Golf, Grit, And Jay Delsing

Two golfers trade stories and sharpen ideas with Jay Delsing, from UCLA glory and Q-School grit to equipment’s impact on strategy, classic courses, and what makes golf a true merit test. Respect, authenticity, and good shots under pressure carry the day.

• UCLA superteam lineup and competitive culture
• Q-School format, mental fatigue and rookie-year lessons
• Golf as meritocracy and the reality of cuts and pay
• Arnold Palmer’s etiquette lesson and leadership
• Why golf unites strangers better than other sports
• Persimmon and balata versus modern drivers and balls
• Rollback debates, V-grooves, bifurcation for elite play
• Protecting classic architecture from modern distance
• Shotmaking, feel, and the lost art from the rough
• Jay’s radio show format and storytelling focus

Hit that subscribe button. Leave a review. I love to read all the reviews

Go to jaydelsinggolf.com and order his book !! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Jay Delsing
• 5:15 UCLA Powerhouse Years
• 10:40 Surviving Q-School And Rookie Reality
• 18:30 Golf As Pure Meritocracy
• 24:20 Pressure, Cuts, And Getting Paid
• 30:45 Arnold Palmer’s Lesson In Respect
• 36:10 Why Golf Unites Strangers
• 42:05 Equipment Then Vs Now
• 50:10 Rollback, Grooves, And Common Sense
• 57:30 Classic Courses Under Modern Distance
• 1:05:10 Ballata, Feel, And Shotmaking

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hello, this is Jesse Perryman from the Fly Hunters Golf Podcast. Welcoming you to another edition. We're doing a brief intro here about my man who played on the PGA Tour for a long time. And his name is Jay Delsing, one of the good ones in golf, folks, one of my favorites. Um, you know, Jay, uh longtime PGA tour player, played on a legendary team. Uh back in the day with uh at UCLA with with guys like Corey Paven, Steve Pate, Duffy Waldorf, I mean, just uh, you know, Tom Pernice, a ridiculous amount of talent, all went on uh onto the tour to win. Uh some won majors. Obviously, Corey Paven winning the uh 95 U.S. Open at Shinnecock. And uh Jay now is uh has a radio show. Uh it's actually an ESPN show. He's uh on 101.1 ESPN Sports Radio on on Sundays from 8 to 10 Central Time, if you want to tune in. He also has a podcast, a long form podcast. Well, it's this radio show that he records and turns into a podcast. But uh in this episode, we we talk about uh he came out with a book called uh You wouldn't you wouldn't I think it was it's called You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You. Uh How about that for a title? You wouldn't believe me if I told you. And he'd tell some great stories, and he'd tell some couple of really good stories in this episode. But this episode really is about um we're just two golf geeks uh having a conversation riffing, and we touch on the modern game, we touch on the USGA, we touch on uh the game of yesteryear, and and Jay's a great storyteller, as you would expect, um, full of wisdom, and uh can still hit it pretty damn good at 65 years of age. So enjoy this. I really, really uh enjoyed talking to Jay. And uh for those who want to get his book, uh I would recommend going to jdelsongolf.com, J Delsing Golf All OneWord.com. I'll make sure to put all of his information in the show notes. But uh I would love to hear some feedback from this episode, from you, the listener, that if you want me to do some more kind of casual, fun uh bumping and weaving conversations in and around the game of golf, what it is today, what it was like yesterday, and things like that. A little bit of storytelling to mix in with between Justin and I's um uh having a multitude of really great instructors on. So let me know. And uh go ahead and feel free to hit that subscribe button. Helps me out, give me some feedback, leave a review. I love to read all the reviews. I like to hear the feedback and all of my information. You know how to get a hold of me. Feel free to reach out. Feel free to give me a shout, shoot me a text. Uh, if you want to have a conversation with about somebody, let me know. If there's anyone that Justin and I can get on that's on your wish list, let us know. We'd be happy to uh to uh go through our channels to talk to that individual to get the information that you need out there, because we're trying to get the information out there that's really gonna help you, the player. And that's the goal that always has been. Things that are evidence-based, things that are scientifics-based and and with experience-based and wisdom from the instructors, players, and and uh, and specialists that we do have on. So I hope everyone is having a good week. Cheers, and on on word to Jay. And uh I want to give Jay a big shout out. Thanks, bud, for coming on. We hope to have you on again. Cheers. I'm flying solo today without Justin. Justin is on the lesson tea at the Tantamera Golf Club in Singapore. And again, if you're ever in Singapore and you want to see one of the great minds in golf and golf swing and golf psychology uh coming from a holistic approach, hit him up at the Tantamera Golf Club. And my guest, our guest today is uh I'm really excited about this. His name is Jay Delsing, and we've just been BSing here for 15 minutes before we hit record because we know a lot of the same people and we share a lot of the same ideals. Jay, this is awesome, man. I've I'm so grateful that you're on. Welcome.

SPEAKER_03: 5:08

Oh, just thanks for having me. Uh same, right back at you. Um, I can't wait. I don't know what we're gonna talk about, but it's gonna be fun. And um uh let's do it, man. I appreciate you. You spent a lot of time on the PGA tour. You grew up in St. Louis. I got my ass kicked by a lot of the best players in the world for a long time, buddy. For sure.

SPEAKER_00: 5:30

And you were in the tiger era too. You caught you caught some of the tiger era.

SPEAKER_03: 5:35

I sure did. I I uh got to play with him, I got to watch him, I got to experience. I just wish I would have played a little better once he hit the scene because the purses went from like here just to like whoa, way over there. So it was uh you know, listen, you get a lot of cool ass people on your pod, but you're not gonna have anybody on your pod that's luckier than me. But my life in golf has been just I I so outkicked what I thought was possible, and I I so appreciate the fact that I get the privilege of playing golf. I'm 65, bro, and I still get to do what I love to do. I'm sitting here right now talking with you, and you know, I got to play with presidents, I got to play with movie stars, and none of the guys I grew up with got to do that, you know. So golf has given me everything. I have four daughters that went to private schools and yada yada. It's golf, man, and and it it's giving, it's a giving game, it's a societal powerhouse. We talk about this just on our show all the time, because this year and every year, for that matter, the PGA tour will give more money to charity than Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL, NHL combined. It's gonna be over 400 million dollars, and and it just keeps going, bro. It just it's just that game. The you everybody thinks about that tournament in Scottsdale, it's a gong show. We got drunk people, we got boobies and titty. And guess what? When the circus leaves, over 20 million dollars stays in that in the valley down there for people in need. Okay, so have a little fun, nothing wrong with that. Yeah, play some golf, nothing wrong with that. We raised money for a community and for those that need us. But when I first got on tour, Jack Nicholson, Arnold Palmer took us, sat us down, and said, This is what you're going to do. You're gonna take these events back to your communities and you're gonna show them how we do this, you're gonna show them what golf is meant to do. You know, when those dudes talk to you and you're 23 years old, I'm like this. I'm in. Yeah, what how high? Yeah, I'm down. Sorry, bro. I didn't even give you any time to talk. I just took over the whole pot.

