
of my game. Well, the short game is an easy one.
So really that's what you want to do, is you
want to be able to see those results and you
want to see steady improvements. But if you're focusing on
areas of your game that you're already pretty proficient in
and you're neglecting other areas of your game, then you're
going to get into a situation where you're never going

(35:40):
to get to become a better player, because you're just
working on the same thing. So the eighty twenty when
it comes to golf is really four key areas that
I covered here was swing mechanics, practice, routine, course strategy,
and of course identifying your weaknesses. And again when you
put them all together and you start applying them to
your game, and with that eighty twenty rule in mind, again,

(36:02):
you'll start to see your overall game will improve and
you're gonna have more fun, you're gonna get out there.
So that's why I put it up on the on
golf tipsmag dot com. So I'm gonna give you the
last minute or two to you know, touch on anything
if we've missed anything, or or anything that you want
to add to it. But I think I think it's
a very simple principle, but I think it it involves
a lot of honesty by the golfer.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
You know.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
One of the things that I think you'll find really interesting.
I coached one of the world long drive players and
he said, you know what's really hard for me is
when I play golfers. You know, I hit a wedge
one hundred and fifty five hundred and sixty yards, So
I've got a giant gap going down to the you know,
the other shots. And I said, well, then why are
you driving it so you only have sixty yards? I said,
you hit seven iron two hundred and fifty yards. Why

(36:48):
don't you hit seven iron off the team and then
hit an eight or nine or seven iron of the green.
You're you're always thinking I'm gonna vomit, and then you're
leaving yourself with play the shots you can't play. So
even if those guys lights, they still have to back
off of the team, even though they can drive it
a mile, if they want to plague golf. It becomes
a different strategy, totally different strategy. So now I think

(37:09):
this overall is you know, something that would help all
players because they have to identify, you know, the problemaries.
You know, we come across that all the time and
we talk to them all the time about what, you know,
where are you struggling? Tell me, tell me you shot
ninety three today, you normally shoot in the low eighties.
Why was it? Tell me what shots gave you the
most trouble? And they hardly ever say, well, you know,

(37:30):
I hit six t balls out of bounds. They usually
come back and say, well, you know, you know, probably
one hundred and ten yards and then probably some chips
and pitches around the green. That's probably where I was struggling,
you know, so and then we can identify them. And
now we've got that, so now all right, let's go,
let's go work on it. Let's make those shots a
little bit better. And I think that's really where, you know,

(37:51):
if you're going to improve your scoring, first of all,
you have to improve as you said that twenty percent,
you got to improve it. You got to make it better.
There's just no other way around it. And you know,
everybody knows where their weaknesses are. When I played pitching
with my weakness, so I just avoided it. You know,
I wasn't very good at sixty yards, so on a
par five, I make sure I was never sixty yards

(38:11):
away because that was a struggle. So I would leave
it somewhere else. But you know, and it's not that
I didn't practice those. I just wasn't comfortable with those
when I was playing, so I just avoided it. And
so that's what you can do too. If you've got
some areas and some shots that you're not comfortable with,
you know, you can strategize to avoid them. And that's
really not that's how you play golf. That's part of

(38:32):
you know, really scoring. That's a big piece of you
understanding your own game and being able to take what
you have and get on the course and you know
lower your score.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, and that's you know, Nicholas talked about that. You know,
he he focused on certain parts of his game. You know,
he had the same swing, he just used a different
club and and he worked on the fundamentals. He said
for him at the beginning of the season, it was
the fundamentals that he needed to bring up the snuff.
And you know, he didn't go out and he wasn't
like some players we went out hit thousands upon thousands
of golf balls. He knew what what he could bring

(39:04):
to the game. It was more concerned about making sure
his grip was correct, you know, making sure he had
the right ball position each time, and making sure he
made a good solid turn you know in the backswing
and a good you know follow through and that sort
of thing. So he worked on very basic things. But
you didn't see him tinkering around and and anytime when
he did try to make a change, like I remember

(39:24):
reading and I think we talked about it years ago
on the show when you know he was you know,
Courss working for years with Jack Grout. But then h
and I forget who the name the gentleman was, but
there was somebody came along and tried to get him
to to hit a draw and he said he did
that first season and he said his game just went,
you know, hell in a handbasket, not quoting him but paraphrasing.

(39:46):
So he went back to hitting his his his fade
and it worked for him and he won, you know,
all these majors and all these tournaments around the world,
and was you know, arguably the best player in the world.
And you know, and and Tiger really follows that same suit.
He did the same thing. You know, he looked at
what worked for him. He focused on things. Now obviously,
you know those guys, you know, their whole game is
pretty pretty solid. But you know, Tiger was never a

(40:08):
great ball striker or driver at times. I mean he
was sometimes would spray it all over the place. But man,
you get him with those you know, iron shots, and
he would, you know, famously do that that stinger shot
with a two iron, you know, off the tea and
people are thinking why hitting a two iron, But man,
he belt that thing probably two sixty two seventy down
the middle of the fairway because he wanted to get

(40:29):
himself in position for his next shot. And you know,
so there's a method to the madness. And but I
think eighty to twenty rule is something that that any
golfer can apply. And it's up on golf tipsmag dot com.
So if you want to check that, I just posted
up today. So if you go to golf tipsmag dot com,
you can check that the eighty twenty rule in golf
and it's up there right now. And while you're there,

(40:50):
register and become a Premium member and get some great
discounts from many of the suppliers I Premium Members partners
that I mentioned earlier in tonight's show. But Pete, as always,
I want to thank you for for coming on. It's
always a pleasure and hopefully you'll take something away from
this as well, and and uh and and and apply

