Golfweek Amateur Tour - The Podcast
Welcome to the Golfweek Amateur Tour Podcast!
If you love amateur golf, the thrill of competitive golf events, and the camaraderie of the golf community, this is the podcast for you!
Join hosts Tim Newman and Chris Rocha as they bring you the latest from the Golfweek Amateur Tour, covering everything from all of the local golf tours through the road to the National Championship. We’ll break down recent golf tournaments, highlight standout players, and dive into what makes amateur golf competitions so much fun.
But that’s not all, we sit down with tour directors, course pros, and players from across the country to hear their stories, get insider perspectives, and maybe even pick up a few tips along the way. And, of course, we’ve got Roger’s Rules, where we tackle the quirkiest, most debated rules in golf (because let’s be honest, we all need a refresher sometimes).
This isn’t just another amateur golf podcast, it’s a golf podcast for everyday golfers who love the game, the grind, and the great people that make up the Golfweek Amateur Tour. So hit subscribe, grab a drink (or a range bucket), and let’s talk golf!
Golfweek Amateur Tour - The Podcast
Unforgettable Golf Tales: Veteran Insights and Tournament Highlights
Join us for a thrilling kickoff of our US tour, featuring standout interviews and dazzling performances at American Dunes in Grand Haven, Michigan! Hear Chris' reflections on a nail-biting near-victory and his insights into improving his putting game, while Tim and Chris share their preparation strategies for upcoming events, including the highly anticipated team Stableford at Bears Best in Atlanta. Special guest Robbie Robinson, Orlando Tour Director, and retired Air Force Tech Sergeant, captivates us with stories from his 17-year military career, revealing the unique responsibilities he undertook.
Experience the rich storytelling of former PGA tour player Gaines Beard, who shares his fascinating career journey and the influence of his Air Force upbringing. From being a bag boy in Cheyenne, Wyoming to attending the Ryder Cup at Medina, Gaines' life lessons through golf are both poignant and memorable. We also touch on the evolution of the Golfweek Amateur Tour, the camaraderie among golfers, and the financial and logistical hurdles faced by professional golfers in the 1970s. This episode is brimming with rich storytelling, insightful interviews, and a shared passion for the game of golf, making it a must-listen for every golf enthusiast.
Buy Gaines Beard's Book - Chasing A Dream: Memoirs of a Golf Professional
Stay here when in Grand Haven, Michigan - Family Retreat at Village Farmhouse
If you have questions, send them to us at:
Tim - TimNATC@amateurgolftour.net
Chris - elpaso@amateurgolftour.net
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All right, chris, first leg of our US tour is over. We got a really good episode this week with two really good interviews. Probably one of them is probably one of the best interviews we've done. We've got all the winners from American Dunes and Grand Haven, michigan, and you did pretty well this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was fun. Glad that this finally came up. We've been talking about it for months now and we finally were able to do it. Battled all day today and almost pulled out the victory, but at least I was able to play with the champion and he was my riding partner. So it was fun, good challenge, but I'm glad where my game's at now and just need to improve 33 putts, by the way, today.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about putts a little bit later, but you had a pretty good weekend. Let's go ahead and get this thing started with this week's episode.
Speaker 3:Let's go, ladies and gentlemen. Golf Week Amateur Tour the podcast Talking about all things Golf Week Amateur Tour, including interviews with tour directors, players and course pros. Now here are your hosts Atlanta tour director Tim Newman and El Paso Las Cruces director Chris Rocha.
Speaker 2:Tim, it's great to be back. We're in our final countdown to our big, our US tour for our trips and I mean I'm super excited. How are you doing? I'm so excited.
Speaker 1:Can't even stand it. It's preparation week. I know you're going to be there a day before I am, but this is a big week for us. We've got two interviews before we leave, but I also have an Atlanta event this coming weekend that I've got to get ready, for which, you know, you and I talked a little bit about how can we do a little something different, right, do our team stable for and it just so happens to be this weekend and, yeah, I've got to train uh jen up on on how we uh do all those things. It's a little bit extra work, you know, doing pairings and that sort of thing, but it's it's.
Speaker 1:I'm actually kind of a little bummed that I'm gonna miss it, because it's one of my favorite events, right, and it's at bears best in atlanta, which is one of the most popular courses that we play. It's always a good time because you know we, we mix the flights up, so you're not, you're not playing, you know, in your same flighted group, so you get to play with people that you wouldn't normally play with. Guys love it, it's a lot of fun. So it's just a little bit extra work and you kind of lead that up into. I got to leave, you know, friday morning. So it's getting everything together.
Speaker 1:You know we talk about the big ass box. Now we, we, we love our TSA people. I mean, they keep us safe. But for whatever reason they don't like my stuff and they always go through through the box. So I so what I got, what I gotta do before we leave I gotta unpack everything, take pictures and I'm gonna put them in there laminated, so they understand how, when they go and start tearing it up, how to put it all back. So right break break any of the equipment so I have a bit to do.
Speaker 2:I mean it's you and me both. I also have an event on saturday at a course last year that I think I shot a 74 at, so I was really looking forward to repeating. But I'm going to have a little bit more fun in Michigan. I know my guys will take care of that event as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:That was your lowest round ever last year and it was surprising, because the course I mean the course isn't easy. I didn't think I was playing very well, but once it's all said and done, when you look at the score it's like wow, I can't believe I did that. So can't wait, super excited to see who pulls off the victory then I think it's going to be you and Michigan, you know what I'd be okay with that. I would be okay with that.
Speaker 1:We've got two really good guests today before we head out to Michigan. The first we tried to get him on for Military Appreciation Month had some technical difficulties and scheduling issues, so we're glad that we could make this work and just so happens, we're actually recording this the day after Memorial Day. But let's go ahead and welcome in Orlando Tour Director, robbie Robinson. Robbie, welcome to the show, thank you. So, robbie, you retired after 17 years in the Air Force as a tech sergeant. Is that correct? Yes, tell us a little bit about your career in the Air Force and why you chose to go in and some of the things that you were doing.
Speaker 5:You know, I was kind of going in a wrong way and I needed something to do something different and I decided I wanted to go into the air force. My father was in the air force and I figured I'd go in four years and 17 and a half years later I was. I didn't realize how much I I loved it and how much I missed it Once I left. I did a lot of stuff. I worked on the pilots, ejection seats and parachutes oh wow. And I was a first sergeant, I was a mobility officer. I did a lot.
Speaker 1:Tell us about the ejection seats and how that worked, what you did and you're the first person I ever talked to, I mean, I just figured that they put them in there. They worked, so tell us what you did.
Speaker 5:Well, every ejection seat has a parachute attached to it, and then it also has a survival kit, and those have to be removed and repacked every 90 days, and then you have to inspect them every 30 days. And then all the equipment that the pilot wears the anti-gravity suits, the G-suits, and the harnesses that they strap in with and their helmets and their oxygen mask, and all of that.
Speaker 2:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. Did you ever have to jump and test the parachutes in the army? You know the uh, oh, I just I literally just forgot what they were called the people who backed the parachutes. Uh, but anyway, there's a, a unit that packs all the shoots and then, like every 30 days, they randomly go and they grab a shoot and give it to whoever packed it and they're responsible for testing it.
Speaker 5:I never did that. I actually was supposed to go to jump school but when I injured my neck it precluded me from going. But I taught the survival school all of our survival courses, for all of ours. And then I went to all the different survival training desert, arctic water, jungle, eow.
Speaker 1:And what type of things did you have to do to get through those schools?
Speaker 5:Well, each one was different. Arctic survival you had to learn how to you know, like, make an igloo, and we were there for out in the tongue for like four days and you have to navigate from a start point to a finish point without getting spotted or captured. That's extreme boy scouting, right there. And then, like water survival we didn't actually jump with a parachute, but they basically lowered us from a boat. You know like they do with parasailing, right right, and then you had to. Then they leave you out there and then you have to radio in for a helicopter to come pick you up and you have to vector in.
Speaker 1:That's great it is. You know, these are some of the assignments that people really sign up for and wish that they could do, but not everybody can?
Speaker 5:That's true, yes, yes, and I taught the ongoing courses. So to teach the courses to all the pilots in my unit, I had to actually do it.
Speaker 1:I can imagine you know being the instructor on these courses and you're dealing with these pilots. I'm sure that you had to. They're not really used to having to do those types of things to be able to survive, right, correct?
Speaker 5:They're all about keeping that plane in the air, not figuring out what happens if it's not in the air anymore.
Speaker 2:Right, I was going to say I'm pretty sure that's. The last thing on their mind is what they have to do if they have to eject the plane.
Speaker 5:I was lucky. In all those years I only had one person have to use my equipment.
Speaker 1:That's a good record when was that and what was the situation?
Speaker 5:It was just a mechanical failure on a routine training mission. Nobody actually used it in Desert Storm. When we were there during the air war, we didn't lose any planes, right.