SPEAKER_00: 7:49

I love it, I absolutely love it. You know, uh, before we really get into the meat and bones of this thing, uh Jay, how'd you get started?

SPEAKER_03: 7:58

How'd you get started playing? You know, my dad was playing uh uh Major League Baseball for 10 years. He uh uh grew up on a dairy farm, Wisconsin kid, and I'm fourth of five, so we just always had balls around and we were always doing some sports, you know. And but when the weather changed, the sport changed. So I was a soccer player, I played football, I played basketball in the winter inside, I played baseball, I did all of them, you know, and all I wanted to do, we didn't have any dough. I knew early on that there's kind of this family thing that if something was gonna happen, you had to make it happen. And so my month number one priority was well, I mean, I always wanted to be a professional athlete, I just didn't know if I'd be good enough. But how am I gonna get my college paid for? My parents aren't paying for it, and I'm going. How am I gonna do that? And so my first love is baseball. You can see behind me, I got my dad's stuff. I got a 53 Detroit Tiger jersey there and stuff. I uh I but we didn't have anything, we had church league ball, just we didn't have my dad, we didn't have any money, so it wasn't like we were doing there weren't anything to play in, you know. You'd have maybe six practices in six games a summer. I'm like, that's not enough for me. I was one of those weird kids, bro. Just didn't mind being by myself, started caddying, started hitting some balls with my mom's clubs, and then dude, I was gone. It just bit me, and thank god it never let go.

SPEAKER_00: 9:28

That's so cool. What a great story! What a great start! So true, so true for a lot of us. And uh coming from St. Louis, how did you find your way into Westwood? Yeah, UCLA. Boy, that was pretty much a golf powerhouse, especially back back then.

SPEAKER_03: 9:45

Oh my gosh. So again, fortunate, you know, when when you have all these opportunities to I almost won the U.S. Junior, and I don't know how Jesse, I couldn't hit a fair way back in the day. I was longer than hell, could putt the eyes out of it. But I so I almost won the U.S. Junior. My parents sent me to Delaware by myself when I was 16, and I lost in the quarterfinals to the guy that eventually won it. And we Don Herter, you know, Donnie used to be at um Castle Pines in Denver. Great, great guy. Anyway, uh, he wound up winning the tournament. I took him the 21-0s. Well, that threw me into the blue chip status, you know, of my class. I also played in the PGA junior championship, the insurance youth. Basically, back in the day, for our young listeners, like, what's this old dude talking about? Those were really the only tournaments we had to play in.

SPEAKER_01: 10:36

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 10:36

These were national events, and that was it. There was no AJGA, but there was also no internet, no cell phones, we're you know, riding on horses, things, stuff like that. Um, so that's just kind of what it looked like, bro. And so uh that threw me into this upper echelon. And so I went and used all, I think I got eight recruiting trips. Well, you know, when you don't travel, you don't have any money, and all these colleges want you to come. I'm like, I'm in. Yeah, where are you going? So went down to the Carolinas and saw Wake and saw those guys, went to Houston, went to Arizona, Arizona State, went to USC, UCLA. And um, dude, I always just I I just love sports and the UCLA athletic program and also the getting a degree from a school like UCLA, you know, nobody really realizes UCLA is a top 15 school too. So I got a degree from there, and so yeah, man, it was it was just like uh you you you throw it out there, and you know, I don't know if it's God or the universe or whoever the hell is helping me and directing me, and kind of you know, you know how it was like when you're a kid, you don't know anything, but yeah, but my parents, this is what it was like. My parents, I'm sitting on the curb at the St. Louis Airport. I got a golf bag that's terrible. I got a suitcase that's this big, it's got everything in it. I own two pair of shoes. I don't know one person in LA, I don't know who's picking me up. They put me on a on a flight and I'm going to LAX by myself, which is you know, just it's a terrifying airport.

SPEAKER_01: 12:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 12:18

Nobody speaks English in there. Like this country bumpkin, you know, waiting for some dude, I don't know who he is, to come pick me up and you know, kidnap me and take me to Tijuana or something. I don't know. So it just worked out great, man. It could have gone, like I said, and I mean it sincerely, it could have gone so many different ways.

SPEAKER_00: 12:40

Well, you've landed in such a great program with a lot of the great players. So give give the audience an idea of who you played with on that team.

SPEAKER_03: 12:49

I might have been the best college team of all time. We had Steve Pate, myself, Duffy Waldorf, Tom Pernice, uh, and Corey Paven on the same uh college team. We had some, and we had, and you know what? Cal California is like way better than anyone else. There are good players in the weeds out there, man. We had probably 20 guys on the team, and 10 of them could really play.

SPEAKER_01: 13:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 13:13

We had Mickey Yokoy, we had um oh uh uh Jeff Johnson, we had Louis Bartoletti, we had we had a bunch of really, really good players. And but we were just guys that love to compete. Um, we all were self-starters, you know. We love to have fun too, but uh, you know, no one no one was out partying the night before an event. Nope, we were partying hard with the trophy afterwards. We won a lot of tournaments, we won over 50 tournaments. Wow, and we had we had a blast when it was appropriate, but when it was time to go and work hard. And I mean, Steve and Corey and and Duffy and and and Pernicci. I mean, man, we we just we went after it.

SPEAKER_00: 14:01

Wow, what a team, what a phenomenal team. I mean, everybody on that team won out there. Yeah, you guys all won out there.

SPEAKER_03: 14:11

Crazy, just um, it's just one of those. I don't I don't know, man. It was just a bunch of uh idiots because we were teenagers, you know, and then once we got to be 21, you know, we knew everything. Yeah, we were of course once you're junior, you're like, Oh, yeah, I pretty much know everything. Yeah, and so yeah, it was it was pretty cool. And you know what's really amazing, but is when you go from being an all-American and you're this hot shit, and you know, you're you're one of the best players in the in the country, and uh, and then you go on tour, and everybody's like, Yeah, dude, we don't care about that anymore, right? Everybody out here's got like twice your resume, so good luck.

SPEAKER_00: 14:52

Yeah, now you're the the uh the pool has just gotten a lot smaller at that level. So you turn pro, obviously. And what was that like turning pro? What what was that experience like? Now I'm playing for money, now I'm playing for my livelihood.

SPEAKER_03: 15:12

Bro, I thought it would be much more, I thought there would be some sort of you know, aha moment or something. It really wasn't. It was it was um, can you get your card? Can you make it through the qualifying school? I mean, the qualifying school, you gotta remember six rounds and three levels to get to the final stage. I mean, and the the hardest thing about the qualifying school, bud, is that there's you don't play any of that than six rounds in your career. You've never played six rounds in a row. So when you're finished with round four and you still have 36 holes to go, dude, you gotta reach deep and you gotta dig deep and try to figure out you've really got to get your mind under control because as you get more tired and the fatigue kicks in and the stress kicks in, and and oh man, it it you know what was it? Vince Lombardi said fatigue makes cowards out of all of us. It's it's it's one of those things, it's just it just happens, and you really had to keep it simple, stay focused, stay committed. It was not easy. Some of those qualifying school tournaments, just I remember I'm like, oh my god, thank god, I don't have to ever do that again.

