* Michael Kernicki, Co-Founder and Principal of the Golf Guidance Group, Consultant

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Blue Cross has Michigan covered head to toe, inside and out,
ready to help with health and wellness resources for the
body and mind, and you can learn more at BCBSM
dot com. When I hear this music, I think I
should be doing a live read for Spalding. And Michael

(00:52):
Berke's laughing because I don't think there is Spalding golf anymore.
And he knows exactly why I'm saying that, because he
recognizes the music, don't you.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you know what I thought this good morning, my friend.
But I thought this lead in was going to be
a little bit of Bing Crosby, straight down the middle.
It went right down the middle.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
We threw you a curveball. And because we know you
love Kebble Beach. But this is the old CBA Sports
when they had golf with Ken Venturi and Pat summer
All and Ben Wright and Bobby Clampett and Gary McCord
back in the day.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Absolutely absolutely folding.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Michael Kernegie, as you know, is the co founder and
principal of the Golf Guidance Group, and he moves it
around quite a bit, but he was president a couple
of times with the Michigan PGA and with the PGA
of America and it's hunting season, for sure. We've been
talking about that all morning. But for those who don't
like to hunt deer or pheasant or whatever it might be,

(01:57):
they like to hunt birdies. And I'm not talking about
flying birdies, duck hunting and that kind of thing. I'm
talking about golf, and that's what he talks about. And
I was kind of curious. You know, it's it's the
time of wishes, the holidays, and at this time there
are people who will say, there's a course on my
wish list, and I was looking at the cost of

(02:19):
some of these wish list courses. They're pretty steep.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, it's you know, and you know it's it's amazing,
Michael that I've seen them change so much over the years.
I guess that's just because I'm older, But yeah, the
reality is they can get it because they're sold out
most of the time. Now, that list you kind of
sent me, which are you know, top drawer bucket list deals.

(02:44):
But if you had a chance to play Shadow Creek
in Vegas and the guests beer was going to be
twelve hundred dollars, you know, you gasped a little bit.
But I think the guy that's paying that is probably
driving a Ferrari.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, well fair, and he's probably losing enough money in
the casino to merit maybe an invitation to a place
like that. But could twelve hundred dollars actually be worth
it at a place like Shadow Creek? I don't. I
haven't been there. Maybe you have, I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, it's it's it's very special. You know what beauty
is in the eyes of the beholder. I wouldn't pay,
you know, ten thousand dollars for a painting, and that's
nothing in the bit in the art world. But yet,
I you know, it's you know, it's all, it's all
that you want to do. I mean, seven hundred bucks
to play pebble. I mean, once you play that, you

(03:36):
can check it off your bucket list. But still that's
a lot. You know, Shadow Creek, frankly, they can charge
wherever they want because if you spend xtion the casino,
you got a chance to play there and probably for nothing.
So and the guy driving to Ferrari, he's probably playing
there for nothing. But you know, it's like it's life,
just you know, what do we what do we really want?

(03:59):
To do.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
What do we have the.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Wherewithal to do? And what's gonna make us happy as
long as we're centered, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, I was lucky because you know, I worked for
the PGA Tour, and so part of that deal in
that part of Florida was a membership at Sawgrass because
the headquarters was at TPC Sawgrass and so we could
play there as part of the package. But now people
are paying up to nine hundred dollars for the stadium
course to lose all those balls on the seventeenth hole.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, and there you go the same thing. You know,
if that's if that's what's gonna e choose the pun,
float your boat, it's gonna be what it's gonna be,
you know. But they can charge it because you know,
if they were, if if they had a lot of
open tea times, they would try to sell them some way.

(04:50):
But they don't, So you know that's what they can charge.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Let's compare and contrast about it. You know, I was
thinking if you went to a luxury hotel and you
stayed there overnight, you would pay nine hundred twelve hundred,
six seventy five. For sure. They don't let you check
in till three or four o'clock. You have to be
out of there by eleven am. You're probably not in
the room that much anyway. You don't get a full day.

(05:18):
And on a golf course, you can be there for
five six hours if you hit practice balls and maybe
you have a meal, and you soak in the whole
atmosphere of the presentation of the place.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
You know, it's a probably agree, I totally agree, But
it's all relative, you know. Again, Yeah, and think about it.
You know, my business has been through my whole career.
And you know this because we've been friends forever. You know,
private clubs, I mean I've either you know, the head
golf professional director or golf general manager blah blah blah.

(05:50):
And you know the reality is, you know, think of
where private clubs have gotten to. Holy cow, you go
to South Florida. I mean it's a upwards at some place,
its upwards to a million dollars for an initiation fee.
Most of the stuff in the Naples area is between
four and seven hundred thousand, and most of the stuff

(06:13):
in the Jupiter, Florida area is anywhere from five hundred
thousand to a million. Now, I can't imagine paying an
initiation fee to go spend my money to play golf.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
But you know.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
That's what people do.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
So well, somebody's got to mold the lawn, and somebody's
got to plant the flowers, and somebody's got i mean,
maintenance on a golf course like that is six hundred
and seven hundred thousand a year maybe or more.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Let's let's go to about two million. Is it.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Not own?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, I mean if you're yeah anywhere maintenance fees excuse me,
not maintenance fees. The budget for maintenance in a in
an eighteen hole golf course today in a climate that
you know our is twelve months out of the year
because they got to keep cutting the grass and they
got to keep taking care of it. You know, you're
looking at about one point two to uh to, depending

(07:09):
upon how extravagant you want to get one point eight
two million.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's another way to appreciate nature, whether you're walking or
in a carts. The mid Kernegie gives it to you
straights golf guidance girl.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Then it's started.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Well, just we we've been