(41:11):
it to you know, your teaching and so forth. But
you mentioned you've got some things going on, So first off,
let the folks know if they want to reach out
to you, the best way they can do it, and
if you have anything you want to plug, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
Sure again, Ted, thanks for having me on. It's always
a great time being on the show and we appreciate
what you do for all of us. They can reach
me at petebucannangolf dot com. Everything is out there all
my contact information. Right now, I'm working heavily with xview AI,
the new three D software. You know, if you really
want to figure out what that's all about, you know,

(41:42):
send me a video and let me put you in there.
The free version app I think is out now that
you can go get it at your at your store.
But if you really want to to have a good depth,
in depth look at it, send me a video. I
can put you in there. I can do a recap
for you and kind of give you an idea of
what it's all about. But it's really behind the scenes.
For two years I've been working with the software, measuring

(42:04):
things out and looking at different swings and patterns, so
I have all the info in the background. So now
when I get a video from somebody there or I'm
in front of somebody working, I've already done the research
behind it, so I can get there much faster and
that's what really AI is helping us do. In the
three D, we can just see so much more, so
much easier, So it's a great way to do it.
So and again, like I've always said, you know, just

(42:26):
let's start a conversation. You'd be amazed at how much
we can come across and how much we can get
done if we just start a conversation. And then you know,
let's take your game to where you want it to go.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
Perfect sounds good?

Speaker 2 (42:38):
All right, Well, once again, I want to thank for
Pete for coming on and having a great coaches Corner discussion.
I hope he enjoyed it just as much as I did,
and hopefully you will enjoy it as well. And again
go to Golf tipsmag dot com and the articles there.
You can get a little bit more in depth than
what we talked about here through the article. But on
that note, I'm going to be joined by my feature guests,
So I'm going to take a quick commercial break and

(42:59):
we'll become back. I'll be joined by Blair Klein from
the dun Eden Golf Club in Florida.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2 (44:21):
Welcome back, everybody. I'm super excited tonight to be joined
by this evening's featured guest. His name is Blair Klein.
He is the general manager of golf operations at Dunedin
Golf Club in.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Florida, TAD.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
A little bit about his background and then we'll get
into tonight's discussion. Blair has been working in golf since
nineteen sixty six. He became a PJ professional in seventy
seven and then later became a PGA member in nineteen
eighty three. He's also played on the Mini Tourists for
over ten seasons throughout several states California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho,

(44:54):
even up into British Columbia and many others, several others actually,
And he's held general manager and head golf professional positions
at a number of clubs in Florida as well as Texas, Arizona,
and again California. And in twenty twenty four he came
to dun Eden Golf Club to oversee the Cilion Dollar
restoration and run the golf operations for the city of

(45:17):
dun Ed. And so, Claire, welcome to Golf Talk Live,
and thank you for joining me tonight.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
Thanks for having me. It's going to be very enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll do my best
to keep up. But I always like to I mean, obviously,
in your bio, it you know, gave a little bit
of information about obviously your your background and things like that.
But I want to go a little further back, if
you don't mind, and to some of your earliest memories.
Then we'll get into obviously we'll talk about dun Eden,

(45:45):
but I want to when did you first sort of
become interested in golf? How did how did that come about?
Was it a parent that introduced you or was it
just a natural curiosity and sort of how did you
get started? And then at what point did you decide, Okay,
I want to be a part of this business.

Speaker 5 (46:04):
Actually it was a mother and father that decreed I
needed a summer job. So I needed to go caddy
for a summer for the summer job, and I was
fortunate enough to become a caddy at the Broadmoor Golf
Club in Seattle, Washington, one of the top clubs in
the Northwest, and the golf professional at that time was

(46:26):
a gentleman named Ben Doyle who probably found his greatest
fame as the leading exponent of the Leading Proponent of
the Golfing Machine book. It was written during the time
I was at Broadmoor. I was very fortunate to hang
out with a lot of other good players while I
was there, but it really took me. Then allowed us

(46:49):
workers to take the junior lessons that the junior members
would get, and it probably took me about six to
eight months before it just consumed me. And so when
the other guys working there, actually working in the backroom
and the club repair and doing things like that, went

(47:11):
back to college, he asked me if I wanted to
work there, and that's all it took. It was wonderful.
Ben later went down to Carmel, California as a teaching pro,
and a gentleman by the name of Duke Matthews, who
was one of the leading players and played the tour,

(47:31):
became the pro there. I worked for him for ten years,
and then Billy Tindall, who became the dean of the
Northwest Golp Pros former USGA Junior champion, became the pro there,
and I went back to work for Duke when he
moved to southern California. So I was exposed to everything
pretty early. It came to me early what I wanted

(47:54):
to do. In fact, I remember Duke asking me when
I was probably seventeen, if I had any idea what
I wanted to do with my life, and I said, well,
all sincerity, I said, when you retire, I want to
be back here and take your job. And that didn't
work out because I discovered warmer weather was south from Seattle,

(48:16):
and I love Seattle. If I was a tennis pro
or something you could work inside, I would probably still
be there, but I needed to go for warmer weather.
Once I found out warmer weather was possible, and I
relocated the Palm Springs and after that it's always been warm.
Palm Springs, Tucson, Sacramento, Houston, Fort Worth, the Panhandle of Bke,

(48:43):
you know, the Panhandle well, and up there and now
down in Tampa. So I've I've just enjoyed it. I've
had great mentors along the way. When I was in
Palm Springs, I left o'donnelld Golf Club, the origin of
course in the Desert, where I was one of the
only assistants they've ever had, and went to work for

(49:05):
Gay Brewer and opened Desert Horizons Country Club in nineteen
eighty and Gay won the Masters in sixty seven. Many
people don't know he lost in a playoff in sixty six.
Nicholas won it right, and I was included in everything.
So I met all the greats of the game, and
it just fueled my passion even even farther. And I've