SPEAKER_00: 16:25

Brutal, absolutely brutal. And and for the uh for the listening audience who's unfamiliar with this, because the PGA tour has been removed from this, sadly, um, in my opinion. But first stage was four rounds, second stage was four rounds, third stage was six. Correct. Was was there a 72-hole cut in third stage? Yes. Wow. Yeah, wow, and so if you made it all 72 holes back then, how many cars had some sort of status?

SPEAKER_03: 17:01

So you had if you some okay, yeah, something like they'd fill they'd fill it on the Hogan tour or the Nike tour, whatever they call it back then. You know, they'd call it 7,000 things, it's hard to keep track of right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so um, it was, you know, so my first time through there, I wind up finishing like 17th, and with the ties and the tiebreakers and all this shit, I wound up with a number 24, you know. And I don't know how this whole thing works. Uh it's just so happens 24 is my dad's number, it's the tattoo I have, it's in my logo and my business, the whole thing, which is kind of remarkable. Um, but um you just don't know when you're gonna get in. You don't, and it's all about a priority, so it's about all the guys ahead of you. And are they gonna are they signing up to play? Or so you're you're kind of even though you're you might be playing pretty well, I didn't get in, you know, I didn't get in the bob hope because they only took 120 guys, you know, so nobody in the qualifying school got in there. Then the Phoenix Open had a smaller field, and I didn't get in that. I'm like, well man, when am I gonna get to play? So I didn't get to play until Pebble Beach, and I didn't play well there, but then I got in the very next week over in Hawaii and I finished ninth. So, but my rookie year, I got in Bay Hill, I got to go into the a player-only meeting and listen to Arnold Palmer at my third tournament, then and I also got in the players' championship, and my fourth round after making the cut at Bay Hill, my pairing is Johnny Miller and Hale Irwin. And I'm like, you want to talk about the weirdest first Hebrew? Johnny Miller gives me the the the oyster handshake, he's got collar pop, hands up uncomfortably high, and he's double-hipped, you know. So, and I'm like, wow, and hail Irwin just, you know, he's just a competitor and in a heart at him. Yeah, locked in. Yeah, one guy's fourth. So the night before that round, I get a call from a buddy, he goes, you know, you're playing with the fourth guy all time and the 11th guy in the all-time money list tomorrow. I go, I made like 12 grand so far. How are we doing? It's crazy. It was crazy. And in the book, I have a story about Hale Irwin just in his caddy kind of big timing me. And oh man, it's it's funny. And I and I was pissed. And it it's interesting, you know, it's interesting because you it's not just it wasn't like a bunch of the old established guys came up, introduced themselves to you and said, God man, I hope you have a great career. Right. It wasn't like that.

unknown: 19:51

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 19:51

You're like, who's that young asshole? And I I don't can he play?

SPEAKER_01: 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 19:54

Is he gonna take my job?

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 19:58

Every year, I know there were There were 40 or 50 of the youngest, stronger players coming out trying to fit in. It's doggy dog, man. The ultimate meritocracy, man. I loved it. You know what I love the most about it, bro? If you shed 72 and I shed 73, there were no questions. Right. You won, and I need to get better. Right. There wasn't like, oh, he likes me better. Oh, you know, I had a sore neck. I lift out what'd you shoot?

SPEAKER_01: 20:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 20:35

What'd you shoot? Oh, okay. Well, guess what? You didn't win.

SPEAKER_01: 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 20:41

70 beats 72 every day out there. And there's none of this arbitrary bullshit that changes stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 20:50

And I love that. Yeah. When I got to do TV for Fox and started realizing that I am in a I am in an entirely different kind of water.

SPEAKER_01: 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 21:04

So anyway, I love that about the game. I love that. I I always have loved it about the game. And guess what? If you can't shoot the numbers, you don't get to play.

SPEAKER_00: 21:13

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 21:14

If you do shoot the numbers, Jess, they can't keep you out. I don't care what color your skin it is. I don't care how tall you are. Doesn't matter. What do you what'd you shoot? Yeah. And there's such beauty and simplicity there for me.

SPEAKER_01: 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:32

Oh, that's so incredibly well put. And you're absolutely right, Jay. I mean, the game of golf, the beautiful thing you said, it's the ultimate meritocracy. You are it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter if you came from wealth or if you came from poverty. Because both hold true on the PGA tour.

unknown: 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:54

In in every major tour in the world.

unknown: 21:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:57

It doesn't matter. I mean, Lee Trevino grew up on a dirt floor, and his grandfather raised him. He was a funeral parlor keeper or something like that. Yeah. You know, it doesn't, it doesn't matter where you come from. Shoot the numbers, and you can play. I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_03: 22:14

I mean, I don't know, Jesse. It's like, you know, our life is so complicated now. You know, we got social media, which is we got our phones, and everybody's taking pictures of stuff, and everybody's got an opinion, and everybody knows. And I, you know, God forbid you try to do something in the public eye and you fail. Right. Or just don't, maybe you don't fail, you just don't succeed. Man, so you get to hear it from you know 300,000 people just that are sitting comfortably in their armchair uh quarterback seats, not putting their nuts on the chopping board so everybody gets to take a shot at them. Yeah, think about that, bro. Yeah, that's what this world has come to. Yeah, which one I used to sit in, I I'd have a good round, come to the press, and they they always wanted to talk, bro, about oh, what I didn't do. I didn't do that. And I'm like, if you guys want a pro surprise anytime soon, are you? Because that's what I'm trying to do, right? This is not trying to win your club championship, dog. Yeah, no, yeah. This is this is the top of the heap. Yeah, one guy gets to win every week. You know it, you've lived it, you know it. It's just not like anything else, man. It's really hard to explain.

SPEAKER_00: 23:37

It it really is. You you know, it's almost like I would like John Q handicapper. I mean, this podcast is is for the better player, they're they're gonna resonate more with what we're talking about, however, the the John Q 15 handicapper that knows just enough to be dangerous. And I would like the PGA tour or someone to issue a challenge. I mean, I think it's funny that the USGA has uh the four celebrities that go out and play, uh, and they're they're pretty humbled before a U.S. Open. They're they're pretty humbled.

SPEAKER_03: 24:16

They're pretty humbled. We're doing the U.S. Open at Oakmont, and Joel Clatt is a great guy. So Joel Clatt is part of our Fox team, and Joel's dude. What is so hard about Oakmont?

SPEAKER_00: 24:31

Oh god.

SPEAKER_03: 24:32

Oh god, this is absolute beast. You don't understand. He's like, Oh my god, I could break 80 out here. I'm like, dude, if you had to put out all your putts, you wouldn't break 90. And he's like, Jay, I'm a scratch. I go, Joel, I don't care.

SPEAKER_01: 24:50

Yeah, you can't do it.