Speaker 1:You were in Desert Storm. Where else were you stationed?
Speaker 5:I started my career, you know, having basic training, and then I went to Illinois for the technical school. Then I went to Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida, which I loved. Then I went to Germany at Ramstein for two years and ended up staying for four years because I ended up being on the base bowling team. That was a pretty sweet deal, so I wanted to stay a few more years. So I stayed two more years there and then I went to Louisiana. I met my wife in Germany, we got married and we went to Louisiana and then we stayed there for almost 12 years, with one exception when she left for 18 months on a remote to the Azores and then she came right back until they closed the base. And we closed the base to L-92. What base was that? England Air Force Base.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 5:That's actually where North Louisiana plays at Altwing Golf Club. Okay, that's the base, golf course. What's left of it now? What's left of?
Speaker 1:it right. Tell us a little bit about the bowling team, because that's something I did not know about you.
Speaker 5:That's what I did five, six days a week and after I got out I tried to get my PBA card. I bowled against a bunch of the guys that were on tour back then Brian Voss, all of those guys over in the European League. I got lucky. I was on the team and we traveled every weekend and twice a week from one o'clock to four o'clock was mandatory practice and we went. We left work, we went to the bowling alley and ate burgers and drank beer in practice. It's mandatory, robbie, you had, you had to go, you had to be there, I had to go. If you didn't show up for practice, you didn't go on the trip the next weekend oh my, yeah, you better show up.
Speaker 1:My goodness, that is a pretty good deal. When I was going through basic training, I I had we had two guys and it's not Bowen, but we had two guys that were really good musicians and as they graduated from, as we graduated from basic training and went right into jump school, and then from jump school, the three of us were supposed to go to Fort Bragg, but those two got selected to be the all-army band. That's a pretty sweet gig too, because all you do is you play in the band. That's what you do being on the baseball team. You have to go to practice from one to four. So good, Dan.
Speaker 5:I did that for two and a half years, dude, that's awesome. So when did you pick up golf? I've played golf since I was about five years old, so almost 65 years I've been playing golf, wow and you couldn't be on the.
Speaker 1:You couldn't be on the one, the base golf team too. I mean you wouldn't have time.
Speaker 5:No, they didn't have one of those. Okay, I didn't really get serious about golf. I played golf all the time, but I never got serious about it until I couldn't bowl anymore, and then I needed to find something to take up the time.
Speaker 1:So I've been playing tournament golf since 1999 now, man Jeez, is that how long you've been with Dennis and Golf Week that long?
Speaker 5:I've been with Dennis and Golf Week since 2002. And golf week that long. I've been with dennis and golf week since 2002, okay, and we were with a different organization from 99 to 2002.
Speaker 1:You know, when you pull up the website and go in the back room, the stats only go back for the website till 2009 and I know I knew you were, you were with him before that. Just based on those numbers, you you played in, I think, 398 rounds just with golf week. So I mean you add another seven years to that, you know you probably played 600 rounds.
Speaker 5:I'm about a thousand rounds. A thousand, Wow. I have since 2009,. I have 397 rounds on both of those. That's awesome. Now, some of those rounds were back when we could play both at the same time, so another little skew, but Nah, don't tell anybody that, Bobby, I mean just that's a lot of rounds, man, that's a lot of rounds.
Speaker 1:Just take it and be proud. It's amazing when you look at the tour itself and what people actually get out of it and how long people have been around like you. I mean there may be maybe, let's just say, out of our 6,000 paid members, there may be maybe 30 left that have been with him from the beginning.
Speaker 5:Right, there's not many.
Speaker 1:Been there that long After this. You know I don't want to give it away, but we're getting ready to interview another one of the original members who at one point was a PGA Tour member, who got his amateur status back and was with them when he first created it, you know, back over 30 years ago. So just think about all the rounds that people have played. Even out of all the other people that have been with him from the beginning that are still here, you probably have more rounds than any of them.
Speaker 5:Just be a tour director never miss miss an event and you're playing both sides and whilst I play on every weekend somewhere else about an apple, I think how long have you actually been been tour director? Well, I had the tampa tour for six years too, so I was running. So I've been helping tom 1999, but I wasn't technically a tour director. I was kind of like an assistant to Tom since 2002.
Speaker 1:Right, you know how I feel about Tom, so I'm going to, I'm going to say you were a tour director once, once you met him and started helping him. I mean it's that's, that's a really good story and and you know, chris you and I have talked about, know we have to get tom on sometime soon, right? Anyway, because he's he's like one of the original, one of the original originals that, um, from a a golf tour director perspective, has a so much, so much insight and has seen so much change and some of the things that he does outside of golf week, you know, with the Blind Golfers Association, and all the good that he's done over the years.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, he actually just completed his 46th year as a PGA professional.
Speaker 1:Wow Again, with his health the way that it is, you know, we really do need to make sure that we get him worn the insight that he has and that he can share with everybody. It would completely blow your mind Things that you would never think about or not even understand about why some of the things are the way they are and some of the stories he has from all of the people, like Artie and all those guys back in the day just unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a bunch of history that I'm not even aware of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every time I talk to him he tells me something I don't know. I mean, he brings up something or some story or whatever that makes you just go wow, that's an amazing story.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he's got a wealth of knowledge locked up in that head of his.
Speaker 1:He sure does. So what's going on in Orlando right now? Anything good.
Speaker 5:We're getting ready for our first half two-day on both golf week and senior. Okay, Monday and Tuesday we got senior first two-day, and then Saturday and Sunday we got the first golf week two-day. So next week's pretty busy for me.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it's hot, it is hot, that's what Chris wants, it's hot, it is hot, that's what Chris wants to hear.
Speaker 2:What is hot?
Speaker 7:to you.
Speaker 5:It's 99 today, with about 98% humidity and no wind. And no wind, it's just.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't do humidity over here it's 99 over here, but there's no humidity.
Speaker 1:It's 99 over here, but there's no humidity. Robbie Chris only plays when it's like 80 degrees. You know relatively no humidity, no wind, no rain, perfect weather. That's the only time he plays. I don't care what the weather is, I guess, so with all the rounds that you've got, I don't care if it's the icebreaker, so look at Orlando's schedule. If there's one course on there that people should travel to come play, on which one would it be?
Speaker 5:Reunion, why that facility is one of the best around. They got three courses One's a Watson course designed by Watson, one's the Palmer course and one is the Nicholas course, all designed by Watson. One's the Palmer course and one is the Nicholas course All designed by some phenomenal players, and they're always in fantastic shape.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, chris, you know we are going to be on the road a little bit more next year.
Speaker 2:I have a feeling, if this keeps going the way it is, I have a feeling we're going to be on the road, which is fine with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. Well, robbie, thank you so much for joining us and spending some time with us today. I really do appreciate it. Thank you for all that you do, for the tour and your service, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Speaker 5:All right, appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:All right, bud Take care.
Speaker 2:Tim. It's always great to hear interviews with other directors, the stories he has. Being able to test and pack the ejection seats is just so cool, and I mean we've had this conversation before with me wanting to do that growing up, so being able to just hear about that is pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Right, rami's got a lot of good stories. You know it's testing the ejection seats Again. Of course it's got to happen, but I mean you don't think about those things, right. Right, robbie's got a lot of good stories. You know it's testing the ejection seats again with sunlight. Of course that's got to happen, but you know, I mean you don't think about those things, right. And then training all these pilots in the survival methods in each of the different areas. You know, you know cold weather, the tundra, the water, the desert, all those types of things, that those things. When you're younger it must have just been a blast, you know, just fun to do, having those stories and testing and training those pilots to be able to do that. I'm sure he has a ton of great stories, a ton.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm pretty sure, and you know, just being able to talk about it as much as we could, you know, during the podcast is great, but I can't wait to see him at the director's meeting and ask for more stories. Yeah.
Speaker 1:He dropped that bomb on us, that whole Bolin thing, right? What's up with?
Speaker 2:that I would have never guessed that that was news to me.
Speaker 1:Mandatory, mandatory. That must have been so much fun.
Speaker 5:Anyway.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to our next guest, because I know that he's going to have some really good stories. He is one of the originals and I can't wait to talk to him about his book and some of the stories that are in the book. You know, when I went through it I actually texted him. I said are you sure this is all true? Because I actually couldn't believe one of the stories that he told in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean just you know right off the bat the first story he talks about and who his brother caddied for is just it just sets it up for you know great stories to move forward.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. Let's just go ahead and welcome. Welcome in our next guest, gaines Beard. Gaines is one of the original original members of the uh golf week amateur tour, but he's also a former PGA tour player and he wrote a book about his story and his life. And so, gaines, welcome to the show bud.