(49:28):
had some wonderful experiences due to where I was and
the mentors I've had.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
You know, it's interesting because everybody has a story. You know,
obviously not quite as fortunate as yours, but you know,
everybody has their earliest memories of how they got introduced
to this game and you know, usually it was as
either a parent, or in your case it was both parents.
And you know, you know, for whatever reason, whether it
was to get you out and get you working, or

(49:56):
whether it was just to introduce you to the game.
And it's always interesting when I hear people's stories and
they talk about how, you know, for a period of
time they went out there and you know, hit balls
or what have you, and then all of a sudden
they were just you know, they were hooked and that
was it. And it sounds like that was very a
similar passion for you, and and where there came a
point in time when when the game was just this

(50:17):
is what I want to do. And and you went on,
as I mentioned in the bio, you know, you went
on to play on the mini tours for a number
of seasons all over the country and even up into
Canada a little bit. And then ultimately you've you've come
over to the other side of the game. And that's
something you don't see very often, you don't. You know,
you see, somebody will be a player and or there'll
be a coach or a teacher of some sort, but

(50:39):
you've you've done both and and that, uh what what
at what point when you were playing, did you say,
you know what, I think I'd like to teach this
game as well.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
Well.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
I was always working as a golf professional, right at
private clubs. But if you're in the desert, which I was,
you know, the summertime is not generally very busy down there.
So I could take twelve weeks off and go play,
and I still wanted to play. I got invited to
a lot of great tournaments, played with a lot of

(51:10):
great players, and I tell everybody it's because every tournament
has a last place finisher, and I offered the tournament
a quality last place finisher. I would play with the
amateurs and give them the distances, and you know, laugh
at their jokes and hang out with them and everybody.
Every person trying to play the Mini tours is a

(51:32):
lot of them were pro ams. You'd have one group
one day, and another group the next day, another group
the next day. And they hated following me because they
said we got to read all the punts, we got
to give them all the distances. But keep in mind,
I was doing it because I loved golf. I still
love competing. But every year I got worse, and the

(51:53):
guys playing got better every year, and rather than taking
a cruise or something, I just pulled my money together
and played twelve to fifteen tournaments a year, driving oh,
probably forty to fifty thousand miles during that time period,
back and forth across the country between tournaments, and I

(52:16):
loved it, and if I could still do it, I would.
It got to where it was a physical impossibility, and
also my best year, I lost fifteen hundred dollars. That
was my best year. So you know, you look at
that and you wonder, how many more years can you
do that? And it became a point where I could

(52:36):
play two days in a row because my back was
so bad, and so I play in a couple of
little local things. Better than that, I very rarely play anymore.
But I love golf, and I got into the teaching
side of it quite a bit, and then I got
into the golf course construction design, the agronomy side of it,

(52:58):
taking care of golf courses, being the superintendent, being the
general manager, being like a one stop management company, and
I really enjoyed that. So it's a lot of work,
and I'm sure there will be some people listening that
are going, oh, I hear you, and I'm right there
with you. It's extreme challenge, but it is so much fun.

(53:24):
Just like you're teaching somebody and they slice it all
the time and suddenly they start in't it straight? They're
so thrilled. But some of these golf courses are the
same way. And if the board of directors and the
members will allow you to do what you think is
right and you can help that course turn around, it's
just so rewarding. And I've been incredibly fortunate with the

(53:46):
memberships with the board of directors, because you can't do
it all in your own and you need the staff,
you need the buy in from the members, and I've
been very, very fortunate that that's happened and that continues
to happen here and done well said.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Do you think given your not just your abilities and
you know, being a player and obviously as a teacher professional,
but being involved in other aspects of the game, do
you think that that's given you I guess maybe a
greater appreciation for the guys that designed the golf course,
like a Donald Ross and all that to just really
kind of get a bird's eye view and think, Okay,

(54:23):
now I understand why they do what they do.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
And and you.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Know, because I mean most people that just go in
a golf course they look at the beautiful aesthetics of it,
and you know, but you had it sort of from
a different bird's eye view than sort of the average
amateur out there. Do you think that's given you a
greater appreciation of the game, being able to see it
from your side of it.

Speaker 5 (54:43):
There's absolutely no doubt it has. I mean, as a
player or a club member or anything. We all have
our favorite golf courses. Sure that appeal to us for
some reason. Growing up in Seattle, I like kind of
trees on golf courses, yep. And the desert was a
lot different than that. But there was an architect that

(55:03):
did a lot of golf courses on the West coast,
a lot of golf courses in the desert. His name
was Ted Robinson. And I used to tell Ted or
talk to Ted, and I'd say, I don't understand it.
I can drive through so many places in northern California
and I can just see land that is a golf course.

(55:26):
You know, you just build greens and it's a golf course.
Same with Texas, Oh my goodness. You can drive through
East Texas or the piny Woods, and you can just
visualize the hill country. You just see a golf course,
a vacant piece of land.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
You just see it.

Speaker 5 (55:40):
I said, how do you do it in the desert?
I said, I don't see a single golf course down here,
because it's just flat sand and palm trees. And he goes, well,
you just push it into whatever shape you want, and
I said, ted, that's the problem, don't. I can't visualize it.
I don't know how you guys visualize a flat piece

(56:03):
of land and say we're going to cut a lake
in here, We're going to have a green here, We're
gonna have these bunkers. I said, when the land gives
it to you, I see it. When the land doesn't
give it to you, I don't see it. And you've
got to figure the Golden Age, the Rosses and the

(56:24):
Mackenzies and the tilling ass and all those people, that
was what the land gave them. Pretty much nowadays, we
have all the earth moving equipment and we can work
with computers and everything, so we've gotten some lesser quality
pieces of land to work with. But they've still made
fantastic golf courses and architects are just incredible. They sit there.