SPEAKER_03: 24:52

And he got his feathers ruffled. He's a dear friend, a great guy, but it's they just don't get it, man. You've got to have to put these out, yeah. And they don't all go in, right? And then go ahead and good luck making the next one. Yeah. One didn't go in. Good luck. I love it. All of a sudden, all the monkeys start churning in there, bro. And they're like, suck it, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 25:16

I love it. I absolutely love it. You know, I want to comment on something you said. I I think that the courage that it takes for somebody like yourself to go out and be out there and play, especially on TV in front of a worldwide audience against 152 of the best players in the world that are all alpha dogs. And to play typically on golf courses that are set up extremely difficult. You know, maybe the tour was set up a little bit different when you were on it than it is now. Um, but the courage, it takes, you know, I don't think people truly understand and realize that you're out there with, you know, pardon the expression, your your your nuts are out there. And you're gonna be subject to all kinds of criticism. And for those who choose to judge and criticize, I'm gonna issue them a challenge right now. And if you're listening, go ahead and try to put yourself in a situation where you're completely and utterly uncomfortable on the golf course, whatever that is. Play from the back tees at your club, putt everything out, don't fluff your ball in the rough, and just see what happens.

SPEAKER_03: 26:36

How about this? How can we add uh pay$700 for a plane ticket to some place you've never been before, pay hundred dollars for your hotel, pay another two thousand dollars for your caddy, and stand over that five-footer on the last on the the last hole of the day on Friday, knowing that if you don't make it, you don't get paid.

SPEAKER_00: 26:58

Wow. Yeah, how about that?

SPEAKER_03: 27:01

Listen, I did not have more courage than it. I I'm just not smart enough to be afraid half the time. I loved what I did, I would thought of it in a different way, but dude, I missed 11 cuts in a row my rookie year, and and like half of them were by one. There was nothing wrong with my game, it's just my head was scrambled, you know. I was up in my head too much. My game was fine. It's just you know, it's it's um I loved what I did, it was hard. I still I I think it needs to be hard. Yeah, it it it it's and and this that this life, it's not for everybody, right? I mean, to not know if you're gonna get paid for a month, or to know that instead of not getting paid, you miss four cuts, Jess, and all of a sudden, you know, the twenty thousand dollars you had in your savings is now down to ten. You know, those sort of things are real, yeah, they're they're tangible, they make a difference. It's not everybody, especially when the generation we played, bro, we didn't play for any money, yeah. We didn't have a million dollar purse for my first until like the 90s, yeah. 89 or 90 was our first million dollar purse. It was in Vegas, and everybody thought they were crazy. Yeah, what do you mean? What do you mean you're gonna make ninety thousand dollars for winning? What do you or 180,000 for winning? What are you talking about? I mean, the you gotta remember, look at look at what Calvin Pete and Curtis Strange and Roger Malpe, the guys that led the moneyless back then, probably made 300 grand. Yeah, it wasn't, you know, and then Tiger comes along and the angels started singing.

SPEAKER_00: 28:45

So, so let's uh let's let's get into your book, brother. You've got a book out, let's talk about it because you see it's called these stories.

SPEAKER_03: 28:55

It's called You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You, and it's a a story. I got a buddy Will Salisbury write it with me, and he's like, dude, you gotta write this book. And I'm like, I'm not writing a book, and it always started with tequila. We always started with tequila, and um, and and he'd be, you know, I'd be on my second or my third, and I'm like, dude, stop talking to me about this book. I'm just a guy, I'm a caddy at heart, nobody's gonna read it. Well, a friend of mine, Danny McLaughlin, who's my co-host on the golf with Jay Delsing show, he's won four Emmys, he's way more than just a co-host, but he said, you know, you should probably think about that. I have four daughters, Jess. I I would stand in front of a train for them. And he said, You should probably think about writing that for them, because there might be a point in time where they might really enjoy it. And I thought, huh, because I was a dad that when I was home, I was home. I wasn't out with my buddies, I wasn't, I'd sneak out and do a little practicing here and there, but I was driving carpool, I was making lunches, I was I was in, I was fully in, and I wanted them to know I was fully in. And so when I missed stuff, I mean I missed it, yeah. You know, so I had this grand idea, as you know, some of we dumb dads do, where I sent them all a book. I said, Don't open the FedEx, I'm gonna send you a link, we're gonna have this little open, you know, we're all gonna open them together, and they're like this, bud. They're like, Oh, dad wrote a book, and I was like, Okay, everybody enjoy their dinner. I'll talk to you later. You know, it wasn't like it just went over, it was flat. So I was like, you guys, it's not a big deal, but I just I wrote it for you guys so that you'd have some sort of record of why I missed so much of the stuff that I missed, you know. So there's some fun, fun stories in there, bro. From me getting to play with Sean Connery when I was 18 at Bel Air, and he introduces me to two of his friends, Steve and George, and it turns out it's Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Wow. Weird, weird stuff, bro. That that so the premise of the book, Jess, is that like, do you remember when you were a kid? You're old enough to remember this, where they give you those little puzzles where there'd be like a like uh a car and a bicycle and a bus and like a a bear. And I'm the bear, like which one of these doesn't belong, you know, and I'm the bear in all these stories. I'm like, what am I doing playing golf with Sean Connery? What am I doing playing golf with President Ford? What am I doing? You know, Justin Timberlake, who I have no idea who he is when he's like 20 years old, asking if he can have lunch with me at the Pebble Beach Pro Am in our little tent. I'm like, hey, I'm Jay. It's like I'm Justin. We sit around and we talk for 15 minutes. We're just shooting the shit, just like guys do. I'm like, how'd you play yesterday? Who'd you play with? I'm like, Well, I'm a pro. He goes, Oh, I saw your name on the leaderboard. We're just having a good time. I'm like, dude, I gotta bounce, I gotta get a workout in and then go hit some balls. And he goes, I'll walk out with you. So we walk out, I shake his hand, I go, bro. I hope I see you again. I don't know. Good luck today. Tell I gave it, I gave him a story to tell his pro, you know, that he was playing with. Like, ask him about that, he'll he'll tell you a fun story. And then my caddy goes, How long have you known Justin Timberlake? And I go, Who's that? He goes, That guy right there. He's walking away, and I go, Oh, I don't know. I just met him. He just asked if he could sit down next to me and have lunch. And he goes, Well, he's really famous. And I'm like, I never heard of him. And he goes, He's in a boy band, and I go, hence, well, I never heard of him. I don't know a boy band from I mean, give me Led Zeppelin, man. Give me Errol Smith. I I got you know, and so yeah, but then just I call home and my daughters, I'm like, guys, have you ever heard of this dude named Justin Timberlake? They're like, What? I go, Yeah, I had lunch with him today or breakfast with him today. They're like, Dad, what a loser. What are you talking about? I'm like, I don't know. The guy asked if he could sit next to me, you know, and but but bro, that's the game, it's a uniter, it brings people together. I try to tell people I had this guy say to me, you know, I don't play golf, I play tennis, it's kind of the same. And I go, no, it's not even close to being the same. No, well, tell me why, and I go, tell me the coolest place you ever played tennis. And he goes, Oh, my wife, we went to the Bahamas, we had this tennis court, it was right up by the water. I go, cool. What were the dimensions of that court? And he goes, You rattled them off right away. And I'm like, Yeah, what are the dimensions of the court that you play in, you know, back in Chicago? And he goes, Well, it's the same. I go, exactly. Yeah, I go, now ask me what my favorite course is, or talk to me about playing over at the St. Andrew's or Carnoustie or Pebble Beach. I go, God's the architect. Yeah, we're outside, dude. It's it's not the same. No two holes in the world are the same. And I will tell you, you're on the other side of the net with this cat, you're playing tennis with. Yeah, walking down the fairway with some stranger who at the end of the day, I dare you not to be friends with. Yeah, after you can play 18 holes and go have a beer with him. Yeah, you know, maybe he's a complete asshole, and you don't want to be friends with him, but not likely. Yeah, because you know, we're kindred, we're all dumb, we're all golfers, we're all lifeless, man. We love this, we'd love to be irritated by this game, Jess. I was saying to my brother the other day, I'm like, God, man, this game. We were down in Kiawa and the wind was blowing 30. I played really well, and the rest of them lost four dozen balls.

