The Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick/Sam Nunn & Dottie Pepper

This weekend, former United States Senator Sam Nunn remembers his friend Tom Cousins
& Dottie Pepper from CBS Sports puts a bow on the 2025 PGA Tour regular season

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick here
on News Talk WGAC.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Pleasure to welcome Johnson Wagner back to the Augusta Golf Show.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
I feel like the beauty of it is that we're
taking the viewer down on the ground at these venues
and really digging into some of the shots of the day,
and it's no I've gotten so comfortable. I've gotten so
comfortable with it and setting up a shot that the
outcome of the golf shot is almost doesn't matter compared
to the setup and where we are and where we're

(00:31):
taking the view He.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Is also the voice of the Tennessee Titans. It's a
pleasure to welcome Taylor's Arzer back to the Augusta Golf Show.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
You know, I didn't get to see Jack Nicholas in
his prime. I guess that probably maybe Hogan or Nicholas
would be the closest thing to what we're seeing with
Scheffler's this ability to execute shot after shot after shot,
and we really haven't in this generation.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
We didn't.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
Tiger Woods's talent is above all else. I'll argue that
with anybody, I think he's the most talented guy to
ever play the game, but Tiger missed more shots than
Scottie does.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hey, hi morning, Welcome to this week's Augusta Golf Show.
I'm John Patrick. Thank you for being here this morning.
Thank you for listening this morning. These days, there are
a lot of different ways to listen to this program,
and I hope you listen on GAC each week. But
remember if you cannot listen in real time when we're
on the radio, you can listen anytime on a variety

(01:26):
of different platforms. We are up on the iHeartRadio app.
We're also up on the iHeartRadio app under Golf News
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Show is also on the Odyssey and iTunes apps. We're
on Apple Podcasts. It's available on most of the devices
used to stream at home, like Alexa. So whatever the method, however,

(01:49):
you listen. Thank you for doing that. Want to reach
out get in touch with me? You can easy to
do fastest way as email John at Augusta Golf Show,
follow me on X at Augustagolf Show. There's the website
Augustagolfshow dot com. I mentioned the site just so I
can let you know if you can't stick around for

(02:10):
the whole show this morning. You can catch up on
the conversations at Augustagolfshow dot com slash listen Augustagolfshow dot
com slash listen. Okay, tell you about the show this morning.
We're gonna start by remembering one of the best friends
the game has ever had. Tom Cousins was an Atlanta

(02:35):
developer responsible for much of the skyline of that city.
He was also instrumental in bringing the NBA and the
NHL to Atlanta. Late in his life, Tom Cousins turned
his attention to Eastlake Golf Club and the Eastlake Neighborhood,
restoring both. In the case of the golf club, returning

(02:58):
it to its previous glow. The Tour Championship will be
back there in just a couple of weeks. And in
the case of the Eastlake neighborhood, he revitalized that community
so much that it's now an example other communities copy.
Cousin's longtime friend, former United States Senator Sam Nunn, will

(03:21):
join me this morning to talk about his friend and
remember his accomplishments. Then, after the Senator, speaking of accomplishments,
our friend Dottie Pepper will be here for an extended
conversation looking back on the accomplishments she covered this year
for CBS. So that's the show this morning. We will

(03:42):
remember a very special human being and we'll remember a
very special season in the game. As always, I will
let you know where to find the golf on TV
this weekend, and if we have time this morning, in
our Why I Love the Game segment, Major champion seventeen
time Tour winner Jim Furick will tell us why he

(04:03):
loves the game of golf. Okay, coming up, Dottie Pepper
on the twenty twenty five season, but first former Senator
Sam Nunn on his friend Tom Cousins. Stay right there.
Thanks for being here this morning. You're listening to The
Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick here on News Talk

(04:24):
Information WGAC.

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Speaker 1 (07:49):
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Speaker 2 (08:03):
Good morning, and welcome back to the Augusta Golf Show.
I'm John Patrick. As I mentioned at the start of
the show, a couple of weeks ago, the Game of
Golf lost one of its true champions, Tom Cousins didn't
play a professional tournament, but the legacy he leaves behind
with what he accomplished at East Lake, will bear fruit

(08:24):
for generations. Sam Nunn, former United States Senator from Georgia,
was a good friend of Tom Cousins and am honored
to say the Senator and I have become friends. It's
a pleasure to welcome Sam Nunn to the Augusta Golf
Show for the very first time. How are you a Senator?