(56:51):
You've got to figure out draining, so you don't want
your course that all the time. You've got to figure
out the sunlight. I mean, nobody wants to be playing
into the setting sun the last three holes in a
romankating and see the green. You know how you lay
out the driving range. If you want a left to
right win ninety percent of the time on your driving range.
Your golf grow better, be fantastic and giving lessons. I

(57:13):
mean it's I think the whole thing is fascinating, and
I've been lucky. I've built my first putting green at
twenty three years old. I was at O'Donnell Golf Club
in Palm Springs. We had a little tiny practice green
couldn't have been more than twenty five feet by twenty feet,

(57:36):
very small green. And the chairman of the board of
John's Manville Corporate, former chairman of the board of Johns
Manville kind of watched over the green screw and he
was a friend of Robert Trent Jones. So mister Jones
came out and this gentleman said, we need to rebuild
our putting green. And Duke Matthews and my boss said, well,

(57:58):
Blair's really interesting chitecture. And he said, come on, I'm
going to show you how to build a green, and
you're gonna build it. So there's a little, tiny putting green,
and of course I've got ideas of hills. The green's
only twenty feet long. You can't have too many hills
and valleys and a putting green like that. And so
he tamed me down and explained to me that we
kind of just need to have as many putts as

(58:20):
possible the little break because we can't have something that
takes too much of the green out of play. But
he actually taught me how to do it, showed me
how to do it. Later on, you know, Ted Robinson
helped me. Architect by the name of Ray Hardy helped
me an our current architect by the name of Jeff
Bloom that does a lot of work helps me. And

(58:41):
then Chris Spence that re restored this golf course. Was
just fascinating to hang out with. These guys really know
their stuff. And I've got holes in play, I've got
greens in play that I've designed, driving ranges, chipping greens
and every thing. But I tell you, after talking with

(59:02):
these folks. I'm not an architect, right, may be an efficionado,
I may be an amateur, but these people really know
it and what they look at and what they see
is to your point, fascinating.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, when when it can be
the simplest golf course to the to you know, to
something that's literally like a masterpiece, and it just it
is amazing how they they have that that foresight, in
that vision. It just blows me away. And I'm like you,
I mean, I've played a number of different types of courses.
I've been you know, tree lined courses and then I've

(59:36):
been to where it's you know, desert, and it just
amazes me that the difference, and you look at it
and you just think to yourself, how do they You
know it's easier if it's tree lined, because you can
carve it out a little bit. And obviously you have
to factor in I mean some course, especially up and
I'm sure in the northeast and or northwest rather you
have more rock to deal with in some areas and

(59:57):
British Columbia and that for as example, uh, any parts
of up in Canada and northern Ontario is the same
way they've tried to do that, and you know, it's
just a massive rocks have to be moved and things
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
It's just amazed how they do that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
But I want to fast forward now to the future
or to the current time, and now you're at dun
Eden Golf Club in Florida, and you had an opportunity
to come here and help with that restoration and obviously
be a part of their facility.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
So tell it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
First off, a little bit of the history for those
that are not familiar with it. You know, obviously it
was built back in nineteen twenty six. Donald Ross of course,
was the original art deech and then you said somebody else.
Now you mentioned a moment ago has come with the
with the updates and things like that. So talk a
little bit about the history, how you came involved in it,
and what's what's changed since from when you first came.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
Well, obviously you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Know that's a lot to unpack.

Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
But now this will be this will be interesting some folks.
I hope it. I hope it is because it's interesting
to me and it's part of the reason I'm here.
First the chance to take such a historic golf course
like this one and be the project director for the
restoration and have Chris Spence as an architect who's just

(01:01:19):
phenomenal when it comes to that Golden Age and his muse.
The person that I'm convinced speaks to him to this
day is Donald Ross. So for everybody that isn't that
familiar with Duneden Golf Club. Nineteen twenty four, the city
of dun Eden was trying to become a player in

(01:01:43):
the tourism market and they found a site for a
golf course downtown. There was going to be a municipal
golf course and Donald Ross was going to design it.
And by nineteen twenty six, nothing had really happened with it,
and a developer from Detroit came down and he promised

(01:02:08):
thirty six holes of golf, a casino, a three hundred
room hotel, a housing development. It was a great plan,
and Donald Ross was going to design this golf course.
And since the work on the public course hadn't started yet,
they've got work started on this. And I wrote down

(01:02:31):
something fascinating. I gotta be able to read it now,
but work started, and I gotta find where I wrote
it down. Here we go. So work started and two
hundred and ninety six days later the course was opened

(01:02:56):
January one, nineteen twenty seven. It took two hundred and
twenty six men, sixty eight horses and mules, thirteen scrapers,
five trucks, sixteen wagons and carts, traders and rollers to
get that two hundred and ninety six days to build
a golf course from ground, you know, wild ground. And

(01:03:20):
that's because this developer was pushing this product. And we
opened January one, nineteen twenty seven, and held the Floorida
Open February twenty first and twenty second, nineteen twenty seven.
They played at Pelican Golf Club. Pelican Golf Club is

(01:03:41):
back to being Pelican Golf Club. It's very private. It's
twenty minutes from us. It's where the LPGA plays today.
So you played eighteen there in the morning, you played
eighteen at dun Eden in the afternoon, and then you
played thirty six the next day at Clearwater Country Club.
And Bobby Crookshank finished second in that first open and

(01:04:05):
Tommy Armor finished down the list. But Armor said it
was one of the finest courses he'd ever played. The
layouts the thing. It's the best in Florida, if not
the entire country.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:04:18):
And by nineteen twenty eight, Sarazen was playing here daily
and called the best course on Florida's west coast, could
be the best in the entire South. And that's just
after opening up. And that's the genius of Ross. I mean,
there's a lot of ross golf courses. You know, You've

(01:04:39):
got a ross golf course, original ross golf course up
in the panandam in Panama City. You've got a lot
of ross golf courses in the northeast. I didn't have
any in Washington or Oregon. There's one in California, Peninsula
Golf Club. There were originally three in Texas. I think
one truly r mains at Sunset Grove in Orange, Texas.