Speaker 7:Hey, thank you so much, Chris and Tim. It's nice to be here, I'm excited to talk to you about the book and I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:Oh, any time, especially after reading the book. You know, you and I corresponded a little bit back and forth over text over the last couple of days and you gave me a piece of advice that I didn't even know was advice until I started reading the book and you said start from the beginning. And you know when I offline. When I talked to Chris, I said I'm I'm actually glad that you said that because you know, generally when I, when I read books outside of workbooks right, you know, and I read for fun I'll go through and I'll say, oh, that sounds like a good chapter, I'll read that chapter first. And I'm so glad you told me to start from the beginning, because that really kind of laid the foundation for everything after that.
Speaker 7:Well, that's true. The book is not all about golf. It's about my experiences, how I learned that there was such a thing as golf, and a lot of people have similar experiences. So I tell stories about moving around, being an Air Force brand, getting a first set of golf clubs and sharing them with my brother. So the story evolves and it's basically a group of separate stories that I was writing to leave like a little information for my grandchildren as to who their grandfather was. So I, like the third chapter in my book actually turned out to be the first chapter that I wrote, ended up being the third chapter in the book, but anyway, that's sort of how the thing started. Is it like a little memoir to leave to my children? But it turned out to end up being a book.
Speaker 1:Well, you know you're a natural storyteller. The book is a real easy read and I love the way that you put it together, but May is Military Appreciation Month and, with a tour and some things that I do, we really do like to honor and highlight our military and tell us about your father.
Speaker 7:My stepfather married my mother when I was six years old and we immediately moved to Freeport Louisiana and he was in strategic air command and he was a major in the Air Force. So we were in Freeport for about a year and then we uprooted and moved to Columbus Ohio and I was up in Columbus Ohio from my second grade through about my sixth and being in Ohio. I'm a Southern boy from North Carolina being in Ohio and the second grade through the sixth grade finding out what a foot of snow was. I had a ball man.
Speaker 7:It was great I got sleds, I built igloos, we, we built forts, we threw snowballs at cars going by, so you know all this kind of stuff. I relate to the book of growing up. And then we left Ohio and moved to Montgomery Alabama and he got into Minuteman Missiles down there and then from there we went to Wichita Falls, texas, for some training. He had to do for about five months and then we ended up in Cheyenne by God, wyoming. What a wonderful place I'm going to tell you. Seriously, cheyenne, wyoming was beautiful, the Milwaukee Mountains. So I was there from my seventh grade through my 11th grade and absolutely had a ball out there. I was on the golf team. That's the first time I went to work at a country club as the bag boy and picked up the driving range and stuff like that, and so that's how I got into working in golf.
Speaker 1:Uh, was being a bag boy at country club in cheyenne nice, yeah, and uh, you know you, you, you tell a brief story. You know your, your dad died and you were uh, right, right before you ended a tournament. But your dad, your dad, won a um, a bronze star did.
Speaker 7:He was a Marine in World War II and he fought in the Pacific Theater. He was at Iwo Jima and several other places that I can't remember off the top of my head. But yeah, he won a bronze star and I said I asked him one day. I said, dad, my dad ended up coming back and they had an alcohol problem, like a lot of the soldiers did. It's very unfortunate. They saw things that we could not imagine.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 7:And so he came back and I asked him. I said, well, let me see, can I see the blonde star? He said no, it's not. He said I gave it to a hooker in San Francisco. Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:I said did she play golf oh?
Speaker 2:my goodness now, that's the story right there, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That is, that's, that's awesome all right, chris, your turn.
Speaker 2:No, I mean I. You know I was talking with Tim and I appreciate and just like the story you just gave us. I appreciate the detail in this book that you go into every chapter. I mean it. It really paints a picture and, like Tim said, you know, being such a great storyteller and being able to put it on words is as difficult as it is. So you know, if anyone's going to pick up this book or check it out which I would definitely recommend it's every chapter paints a picture before you even get to finish it, which is great.
Speaker 7:Well, I appreciate that and I have to give credit to. I retired and my wife and I moved to a retirement community 55 plus here outside of Charlotte, and a friend of mine said he's starting a writer's workshop and he'd like me to come to the writer's workshop. And I said, well, I don't know anything about writing. He said, well, you will learn if you come to the writer's workshop. And so they said to write a chapter. Well, I'd written a chapter on paper about a year and a half earlier. That is one of the chapters in the book that I was going to pass down to my grandchildren. And so they said we'll present the chapter to the group by email and in two weeks we'll meet and the six, ten of us will review what you wrote.
Speaker 7:Now, these, all of these people have written multiple novels and books. They're writers. So I presented my chapter and they said your story is wonderful, but you need to add more feeling. You need to add more like what did it? How did you feel at the time? You need to add more dialogue. So they taught me to start adding feeling. Time. You need to add more dialogue. So they taught me to start adding feeling, adding color to it, adding more dialogue, and so they actually taught me to write. And from what? The reviews that I've gotten from Amazon? I wish I could read you a few, but they are glorious and it just makes a guy feel great. But I can't take all the credit. I got to give a lot of credit to my writer's workshop.
Speaker 1:You said that the book is not all about golf. Correct To me, it was about people and the relationships that you had. It really was, that's what I got out of it.
Speaker 7:I have a telling story. Yeah, if I mention somebody in the book, I sort of give a little history about them. You know, like I mentioned well plenty of different people.
Speaker 7:And I would give you, yeah, and like Bobby Nichols, I told you who Bobby Nichols was or what he did, et cetera, et cetera. So I try to educate to the people who may not recognize the names because they're from a golden age gone by. You know there are a lot of people that wouldn't know Art Wall or Kerry Middlecoff, or you know these names because they're just, they wouldn't know because they're too young.
Speaker 1:The review that I left, because I left a review and I'm not a review person. I'm not. You know if, if I don't like something, I won't tell people I don't like because it's you know I don't want to. You know, even if I do like it, I may say something privately, but you know, part of the review was that it was about people in the relationships and and and. What a good storyteller you are. But it left me with a lot of questions. I've got a lot of questions. You left a lot of stuff out of the book.
Speaker 1:You got to have Gage. You got to have a volume two. You have to have a volume two.
Speaker 7:Well, I appreciate it. People have told me that I mean they'd say, well, what happened to this person after that? What happened to this person? What happened to Art? Um and and so.
Speaker 7:But reaching the book is so short about. It is a small book. There are a lot of pictures in it, it's only 150 pages and it's in a uh, it's in point at 13 point point. Uh, so it's. They're not little letters, they're bigger letters. So it's not that long. I'm perfect to read this book in less than four hours. Um, but the reason that I stopped where I did is I was watching Bill Maher one night and he had Michael Moore on, and this man is a former Pulitzer writer and playwright and all kinds of stuff. And Bill Maher said how do you know when you've got a good book? And Michael Moore said well, a good book has to have a good ending, and a good ending of a book is, it's got to be surprising, but yet inevitable. Well, I had just written a chapter toward the end of the book and you know the one I'm talking about where it was inevitable, but it was surprising, and I went to the writer's workshop and said, hey, I'm done.
Speaker 9:They said, well, you don't have enough pages to be a book yet.
Speaker 7:I said, well, I said well, I know, I know a darn good story about a man who started the dog fight and he ended up starting this dog fight and so I wrote the chapter the dog fight, which is in fact the story of dennis's uh golf week amateur tour. And so that chapter came after my surprising end. And then I added a chapter with some rules and then a few golf tips. Yeah, uh, to make it make a page count, great. But all of that's interesting stuff from what I've heard from other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what did happen to?
Speaker 7:Art. Art ended up building. He moved, he built an executive par three golf course in North Myrtle Beach. Well, in Myrtle Beach and it was the first one there, and that was the golf mecca. This was becoming the golf mecca of the world and it had lights so people could play at night. So he built his executive par three and he and Jenny ran the par three and one day he was over at the Dunes Club in the locker room playing poker and he had an heart attack and died. Oh no God, that's horrible. Yeah, but you know, he died playing cards at one of the greatest. The Dunes just had a golf tournament. I mean, it's a great golf course and so, yeah, but yeah, art lived a wonderful life and he was a great man. He was like my father and I'll never be able to thank him for all the things that he taught me.
Speaker 1:How about?
Speaker 7:Red Butler, red Butler. Red Butler was my Irish setter dog that I got to troll the beach. I moved down close to the beach in Muller Beach and I was 21 years old and I figured my only way to get any girls to pay attention to me in the springtime and the summer is I had to go out and get myself a dog. So I got an Irish setter and he had beautiful red hair so I named her Rhett Butler. But Rhett would bark all day long. It would irritate the lady that owned the little cottage that I lived in. So I bought him a bark collar and when Rhett would bark he would go and that was kind of cruel, uh.
Speaker 7:But rhett got out of the pen one day and someone down at the spanish gallia or someplace like that said, uh, you have that irish setter. Uh had a collar on it. I said, yeah. He said, well, a man from waris now that's a little town outside of North Myrtle Beach out in the country, man Lawrence, picked him up and left him your phone number. He said he'd probably be a better father to this dog than you, but if you want it you can call him and tell him to get it. Well, I never called him. It's like the bumper sticker Missing wife and dog Reward for dogs.