Speaker 13 (08:43):
Great John, Good to be on with you and talking
about a wonderful friends.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Do you remember the first time you met him?

Speaker 13 (08:52):
Not precpisely, but it was probably when I was on
the state legislature and incaseally I get invited out to
speech for you to play golf. I was not a
member of peach Tree, but Tom was a member there,
and I think probably I played golf with him. Peachtree
is one of the first introductions. But I got to
get know him better and better over the years, and

(09:13):
particularly after I got in the Senate. And Tom was
active in pursuing good government and public policy, so I
saw him on a number of occasions.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Then yeah, I want to get into the golf aspect
of his life. But people have said over the last
couple of weeks and talked about what he meant to
the city of Atlanta, and it was immeasurable. How important
was he in establishing, you know, the city's place in
the landscape of this country.

Speaker 13 (09:44):
Well, he built gigantic and beautiful buildings, and he also
built wonderful human beings. He saw buildings that could be
described as a dream at the time he envisioned him,
but it became a reality. And he also, as a parallel,
saw young lives that had tremendous potential but not great opportunity,

(10:08):
and he built a lot of wonderful human beings that
I think maybe his most enduring legacy.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
You know, I think people forget it. It got mentioned
at his passing, but he was instrumental in bringing like
the NBA and the NHL to Atlanta, wasn't he?

Speaker 13 (10:27):
Oh, he was. He was. At that stage it was
far from a sure thing financially, and so he really
went out of limb to bring the sports teams to Atlanta,
and he succeeded. And he didn't always succeed financially in
that particularly endeavored but he stuck it out and he

(10:49):
changed Atlanta Skylarin. But he also changed our status in
the Sports World.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Was he a sports lover? Sam?

Speaker 13 (10:58):
Oh? Yeah, and he was a comptor two. He was
a person of tremendous character and spiritual beliefs. But he
combined that I probably shouldn't put a butt on him.
But in any event, he he was also very spiritual.
And he was both spiritual and tremendous character, great values,
and also very competitive.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
In every aspect of life.

Speaker 13 (11:24):
Every aspect he would he would beat you on the
golf course without mercy.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Let's talk about we're talking with Senator Sam Nunn here
on the AUGUSTA Golf Show. Let's talk about golf. Let's
talk about East Lake. Let me start with the golf course.
The journey began with him revitalizing that golf course. Didn't it.

Speaker 8 (11:49):
It?

Speaker 13 (11:49):
Did?

Speaker 4 (11:49):
You know?

Speaker 13 (11:50):
I think John I fought for a long time all
of us need heroes, and Tom picked one of the
great heroes of all times, Bobby Jones, not just for
his for his life, and so in doing so to many,
Tom Cousins became a hero. I think young people today,

(12:10):
if they're looking for heroes that were real people that
really did wonderful things and have great character and great values,
you don't need to look any further than Tom Cousins.
He was a person we should all pat in our
life after He was what I call a servant leader.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
You may not know the answer to this, Sam, I'm
just kind of curious when he began the project at Eastlake,
the golf course at Eastlake was did he have other
things in mind? He was he planning on the community
or was it really just in the beginning, I want
to revitalize this golf course.

Speaker 13 (12:51):
Well, I think it started with Bobby Jones and wanting
to make sure the neighborhood where Bobby Jones grew up
was a neighborhood of opportunity for people and not a
neighborhood riddle about crime and drugs and so forth a song.
So I think it was a combination. And my guess is,
knowing Tommy, the more he got into it, the more
he saw the potential of people who, if given an opportunity,

(13:15):
could really play a tremendous role in Atlanta and in
Georgia and America. I think as he saw that potential
with his own eyes, it probably shaped his determination.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
You know, after his passing, and there were a couple
of stories done on his passing, there were stories that
he kind of developed that idea because he was talking
to a law enforcement official who told him that many
of the many of the people in jail came from
very you know, a limited amount of communities, east Lake

(13:48):
being one of them, and he sort of set up
set his goals to doing that. As you see the
community of East Lake today, what do you think.