SPEAKER_00: 34:46

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_03: 34:47

Yes, you know, we get in, we're having a my brother's having a tequila, and I'm having one with him, and we got some other beers going, and the guys are like, God, maybe just got our asses kicked today, and you know, our hats on sideways, and this like this, you know, and the the the ocean course is a bitch, yeah. Like, God, that was just like so no fun, and it was just so hard. And they're like, What time do we play tomorrow? I'm like, 9:30. They're like, Yeah, I can't wait. No, how about that? It's just like this illness that we have. It's like I got this thing and I can't get rid of it. I'm I'm taking antibiotics for it, but it still won't go away. You know, it's just like, what's wrong with me?

SPEAKER_00: 35:30

So, so in in your book, you got you had a little moment with the king with Mr. Palmer. Uh, you just got get give it to us, Jake. Give it to us.

SPEAKER_03: 35:41

I just got my ass handed to me. Okay, so Arnold invites me to play, Mr. Palmer invites me to play in the Bay Hill Classic. And I'm just finished my second round. I'm in the top, I'm maybe 10th, 11th, something like that, just on the bottom of the first leaderboard. Played early on Friday. So I didn't like to eat much when I was playing, Justin. So when I got finished, before I'd get my workout in the hit balls, I had to get something to eat. So I get in there, I got my hat on, I'm sitting down at the table, and I'm I'm just by myself and I'm eating in this big hand, it's big left paw on my shoulder, and I look up and it's Mr. Palmer. So, you know, I stand up, put my napkin down, and I said, Oh, Mr. Palmer, man, I mean, thank you for the tournament. Let me play. This food, all this stuff. He grabs me real hard by the arm, like the nuns used to do when I was in trouble. And he pulls me tight and he goes, Let me ask you something. Do you wear that hat in your home? And I said, Yes, sir, Mr. Palmer, I sure do. And he goes, damn it, stop doing that. Take it off and show me some respect. This is my home. You never wear a hat in someone else's home. And I was like, hat off, bright red. And I'm like, Holy shit, man, the king just completely undressed me. And I was like, and he taps me on the shoulder, goes, I hope you win this damn thing. And he walks away. And I'm like, Wow, why sit down, Jess? I'm like looking around. I'm hoping nobody saw that. He's like, I'm gonna get out of here. And I look up, and Brad Fax and Jeff Sluman come up, and I'm like, hey, and he's like, The king, he got you, didn't he? And I go, Yeah, man, I I I didn't know I wasn't supposed to wear my hat in here. He goes, He got us yesterday. Wow, that was like part of what uh the way Arnold would teach us stuff, yeah. You know, he's like, Come on, man, this is not what you do, this is not the way this is all part of, and it was all part of the game, it's all part of being a gentleman, it was all part of doing it right. And you know what? We dumb dicks over here, we needed that, sure. Well, we told us. I mean, I was like, these guys are paying me, and if I get on TV, I'm never taking this hat off because they pay me more, you know, right? What's the deck in the old days before Tiger? Bro, if your tilus hat got on TV, they had a stopwatch on you, and if you got five more seconds, you got you know, five more grand. It was crazy back then. Wow, yeah. But to this day, I walk in the golf shop, hat comes off. Walk into it, don't do it. It hit me, but that was one of those life lesson things that I will never ever forget.

SPEAKER_00: 38:33

Ah, what a what a gracious man, the king. Uh uh uncanny. Uh, you know, he he really had kind of a similar memory to Nance with this incredible gift of remember remembering people's names. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03: 38:52

I I mean ever saw, you know, when I asked him the one I got a chance to interview him right before he died, and I have this interview, and I've shown no one because he looks so bad. Really look, he's wearing a jacket that looks like it's four sizes too big. He's gone, you know, and he died about a month later. And I said to him, Mr. Palmer, you've represented, you've been the the one of the most successful athletes off of the court or the course or the field. What and and you've repped anything from watches to oil to cars to airplanes. How'd you do it? I said, because when you talk, I feel like you're talking to me, right? Yet I'm one of 10 million people. Yeah, and he said, you know, I never believe I never did anything that I didn't believe in, that I fully believed in, so I could talk about it and I meant it. And so that's what I did. And it was that simple. And you know what? It was beautiful, yeah. It goes back to what we were saying off camera, just be Yourself, yeah. Some authenticity. Say what you want. You might take a beating for it a little bit. Say it. Sure. You know what the hell?

SPEAKER_00: 40:10

Sure. Well, I mean, you're gonna win in the end if you're authentic. That's for sure. You're always gonna win in the end. I mean, you're not gonna make everyone happy. No, and and especially not today. No, no change. Mr. Palmer was so principled, but yet carried himself with so much grace and understanding. He understood, you know, yeah. He was that age too.

SPEAKER_03: 40:34

Yeah, he got it. He he he got it. And he was he was also an entrepreneur, man. He thought out of the box. He, you know, uh starting IMG and all of the things that he did. Unbelievable. Unreal. Unreal. One of the things that they talk about, AP, is that he had two barns in Latrobe, barns full of old clubs.

SPEAKER_01: 40:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 40:59

Old putters. Wouldn't you love to get lost in that for about five? That'd be unbelievable. Looking at some of those old putters and some of those old drivers and wedges. Oh man, they said like he never threw clubs away. Bro, I gave away 24 sets of clubs to the first team. I'm like, I don't have any more room in my basement. Right. What am I gonna do with them? You know, some give them to somebody, but I guess I don't know. That's really, really cool.

SPEAKER_00: 41:25

Yeah. So speaking of old clubs, Jay, I gotta ask your opinion on this. And I personally uh I I think that the equipment is is out of control. Um, the current equipment today. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna specify this for elite play. It is. I don't care if John Q handicapper goes out and hits a 500cc driver and it's 50 inches and they can three hit at 300 yards and they're playing a hopped-up ball. Like I literally don't care.

