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
Victory and Vision: Director's Cup Triumph, Cabot Farms Spotlight, and 2025 Golf Season Launch
Golf fans and enthusiasts, get ready for an exciting new chapter in the Golfweek Amateur Tour Podcast. Steve Calhoun, fresh off his victory at the inaugural Director's Cup at the National Championship, joins us to share his thrilling experience and insights into the competitive yet friendly atmosphere among directors. You'll gain a deeper understanding of the camaraderie and sportsmanship that defines our tour events, and hear about the unique challenges and personal triumphs faced by players on the national stage. With registration opening earlier than ever on November 25th, we're gearing up for a season filled with fresh opportunities and unforgettable moments.
Our journey takes us to Cabot Farms in Florida, a stunning golf destination known for its creative course design and incredible amenities. From its Top Tracer-equipped driving range to unique entertainment options like skeet shooting and axe throwing, Cabot Farms offers a well-rounded experience for golfers and their families. We discuss the impressive course playability and the hospitality that promises to make our upcoming regional event truly special. Mark your calendars for June 7th and 8th, as we plan to bring a hundred players to this remarkable venue, ensuring a memorable experience for all.
To wrap up, we explore the growth and excitement surrounding the Florida Golf Directors' Cup and the challenges of organizing a senior tour. Engaging conversations with South Florida Tour Directors Mark Klenck and Terry Lawson bring to light their victories and the spirited competition at the Director's Cup. As we look forward to the 2025 season, we're filled with anticipation for the new video podcast format and the exciting regional and national events on the horizon. Join us as we build a strong community through storytelling and celebrate the shared passion for the game of golf.
Podcast Homepage
Golfweek Amateur Tour
Senior Amateur Tour
Facebook
YouTube
Srixon
Jondo Sunglasses
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:Hey, Chris, Long time no see.
Speaker 3:Welcome back buddy Likewise Glad to be back. Welcome back, buddy, likewise Glad to be back. This is what Season three for us now.
Speaker 2:No, we won't start season three until after registration opens on Green Monday.
Speaker 3:Green.
Speaker 2:Monday, not Black Friday.
Speaker 3:So it starts like a green apple and then turns black throughout the week. Right, Exactly that's what we're going with?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess. So I mean we can only go with what they give us. But it is a change. So registration is going to open up a few days early. So November 25th registration for the 2024 season opens. So the first episode after the 2024 season. After November 25th we will start our new season. So we still have some wrap up from the 2024 National Championship to do. We're going to talk to a few guests about that and a couple of regionals. Yep, this episode.
Speaker 3:Yeah, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, like you know, it's exciting because now we're starting to get the ball rolling for the next season before we even know it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and, as you all can see, we're making some upgrades, we're going all video all the time so you get to see our lovely faces. Yep, I think we each shocked each other by. I saw you in a state of undress and you just saw me in a state of undress, which, thank God, nobody the cameras weren't rolling for that. Right, right, nobody wants to see that now.
Speaker 3:But you know just, we're going to see how this goes and I'm excited for it. You know, I know you're, you know, know the magic to get it to work perfectly, and I can't wait to see how our guests react to it too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see, but in the meantime I want to wish everybody a happy Veterans Day. To all our veterans out there. Thank you so much for your service and thank you and your families Really do appreciate it, Chris. We talk all the time about our veterans and how many veterans we have across the tour.
Speaker 2:And so we don't want to forget that and thank them for their service. And I just want to do another quick shout out Happy Mother's Day in May. I want to make sure that we don't forget that. Hey, we've got that covered now, in case we do again want to do another quick shout out to happy mother's day in may.
Speaker 3:I want to make sure that we don't forget that hey, we got that covered now, in case we do again, we'll just refer you back to this episode exactly.
Speaker 2:I think maybe we'll just do happy mother's day for every every episode and maybe that'll stop us from going going to hell. Um, but anyway I'm I'm really excited about the 2025 season. I mean, it's going to get rolling here real soon, except, we've got a couple of good guests coming up in this episode. We're going to talk about Directors' Cup winners Yep, we'll talk about you near the end, but all of our guests are Directors' Cup winners this episode and we're going to talk about a couple of new regionals coming up as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's going to be a good episode, a great way to kick off the start of what's going to be a great 2025 season, and I can't wait for us to discuss the regionals, because that's something that we've been talking about for a while now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we also need to discuss what our contest is going to be. I got a couple ideas. We won't talk about this episode, but next episode. Hopefully we'll have everything ironed out and we'll go from there, but without further ado, let's go ahead and welcome in our first guest. It's Steve Calhoun and Brandon Peterson from North Central.