Speaker 13 (14:00):
Well, I think that Tommy Cousins saw the potential of people,
but he knew it wasn't just changing one element of
their lives. I think Tommy's vision was you have to
change the whole environment. It's certainly parents, there's certainly seeing
people go to work in the morning. Is certainly having
trusted neighbors. There's certainly not having drugs and crime in

(14:22):
the neighborhood. It's also having sports, and it's also having
things like the wonderful YMCA he builds. It's also about
having good teachers, and it's about having role models. So
he saw the picture as a whole and I think
maybe that was one of his great legacies, is showing
us that really people can do tremendous things and the

(14:43):
economic opportunity it availed themselves of economic opportunity. If the
whole neighborhood. It takes a village, and I think Tom
understood that as he went.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Along more and more to that point, Sam, the more
and more I meet people like Tom Cousins, the less
they think about the sort of things they're doing. They
just go about doing him because it seems like the
right thing to do, the proper thing to do, and
they don't really think a whole lot about legacy.

Speaker 13 (15:15):
Well, that's right, and Tom was good at choosing people.
He was smart, but a lot of smart people that
Tom was a good judge of people.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
He got good people.

Speaker 13 (15:25):
Around him, his daughter Lillia, and his son in law, Gray,
Carol Nolton, and Shirley Franklin. I mean, the people Tom
Cousins out around him really were reflection of his judgment
and his solid estimate of real values and real character
and real talent.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
There was a line attributed to Jack Nicholas after Tom's passing,
and doesn't really sound like Jack, but Jack said that
Tom cousins dreams were as big as his heart. That's
kind of a nice way to be remembered.

Speaker 13 (16:05):
Well, and I think you could reverse that too, His
heart was as big as his vision. I think that's
a great quote from Jack He I guess the best
judgment of all John was his accoosing of Anne as
his life's partner, and by that I mean partner in
everything he did, really his spiritual life, his business life.

(16:29):
She was a finisher in many respects. She put the
interior and sometimes I would call it the soul in
the buildings and into the visions he had for Atlanta.
So Anne was a tremendous part of his life the
entire time he lived, and still remains as an example

(16:52):
for all of us.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
When was the last time you saw him?

Speaker 13 (16:57):
I hadn't seen Tom in a couple of years. I
used to call him every tournament when he had the
Tournament of East Lake. I would call him and spend
fifteen or twenty minutes with him on the telephone. I
have a friend you may know that, John Steinbreder, who
is a writer, who've seen him over at augusta good
golf writer. And I saw an article by him the

(17:18):
other day and he had a great quote. I'll just
share with you if you got just second. He said,
quote Tom Cousins has gone on to his great reward
end quote. But the reward he gave so many people
with his well lived life will endure forever. All of
that is a quote. So Tom really did leave us

(17:40):
a legacy, and just as Bobby Jones inspired him. I
think the more people know, pick the young people about
the life of Tom Cousins, the more people he's going
to inspire as Bobby Jones did him.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Is is that how you're going to remember your friend.

Speaker 13 (17:58):
I'm gonna remember him as a hebo. I was a
hebrow and man, a great character, and combining his skills
with his character to his spiritual commitment, he was quite
a package.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
He is a Sam Nunn, former senator from the state
of Georgia for twenty five years, and I'm honored to
call him a friend. Sam. Thank you for taking the
time to do this and remembering Tom. We will talk
again soon.