(01:05:04):
So it's mainly a East coast just because of the
travel getting around back. We've got quite a few of
them in this area. And as I found out about
this job and started researching it, I mean, just we
have this history that's incredible. We were known when the

(01:05:27):
developer kind of went under during the depression. Another group
took the course over, and in nineteen thirty eight they
made a deal with the city to take over operations
of the golf course assuming the city could meet some provisions,
which the city did over the length of time. So

(01:05:49):
this has truly been a city owned facility since nineteen
thirty eight, but the cities never operated. They always had
an operating agreement with the entity to operate the club,
and it was done in golf club. But in nineteen
forty five it became the PGA of America. So from

(01:06:11):
nineteen forty five to nineteen sixty two this was PGA
National Golf Club, and we hosted eighteen PGA Seniors Championships,
the longest running senior major that's still on the champions
Tour to this day. Everybody that's anybody played golf here.
Bobby Jones, Hogan Nelson, Dave z Haarius, all the stars

(01:06:35):
of the entertainment world, but all the male and female
stars played golf here. The other thing that happened was
this was the site of the first teaching summit in
the PGA. Teaching Summit goes on today. This was the
site of the first business school in the PGA Business School.

(01:06:55):
PGA Business School goes on today. This was the site
of the first randise show of the PGA. It started
in our parking lot in nineteen fifty four, So that's
a far cry from the PG merchandise show today in Orlando.
Three days and forty five thousand people over those three days.

(01:07:16):
They all started here and I became enamored with some
of that as I looked into it. I came down
to visit the golf course and it was tired. The
PGA had flattened a lot of the greens out, the
PGA had removed a lot of bunkers. Doald Ross opened

(01:07:37):
this course with wide fairways, maybe one hundred and sixteen bunkers,
and the PGA had planted or PG are well meaning
people through the years, had planted palm trees, pine trees.
It had become a forested golf course with forty some
bunkers and flat greens to tell the original greens were there.

(01:08:03):
And the city announced plans to not only restore the
golf course, and we use that word carefully because renovate
implies that we ripped it up and made it something new.
We did not. We restored it to Donald Ross and
Chris Spence, who's done twenty two Ross restorations, was the architect.

(01:08:27):
And it's a tribute not to me, not to Chris Spence,
not to anybody but Donald Ross. We think this is
the course that Ross would be proud of. We certainly
hope he would be. TDI Golf was the golf course
construction firm. They've done about thirty Donald Ross Restorations. They
work in Canada and down here in the United States.

(01:08:49):
And their shaper was just an incredible shaper. He's the
architect on the bulldozer, and so Chris really tasked him
with finding the original greens. So it was like an
archaeological dig. So all the greens. The PGA had moved

(01:09:11):
one of the greens, we moved it back to its
original fill path. All the greens are on their original
fill path. We didn't bulldoze a green down, bring in
new dirt, reshape the green and it's surround in the bunkers,
and then build the green. It's right where it's always been.

(01:09:33):
But when Chris core down, he found the original green
two and a half three feet beneath the surface of
the modern green. As Donald Ross drew his greens in
and cinders and in the corein you could see a
black layer of cinders. So the bulldozer would push two
feet of the sand the overburden, they called it off

(01:09:57):
the green, and then the shaper would get on there
and he would do an archaeological dig with the bulldozer,
pushing it out to all of its corners, revealing the
black layer, find all the slopes, all the hills, and
Chris had photographs and he had the original field notes
from Ross and Ross. This was not a project that

(01:10:20):
Ross drew up and didn't visit. He was actually visited here,
made field notes, made corrections, and we had all those.
So Chris and the shaper would get together and he'd say,
did you find that spine? Oh, you got the spine. Okay,
how about the thumbprint over here? You got the you
got the backpend placement, the runt yep, you got that.

(01:10:42):
And he'd finally stamp and say, okay, this green is ready,
and they would they would survey it. Basically, they'd survey
it from sixteen points around the green. They would just
core the green out, bring in. Once they court it out,
they'd do drainage, bringing new greens, mix and recreate what

(01:11:02):
two three days before they've just done, and then sprig
it so they're on their original fillpads. These these are
as close to the original greens in the original location
as you can get. The only difference is green speeds
are a little faster today, so they're tempered in some

(01:11:23):
of their slopes just slightly to allow the course to
be played. The bunkers are authentic ross bunkers. They're fairly
flat in the bottom with fairly steep sides. A lot
of them have grass faces coming down, they don't have
that flashed face. Look where you see sand. The work

(01:11:47):
that Chrispince did around these than the Greens complexes is
nothing short of phenomenal. And every architecture afficionado, guru, other
architect we've found out here just gone this is this
is amazing. They're really special.

Speaker 4 (01:12:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
I'm just sitting there as I'm listening to and I'm
thinking to myself, I mean, this is a herculean task.
I mean to say, to say the least, and that's
probably selling short. I mean to be able to go
in there and do that and not only locate, but
then recreate what was there, it is really nothing short

(01:12:27):
of of brilliant. I mean I couldn't even begin, you know,
to imagine, and just you know, hearing you explain that
the process and how detailed they were and to what
lengths they had to do just to get down to
find it and get where it was, and then they
had to go through the process of re re you know,
imagining it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
If you will.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
And I wonder what has been I mean, well, first off,
how long of a process has this been? I mean,
obviously it didn't happen overnight. I mean you said originally
the golf course was about two hundred I think you
said twenty six days from start to finish before they
opened it. What was the length of time that was
involved in getting it to where it is now from

(01:13:08):
where it was.