Speaker 6:Florida Golf Week and Tour yeah, North Central Florida Golf Week Amtour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, North Central Florida and Brandon is not coming back. Where'd you go, buddy Brandon?
Speaker 6:I'll text him and tell him to re-log in. If we need to, let's see here.
Speaker 2:Come on, buddy, come on, I'm clicking him.
Speaker 3:Try logging in again.
Speaker 6:We can't get you back here. I texted him, so we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just kicked him all the way out, I think. Anyway, while we're waiting on Brandon Steve, you won the Director's Cup the first Director's Cup in the history of Golf Week Amateur Tour, in the Champ Flight and you pretty much blew away the field for, you know, for tour directors. How does that feel, buddy? I mean you go down that list. Matt, matt foch, jared beard, uh, randy, merrill, mk. I mean all those guys, all you guys can play. I mean there's no slouch really in there.
Speaker 6:Um, it was you, it was a way it was.
Speaker 6:it was perseverance, right. So I mean, golf course conditions were beautiful atlantic dunes, stellar, super freakishly fast greens, windy. Um, I would say the last four holes. Playing there each day was can can I even finish without making doubles? Like it was that windy and that tough and then the greens were that fast. Um, it felt really good, um, kind of an affirmation of all the work that I put in and practice. And it felt good to win a cup. You know, like I wanted to go and play well this year I didn't play well last year and to have something to play for, that's like that, against our fellow directors who probably also practice and play and have to run events and stuff like that. To be able to go to nationals and just play your event. Um, really cool feeling dennis, top notch on the trophy. You know I love the idea of it. Um, really had fun. Um kept me centered and focused. You know, not that the stroke play event didn't, but after my second day I kind of felt down because my second day wasn't as good as I felt like my first day was, even though the score was about the same and I just, you know it gave me an idea of what I needed to do to just win one or the other, and it helped me focus the third day so much more, because I was like I want to, I want to win by a lot, uh, you know, and I want to try and catch up to the leader, um, and so just the idea of being able to bring home some trophy, um, being able to go to Edmund Watts and spend some money, Um and I did right away um
Speaker 6:upgraded a little bit of equipment that'll be in play for next year and uh, yeah, it's a really cool piece because it's the first year, right. So so it's awesome to have the inaugural cup. Um want to win some more. Maybe be like joe that's won, like seven time national champion. Maybe I'll get seven of those. Um, it wouldn't be a bad thing. Um, I'm sorry my man over there missed out on his um because we could have brought home. Could have brought home a North Central Florida top two duo.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, brandon was only two strokes back of winning in the A-flight. He lost out to Derek Barnes from the Denver tour. Hopefully we're going to get Derek on here in the next couple episodes to talk about it. But again, a-flight is stacked. I again A-Flight is stacked. I mean you go right down that list. You know Brandon, tyler, hudson, jp Tassin, ed Early, scott Eide and Derek Barnes. I mean that was really close. I mean that was A-Flight was relatively close to who was going to be the winner. And you know B-flight winner sitting right down there at the bottom of the screen with Chris yes, sir, he had to go to a playoff for him to win.
Speaker 2:But, Brandon, what happened to you in being two strokes out?
Speaker 5:Well, I can talk about my first. What was it? I want to say? It was like my first seven holes. I was 11 over in my first seven holes to start the championship and I went. Yeah, I probably should have been able to bogey you know part of the second hole, but I went bogey, bogey, bogey.
Speaker 5:And then the par three eighth at the ocean course, at Robert Shand Jones, I saw the guy that you know went up to the box and threw it right in the water on the first shot. So I know we were in for a tough order going on there. I proceeded to throw two in the water and take my triple and just kept going. By the time I got to hole 13, I proclaimed to myself I go, I am starting my round over. And when I did that, I went one under for the next, I don't know, nine holes, 10 holes, something like that. And then I got to my last two holes and blew, blew up. So my first day could have been a save of an 83, but, uh, ended up being like an 87 or something like that. Um, but par for the day was 80.
Speaker 5:So so you know, I really felt like the par for all three days was pretty, pretty well around 80, and then my last two days. I should have broke 80 both days. Um, just kind of ended, you you know, with a couple of hiccups Like I played better the second day at the Arthur course, which I have a bad history of, and to only have two, three putts. For how hard those pins were. I felt pretty proud of myself and again really felt like I shot 77.