Speaker 13 (18:22):
Thank you, Thank you John, Thank you for honoring Tom
and loving and Mike so many of us did.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Thank you, Sam. There yougo, former United States Senator Sam Nunn.
I still kind of pinch myself when I see his
name and number in my phone. A consequential man, still
doing consequential things and remembering his friend. Well. I have
you take a look at a couple of the golf
headlines from earlier this week. The headlines are brought to

(18:49):
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the finest in men's clothing. Well, there's a new number
one player and the women game. After spending seventy one
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six that the AIG Women's Open allowed Geno Titical to

(19:11):
reclaim the top spot. Titical was number one in the
world for a couple of weeks back in twenty twenty two.
After winning seven times last year, Korda is winless this year.
Titical earlier this year when the Mazuho Americas Open and
was runner up at the Amunde Evion Championship. Well, you

(19:31):
may have heard this story by now. Scotty Scheffler picked
up eighteen million dollars last week and didn't touch a
golf club. Scheffler topped the year long FedEx Cup standings
that got him ten million bucks. He topped the Comcast
Business Tour Top ten that got him another eight million dollars. Oh,

(19:52):
by the way, he's not done. He's going to lead
the FedEx Cup standings going into the tour championship and
he'll get another five million for that. Hey, don't forget
when you're logged into your Facebook page, come on over
become a fan of our Facebook page. The Augusta Golf
Show with John Patrick. We keep talking golf during the week.

(20:13):
If you want to join in on the conversation, you
can just follow me on x at Augusta Golf Show. Okay,
still to come this morning. Dottie Pepper from CBS Sports
her takeaways from the twenty twenty five season. Don't go away.
You're listening to The Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick.
Here News Talk Information WGAC.

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Speaker 2 (23:58):
Welcome back to the Augusta Golf Show. I'm John Patrick.
My friend Dottie Pepper won seventeen times on the LPGA Tour,
including a couple of major championships. Dottie has now been
covering the game for nearly twenty years, which is kind
of hard to believe since she's only forty years old.
It's a pleasure to welcome from CBS Sports Dottie Pepper

(24:21):
back to the Augusta Golf Show. How are you, Dottie?

Speaker 16 (24:25):
I'm a lot better now that I understand your mouth.
That was fantastening.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, the nuns would be disappointed, but you know it is.

Speaker 16 (24:33):
You probably get your knuckles wrapped.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, oh I've had that done. Okay. Scale of one
to ten and eleven is an acceptable answer. How happy
are you that we're the season's over?

Speaker 16 (24:47):
This is always a difficult question to answer because you've
been going and going and going for so long and
it takes a while to decompress, but physically and just Traveliz,
I'm eleven out of ten.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
For a break.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
I get it, I get and that's and that's perfectly acceptable.
You might have a different opinion on this, but for
the golf fan, it does seem like once we get
to the Masters, and once the Masters is over, the
rest of the year flies by. Does it feel any
way like that to you?

Speaker 16 (25:23):
For us, because of our schedule and the compression of
it in the middle, and we did we did nineteen events,
four we're on the on the West coast, and those
those go by very quickly. You just get on a
role and boom you're done, and CBS switches back to
being a basketball company. And then from the Masters through

(25:44):
the PGA. That's that's some pretty heavy lifting. That's that's
a lot two majors for five weeks and then it
seems like you're flying. So yeah, part of what you
said is absolutely true.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
It seems like it for the fan, I mean, and
it just you know, do you like do you like
the major championships ending when they do in August? Well
in July? Really?

Speaker 16 (26:09):
And yeah, I do. I like the cadence of how
it's now laid out with the players in March to
kind of give everything ast offish start and then boom
you go into the Masters, the PGA, the US Open,
the Open Championship, and then before you know it, the

(26:29):
playoffs are here, and then it's a kind of a
you know, the fly through the fall to try to
figure out the finality of what people's playing statuses will be.

Speaker 13 (26:39):
That.

Speaker 16 (26:39):
I do like it. I like it a lot.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Would you have liked it as a player?

Speaker 16 (26:46):
I think I would have because it's very easy to
build a schedule. You have your high points, you know
where you want to peak, and it's and it's not
that if I've got time to recover or reset in
the It's not like you know, the LPGA schedule or
seniors golf schedule where there were times where they're playing

(27:07):
two majors in three weeks or back to back. So
if you if you didn't have it going, then you're
you're really battling from behind for the rest of the year.
Where this way, I think there's a there's a really.

Speaker 13 (27:18):
Nice case to it.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
I don't know if you do this sort of thing.
It might be too early to do this sort of thing.
But when you look back on the year and I'm
thinking of a particular day or two overriding memory, would
would it be the Sunday here in April?