Speaker 1:Exactly that's awesome. Missing wife and dog, reward for dogs Exactly that's awesome. Yeah, I don't want you to tell too much more of that story, Cause I really want people to buy the book and and that you know, when you introduced Rhett, it was like right after that, that's when I texted you with that story. It's it really kind of blew my mind. I mean, you know, I think Chris mentioned the individual that your brother caddied for when you all were in Columbus.
Speaker 7:Ohio, Right, yeah, I mean and see a lot of my chapters have a surprise at the end of the chapter. It's just like that chapter you're talking about my brother caddied, and then living down in Myrtle Beach. You know, I'd love to say what you're talking about but then that would just kind of blow the fun of the chapter, Exactly. But you know, we all go through life, we all have a story. We have tons of stories in us. It's just people need to take time to sit down and just start jotting them down. We've all met famous people. We've rubbed shoulders with incredible people that have affected our lives. But I had the time. I took about a year and a half to write chapter after chapter in the writer's workshop and as I thought about stories, it ended up being this and that, and a lot of the chapters have a real surprising ending.
Speaker 3:The last sentence in a couple of the chapters have a real, uh, surprising handy.
Speaker 7:The last sentence, last sentence in a couple of the chapters really kind of shocked you. You go, oh my, is that real?
Speaker 1:exactly in one of the chapters I do want you to talk about. You took your your son, to the rider cup in medina. You're right, and you didn't really talk about your experience with your son in medina. You, there was something else in the book that that kind of related. Tell me about your experience with that with your son, because I've been to a Ryder Cup and it was to me it's one of the best experiences I've ever had, and I was with my wife. Talk about you know the relationship with, with, with golf and and sons and and go into an event like the Ryder Cup. What was that like?
Speaker 7:Well, it's hard to explain. I had my Class A PGA Pro at the time. Later in the year I got my PGA Pro Class A back and that gives you a lot of privileges. You can play a lot of golf courses for free, you can do all kinds of stuff. Well, you can go to lot of golf courses for free. You can do all kinds of stuff well, you can go to a water cup for free.
Speaker 7:And so, uh, I could date one guest and so I took my oldest son, spencer, uh, up to medina. We flew up and I took him, uh, first class, and we got a great hotel room, went to the golf course and parked and the bus took us to the gate and, uh, we went immediately to uh will call to get our tickets, the pga tickets, and then they told me where the pga tents would be, where we could go and get lunch and have a few beers and stuff, and all this is free. I mean unbelievable. I just could not believe it. But going to a rider cup, uh, it's, everyone knows it's not about the individual golfer, it's about the team, it's about team spirit, it's about the country, it's about it's hard to put.
Speaker 7:I get goosebumps now that you're asking me about it, but we would go, we would find a place, like on the fifth green, and know that we would see every match come through on the fifth green and then we would run over to like the 17th green and we'd get to see.
Speaker 7:Basically we went to two different places and we we had a lot of fun. But my son and I got the bond a whole lot better than we had before because there'd been a divorce and my family out when, when he was a freshman in college, I we divorced his mother and then as an adult he lived in Mississippi and I lived in North Carolina, so I didn't even see my son that often. So we had, we got the chance to go to Medina, spend four days, four days there, going to the Ryder cup and and see it a little bit of Chicago and having a big time. And on the way back I mentioned in the book that Peter Oosterhuis was on the plane with us. He was an announcer in the booth and I had had some experience earlier in life with Peter, so that was kind of neat to do that.
Speaker 7:But yeah, at a Ryder Cup, if anybody gets an opportunity to go to a rotter cup you give, give your arm and leg to do it, because, uh, it's not as crowded as a lot of golf tournaments and it's and it's a whole different atmosphere and, uh, you know, the players don't get paid a dime and they do it, they do it right after it. It was just great, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what I do is I'm a college. My full-time job is I'm a college professor. I teach sport, marketing and public relations and I had a student I actually had a student at Medina and I actually couldn't go because it was my daughter's family weekend and she was going to school at high point at the time had to do that but had somebody at 2016 fried a cup at hazeltine and again. So we we didn't get the free food, but I didn't really care. We got free tickets, uh, and and all four days there it was. You're absolutely right, it's one, it's a bucket list thing. If you like golf I'm not saying if you love golf, if you like golf, you should go you have to go.
Speaker 7:You really do, Without a doubt. Without a doubt, and it's sort of like going to the Masters. You could go to the Masters and not know anything about golf and just enjoy the beauty of the most beautiful botanical garden on the planet. I mean, we have such great venues in golf. We're very fortunate to play this game and to love this sport and the places that we've played and the friends that we meet along the way. This game is like no other. This game is you're your own umpire. I mean, this game builds character. This game is an incredible sport. I had a friend that told me. He said Gaines, you can learn more about a man by playing several rounds of golf with him than you can in two or three years of business.
Speaker 1:Right, Absolutely, you're absolutely right. And again, going back to the book, I don't want you giving the book away.
Speaker 7:I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1:But you also brought up. You didn't bring up the Masters in the book, but you brought up the US Open. And I just want your opinion here. I'm definitely in the minority. In my opinion, the US Open is the greatest golf tournament in the world because it's open.
Speaker 7:That's without a doubt.
Speaker 1:It's for our national championship, and it always concludes on Father's Day To me. That's why it's the best tournament in the world.
Speaker 7:You're absolutely right. I mean this year. I think they said 10,000 people around the world entered to qualify to get one of like 32 spots in the United.
Speaker 7:States Open, 10,000 people and it is just a mammoth fault. But if you're an amateur, I think the rule of thumb is you have to be a two handicap or less. Amateur, I think the rule of thumb is you have to be a two handicap or less. Any club professional, any amateur two handicap or less, and any other journeyman can try to qualify for the United States Open. And the thing about the Open is it also travels. It travels to different. If Augusta National stays there. It's one tournament, one place, and Augusta is one of the greatest, of course. But the United States Open, I agree with you, it is the premier event. And now people Brits will argue with you, but I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sorry too. I'm going with the US Openers, me too. I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 2:I'll take it. You know, I'll be honest. Tim might be turning me because I've been Masters number one since growing up, watching Tiger win consistently. But the way that Tim describes the US Open and how it's his favorite, you may be turning me towards that one instead. No, I agree, I can believe that there's nothing against the master.
Speaker 1:I love the masters, I do right. I mean it's it's, it's our national championship. Anybody can win. If you can qualify, anybody can win. And on top of it, it's always, it's the winner's, always crowned on father's day. And you know if you, if you look at, the majority of golfers were introduced to the game through our fathers, right, right, and you know it's and that's just for me.
Speaker 2:So you know, well, that might be another reason why because now you know, being part of this, of this tour, seeing some of my guys try to qualify and how much they grind they maybe that might be helping me as well Decide this one as a new favorite. All right, gaines, I got another question for you Again questions questions questions.
Speaker 1:Okay, great. So you and I'm going to bring up something from the book. So Art said you needed $20,000.
Speaker 7:That's right To try to go out on the tour. He said I needed about $20,000. Now you've got to remember this is 1974. Your salary in 1974 was about $5,200. Assistant Pro made about $5,200. That's what I made. I made it a mile's worth of dollar bills that were a foot long.
Speaker 5:So, $5,280. That's what I made my 73.
Speaker 7:And so he said you're going to need about $20,000 to play the tour and that encompasses you've got a wife at home and you've got to pay rent and you've got to Right. So all of that money for playing, that money is to leave your family and a lifestyle that they can survive in, Survive, and then you to try to save as much money as you can. You know, sometimes sleeping in your car, eating hot dogs from parties and rooming with other people. I roomed with several great guys and that's in the book and some of the names are going to be familiar to you. But you know you do stuff like that. I mean you're a journeyman.
Speaker 7:You're out there trying to make the cut, you're out there trying to qualify on a Monday morning. That's what I had to do an awful lot. I had to go out on Monday morning and set these different tournaments and try to qualify with like 100, 110 guys for maybe six or seven spots and that puts a little that tightens you up a little bit on the first tee box it does. That's real pressure. I mean you're fighting for your family and you're fighting for your life. Now, I didn't have sponsors. If I'd have had sponsors. That might have put more pressure on me, I don't know, but I think it, uh, would have made it a little easier to realize that you know, I can't afford to maybe stay in a nicer hotel or motel, or or maybe fly down to miami, florida, instead of driving. You know, 15 hours before i-95 was built Right, yeah, it was a long trek down Highway 17 to get to Miami, but no, yeah, $20,000 was about what it took back then, not to be flamboyant. I mean, that would be the bare minimum.
Speaker 1:What would it take now?