Speaker 2:Like I shot 77. Well, at least you hung in there and it was close and I hope you had a good time over the course of the weekend I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 5:As soon as I got into myself, when I settled in and started playing golf, it ended up being a lot more fun and I got to say I had probably the best three days of playmates.
Speaker 5:You know, my, my playing partners, um, every day we were cheering each other on Um, you know, I'll just never forget one of the guys that I played with from the New York upstate, new York tour, and he saw me struggling off the bat and he's been. He was genuinely positive with me, every, every, every hole with me and, and you know, like I said, once I kind of cracked out of it. He saw me. He even told me after 13 or 14, he was just like you know, you're, you're way better than what's happening right now, so just go play. And that's what I did. So it was nice to have a lot of encouragement out there from our fellow players where, um, you know it's so easy to want to go win, but, um, at the same time you know it was kind of my mantra even being a tour director out there is like what's, what's, what's? Prop each other up, because we're all out there doing the same thing.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I would. I would say, um, you know, if you haven't been to nationals, yeah, I would say, you know, if you haven't been to Nationals, it's an experience, right. So I mean, you get there. You may get there a day early, you may get there for a director's dinner. What a great job we get to see all the other directors discuss ideas. The amount of work that goes into it with you know, the tents and the flags and the food and the setup and how clean it goes, you know is amazing, right. So it has a real tour feeling that you're there for something special. Yes, all right, like it's something really special. I mean, you got to think about how many people are there, how many golf courses we're using, get everybody together in and out. You know, and it's seamless, right, and um, just the, the camaraderie with the other guys that you're playing with. You know you're playing with some really good players, you know, and and um, you gotta, you gotta, keep your head on, you gotta keep. You know you may have a bad hole here or there, but it's a.
Speaker 6:What's nice is it's a 54 hole tournament, right? So, yeah, like Brandon said, hey, hey, man, I sucked out of the gate, you know, like I wasn't good but he kept going right and and he kept, he kept it going and he almost won right and um, you know, the second day, I think I started out, I think I was even through six or seven, and then it hit the fan. You know, and I don't even know what happened, like, like, I didn't really hit the ball bad, it's just some some bad bounces off the green into the rough, like a yard off, led to a bogey. You know another bogey, um, before I knew it, I was like I'm six over. I didn't even really hit a bad shot, um, but the fact that you know you got 54 holes, you got a real event, you know know, 54 holes to make up some ground, maybe do something explosive in a good way.
Speaker 6:Um, and yeah, I mean the way the guys treat each other out there, like the groups that we had the three days that I played. You know, I think we all have respect for each other, um, because we all know that we can be good, we all know that we might struggle and we all try, and I mean there wasn't anybody in our group that was like angry or anything like that. Um, we had one guy that was a little bit hurt and he took a swing on one shot and I think all three of us walked over. We're like are you okay? Yeah, because he had kind of blown out his right knee, um, styles, um. And so we were just like styles, you're all right man? And he's like, yeah, I think I'm going to be all right. But it's just the caring and I think that comes out for the whole entire year is, yeah, we're there to win, we're there to kick some butt, but we also care about each other as a family. So really great environment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good to hear that.
Speaker 5:I really think that says a testament too, about like what our tour does for our players. You know, like our emails out to our players when we give a results finale of what happened. I'm like a reporter down there learning about what happened on the course to find out what happened that nobody else would know unless they came and told me and I can report that back to everybody. You know, on the email on Monday and I give everybody wrestling nicknames and we give out MVP awards and those MVP awards ended up getting Richard Hudson his first national championship.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we were able to get people. We had 18 players out of 97 members come to nationals because of our split season model, so really, really awesome stuff to build a community like we do yeah, that's awesome and again, it's good to hear that that camaraderie is even at the champ at the highest levels.
Speaker 2:Um, you know you, you hear about it obviously. You know Chris talks about it a lot in the B flight, where he's at, and C flight and D flight. But you know the majority of players aren't coming from champ flight and hear that from. Those types of sportsmanship are throughout. It's really good to hear.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was really awesome to hear. Yeah, it was. It was really awesome to see you know, because you know, first of all, you never want to see somebody play so bad that they don't want to come back right right, but the you know the gentlemanliness of it, you know of being aware and and knowing what everybody else is doing on the golf course. I thought it was top notch this year.
Speaker 6:Um you know, and I think Dennis does a good job and and and tour directors do a good job of being like, be mindful of the players that you're playing with.