Speaker 16 (27:37):
There were two Sundays, okay, and that was the first
of them for certain, and that that Sunday started with
Rory surviving two doubles on Thursday to ultimately walk away
seventy three, a champion weather Green jacket and a career
grand plan. The other was five minutes, not even five

(27:59):
minutes window on Sunday of the PGA, when Scotty Shuffler
was leaking oil and John Ron was making a lot
of noise making him move ahead. And it was the
span of Scotty getting up and down out of the
bunker at ten at Quayle Hollow for Birdie and John
Ron missing a putt literally right behind the build out

(28:21):
that's behind the tenth green at Quayle, the twelfth green
was there and that's where John Ram missed and the
entire championship flipped. Exclamation point was the birdie at fourteen
when Rom didn't take advantage of that. Scotty did. But
it switched in a tiny little window late Sunday afternoon,

(28:45):
in that one little spot on the golf.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Course, thinking of what Rory accomplished here in April when
you were playing, Do you have a mountain like that?
Did you have something you wanted to accomplish so bad?
And did you do it?

Speaker 16 (29:04):
And I didn't get to the ultimate, which would have
been qualifying for the LPGA's Hall of Fame on points,
but being Player of the Year in ninety two, that's
that's a huge mountain. And I was twenty seven years old,
and much like Lorriie, I wish I'd either been told

(29:27):
I needed to take a break to appreciate it, or
I just was inherently smart enough to know that I
should be doing this. I should be taking a break
to enjoy this and appreciate everything that went into getting
to that little name Mount Everest. That's a hard thing
because you get tugged in a lot of directions to well,

(29:52):
you want to keep playing because you have the hot hand,
but then there's other there's other pools from other places,
And for me it took another year before I finally
pulled the plug and had a complete knoll down. And
I'm glad to see that he's taking.

Speaker 13 (30:07):
You know, he took that time.

Speaker 16 (30:10):
Leading into the into the Open at port Rush, which
was certainly so important to him, and then he you know,
popped on a little holiday after that. I mean, I
think that's so healthy.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
We're talking with Dottie Pepper here on the Augusta Golf Show,
so it sounds to me like you completely understood his
attitude and his comments following the Masters.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Totally.

Speaker 16 (30:32):
And I think, uh, I think he said, prior some
time to think about it, he probably was the precursor.
He was understanding, the precursor to what what Scotty said
at the Open about is that all there is. David

(30:53):
Devall went through it. I remember him telling Judy Rank
and telling me the story of them being on a
private plane from the Open when he wanted to live him.
Two a Monday night at Sherwood shoot Out, early silly
season event, so flying all night after he went to
open the championship to go to LA and play in

(31:15):
a made for TV event, and he literally said to her,
is that all there is?

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Why?

Speaker 16 (31:26):
That's pretty tough stuff.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah? Yeah, I'm confused. Do you understand why there was
any backlash at all as to what Scotti said? I
I thought it was wonderful.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
I did too.

Speaker 16 (31:44):
I think it was people who said things about those
comments were in a hurry to make a comment. I
think they didn't fully understand the man and the people
he surrounded himself with and his ideals, and I think

(32:07):
over time, hopefully people will because he is so consistent
and he lives what he says. It's sort of like
Bernard Longer. I mean, you can, you can criticize or
not understand his faith and how he lives his life,

(32:27):
but if you look at the way he actually lives
his life, he lives what he thought, and you can
you should always respect someone for that.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Fortune's nice. Fame is tough, and it ain't easy being famous,
even if you're a famous golfer. Fame ain't easy.

Speaker 16 (32:46):
No, No, I mean the Chipotle comment I think was
kind of encapsulated at all. If he's to go to
the one closest to home. He really can't do that,
and it just enjoy a meal with his friends or
his family. But if he goes to one that's ways away,
I'm not going to tell you where it is. I
can actually live like a real human being.

Speaker 10 (33:04):
Yay.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Would you want anything to do with that sort of life?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
I like.