Speaker 7:Oh Lord, I wouldn't be able to venture a guess. I really wouldn't. You guys will probably know more about that than I would, but that's a great question. Even some journeymen that you see in some of the lesser tours, their shirts look like a billboard. Yes, okay, I mean, you've got sponsors on these young men. People are taking a gamble on them. They're giving them money. Back when I played, there was only one company that was giving any sponsorship and putting anything on any apparel, and that was a bucket hat and it said Amana, amana, amana. A-m-a-n-a.
Speaker 1:Never heard of it-a the refrigerator people. Yeah, yeah, I know, man, I mean, I'm chris, you're chris, nope, yeah, no, I have to go over that one so that was the.
Speaker 7:That was the beginning of any, any company that would do any advertising on a golfer's body, uh, and it was a bucket hat that said a man now, today, you got anything from investment companies, banks, uh, apparel, uh, you name it you can find a stp. Come on now, this isn't a race car, but they got, you got stp on some guys out there, right, uh, it's uh, uh. So what does it take to play the tour now? Uh, I don't know. I don't know, but they're getting uh sponsorship from sponsors and they're getting uh money from, uh, I mean sponsorship from backers like you own a resource, so that's a sponsor, and uh, so they're.
Speaker 7:I'm sure that a boy, any man, young man who's made it in college, he's made a name for himself in college and he's done some decent stuff in the amateur ranks, wouldn't have too much trouble to get a little bit of money from a group of maybe 10 people in a consortium that put up 10 grand apiece and put him out there for a year. That's a hundred grand, and I think that's what happens pretty easily nowadays, compared to back when I was going out there. Right.
Speaker 7:Yeah that's a lot of money.
Speaker 2:I've heard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I would probably say that the pressure is probably tenfold as well now, because there's so much more money involved in it.
Speaker 7:Well, there is a lot more money involved, but there are a lot more avenues from which to play. There are a lot more tours and stuff than there were in my day. I mean there wasn't a Hooters tour and then a. There were in my day. I mean that that there wasn't a hooters tour and then a nationwide tour and all that kind of stuff. When I played there was a florida winter tour. Uh, there was a uh another tour that, uh, I can't remember the name, but it was done in southern florida and uh, a guy put it on and it was more of a gambling tour. You put up some money, you played for the prize money that basically you guys put up. So, uh, there wasn't a, a minor league tour like that. I don't mean a minor league tour, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 7:There wasn't a corn fairy tour, then it was either you made it on the tour or you played uh uh played gambling matches and uh uh played in the North North Florida and some of those other places. But today there are so many places that a man can play. I mean you can go to Asia, you can go to Japan, you can go all kinds of places to test your game. It's so much. You know. Nowadays they got wing coaches and sports psychologists and body trainers and uh sponsors and a good guy takes his cook with him and his and he has his own caddy. You know these guys. If they call it, you know the guy says I want to thank my team. Right, the team is eight, ten, twelve guys. They rent a huge house every time they go somewhere. They're not. You're not going to want to enter them at the holiday inn, right?
Speaker 1:Although. So we live in Hilton Head and we're full-time RVers and there are some tour players that drive their rigs in to where we stay right across the street from Sea Pines when the heritage comes. You know that's another way to do it. Now, I know they're not traveling on that thing every tournament, but when they go from Augusta right around down to Red Dust there's a good handful of them that do that?
Speaker 7:Oh sure, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, there's a caravan of golfers who love their RVs and they've got some mighty fancy ones. Yeah, they do. Yes, they are. So they're traveling in the lap of their own luxury. Some of them don't even buy, and so that's what they do. But you know the very top echelon. You know what they do. They share houses and they're hard to believe how much money that they make and how much they can afford to do and where they can afford to stay.
Speaker 1:Exactly and be able to pay for their team. Because because again now you start adding all those other people when they're playing for these big, big checks. Now it's not like it was in the past, where you would just give your caddy that you fired, you know their cut and then the rest goes to you. You you've got to pay all these other people because your coach is getting a percentage, you're paying your cook and your body trainer and your masseuse and your this, that and your other, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Right, all right. So let's get back to the real tour, the Golf Week Amateur Tour, because this is where we invest all our time and all of our money at. So you were with Dennis from day one. Tell me what that was like, please, please.
Speaker 7:I want to share this. This is great. And I was at a country club near Charlotte and a buddy of mine said, hey, there's a dog fight down in Charlotte at a Muni course where this guy gets a group of guys on Monday afternoon, and we put some money in the pot and we we played golf and uh, I said, well, okay, I'll go with. I rode with it. So we rode down of course and renaissance park and that day there were 24 or 24 guys. Dennis was one of the guys and he was not running the dog fight. It was a guy named uh yop y-o-y-o-p. He was a house painter. He was a great guy. Yop will advance and uh robert yop at y-o-p-p and uh, uh yop would pick up the money and collect the money and then when we got finished, yop had trouble trying to figure out who won and posting the scores and stuff like that, so denn.
Speaker 7:Dennis jumped in, as Dennis would do. He would say you know, robert, let me help you with that. And so Dennis started taking care of pacing, the scores and stuff after the round and, before you know it, yacht just said well, why don't you just do it all? And so Dennis said okay. So the word spread that this was such a lot of fun. And then you'd play in a group and you'd get handicapped, like you guys do Today. You've got an ABCD. It started to grow.
Speaker 7:Some dentists ended up with 50 or 60 guys on a Monday and he said wait a minute, why am I giving all this money to Renaissance Park on a Monday when there's so many other golf courses in Charlotte that we can go to? So he started asking other golf courses in Charlotte that we could go to. So he started asking other golf courses and in the book I told you who he that he ended up getting with a man that owned three or four courses in town and it started to grow, that he started to get so many players on a Monday that he said you know, I've got something here. And he ended up going out and reaching out to several different businesses to help start sponsor this and they're like a Carolina Blonde. It's a beer out of Mooresville and they gave him some money. So he changed the name to the Carolina Blonde Tour and there was Keller Williams, a realtor company.
Speaker 7:But, dennis, the tour was so popular that people said you know, I'd like to do the same thing in Greenville, south Carolina. Dennis said, well, I'll show you how to do it, and here's my playbook. And so Dennis said you can do it under me, and so I'll. I'll, I'll show you how we do all the whole thing and how I'll organize it. And the next thing, you know, he's got one in Raleigh and then he's got one in another town. So he started to grow this thing and it began to become a real business I mean absolute business and he added a senior tour, I think about five years after he started.
Speaker 7:As you all know, the Golf Week Amateur Tour is now 30. The senior tour is 28 or 29. He added the senior tour, so I played in his regular tour and then I moved over into a senior tour. But I got to see how Dennis did this from day one, with not an idea that he'd even do it, and to turn around and then, 30 years later, you guys say that it's the largest amateur tour in the country. I might gamble and say it might be the largest amateur tour in the world. There you go. I mean he's got. He told me about your nationals. I haven't been to the nationals or anything, but he told me about the nationals and what Hilton did thanks to him, bringing what?
Speaker 7:2, 3,000, 4,000 people their families and everything to the nationals from 49 different states all over the country. It is amazing what he's done by starting a dogfight. Yeah, how about?
Speaker 1:that there's this thing on social media. How it started, how it's going. You know, people would never have ever thought that this was going to get to what it's gotten to be. And going back to your book, to me it was about golf, but it was also about people and relationships, and to me that's what golf is. Golf is always about the people and the relationships that you build and the friendship and the camaraderie. Yeah, there's that competition there. You know, the local tours have good competition. When you go to a regional, you've got really good competition. And when you come down to the championship.
Speaker 1:You've got really really good competition.
Speaker 7:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And you couple that with the friendship and the camaraderie and the people.
Speaker 7:It's I've got no words Right. I mean, I still remember. I remember Joe Jaspers oh yeah, joe Jaspers, and what a wonderful guy he is. Now I can't name drop all the guys that I did know, but just to be out there in the early days and the early stages and to see, you know, to see what they're doing now as they're older and you know, it's like following somebody, it's really like following a pro golfer when you follow some of the guys and you can do it live on Dennis' app and all that. Let's not take anything away from Jennifer. Dennis will tell you Jennifer is the glue that held the whole thing together.
Speaker 1:Well, Gabe, don't let Dennis tell you otherwise. Jennifer is the glue that held the whole thing together. Well, well, well, don't let Dennis tell you otherwise. Jennifer is the one that actually runs the tour.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I don't doubt it. You know, I don't doubt it.
Speaker 1:You know, Dennis is the front man. That's right. But when you open it up, Jennifer is the one that runs the tour. Yeah, she's got everybody on lockdown. This is what we need to do. These are what we need to do to grow it.
Speaker 7:The two of them are just phenomenal together honestly, yeah, without a doubt, what a great team they are, and you know, jennifer always said that. I know that Dennis was going to do something amazing someday and he did, but it was with her pushing them, but it was with her pushing it out and telling them what to do.