Speaker 5 (01:13:09):
Well, it was two ninety six in the beginning for
Donald Rocks. We actually started work. Our groundbreaking was March
one and TDI Golf was on site working that day.
We were on schedule to reopen somewhere between the first

(01:13:30):
and the fifteenth of November, so that's eight months. That
would that would if my mass right, and that would
have beat Ross. Of course. We had and we put
in a new irrigation system, we had, we did some
drainage work, we built some new tea boxes, grassed the
whole facility. But we had a couple of little fun

(01:13:55):
things along the way. Sure, right as we're getting really close.
We were about i'd say, halfway through grow in. Tropical
Storm Debbie went past us. That was brutal for rainfall,
and it turned into Hurricane Debbie as it was passing us.

(01:14:18):
We survived that. We did we you know, we did everything.
Whatever little amount of washouts there were and everything we fixed.
And shortly thereafter we got two hurricanes back to back
and Helene had an unbelievable storm surge. Everything was coming

(01:14:45):
in when Helene hit. And I don't want to make
fun of this because it ruined lives for people and
ruined homes and for people that have never been down here.
We are right across the street from the water. There's
a lot of homes across the street, but that's actually

(01:15:05):
the bay dredged out. The developer dredged out the bay
to make more home sites on the water. And there
are there are places where the water comes up right
to the other side of the street that runs by
the edge of the property. And Helene only dumped about
an inch and three quarters of rain. Had some wind

(01:15:29):
knocked a few small trees down, but the storm surge
was unbelievable and it put five of our greens underwater.
It put probably three four of the fairways were pretty submerged.
We got that pretty much dried out and here comes Milton,

(01:15:51):
and Milton that was not my favorite hurricane. It was
the tide was going al the surge was going away
from the shore, so it did not flood nearly as much,
but it dumped fifteen point two one inches of rain,
and the wind was greater, and it knocked down ninety

(01:16:14):
six trees on our golf course. And this was probably
five weeks away from opening, so we were pretty well there.
And some of these trees were twenty feet around. They
were not twigs. Twigs stayed upright because they flowed with
the wind. But these were some gigantic trees, ninety six

(01:16:37):
of them. And then FEMA gets involved and you have
to meet all their rules and regulations because the city
obviously would like reimbursement, so we have to do everything necessary.
And so we actually got open December twenty seven, which
I think, given the circumstances, was really good. But we

(01:17:01):
were on schedule. We would have been open the same
November one, fifteenth as we opened December twenty seventh, and
that was due to Chris Pence dedicating a lot of
his time to flying out here and approving greens and
approving bunkers and also TDI got they stayed on top

(01:17:25):
of it. We had weekly meetings, myself and the construction
superintendent and our green superintendent at the time. We were
meeting daily bring up anything we think needed to be changed,
a change order, anything we thought they were falling behind on,
or anything that they were way ahead of and doing great.

(01:17:46):
And then everybody involved with the construction from their home
office people to us, to the engineering firm which was Standtack,
to the person planning the new trees that needed to
be planted, to the air gateation supplier which was KDC Irrigation.
We we all met and we had great communication and

(01:18:10):
that and that was the one thing that helped it
really helped us push that timeline as fast as possible
and really helped us with the hurricane cleanup because we all,
every one of us, had to do a lot of stuff,
no imagine with that hurricane, and we're responsible for a lot.
And you know, we were talking at eleven o'clock at night,

(01:18:32):
we were talking at five thirty in the morning, Hey,
I need to do this can you can you not
do your stuff there today? And that's literally how it went,
and we all pulled together, we got it done. I
think we got a great result out of it, and
all those companies that did work for us that it's
a testament to them also that we were able to

(01:18:54):
recover the quality of the workmanship that went in, that
we were able to recover so fast from something that
was a pretty big disaster in this area. Definitely hurt
a lot of people's homes, ruins some lives, but we
were able to recover, and thank goodness, we were.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
You know, it's amazing when you think about it, because
you didn't have just one, but you had really two
hurricanes that came through in a very short period of time.
So you know, as you're trying to prepare to get
you know, over the first one here, now you've got
another one coming in that's you know, obviously different and
different circumstances, but essentially coming through you know the state,

(01:19:35):
and you know, as you said it was, it was
just devastating, uh, and then you know, ultimately went up
into some of the other states here in the South.
But yeah, that that is amazing to be able to
do that and again kudos to all of the you know,
individuals and obviously all the companies that were involved in
doing that, because that's not an easy task. I mean,
you know when you're doing the quick math here that

(01:19:56):
you're basically a little over a month past your deadline
and you managed to get open despite having all of
that come through. That's amazing and that just goes to
show you the dedication and the passion behind it. And
you guys have had obviously some great positive feedback and
you were awarded by Golf Inc. As a Renovation of

(01:20:17):
the Year. Talk a little bit about that, and then
just maybe a little bit the impact that municipal courses,
the major impact that they have in their communities, and
how important it is, especially for an area like dun Eden.