Speaker 16 (33:18):
I like being able to, you know, in this life
that we live. I love being able to rise up
to meet the occasion and then disappear back into a
city of twenty eight thousand people and a cabin in
the Adirondacks and be able to ski during the winter.
And I love my quietness. I'd like to be able
to rise the occasion when my job asks of it.

(33:40):
But I don't love to be in the spotlight all
the time.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
I get it. I mean I do. Hang on, Dottie, uh,
good time for a quick break. We're going to continue
with Dottie Pepper from CBS Sports in just a few minutes.
But while I have you, take a look at the
golf on TV. This weekend. Golf on Television brought to
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(34:07):
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(34:28):
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at four. All right, when we come back, we'll pick

(35:13):
up the conversation with Dottie Pepper from CBS Sports. Don't
go away, you're listening to the Augusta Golf Show with
John Patrick here News Talk Information WGAC.

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You've got so many legendary players, take the chances to
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And age is just a number.

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This is a lifelong pursuit of excellence.

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A tour that's not only fun but it's competitive and
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Speaker 1 (38:55):
If you'd like to comment about anything you've heard on
today's show, just send John an email Send to John
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Speaker 2 (39:11):
All right, welcome back to the Augusta Golf Show. I'm
John Patrick. We're continuing the conversation with Dottie Pepper from
CBS Sports. Okay, Dottie, for the last couple of years,
you have had a front row seat to Scottie Scheffler's excellence.
So what are your thoughts you what do you make
out of what you've been seeing out of him the

(39:31):
last couple of years.

Speaker 16 (39:33):
His teacher, Randy Smith uses three words and it happens
every time, and it's rinse and repeat. It's from the
way he prepares to go to tournaments. It's the way
he warms up that tournament. It's the way he is
in the gym, the way he's constantly just reinforcing the fundamentals.

(39:59):
It's just rinse and repeat. And he had his missus
a pull to the left. It's very rarely a bleed
to the right, and he can he can self diagnose
really really well. And I think it's it's been an
absolute privilege to watch this. But I would say Saturday

(40:20):
at Travelers played loppy, awful around the golf and he
looked at me going up eighteen and he just kind
of raised his eyebrows and threw his handsle like, sometimes
you just don't got it. Yeah, And that's sometimes that's okay.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
You know, you and I, despite your only being in
your forties, you and I were around for when all
of the other golfers had to talk about Tiger and
how he was playing and what he was doing. And
we're kind of here again with all the other golfers
talking about Scotty. How does this generation think about having

(41:01):
to talk about somebody who's dominating them.

Speaker 16 (41:06):
It is much the same. It's just more on the
spotlight because there's so much more social media and everything
everybody says is captured in a cliff and put on
a reel and you can watch it again and watch
it again and watch it again, and they grab this
little nugget and make a headline out of it. It
is much the same But the difference between the two

(41:28):
is that for Tiger it was always an outward grind,
and Scotty is a quieter grind with more joy. Now
he's out there every bit as intense and focused as
Tiger ever was, But there's a joy in a release
to it that I don't think Tiger quite had. Maybe

(41:48):
towards the end of his regular playing career there started
to be elements of that. I think as Charlie has
come into his own with his game and his daughter
has become such a beautiful young woman, maybe there is
there's a more effusive joy, but there's an undercurrent of

(42:10):
a grinding joy to Scottie Scheffler. That's just different.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
You know, talk you mentioned talking about Tiger, and I
don't think I've ever asked you this question. It always
made me crank my neck. I never understood how Tiger
could show so much emotion out on the golf course
when he was winning a golf tournament and then get
in the media room and it was he was nonplus.
He was just wait a minute, where was the guy
that you know half an hour ago who was out
on eighteen He never let us see that, or I

(42:38):
don't know if he didn't feel it then.

Speaker 16 (42:42):
I think he was always so protective. I think he
was always on guard that somebody always wanted something from
him and it wasn't genuine. I think my relationship with
him has been absolutely fabulous, and I mean he did
something for me that was so personal, but calling a

(43:03):
friend who was in a cancer battle, and I'm I
am convinced that it kept her alive for another year.
I just think he never let it down because he
didn't want people constantly taking advantage of him.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
It's a great story. A couple of other things. Not
looking for your explanation, but what do you think what
when you see the play of amateurs these days out
there on the PGA Tour, whether it's Jackson Coyven, whether
it's Luke Clanton, whoever it might be, what do you
how do you process that?