Speaker 1:Yes, dear, I'm going to guarantee you. There was a yes dear in there. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:That was funny, going back to some of the other characters, and you brought in Joe Jaspers and some of the other people that have qualified for national championships. Like Joe qualified for US Senior Amateur. Brian Quackenbush, out of Augusta last year qualified for US Senior Open Awesome. And those are just two recent examples. And this tour it's for everybody. I mean, obviously you've got the means of the world and you know Chris is a pretty good golfer. But, chris, I'm not taking anything away from you. You're no Joe Jaspers, right? No, no, no.
Speaker 2:I'll be the first to admit that.
Speaker 1:So you've got elite golfers all the way down to, you know, the 25, 30 handicaps. Right, there's a spot here for everybody.
Speaker 7:And I know for a fact those guys that are playing in the D flight. They play as hard as they can, just as hard as the guys in the A flight do. It's a game of pride, it's a game of beating your fellow competitor and it's a game of getting improvement so you can go from the D to the C flight Right, and maybe make it to the B flight, and playing competitive golf is one of the only ways that your game is going to improve Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Definitely All right, Gaines. One last question for you. Okay, Tell one other good story that's not in the book. That would encourage people to buy the book.
Speaker 7:Oh my, you're putting me on the spots. Well, there are quite a few stories, but I can't tell those Because I don't want to lose my marriage. But I've got a good story. They could have gone on the book.
Speaker 7:When I was out in Wyoming I worked at the golf shop and several of the boys that were on the golf team with me at the high school were members. Their fathers were members. So when I had a chance to get off work I'd play with some of my buddies from the golf team on their golf course, the country club. Well, a buddy of mine named Chris, his daddy ran the Coca-Cola plant and he was a, a tall fellow, uh, handsome, uh, but he, uh, he, he would. Uh, he had a silver spoon in his mouth and he could do about anything he wanted to. Well, he had a head tendency to. He was a hothead.
Speaker 7:He'd throw his putter a lot of times, he'd give it, he'd do the woolly bird, he'd give it a little air time. And so his father told him. He said, if you ever break another club, he said, I'm not buying you any more clubs. You can forget the game of golf. Well, we're out there playing one day and we're back in the third hole and there's a great BO tree behind the ground and it looks like it might rain soon. And he, he three putters grant and he turns around and he throws that glove up in that damn tree and he used some language that was, uh, you know, earth shattering and screaming. And so he throws the putter up in the tree and the putter gets stopped.
Speaker 7:So the putter's up there about 20 feet off the ground in this tree. So he starts throwing other clubs up after it. So he ends up getting his putter and his wedge stuck up in the tree. So back in those days we had spikes on our shoes. So Craig grabs the trunk of this tree and starts shimmying up the tree until he can finally get to the bottom limb. And he gets to the bottom limb and he's a strong boy and he hoists himself to the bottom limb and he gets the bottom limb, and he's a strong boy, and he hoists himself up on the limb and then he got out on the edge of the limb and the limbs got a teeter-tottering back and forth and he gets the butter and the wedge out. But it started raining now. Okay, so it's pouring rain and he gets over to where he come back down the tree. But he can't come back down the tree because it's slippery and the spikes aren't going to do it any good. So he stepped 20 feet off the ground in the tree and he starts crying.
Speaker 7:He says I can't get down. I can't get down. So I ran to the cloak shop and I sit with both of them and since Paulie's up there, she said, the only thing I can do is I'm going to call the fire department.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 7:Call the fire department. Oh my goodness. Call the fire department but say that I get out the water truck and get him out of the truck.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 7:And, to say the least, his father put him on restriction and, yeah, that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a golf.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, that's a good one. That's a good one, Thank you, oh, Gaines, that was awesome. The title of the book is Chasing a Dream Memoirs of a Golf Professional, and I don't want to leave this out. You're good friends with Leonard Thompson and he wrote the foreword to it. But again, Chasing a Dream Memoirs of a Golf Professional by Gaines Beard Gaines. Thank you so, so much for taking some time with us today. I really, really appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 7:Tim and Chris, thank you so much for doing this. And also Dennis McLaughlin did a foreword for a forward for two on the back cover of the book and so it's available. Let me do it. Let me do a plug here. It's available on Barnes and Noblecom. You can also buy it on Amazon, but for the month of June I'm giving a $3 discount on Barnes and Noblecom for the book to cover the postage that you might save if you did it on Amazon.
Speaker 7:And, frankly, the cover on the Barnes Noble book is shiny. The cover on the Amazon is matte. It's a pretty beautiful book from Barnes Noble. So either way Barnes Noble or Amazon I would appreciate you buying the book and sharing it with your friends. It's a. It was a lot of fun to write and there are some fun stories in it and people who don't even play golf a lot of women wrote some reviews that say that just brought them back in time and it was a joy to read and I couldn't put it down. It's a pass free. So thank you guys for having me. I really appreciate.
Speaker 1:It means a lot to me no worries, and I'll put a link to Barnes Noble in the show notes. And I just want to add one thing there's a lot of funny stories in there, but there are a lot of real emotional, heart-touching stories that really kind of go to who you are, gaines, and again, I don't want to give it away, but it's it. You know, you get to that, to the, to that chapter and you. It really kind of puts the exclamation point on, on who you are and what golf's really about so thank you.
Speaker 7:I sure appreciate that. Thank you, fellow.
Speaker 1:No, thank you take care, all right. Good morning.
Speaker 8:We're at the american dunes golf club here in grand haven michigan and we've got the latest winner of the strixon raffle, ryan beery from the a flight in Take care just won them yesterday, so I don't, yeah, probably not a good idea to to win them and break them out and and go play tournament around yeah, probably not, but I I had them in the the car with the clubs, and so maybe my clubs will feel some pressure on the back end today.
Speaker 8:So, yeah, so you better be good or they're good, they're gonna be putting time out?
Speaker 8:yeah, for sure, so you played yesterday I guess you got through without the rain. Uh, yeah, yeah, we finished before the rain and then I had the rain on the drive back home. Oh, that's nice. How'd you do yesterday and what are you looking forward today? I didn't do great yesterday. I shot a 91, missed in a few bad spots out on the course and hit some bad shots, hoping to play a little better today. Well, the weather's going to be a lot nicer all day.
Speaker 1:I mean again, you didn't hit rain yesterday, but this could be nice by the time you guys finish up and hopefully you'll, you'll, you'll, do better and come into money.
Speaker 8:Yeah, hopefully. How far back are you? Uh, I am like 12 back right now or something like that. That's all right.
Speaker 1:Anything happening, you can get hot. Your clubs can say you know what, if I, if I don't do something today, we're in big trouble.
Speaker 8:Yeah, yeah, maybe I post a 70 or something.
Speaker 1:We're not going to happen, that's all right. That's all right, we'll take it. We'll celebrate it. Well, ryan, thanks so much for taking just a couple minutes for you to see off. I appreciate it, and good luck today. Thank you, I appreciate it. All right, we're back at American Dunes in Grand Haven, michigan, with the A-Flight champion, josh Van Kampen from Michigan East Tour.
Speaker 4:Josh, congratulations on the Two really good days 74 yesterday, 80 today. Yesterday was a 74. Tell me, was a lot of irons or woods off the tee, things like that and the highlight was just never making a big number, never making an error, always staying shy of the trouble and just playing great golf, playing great iron golf.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really key. You're absolutely right. This course you really do need to pick your spots, because there's trouble on every hole and if you don't know where the trouble is, then you can get in trouble really pretty easily.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, and I played the front nine, I thought I did pretty good, I made the turn in three over and on hole 10, I decided, you know, I'm going to grab a driver which I hadn't pulled on the entire front nine because I played so safe. And then I hit a driver on 10. Big mistake. And then I hit a driver on 10, big mistake blocked it right, put it in the big bunker, didn't have a great lie in the bunker. And then, you know, it was a God thing, I hit the best iron shot of the day out of the bunker, stuck it to six feet and made a birdie and I thought so much for playing safe, if you could play like this. And then the back nine was just a breeze after that.
Speaker 1:I calmed down and I played well yesterday. Yeah, so at the end of round one you had a two-shot lead going in today over Zach McTheney from the Michigan West Tour. So what was your thought process going into the round today?
Speaker 4:Well, my thought process going into the round today was exactly the same as what I did yesterday right To go out and play safe golf, but also to get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 1:Good night's sleep is always key, especially at these regionals. Yeah, good night's sleep is always key, especially at these regionals. Yeah, and there's some of the trouble that the other types of trouble people can get in off the course, but getting a good night's sleep is key. So you shot 80 today, obviously not as good as yesterday, but still right now. You tie for the low round today with three other people. Brandon Farrell from the Michigan East Tour shot 80, as well as John Ciccone from the Michigan East tour. I guess Michigan East really has a hold on the scores.