SPEAKER_03: 42:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 42:02

Fine. Right. There's a there's a difference between corporate softball and major league baseball. Amen. Big difference, right? I wanted I wanted to get your opinion on that with with the way for elite play, the way that the ball is, the way that the driver is in particular, versus when you are out there, um it's it's a different it's a different sport.

SPEAKER_03: 42:26

It's not even it's not the same conversation. So I had Tom Watson on my show, and Tom Watson took an old wooden-headed driver, put it on Iron Byron, and deliberately did miss hits, yeah, to take the data. And the difference between a miss hit in that club and a difference in a modern club when you deliberately hit it on the toe and the heel, 97 yards per shot. 97 yards per shot. So when you mean when you miss hit a persimmon driver, it didn't go anywhere. Your heel shots didn't curve back to the right, your toe shots curved back to the left. It didn't happen like that. They ground it, they didn't get airborne. I don't know. First of all, they've taken all the art out of driving the ball. Okay, the driver head. I have an enormous head for a human. For a human. My head is huge. My head is about the same size as the friggin' drivers that we're playing now. The sweet spot is look, I swear, Jess, I got wooden-headed persimmons in the basement that don't even have sweet spots because I swung at them three or four thousand times and couldn't find it. You know, it's just it's just crazy. And when you put a ball, so here's what I'll here's the way I'll describe it. When we were kids, there was no one ball rule. Okay. And when you got to a 200-yard par three, we would switch balls and go from the Balata titleist to the Molotar, which was a flying rock, right? It was just so that we could hit two clubs less so that we could come close to getting this four or five iron on the screen from 200 yards, right, as opposed to trying to hit the balotta and having to hit some sort of wood, right before things got crazy. Right. What they figured out through technology with this ball is they figured out a ball that flies like that old Molotar but spins like the old Ballada.

SPEAKER_01: 44:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 44:33

So the boys don't have to worry about they also have souped up grooves in the irons. Yeah, so when they hit the ball in the rough, Jess, we used to hit flyers. I'll never forget. I'm playing not far from you, I'm playing at Stanford, and I'm playing in the last group for UCLA, and all the teams are up there, and I hit it in the left rough, and I've got like 170 yards. I was long back then, and I got this flyer lie, and I hit this seven iron, and everybody at the up the green is standing there like this, and my ball flew 20 yards over their head. My coach is like, What are you doing? I'm like, What do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to figure out how far my ball goes. I don't know. It's but that that doesn't happen anymore, right? So a couple of things you can do. Should there be bifurcation with the ball? Probably. Like, who really cares what John Q wants to play? They want to play and let them play whatever they want. Sure. But but you're not, you're going to run out of out of great golf courses to play unless something gets rained back. This new rollback, stupid.

SPEAKER_01: 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 45:41

Because first of all, it's not enough. Second of all, they did it throughout the game. Leave leave the 10 handicappers alone. Don't make the game harder for them. Don't make their drive go shorter, even if it's three yards. Right. No, wrong, wrong answer, not running the room. That's a big miss.

SPEAKER_01: 45:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 45:59

They've got to do they somehow. This ball. Here, here's a here's a thought because you're a good player. Let me ask you this what would happen if we kept this ball, but we changed the grooves on your irons and put them back to our old V grooves from the 80s. I think it's a great idea. Bro, you put 185 mile an hour ball speed on a seven-iron in the rough with those grooves. You know how far it's gonna go? Me neither. But it won't go the distance you think. Will it come out like this? It might, it might come out like this, right? And it might go 240 yards, right? It might go 160. Those guys wouldn't have a clue. But you then, but the first thing they do is go look for a softer ball.

SPEAKER_00: 46:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 46:49

That's right. We the USGA, bud, has missed on everything. What do they what do they go after? Anchoring the putter.

SPEAKER_00: 47:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 47:01

Really?

SPEAKER_00: 47:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 47:03

Is that do we care?

SPEAKER_00: 47:06

Yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, I think I I think Jay. Uh if if anchoring was such a distinct advantage, everybody would have been doing it. Everyone. It's it's I mean, like the PJ Tour and Elite Play, it's it's it, we're gonna copycat. We're gonna just like the NFL, we're gonna copycat. Right. Period. You know, you know. Um, you know, I I I have a lot of hope for the current USGA administration.

SPEAKER_03: 47:37

I love my one. I love Mike. Yeah, Mike. He is not a blue blood, he's not a uh stuffed shirt, he's not that guy. When I had Mike on the show, and I said, Mike, how the hell did you get this job? He goes, Jay, I have no damn idea. Because I was myself, and I told him, I'm the guy you guys will never hire. Yeah, here's why. Yeah, because he's the anti of those guys.

SPEAKER_00: 48:04

Sure. Sure. You know, I I saw, I really saw it. The alarm bells were were ringing hard at the at the Walker Cup this year at Cyprus. Um, I mean, that golf course, the the great architectural masterpieces, the 7, 8, 9, 14, 17, 18, they held up. But the rest of them, um, I I remember being a kid going out there and watching all of you. And Freddie was long back then. You know, Calc was long back then. Greg Norman was long, really long, really long. And they were hitting good drives into the 11th hole. It's a 440-yard par four that's typically into the wind. And if they had a good drive, they'd have a three or four iron in. Always into the wind, always always played into the wind. Number 12, same thing. You know, I asked Freddie point blank. I said, if you had a good drive on 12 into a two-club win, what would you have? Then he goes, if I had a really good drive, I'd have a five-iron in. Yeah, yeah. And and the kids are they've got 64 yards to the hole. They've got you know, and and it's not their fault. You know, this is the cards that they've been dealt, right? And and it, and it it made me a little bit sad because I'm a big fan of the classic golf architecture, a huge fan.

SPEAKER_03: 49:25

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 49:26

Um, same here, yeah, you know, and I'm not taking anything away from Bryson and what he's done and exploiting it as it is, which he should have.

SPEAKER_03: 49:36

Right, you know, that's not wrong. That is not wrong. It's the powers that be, Jess. That just when I did Fox golf or our national golf, I did five U.S. opens. The first one was it in Tacoma, it um Chambers Bay.

SPEAKER_00: 49:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 49:59

He did it. I saw eight drives over 400 yards long.

SPEAKER_00: 50:04

Eight in a US open.

SPEAKER_03: 50:07

There's one fairway, it's 106 yards wide. Then we go to Aaron Hills in Milwaukee. There's a fairway 108 yards wide. The one that kept coming at Aaron Hills. And I'm like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00: 50:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 50:23

I mean, uh so it it's for but overall, it's head scratching to me. Yeah, you know, I've never run a big organization like that, but I'd like to think that I would do it the way I run my small businesses and just use my common sense and surround myself with smart people and ask the right questions and then pull the trigger and see what happens. Yeah, we just man alive. I mean, I I get honoring the tradition, but what where are we going? Yeah, I mean, because bud, I'm 6'5 and I'm a strapping 205 pounds. There's guys that are gonna be 6'5, 240 that are gonna hit it 500 yards before before you and I are gone. Oh, yeah. We're gonna see that. I mean, they're just gonna get bigger and stronger and bigger and stronger, and the equipment will be able to handle it. Now their bodies may break down, yeah. But still, it's gonna be a sight to see.