Speaker 16 (43:47):
Better competition, better coaching, better equipment.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Most of them.

Speaker 16 (43:53):
Are four athletes coming up, not many Scottish softwarers, but
played three sports in high school and played on you know,
local local amateur club teams or continue to play pick
a ball whenever you can get it, get it and
get an opening. I think there's there's a focus on

(44:16):
being that athlete early on training, access to more tournaments, tournaments,
the tournament setups have become more like PGA Tour events,
so I think they're overall there are less surprises when
they get to get to the tour. I think that's
a lot of it.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
And you can't it's it can't be a coincidence that
we're seeing this men and women, whether it's you know,
Lottie Woad or Rosang or whomever. I mean, this is
this is not a coincidence.

Speaker 16 (44:49):
No, no, And there's you know, there's consistencies across Now
there's more opportunities for girls to play more high level events.
I mean, look at the a j G schedule for
girls and boys virtually identical. The same thing with now
that they've gotten support from the state and regional golf associations.
When you win, for example, the State Junior in the

(45:11):
state of New York, you're exempt into the US Juniors
US Junior Girls. So I think that there's there's a
lot less siloing going on so that there's more opportunities
for the players to play against the top notch competition
on a more regular basis. And that's part of the
equation that that you're talking about and.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I assume you see this continuing.

Speaker 16 (45:36):
I don't see any reason for it not. If anything,
probably more because of the PGA.

Speaker 13 (45:43):
To or you, the LPGA is equivalent.

Speaker 16 (45:48):
The now the US Junior Development Program with the U
s g A. If anything, I think it probably gets
a little a little more firestarter.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
You played on six Soulheim Cup teams. Should Kegan be
a playing captain?

Speaker 16 (46:04):
Absolutely? Should? He would rise to the occasion in both asks.

Speaker 13 (46:17):
Yes, five assistant.

Speaker 16 (46:18):
Captains and a manager lean on them. You get your
work done as far as presentation, speeches, all of that done. Early,
manage your time. I think he does. I think he
does the cause disservice with his passion for the Ryder
Cup to not be playing.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
You know you said something that made me smile. Ryder
Cup captain's picks looking for the hot player. Are there
examples in your Solheim Cup years that a player may
be coming into the competition with less than their best
would rise to the occasion for something like that, I
just I just think that never gets taken into consideration.

Speaker 16 (47:05):
I think a prime example was Padburst in nineteen ninety eight.
She didn't come into the matches at Miarfield Village playing
particularly well, and she made a putt I want to
say it was Friday morning on the eighteenth six footer

(47:25):
and absolutely buried it to get a point And it
was like you could see that the switch had flipped
and she was just she was phenomenal. Chris Johnson was
another one of those players that seemingly came in not
doing a whole lot, kind of milk toasty and just
just once she got the opportunity, she brought it. Yeah.

(47:48):
I think there's definitely something to that, and I think
part of that is the captain's job to put them
in the right atmosphere and put them in the right
position in the lineup where they can drive.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
All right, Before I let you go, I had Finchy
on the show last week. Tell me, tell me tell
me your favorite Ian Baker finch story or one of them?

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (48:13):
How many?

Speaker 2 (48:13):
H uh.

Speaker 16 (48:17):
Hm? Well, I think as a player for ABC, when
I was nearing the last four or five years in
my playing career, and I remember going to the the
Tour Championship at Daytona and hitting it great. I just
come off with back injury that it chewed up a

(48:38):
lot of my summer, but I was hitting it great,
and I could not make a plot to save my life.
And Saturday morning, they were all out there, you know,
doing their due diligence before the show, and I said, fancy,
would you mind? Because he was he was a neighbor
of Florida. We played a little bit of golf, some
some outings together, that sort of thing. I said, would

(48:59):
you my taking a look? He said, of course, And
in five minutes you're hitting a few puts on on
the putting green. I made a few, missed a few,
and he said, look, there's absolutely nothing wrong with your strokes,
but your eyes are all over like like a strobe light.
They're just dancing all over, following the putter head back

(49:20):
and forth. He said, do me one simple little thing
and look at pick one dimple towards the top the
back of the ball, just somewhere. Pick one dimple and
purely focused on that and lets your stroke come to it. Oh, okay,
that seems pretty simple. And went out and ran the
tables for the next thirty six holes. One of the tournament.