Speaker 4:Right, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 6:Don't walk, don't talk. You know, keep it. You know, keep it. You know and you want to. You can be an amateur, but if you act like a professional, people like you more yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, yeah. So let's switch gears a little bit. We're going to a new regional course this year. Yeah, we are.
Speaker 4:Tell us about that place.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've seen it, I've heard some things about it and I've seen the website. It doesn't have a whole lot, so tell us a little bit about Cabot Farms.
Speaker 6:So it used to be known as Whirlwoods. I never played it, brandon played it. I did. Yeah, we got invited. Yeah, we saw it both kind of online on Facebook, you know, getting attacked by ads, and come to find out that one of our players actually is in charge of the whole entire construction project, the green project, construction of Citrus Farms. So he invited us down to go play. And I'll say this you know, brandon and I have gone to a lot of different resorts. I've gone to resorts in Cabo, I've gone to resorts Streamsong, I went to Conservatory here, hammock Beach. You know, we've been to Sea Island. Sea Island's beautiful. This place really blew me away. All right, um, top notch, great golf course. I thought the design was extremely playable, like crazy design, but it's playable. You know, like we've gone to Streamsong and played and I'm like, yeah, I got to hit a four iron up there and land it within what? Three? Feet of this one little patch to hold it.
Speaker 6:Oh, I mean, I'm good I don't know if I'm great and you hit a shot and you get up there and you got a 145 foot punt. All right. And I didn't feel that way. I didn't feel that way at Citrus Hills or Citrus Farms Beautiful property. So what you're going to see is top-notch driving range with Top Tracer, all right, best golf carts in town. They're going to have four different restaurants that you can eat at.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what we're talking about right there.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they have a huge putting course, all right, like it looks like a mountain of a putting course, like up down around you think about it Plus plus practice areas to putt and chip and everything like that um, two courses, um, they also have like a 60, 70, 80 yard wedge course that is open all night and in the middle of that patch, kind of not in the middle of it, off off to the left side of it, there are food trucks all right that have beer and food and pizza and you can just sit outside on a couch that they told us cost like ten thousand dollars to build. I'm like those are some expensive two by fours, bro, um, so you know, whatever it is, but the ambience there I thought was phenomenal. I thought the golf course was in really good shape, really playable, it's firm, it's fast. I mean, when you hit the ball off the tee, daddy felt good again, man, I mean I was hitting 330, 340 yard bombs. Alright, that doesn't happen like as much as I wish it did. You know, cause like a bomb for me now is like 297, 300, but with the firm fairways and the run out, I was like man, I got 7 iron into this par 5. Hell, yeah, you know like let's have some fun. I had a brutal hole, like I think a hole. Number two was four, 95 par four, all right, but I hit a good drive and I had 195 yards in cause. The ball will roll out there.
Speaker 6:Um, here's the cool thing about cow You're going to go there, we're not staying there. It's a little bit, the beds are a little bit expensive. Going to go there, we're not staying there, it's a little bit. The beds are a little bit expensive and it's per bed, it's not per room or per unit, but they have. They're going to have skeet shooting and ax throwing, all right, yeah, I mean, you're like, if you want to just sit there and be stupid all day long and have some fun, you can, and then they'll have. I think they have like 150 different kinds of whiskey, so Dennis may never relate.
Speaker 2:Nice, I'm all right with that too. You know, Chris, it seems like I think we're going to spend a lot of time in Florida this year.
Speaker 6:You can. Yeah, come on down, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it seems that way. I mean he said whiskey and I already put that on top of the list. See, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6:I think they had actually on the on the shipping course right B. Didn't they have like a whiskey truck there, right? Everything was there I was like all right, yeah, I mean everything. I was like oh my gosh.
Speaker 5:Very well thought out on every little detail, yeah, every detail.
Speaker 6:It's like it's done right. Like you're like oh, oh, okay, yeah, no, oh, all right. Like you get to the first scene, they're like here have the most delicious orange peel scented sugar cookies in the whole entire world. With you get a bottle of water and it says Cabot Citrus Farms, and they're like this is the bottle that you're going to use today. Fill it up at the filling up stations. You're not getting another one.
Speaker 6:And you're like okay well, at least I know that you know, and there's tons of filling stations. Like you, you're never gonna go without war. So to echo steve's point about the playability of the course.
Speaker 5:Okay, I want to say, steve, we played, 6900, I want to say, and we gained I think mine.
Speaker 6:So I think mine was 71.