SPEAKER_00: 51:23

Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, I I think solutions pretty simple. I love the V groove concept, Jay. I'd love the USGA to put a put a uh a length cap, maybe a CC cap on it, uh, on the driver. You know, if this is for elite play, and and and in fairness, and I'm saying this with all my heart, partly selfish, uh, because I'm playing 55-year-old senior am golf. I certainly don't want to hit the ball shorter. I'm doing everything I can to get maximize right now, but I also think that that rule should be exempt for the champ tour, for senior elite play, and for the LPGA tour. 100%. None of us should be punished for that. No, no, none of us should.

SPEAKER_03: 52:08

A little bit of common sense, which is not common anymore, but it's not for everyone. Yeah, you said elite play. What just to find elite play? You're probably gonna have to start somewhere with the top colleges because that'll be a fair transition for them to go from there, but not the weekend warrior down at Crestview Country Club or whatever the hell it's called. No, no, let them do whatever they want, let them play with whatever they want.

SPEAKER_00: 52:34

Sure. I mean, I I like I love I love the baseball concept, Jay. We we're you and I are both baseball fans. The moment you turn pro Sayonara to composite bats, give me the lumber. We're playing lumber, we're playing real ball now. Yeah, we're playing real ball now. So you turn pro or you play elite play, give me the lumber. I love it. Um, keep it simple.

SPEAKER_03: 53:00

We don't need to recreate the the the wheel, but bud, we need to have somebody in charge that has that vision, yeah. You know what I mean? Because we need to be able to see three plays down the field, yeah. Right, and it's just that's that's what we need, man. Yeah, because the the the these great golf courses. I mean, to sit there and watch the way some of these guys will play Riviera, for example, you know, right? They go to the the ninth hole and they they put the tease back 40 yards from when we play and the guy's had driver sandwich.

SPEAKER_01: 53:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 53:37

I mean, we had to bust it to get it over that bunker. Those bunkers are just like toys out there.

SPEAKER_00: 53:44

Yeah, they don't exist. No, they don't exist. You know, it's gonna be interesting because the open's back at Pebble in two years, it's in Shinnnecock next year.

SPEAKER_01: 53:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 53:54

Um, I'm not too familiar with Shinnnecock, but it's a lot different now than when Paven won in '95.

SPEAKER_03: 54:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 54:03

And then another thing, too, that really kind of breaks my heart. Uh, and I and I gotta add to this. I don't think a guy like Corey Paven's gonna exist anymore on today's tour. No, nope, nope, no way. Or our dear friend, our dear friend, my dear friend, friend funk. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_03: 54:22

Fred not gonna exist. No, no, they they don't meet the minimum threshold of speed. And look, like it or not, it's a power game at every level. That's right. This is all offshoots of Tiger and what Tiger brought to the game and how he changed the game, and this is all about power, yeah. And and it's there's nobody short, you just have massive hitters, and then you got the long guys. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's that simple. Yeah, I mean, we're we're playing a 300-yard par three at Oakmont this year.

SPEAKER_00: 54:57

Uh it's just it's just ridiculous. They they had one at LACC too, yeah. When Windham won, yeah, right, yeah.

unknown: 55:06

300 yard par three.

SPEAKER_00: 55:10

That's ridiculous. I remember growing up, I mean, playing high school golf in the mid 80s. I mean, something you know, 190 to 210 was pretty beefy.

SPEAKER_03: 55:19

But a 450-yard hole was like if I don't hit a good drive, I can't reach.

SPEAKER_00: 55:25

Yeah, we're getting it up and down from like 40 or 50. That's right, period. You know, now 450. Those guys might they they might be hitting uh who knows what.

SPEAKER_03: 55:36

But you gotta remember the scale, it doesn't stop with the driver. The driver goes 340, the pitching wedge goes 160. Yeah, I mean, that's just Nick Price and I were sitting around talking, and he was the um president of the uh, I mean, he was the captain of the president's cup for two years, right? Two for two cycles, which is four years. And he said, J Bird, I'm sitting there talking to the guys, and I said, the first thing we need to do is we need to get straight on our distances. So let's go through the bag collectively. So they got Nikki and and what three vice captains and 12 team members, and they get to what did he say, get to the seven iron, and they were all agreeing that there's the the the seven iron averaged out for the group to go like 183. And this was 10 years ago, yeah, 183. Yeah, he's like, what am I doing? What am I doing? How am I gonna help these guys?

SPEAKER_00: 56:38

Right, right, you know, it's like no, yeah, and that's Nick Price for God's sakes, one of the great ball strikers of all time, of all time, and one of the great human beings of all time, too.

SPEAKER_03: 56:52

Yeah, yeah, he is really, really one of the good, good guys, hasn't changed at all, just a really good guy, and he's helping out the USGA now. I heard that, yeah. I heard that, you know, he's gonna bring a lot of common sense to that table. Sure. I love it. Sure.

SPEAKER_00: 57:09

This is uh, you know, I do, you know, again, just kind of closing up the USGA thing and the equipment thing. Um you know, I do the the current USGA administration, the incoming president, his name is Kevin Hammer. I think that's pretty common knowledge now, and I know Kevin really well. Uh, I think he's gonna do a great job, and they're gonna get they're gonna get the ship slowed down a little bit. Um they're a little bit more objective, and and they're they're gonna listen to the the players a little bit more and and take in all the arguments. But I think that in every sport, you got in football, college football, there's different rules between college football and the NFL. There's different rules between amateur soccer and professional soccer, baseball, obviously, we said. Um and at the elite level, it should be harder. It should be harder by the very definition of it, by the very nature of it. That's what inspired me to watch guys like you, Jay, is because I would see you guys play Hogan Apex PCs or some ungodly blade with a blot of ball that you were probably using at least three or four balls around because you hit one good wedge and that thing's toast. Yeah, you know. Um, but but I saw masterful skill making, master for shot making. Yeah, there wasn't anything that you guys couldn't do with the golf ball.

SPEAKER_03: 58:36

Nothing, it's really interesting, just because that ball made you a better player, yeah. Because it curves so much, yeah. Miss hit, you know, it took you. Oh my gosh, there's no you could you could have these massive amounts of miss.