Speaker 4:So tell me about today's round. Today's round was a very similar strategy to yesterday's round, but I didn't hit the shots that I needed to all the time. So I took a couple of big numbers, I took a couple of doubles and when I found myself in a tricky spot I just played for bogey. I knew that I had a decent lead for most of the day a good three, four shot lead and the only way to really lose that was to make some big numbers. So I just buckled down, hit things in the center of greens, made pars, made bogeys when I had to and played pretty safe golf into the greens, and that really paid off today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really did. I mean you finished with an eight-shot win over Billy Hinojos from the El Paso tour, but you picked a good weekend to have your best rounds of the year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was great. I haven't played well at the beginning of this year so I went out and hit In the four days previous to the round today. I shot In the four days previous to the round today. I shot In the four days previous to the rounds I shot or I went to the range five times in those four days to just get better because I was struggling so much and I came out here and just played great. So it was nice to see that pay off.
Speaker 1:Well, you really did play great, and so you punch your ticket to the national championship. So congratulations, and we'll see you in Hilton Head. All right, thank you very much, take. We'll see you in Hilton Head, all right, thank you very much. Take care, we're back in American Dunes in Grand Haven, michigan, with a champ fight winner, christian Wakeford from Chicago, illinois. Christian, congratulations, yeah, thank you so much. So two really good days here at American Dunes. I shot 72 yesterday, even par. That's a really good round on a tough course.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's right. Like yesterday, it was more like trying to feel out the course because this is my first time playing here. So I just I was playing really conservatively yesterday and just, and I was making putts too.
Speaker 1:Well, out here you have to make putts because there's trouble everywhere and you know, if you're not picking your spots, or if you pick a spot and miss it, you're going to have a tough putt, and you know, at even par. Why don't you tell me about your round yesterday?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so I was doing, I was just focused, focusing on my mental game a lot, and as we just gone through, uh, each hole, I was kind of using the gps but on the golf cart just to give me ideas where to land. And so I I had a feeling, because once I was feeling like the greens here for the first time the day before, um, the first round, uh, they fell rock hard the fairways. So I knew there'd be a lot of rollout and I had to play conservatively.
Speaker 1:You had a six-shot lead going in today. So Matt Green from Cincinnati shot a 78 yesterday, justin Osborne from Michigan East shot a 78 yesterday and Michael Dennis, also from Michigan East, shot a 78. So what was your mentality going in, knowing you had a six-stroke lead?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so I'm not normally a guy that looks at scoreboards or anything like that, because I just feel like that just messes up with me. But today I didn't even feel 100%. I think it's just something I ate this morning, but I didn't feel 100%. So I knew it was going to be a tough grind today. So I knew I had to make the pars when I had to. But even when I got the bogeys, I just threw it behind me and just carried on trying to focus on each hole because I knew that Matt was making a lot of putts, he was draining them from everywhere making pars, making birdies and he was putting a lot of pressure on me. So I just try not to collapse mentally and I just tried to stay focused on getting pars when I needed them.
Speaker 1:Well, you shot 79, and again you pulled it out. Matt went 78, 75. You know, 75 is a really good score on this course, and even John Chuff from Michigan West shot 74 today, you know. So they were chasing you, but you held them off, you won. You won by two strokes, you know.
Speaker 6:Even still 79 on this course, is it's, it's, it's not bad, even if, like like me today, even if you're not feeling 100, honestly, I just kind of appreciate where I am because I'm not trying to be too negative, because, like this course is a place I always wanted to go. And, uh, I know there's another tournament here called the Fools of Honor Collegiate and that was actually an event we tried to qualify for last year with Aurora University, which is my university, and we were only like three shots off a top 3D2 team and we're a D3 team, so we were very close. But I kind of knew the reins on how Michigan golf was, so I knew that I just had to enjoy my time here because I'm leaving today, so I just had to enjoy most of it.
Speaker 1:Well, so you're off this summer and you're back to playing tournament golf with us. You know I mentioned to you before we got started here that your tour director, luke Boehm. He talks about you a lot and so I'm sure he's listening and going to be very congratulatory towards you.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's's right. It was a really fun battle last year, like, uh, there's some times when I know he really wanted to beat me, but I, deep inside, I just wanted to beat him too. So it was just a rivalry but really good competition between each other. But mainly I also just wanted to get my face on the flag just to place everywhere, so that was really cool, honest you know the, the points winners, it's.
Speaker 1:It's not just face on the flag, it's tattoos.
Speaker 6:Now in chicago I know he's been telling me that, like he's been telling me. Well, when are you getting your tattoo? I'm waiting for it.
Speaker 1:Well, he may have to, you know, kidnap you and, and, and and take you over there. Uh, you know, but again the, the, the chain flame chicago. It's no joke. I mean, you guys are, are solid up there.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, we got some good players. I believe his name is Adam Elias, I think that's his name. I believe that's up there. But he's beaten me several times last year scoring like he had to score really good, like 400, 500, something like that Really good scores. So the competition there, I think kind of I don't want to be a little bit too, I guess ahead of myself, but I guess once I started playing everyone just wanted to start trying to beat me and then they just knew the competition was going to be a lot better.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So just looking at the champ play players from Chicago, you got a bunch of good ones. Bill Prosecki, who was up here he didn't have a very good weekend, but he's a solid, solid player. You just mentioned Adam Elias. He's a solid, solid player. You just mentioned Adam Elias. He's a minus 0.1. You're a 0.2. Luke's only 2.5, so you should be beating him every week.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's my mentality. Every single time I get out there I'm like I just want to beat Luke, that's it. If Adam beats me, that's fine, but as long as I finish higher than him, as long as you beat Luke.
Speaker 1:Luke, I'm sure you're hearing that Well, christian, congratulations, you punched your ticket to the National Championship. Congratulations. Thank you so much. All right, buddy, you take care and we'll see you later on in the year. All right, see you. All right, we're back with a B-Flight winner. Here in American Dunes in Grand Haven, michigan, b-flight winner is Eddie Murray, with a two-day total of 167 from Michigan West Tour. Eddie, congratulations, thank you. So 88-79. You were after day one, you were tied for six, but you fired a 79 today. Tell me about the round. Honestly, I was shaky on the front.
Speaker 8:I didn't know how it was going to turn out and I just buckled down and just started making pars on the back, threw in a birdie and just basically played great, honestly, on the back nine, so you know 79, that's obviously a low round today for B-flight Looks like four strokes better than the field.
Speaker 1:But 88, you played in the rain yesterday, coming back with 79. That's pretty good playing. Yeah, greens are, of course, is honestly totally different than yesterday. Soft, receptive greens weren't quite as fast. It was fun. Well, your last tournament was, uh, about two weeks ago and you shot a shot, an 80, at sunnybrook country club. Uh, so is you know, is, is your? Is your game like in the in the low 80s, high 70s? Is that normal for you? When I'm, when I'm playing grade, yep, I would say that's about where I'm playing when I'm, back-to-back wins right now, so feeling good. So what's the, what's the strong point of your game? Keeping it in the fairway, putting. Chris says putting. So we got Chris over here. He just gave me that look and he's shaking his head. Yes, we're putting, yes, we're putting. So what's next?
Speaker 8:for you, Eddie. I think beaches is next on our schedule, so I'll be playing there Next is we go get your picture.
Speaker 1:No, I'll be playing there next as we go get your picture. Now. That'll work too. So you've obviously punched your ticket to the national championship at Hilton Head in October. So you know congratulations and good luck the rest of the year. All right, appreciate it, thank you. All right, take care, all right.
Speaker 2:So we're here with the sea flight winner at the regional in Michigan. We have, from Michigan West holding it down, mr David Greeno. David, congratulations. Thank you very much, chris. So we see here. You had 92 yesterday, you know, going in five strokes back. How did you feel today had to go in order to pull it off?
Speaker 9:I definitely felt I had hit more fairways than I did yesterday which I did and the putting was significantly better as well today. So just finding fairways and greens, I was laying it up a lot shorter and relying more on my shore game than trying to attack flags out here. It's a very tough course to attack the flags and so I was laying up shore and trusting my shore game and it just worked out really well for me. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I mean it shows here, you know, 92-89, so significant improvement. But it did come down to the wire and I assume you had to wait a little bit in order to see if you pulled it off because we were you not in the first group.
Speaker 9:No, I, I helped michelle uh get stuff set up. So I'm usually here early in the morning so I went out a little bit earlier and yeah, I didn't have to wait to find out. Uh, I was watching ken actually come up 18. Uh, him and I have golfed together for quite a few years on the Michigan West tour and I'm glad that it came down to the two Michigan West guys in the Michigan regional. But it's definitely a bittersweet win and I absolutely love it right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet I mean you can tell in your face that you're excited. And now you got bragging rights for a whole year and then you can come back next year and defend that title. Well, congratulations. It was a great event. I'll tell you that right now. I had a great time, great course, and, you know, being able to come back with the victory and win it by one. At least you don't have to do a playoff. I have to warm up again.