(49:41):
Last tournament actually won on tour. Yeah, he's just and
I would say he was. He broadcasts the way he
talked and taught about the game. Very simple fundamentals and
very very good, but as good as a broadcast.

Speaker 13 (50:01):
Better to be.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Let's come full circle. You mentioned a little bit how
how how do you spend the off season?

Speaker 16 (50:14):
Just before getting on the show, I spent an hour
in the guard fertilizing and dead heading and all that,
so that that is definitely part of my my focus
throughout the season, but even more so as as the
season ends and I feel like I'm not coming home
to patch things up, I'm actually doing things to make
things better for the end of the year and next year.
I've got a few outings to do. I went to

(50:37):
a college tournament over in Connecticut to speak with one
hundred and some collegiate collegiate young men. Later in September
or Ryder Cup corporate outing. At some point, I'll go
see family in Ohio during the month of October, go

(50:57):
see a good friend of ours, Josh Baldwin performing can't
while Okay on my way back through and come home
for the fall. Because it's a up state New York,
it's a pretty magical place to live when the when
the leaves start to turn and that ski season. So
part of my job is to continue to make this
knee replacement sing so I can get back to doing
what I love to do during the winter and that ski.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Good for you. Good for you. I know what forty
fourth birthday coming up in a week or two.

Speaker 16 (51:26):
Yeah, that's that's good math too.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 16 (51:30):
I'm I'm getting ready for a zero birthday.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
I understand. I understand, youngster, I had I didn't. You know,
I didn't have a problem with that zero birthday. I
really didn't have a problem with the one that ended
in five until I started looking at Medicare. Then I
was kind of and I was like, oh, okay, you
got my attention. Now.

Speaker 16 (51:53):
Yeah, I didn't really appreciate it when the AARP stuff
started coming years ago. Now I get what you're saying
about sixty five things, though, I do have a little time.
I'm at the bridge between the two.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
She is Dottie Pepper, and she covers the game for
CBS Sports, and she is very kind to say yes
when I pick up the phone and ask her have
a great offseason. Thanks, it was a wonderful season. You
were great. Thank you for saying yes to this.

Speaker 16 (52:19):
Thank you. Well, We're part of a very driven and
compassionate team. Really, it's a privileged to be part of it.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
There you go, Thank you, Dottie. That's Dottie Pepper from
CBS Sports. One of my favorite people really is Hey,
don't go away, We're coming right back. You're listening to
the Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick here News Talk
Information WGAC.

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You're listening to the Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick.

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If you enjoy the show, follow John online on x
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Speaker 2 (55:59):
Welcome back to the Augusta Golf Show. I'm John Patrick.
Well that's the show for this morning. I do want
to thank my guests, Senator Sam Nunn and Dottie Pepper
from CBS Sports. Thank you for taking the time to listen.
Please make sure the other members of your foursome know
about the program. No one, it's on the radio, but

(56:19):
remind them that these days the show is available on
demand twenty four to seven, iHeartRadio app, The Odyssey app, iTunes,
Apple Podcasts, Alexa. However you stream at home, hopefully they
tune in. Wallace AND's Son Lawn and Garden Show is
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Show after that. This morning, Mary, Liz ab Avery and
I are going to be back Monday morning at five
point thirty. By the way, it's that time of the year.
Show is going to take a couple of weeks off
for vacation. We'll be back to wrap up the tour
Championship in a couple of weeks. Have a great couple
of weeks. Thank you for listening to The Augusta Golf

(57:01):
Show with John Patrick. Please stay well, please stay safe,
and I will see you soon. So long, Bye bye.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
The Augusta Golf Show with John Patrick is a production
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Copyright twenty twenty five. The theme for The Augusta Golf
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