Speaker 5 (01:20:31):
Well, I think both of those are extremely good points.
The city was doing everything they had to look out
for all their residents and and there was considerable damage
throughout the city, but the city was so supportive of this,
of this restoration and they cleared as many hurdles as

(01:20:58):
they possibly could when we needed to get all this
work done so I could I could go to the
companies and say we're good to go. This is okay.
You know, you could please get this done. And the
result of getting open and then getting some feedback. We've

(01:21:21):
we had qualifying for the Florida State Junior here because
we've had a long history of US Open qualifyings just
due to the quality of the golf course, even though
if times it was a little it was very tired.
But that's not the case. Now. We're going to hold
the Florida or we we think we're going to hold

(01:21:44):
because I signed the contract today Florida the FSGA Publix
next year. We'd like to get back to holding some
bigger tournaments. We're holding a lot of local charity tournaments
and business corporate outings now, but we'd like to get
back to holding something bigger like we used to. But

(01:22:05):
you have to walk first before you can run. We
think that that's our real value to the city of Dunede.
For the people that have not been to Dunine. And
I'll sound like I work for the Chamber of Commerce
or Sturers of Bureau here Dunning it's a fascinating city.

(01:22:28):
It's thirty seven thousand people. Where northwest of Tampa, we're
north of clear Water. We are a we are a
town on the water. I don't really call us a
beach town. Downtown in OBErs you don't see surfboards and

(01:22:48):
things like that. We do have one of the top
beaches in Honeymoon Beach, which the causeway is right at
the end of the golf course. It's just pure white
sand there. It's amazing. We're a great fishing destination. But
downtown Dunning is three four blocks long. It is so quaint.

(01:23:11):
You won't see chain stores. You'll see lots of boutiques,
lots of little restaurants were I believe we're the home
of the first group ub in Florida. We're the spring
training home of the Toronto Blue Jays and when they
leave town, we have the Class eighteen the Dunning blue Jays,
believe it or not. Our pipe band, which people might say,

(01:23:34):
what's a pipe band, It's like a marching band for
Scott's And yes, it's one of the top rights of
the country because we have one of the largest highland
games in the country. We have one of the oldest
marti grass in the country. And we're this little town
thirty seven thousand people. We don't have another golf course,

(01:23:54):
but now we've got the city has Dunning Golf Club
and it's becoming a destination for people to come and play.
And our competitors are some of the finest courses in
this area. So if you're coming to this area and
you want to play the finest golf courses, you're probably

(01:24:16):
talking about stream Song, You're talking about Cabin, You're talking
about Guinnessbrook, which is right up the road play where
the tour plays. If you're lucky enough to get on
Pelican or bel Air, they're twenty minutes south of us,
very private but wonderful golf courses. And then you've got
the TPC in Tampa, and we are getting play from

(01:24:39):
all those golf courses, either when their people come in
and play us that day and then go to that
golf course or play there, come down on the day
they're playing, flying out and play our golf course. So
we're getting great response from all over the country. I
think we've had close of fifty articles written about us

(01:25:03):
in everything from national publication, Forbes, golf dot com. You
mentioned getting the best restoration public golf course from Golf Incorporated,
which is wonderful. But we've been on a lot of
regional publications and a lot of our regional is because

(01:25:25):
of the Blue JAYSUS Canadian. A lot of the visitors
of the northeast, upper Midwest, Michigan, central Midwest, Chicago, you know, Illinois, Indiana,
something like that, but we get an awful lot from
New York, Boston, Connecticut, these these areas where there's a
lot of ross golf courses. So being a public Donald

(01:25:49):
Ross golf course that's restored in this area means a
lot to them. Sure, and they're I'm not saying they're
beating down the doors, but but in the season it's
a good thing to have a tea time here because
there's not many openings.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Well, if you're getting if you're getting them coming and
going into the area, that says a lot about you know,
the restoration, how successful it was. And and just on
a on a side note, you guys must be doing
something good down there, because the Blue Jays have been
doing pretty well the last few seasons. And and being
Canadian myself, if you hadn't picked that up yet, Blue

(01:26:28):
Jays of course of my team, So keep up the
good work. Get them out there in the golf course,
get them playing that and let them have some fun
and tell them. We want to see them bring home
the World Series here before too long. But you know,
it's interesting because you know, I think it's the one
thing about this industry is as challenging as the game is.

(01:26:53):
There's a difficult and you know, being on both sides
of the fence being a player and then also being
a coach, you know how challenging this game can be.
But the one thing that he always seems to sort
of bring us all down the middle is the camaraderie
that people have out in the golf course. I mean,
you can put four strangers together that have never met

(01:27:14):
and can find commonality out in the golf course, no
matter what level of play they are. There's always something
that they can talk about. There's always and there's a
willingness to to help one another out there, your your
fellow golfer, if you will to help them, you know,
especially if you've played that course. And it's always interesting.
It just amazes me this industry, how, you know, how

(01:27:35):
we can sort of come together as a as a
common denominatory, if you will. And golf just brings everybody
from the most successful business people in the world to
you know, your your average weekend warrior that wants to
go out there to some of your juniors out there,
and golf just manages to bring people together in so
many different ways. And you know, spoke a few moments ago,

(01:27:55):
you know, about tragedy with the hurricanes. You know, it
wasn't that long ago. We all went through the pandemic
and golf was really a shining star because there wasn't
really a lot for people to do, and golf was
one of the fortunate ones that was able to and
brought a whole new group of people that never played
this game before out to the golf course. So, you know,

(01:28:16):
it's just amazing what has changed over the last few years.
And you at dun Eden have to be very proud
of the restoration and obviously the you know, sort of
resurgence if you will, of a classic golf course in Florida,
and obviously here in the United States.