Speaker 9:Yeah, no, I live. I'm a local boy, so I'm about 15 minutes north of here, so I've played out here quite a bit. So a little local knowledge definitely does not hurt anybody. But yeah, great, um, but yeah, great event. The weather overall was pretty good. There's some rain yesterday and I just can't be any more prouder than myself right now.
Speaker 2:Well, again, congratulations, and, uh, we will see you at nationals. Very good, thank you, sir. All right, and to round out the regional, here in michigan we have our d flight winner from michigan west, mr randy gaminski. Randy, congratulations, thank you. So you go in shooting the only round in the 80s in your flight. How was it sleeping on the lead last night? A little bit of sleeplessness I had a hard time.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about shots that.
Speaker 2:I didn't make yesterday and then. So then you come in this morning, you hit the range, I hit the range a little bit, okay, and then how was your emotions on T1, knowing knowing that you're in the lead? Anything can happen and you had a long day ahead of you.
Speaker 1:I didn't know it was a new day and anything could happen. It almost did.
Speaker 2:Right. I mean you come out here and you win by five strokes. Second place had a 94-94, and then you had a 94-96 for third. So coming down 18, did you look at the leaderboard before you hit 18? Yes, I did. Okay, and seeing that you have a very comfortable lead, how did you feel?
Speaker 1:I wanted to do a par I had messed up out there in the middle of the back nine. Okay.
Speaker 2:And what did you end up getting on? 18? I parred it Nice, so it's mission complete. And then the, the full cycle of winning the championship. You know, you rounded out four out of the five for michigan. Uh, championships. Champ flight was the only one that wasn't from michigan. But, um, how does that feel now, knowing that you're a regional champion and you get to go to two nationals?
Speaker 8:That's exciting, that's something I didn't expect.
Speaker 2:Well, again, congratulations, enjoy it and hopefully you come back next year to defend Hope so.
Speaker 1:We'll see Well. Congratulations again, thank you, because we're wrapping up for the first leg of our North American tour. We had two really good interviews, in Robbie and Gaines. But let me tell you about Gaines' interview. It was probably one of the best we've ever done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very enjoyable. You know he's just a natural speaker. His book tells it all. If you get a chance to read it, definitely do. Let us know what you thought about it. But it was a great interview, we had a great time and, before you knew it, you know it was sad to say bye, but it was well done and he was a great guy to meet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a phenomenal storyteller. Hopefully he does a volume two of stories, because you know he told some stories. You know what we didn't even include in the podcast? I mean, had his role on laughing almost the entire time yeah, and definitely it was.
Speaker 2:It was a fun time. It's one of those interviews where time can fly and if we don't, if we don't pay attention to what we're doing, uh, we could have a whole month's worth of episodes. It was with a guest.
Speaker 8:It was a good time it really was.
Speaker 1:Then we had five amazing champions from american dunes. And let me just tell you this if, if you were thinking about coming to american dunes this year and you didn't, you really missed out yes, you did.
Speaker 2:I was glad this was one of our trips. Uh, great course makes you think all the time. You know me being the player of us two. Um, I really enjoyed it. Regardless of what the weather is out here, it's a fun time. So I was a little disappointed that I couldn't pull it out, but at the end of the day I played the best I could and I'm happy with that.
Speaker 1:Round one not so much, but I mean there was weather and you really were right where you wanted to be, so it's not like you were out of it after day one. You were right where you wanted to be, not so worried about the score. Second day you played pretty well and again you were hanging in there the whole time. You know B-flight champion Eddie Murray. He just played solid golf all day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did. I got to ride with him. It was great to watch, you know, I think and we talked about it on Look at the Leaderboard but I knew I was having a good round and I wanted to uh see where I was at after a birdie on 10 and I was one shot behind him, um. So I knew I had to beat him, which was going to be a tough challenge because I mean he was striping his drive, sharpen his driver, but his putting uh was great to watch. I mean, he was hitting putts when he needed to and he knew where he was and he knew if he just got on the green and two putted for par, he would would be safe and make everybody catch up to him, and that's what ended up paying off.
Speaker 1:And you know it's really good coming to these regionals Again. You know you and I travel up here and we go to regionals all the time anyway, but doing it with the podcast was really good. I got to see some friends who I haven't seen in a while. You know Mike Ashberger and Todd Kurtz from Milwaukee, the Chicago guys Wally Brumberg, bill Prosecki. Actually the Champ Flight winner, christian I'd never met him before, but Luke talked about him and talks about him all the time when we haven't won.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he does, and I've got to see some people that I've met at nationals the last. What three, four years? Just being able to see them and say hi, it's a great time. It's like a little mini nationals, if you could say that if you haven't seen people Can't wait to see who we're going to meet next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Before we start talking about next week, I just got to tell you I had a really good time with you and your brother and Billy and for those of you who didn't know, it was me, Billy, Chris, Chris's brother Chris and another Chris, so the three Chrises, but I had a really good time with everybody this weekend.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. I mean, we, we try to do their best. We, you know this group that you get to hang out with we travel every year and we always have a good time. So I'm glad, I'm glad you, you had a great time and next year, hopefully, they'll come with us at the course we decided to go to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's just going to be mandatory. But let me ask you another question what do you think of the house we stayed at? I mean, let's hear what you have to say first.
Speaker 2:I thought the house was great. It's real roomy. You know the three stories. I thought it was great. The hot tub was great. It's right next to a Chase Bank, so that was fun. It's an inside story, so don't ask it's.
Speaker 1:It's an inside story, so don't ask, it's one of those james james brother stories, uh. But, um, it's a good time. It really was. You know, I stayed in a lot of airbnbs, vrbo's, vacation rental type places and that's probably the one nicest place I've ever stayed. The communication with the owner phenomenal. I mean I mean non-stop. Wouldn't some come up? She took care of it. She let us know what was going on. The house looks almost brand new, looks like they just renovated. They've got a game room downstairs, a hot tub, left us breakfast, right, it was phenomenal. So if anybody's coming up to grand haven or wants to play at american dunes, you know and I'll leave this in in the show notes go to lakepointretreatscom. And, uh, you know in the show notes, go to lakepointretreatscom and, you know, rent this house. Sherry and her husband are phenomenal Again, it's. You know, I sent her a message earlier today. You know it's probably one of the nicest places that I've stayed and again it's, it's also the communication and some of those amenities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great place. Like Tim said, I would recommend it as well. She she pulled up to show us how to turn on the hot tub and turn on the fire pit and was just ecstatic that we were here to uh to visit her place. And uh, it's 10 minutes from the course, so you can't beat that.
Speaker 1:And uh, yeah, definitely check it out and so now we're getting ready to load up and and head off to to leg number two down in louisiana, and I'm sure that's gonna be fun I'm super stoked.
Speaker 2:Uh, my wife is exciting. Uh, can't wait to try the food. I got our pepto already packed ready to go and I can't. Can't wait to see the course. You know, this one was a challenge. Um, we're playing with a whole different weather, humidity, different grass, so it's going to be fun. I can't wait to see what I do.
Speaker 1:I'm waiting for the food and the bread pudding. Yeah, we talked about that a little bit while we were here, but I don't know if Gina's already closed off registration or not. But if you have registered and it's still open, I would suggest that you get on that pretty quick because the food is going to be phenomenal, the course is going to be phenomenal Skills challenge, skills challenge. I'm really looking forward to going down there because you know I mean we get talked to all the time about, you know, different tour directors and tours, but we always hear great things about Gina and the tournaments that she runs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do, and I can't wait to see that, because just the hospitality that she's giving us to come to the event is top-notch.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. Anyway, let's go ahead and wrap this up Again. Another great regional. Michelle did a great job up here. American Dunes is a phenomenal, phenomenal facility. I would suggest everybody puts this one on the schedule for next year.
Speaker 2:Yes, if you're like us or like me and travel to a different regional every year, book this one as one of your top ones, because it's going to be well worth it.
Speaker 1:And if you have any questions or you have suggestions for the show, you can email me at Tim andatc at amateurgolftournet or elpaso at amateurgolftournet.
Speaker 1:Or you can use the contact us button that's on the website and it comes right to us. And do want to thank bill perseki for for reaching out and, and, bill, we'll get you on a a regular episode because you know, we, we we did kind of joke around and I know you got some stories, but anyway, again, reach out to us and and please, you know, give us a like, give us a review, uh, on on itunes or spotify, wherever you're listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, please, even if we sound, let us know. We want the feedback because we want to make this as best as we can for you all.
Speaker 1:Exactly All right, bud, let's go ahead and close it down On to the next one.
Speaker 2:Take care, bud. See you next week, have a good one, we but see you next week, have a good one. We'll see you next week, thank you.