SPEAKER_01: 58:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 58:54

Because when it when it was miss hit, first of all, miss hit it fell out of the air. Second of all, if it was over curved, but you can over curve it. This ball doesn't curve. No, I mean, it's not even it's not even designed the curve, right? And so yeah, I can remember titleist came to me in the 90s and said, We're getting rid of the 384. And I'm like, Oh no, we can't do that. He goes, Azing and I were the last two guys playing the block. Wow, and we had to go to the professional. So I I text Azing uh Zing, and I'm like, Zing. He's like, Man, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm like, we don't have a choice. He goes, Nope. They told me he goes, You can't you gotta play the professional, and the professional was like a rock. Yeah, professional was just like a rock. It was it the worst part about the professional, bro, is it felt like a rock. Yeah, you know. Remember the feel of that when you hit when you hit a good wedge with that balada, it was like that that ball stuck to the club face, yeah. You know, and you hit that little low.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:00

wedge checker in there that's gonna take one bounce get up on the top and just drop dead and it was kind of the crowd pleaser where all the all the people in the crowd are going oh sit sit sit and the ball goes up and just you know and they're like oh I guess he kind of knew what he was doing oh yeah professional you'd hit it and like it just it was a different game man yeah it felt it felt different just off the putter too sure it did sure we're weird getting used to that yeah I mean it's it's really simple usg a r and a just bring back persimmon and ballata and and all the distance issues will be solved I mean it would be that simple I mean Bryson's still gonna be long as hell they're all still gonna be long as hell but my goodness uh you're you're not gonna be sitting back and hitting up on it you and you also better put 10 or 15 dozen a week in their locker because those balls are going to explode oh that's so good that's so good this is uh you know so so Jay we're we're kind of winding down now I want to I want you to tell the audience about your show um those those who listen to me and Justin they probably aren't familiar with you and I they I would like them to tune in.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:12

I know I I would love them to tune in. So my show's called Golf with Jay Delsing you can get I I'm a radio guy first uh Jeff so I I have a one hour nationally syndicated show it's in 50 different markets Atlanta Philly Pittsburgh Nashville a bunch of different places but I drop that um uh every Monday um uh on Spotify Apple anywhere you get your pots it's called golf with J Delsing then I have a two hour local show that man we get into some like I had Rich Lerner on last week and Rich talked for like we my interview with Rich was like an hour and seven minutes long and bro we just broke down the writer cup awesome whatever it's just like what you're trying to do. I'm trying to grow the game yeah my idea is to try to grow the game and one of the things that that is so interesting about all the cool stuff that we talked about is that when I started my show I wrote three things down I have to have fun I have to stay authentic and I'm not changing. Yeah and if people don't like it oh well yeah okay yeah and and when we're talking about you know being authentic it's I I'm a storyteller man I like I want to talk about how you and I you know went over and played a pick a spot I don't know but I you know so many people sit there and try and give a golf lesson over the radio or the pot it's like okay we can do a little bit of that but that's tough. Yeah it's tough man we don't have your clubs on the your hands on the club we don't have my eyes on you you know it's it's just uh it's not an assembly line gig and people that I get inundated with emails and they're like I want to know about this and we'll get to those if sure for the bottom line man we want to get relevant guys in there talking about I want to get you on the show my show talking about your show I want to know why you started doing this and I want to know what your feedback is from from your golfers because you're hitting a the top end niche of the player because I relate to that no my co-host is you know a double digit handicapper so he brings in that yeah that's not that easy to do you know like I tell people you want to get better at putting you got to practice with purpose yeah and you got to do the clock drill and here's how you do the clock drill here's why that's hard and as soon as you miss you got to start over and so you're gonna have pressure on these putts and la la la just and my partner looks at me is like dude it's not that easy it's not that easy and I'm like I know yeah that's why it's that's why you get better if it were but if you got to sit in your lounge chair and turn on the idiot box and your golf game got better well what the hell man that makes sense yeah you have to earn a component of this somewhere right somehow you got a little bit of it you know that's what I would say to him so we have a blast man we um just um I've I'm gonna have um uh Rich Beam uh do an interview with Rich this week which I can't wait because Beamer's a good friend and he's a character oh absolutely and just you know we had characters back in the day who's a character you if you don't go to the European side who are the US characters right who are they right bro we got a bunch of sock sorters out there yeah sock you know sort our socks into colors we're gonna iron our underwear and we're gonna go to the range do the same thing every single day that's not that's not interesting makes good golfers sure sure like what what we you know you know I I I had Andy North I had Lee Trevino on and man could Trevino talk I love it and and he was like I used to get balls at night I'd get finished playing I'd do this you know and I and I can remember this story my rookie year I'm walking up to the 17th T at the Byron Nelson and these are the stories we tell in the show and I've when Lee was on the show I go do you remember this goes oh yeah I remember you Delson so I'm laying back and and he's playing with Jim Thorpe and we all know this is the money game on the tour. And so I'm laying back because I'm like I got two holes left and of course he waves us up and I'm like oh shit and I've met Lee before and I said Mr. Trevino he goes I told you don't call me that and think you and he goes okay so here's what we're gonna do and I'm with a guy named Brad Fable who's now um uh an official on the PJ tour great guy from Kentucky was a coal miner at one time lovely so Brad and I are sitting there and Lee says okay here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna bet you$100 this is 1985 I'm gonna bet you$100 that I can hit my sand wedge on this green from here and we're 176 yards downhill it's a 17th green at Las Calinas I don't know if you remember the old Las Calinas it looks similar to the current ones water pond on the right and it's 176 yards bro and I go so I look at Brad I go Brad you got any money he goes I got 14 bucks on me I go we'll give you 64 dollars he goes what I go we got 64 bucks on us he goes you rookies don't have any money I go I can get you a check but I go we got 64 cash what do you want me to do and he goes he just mf'd us to death like and he wouldn't do it he wouldn't do it and it kills me to this day because I knew he could do it I don't know if he's gonna skull it I don't know what he's gonna do yeah but I knew we would do it but he was like it and so you know those are those are some of the the the the fun things about the tour that we can tell and and it's in the book it's on our show and we get these you know get these guys to to open up a little bit I had Wayne Gretzky on the show at one point his dad his dad had just passed and you know I was being real respectful he goes no no call me and I call him on Easter Sunday he's in LA and we talked for 45 minutes and he talked about his dad and he was so open and honest and real it was awesome that's cool that's cool just just getting those guys to just because they all love the game now and you know the great one is great at hockey but he's you know it's like a seven handicap at golf he's really good but he's you know he's just another guy you know another guy can play golf yeah really fun really fun so I just try to keep that vibe like what you and I have going now and I kind of have a schedule or a structure but then toss it out the window if you bring up something that's way more interesting than I got well let's go I just want it to be I want it to be lively I want it to be fun and I like if you have you want to talk just toss it out there we'll kick it around if it's good we'll probably keep kicking if not we'll go to something else.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:22

Sure sure well I mean it's it's I love it Jay it's such a gift it's a gift it's a really gift it's a gift to all of us in the golf community for you to tell these stories to have this show I really appreciate it uh I'm you're gonna you're gonna gain a lot more listeners uh from my show because um you know we we we look up to your generation and beyond we really look up and and we still do and I I appreciate you and all that you've done and all that you continue to do.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:56

And I I I want you to come on again Jay pretty pleased anytime but I've got to get you on my show and we'll talk about this stuff and and I I loved it Jess I uh congratulations too on the great success that uh that you got it flag hunters it's I love the name too it's like uh you know I was always trying to hunt flags even if it didn't look like it I was I love it Jay well I appreciate you brother and uh thanks for coming on anytime