Speaker 5 (01:28:34):
There's no doubt. I just tell people, golf's the greatest
game of all time. You can play it by yourself,
you can play it with three other people and have
a foursome. We have a handicapping system, so somebody really
good can play with somebody that struggles a little bit
while they're doing it. They're making friends, they're talking. They're

(01:28:54):
telling about restaurants they've been to, or funny stories, golf
courses they played, they're talking about their hometowns. The camaraderie.
You go to a little nine hole golf course out
in the country and you go, well, you know, it
was fun. How many members do you have, Oh, we
got three hundred members. Really, it's the camaraderie. It's the

(01:29:14):
camaraderie that has them there, you know. It's it's amazing.
And one thing the city of Duneaton is known for
is having really great water. So I think that's it's
the water that's letting the Toronto Blue Jays play.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
I say something down there, you know, I think that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:29:33):
But we we get a lot of a lot of
retired sports sports people here, and certainly the Blue Jays
are our favorites, both both the the the big the
big league club when they're in town and and the
clubs that they're playing, and also also the Dunning Blue Jays.
We're very proud of the city and we're really proud

(01:29:56):
of Dunning Golf Club. And we've got things left to do,
but we're going to do well.

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
It sounds like you guys are well on your way
to uh you know, getting you know, making the Dunning
and Golf Club back on the map. I mean it's
been there, but I think since this restoration, I think
a lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised
at the changes that have been made and are going
to be able to appreciate, you know, the legacy that

(01:30:22):
really Donald Ross has made the vision and obviously with
Chris Spence has has put his mark on it now
by by honoring mister Ross with with this restoration. Uh
so obviously he's I'm sure having a lot of pride
as well being able to be a part of this
and and as you as well, from from you know,

(01:30:43):
making that twenty foot green, that you had the opportunity
so many years back to being involved in a major
project like this and and through some difficult times, no
matter what challenges we're faced with, we always managed to
come through on the other side. And and that's going
to give you a certain amount of satisfaction, a lot
of pride as well, and particularly for the city of
dun Eaton and thirty seven thousand plus residents. But if

(01:31:06):
people want to go and get more information or if
they want to consider coming down your way, particularly the
Duneing and Golf Club. What's the website if you have
it there by any chance.

Speaker 5 (01:31:17):
Wwwdunningolf dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
Perfect they get all the inviews you'll.

Speaker 5 (01:31:23):
Get us, and we're featured on our you know, on
our website. You can book on our website. We've got
obviously a phone to the club, a phone to the
golf shop, but we are a municipal facility. We are open.
We have tea times every day open to the general public,

(01:31:47):
and we'd love to have them. We'd love to have
people come down and experience this and experience some of
the great restaurants and bars in in Duneaton and check
out our little city, which we're very proud of, and
play our golf course and we'll help try and make

(01:32:08):
recommendations for other golf courses in the area for them.
But this is a special place and we're going to
continue to make it more special.

Speaker 3 (01:32:16):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
I think you guys are well on your way to
accomplishing that, and I think a lot of people will
enjoy coming down and not just playing the golf course,
but experiencing the city of done Et in itself. But
I want to thank you very much for coming on.
It's been interesting. I got a little bit of a
history lesson on one side, but also got an insight

(01:32:38):
into your world and what it's like to be able
to see a restoration like this, because not everybody has
that opportunity or that chance. So thank you for sharing
that with me, and particularly thank you for sharing with
my audience. But You're welcome to come back anytime, and
I'm going to make my way down to I need
to have never been there, but I'm going to definitely
come down now for sure and get on that golf

(01:32:58):
course and looking forward to it. But Blair, I want
to thank you very much for joining tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:33:04):
Well, thank you so much for having me. You're obviously
welcome down here anytime. So I'll make you a deal.
I'll go back on your show after you've played this.
Oh yeah, you're welcome down here, and then we can
go on. We can talk about it, we can you
can talk about you know how you how you hit
the fade off of number four and knocked it right

(01:33:25):
in the middle of the fairway.

Speaker 3 (01:33:26):
Before we go real quick, what's your favorite hole on
the course.

Speaker 5 (01:33:30):
My favorite hole personally, I think number six. Six is
what we call the shark's mouth. One hundred and fifty
yard par three. Got a big bunker in front of
the green. Uh, it's authentic, it's back to It looks
just like when Ross did it. That's the one most
of the visitors know. They call it the shark's mouth,
and that's what they know it has. But it's a

(01:33:52):
fun hole. You think you should birdy it every time.
But pars a pretty good score there. Yeah, you go
a little long or left or and you don't have
much of a shot. So yeah, play number six, take
your par birdie number seven.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
Yeah, one hundred and fifty yards sounds like a pretty
easy shot for most people, but you'd be surprised at
how it can. The teeth of the shark can dig
right in. But yeah again, Blair, thank you very much.
All Right, I don't want to thank all of my
guests tonight. Special thanks to my earlier friend and guest
Pete mchann for joining me on the Coach's Corner panel.
Thanks Pete is always for doing a great job. And

(01:34:26):
of course Blair Klein, the general manager of golf operations
for dun Eden Golf Club, Thank you again, Blair.

Speaker 3 (01:34:33):
And don't forget.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
If you want to watch this episode, you can go
onto the YouTube channel, the I Golf Sports YouTube channel.
It'll be up there shortly and you can check it
out in this entirely as well as all of the
previously aired shows as well for both this and also
the Women of Golf that airs every Tuesday with my
good friend LPJ professional Cindy Miller. But on that note,
have a great weekend everybody. God bless and we'll see
you next time right here on Golf Talk Live.

Speaker 1 (01:34:58):
Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this week's
broadcast at golf Talklive. We'd like to thank this week's
Coaches Corner panel and a special thank you to tonight's guest.
Remember to join Ted every Thursday from six to eight
pm Central on Golf Talk Live, and be sure to
follow Ted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you're interested

(01:35:19):
in being a guest on Golf Talklive, send Ted an
email at Ted dot golf Talklive at gmail dot com.
This has been a production of the Igolf Sports Network.

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Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 21 | Aug 21st, 2025

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 21 | Aug 21st, 2025