Speaker 5:I think it was 71 because mine was, yeah, mine was like 69 or 68, which is a little bit more than what I traditionally play for our tour boxes, but I gained a club right, you were hitting it long. The greens aren't as big as stream songs, so you really feel like you have a shot to score. As long as you put it on the green, it might run in, like remember I always had a hole in one. You put it on the green, it might run in. Like remember I almost had a hole in one. I hit it onto the green and it started funneling towards the hole and we thought it was going in and it was, you know, three feet behind it. But it was fun, a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Do you know which courses you guys are playing for that event?
Speaker 6:Yeah, we're going to play both of the courses that they have open, which is the Karoo and the Roost.
Speaker 5:They're called the Karoo. Yeah, the Roost, yep.
Speaker 6:And the Roost.
Speaker 1:The Roost just opened last month, so both of the courses that are open, we'll get to play.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, man, so we get both of the courses. You know the staff there was excited because they were like, oh, how many guys you're bringing? I'm like I hope we have over 100. You know we might get to 130 if it's popular, you know. And and uh, the guy was like, oh my gosh. He's like so, do you need a dining area? I'm like no, we don't do anything like formal dining. The guys just may want to go over here, or they might want to go over there, or they might want to go axe throw and eat, or axe throw and drink, which might get dangerous.
Speaker 6:Um, you know, you never know, but they have so many little areas that after the regional, our players are going to be able to just, and they'll have it fully staffed and we can just. You can go there and hang out with your buddies. You can go there and hang out. You know, you can go back to your hotel room if you want. Um, just it. The property itself is very unique. I almost felt like I was in saint lucia. All right, yeah, like just away from, from it all. Like, right, like you're like, oh man, I'm away now.
Speaker 5:Like can I just stay here because this is awesome the green speakers are talking about how the feel is kind of like a north carolina irish feel, right, like you kind of have like this sandy, rugged, airy, natural, undulating, and you're just kind of surprised by the playability because of how big of a golf course it is. But you're just like, wow, this is so pretty, and then every group is going to have a mandatory four caddy, so we shouldn't be losing balls out there, we should all make sure we're keeping it going, so that'll be a fun add-on to the regional.
Speaker 2:So the regional is June 7th and 8th, correct? So in 30 seconds, sell it in 30 seconds to the golfer and then another 30 seconds to the golfer to bring their family.
Speaker 6:Okay. So I mean, you're coming to Florida, so bring your family and go to Disney. Go to Tampa, he can go to SeaWorld. What do you want to do? You want to go scalloping or just out on the golf for the day and see pink dolphins? And if you're a golfer and you've dreamed of playing Pine Valley with a little bit of Pinehurst, all right, this is your guy, right here. They've combined them both. And then you want to throw some axes at each other afterwards.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm talking about Anybody with little kids who are throwing axes.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes.
Speaker 6:Was that 30 seconds? Did I get it?
Speaker 2:yet You're. But you know, if you're trying to sell me, it's whiskey and food trucks whiskey food trucks.
Speaker 5:I was gonna say that they made that pizza steve in a in a in a fire, like it was a fire burnt pizza right there for you, wasn't it?
Speaker 6:yeah, yeah, the, the, the pizza truck that's there actually has like a uh, like a brick oven, like it's a fully closed like adobe brick oven that they cook it in there. I mean they're just slamming pizzas out left and right and I, when I got done with my round, I'm like I'm going straight up there. Yeah, and that's where I'm going, because I saw the lights in between the trees. The sun was starting to set. I'm like man, like really, like this is gorgeous. And then they're going to have I mean, if you bring your wife and you want to go to dinner, I mean they're going to have top-notch dinner in there. You know they're going to have a restaurant where you can sit down with two. You know, like I don't think they're missing anything, you know, and they're not even 100% open yet.
Speaker 5:Yeah, like this is as new as it gets for a resort right, Like they just opened the Roost in October and it is walking only for $490 around Jesus, Like it is, it is a walking only course. So we get the privilege of having the first weekend after their in season where we get the carts and we get both courses. And what do they say, Steve, they're not going to aer rate the roost for us. They're going to let us be able to.
Speaker 6:You're not going to air rate stay open air rate either, golf course. So, yeah, they're going to wait for us to play to delay their airifying until after we're done. Yeah, so I mean they were excited to have us, excited to have us. They were like you're bringing 100 guys. I'm like yeah, and they're like dude, how do I sign up for this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we need to get 130 guys out there, 132 players out there. For sure, for sure. We just need to do it. Do you have a price point on it yet, or are we still?
Speaker 6:working on that. You had a.
Speaker 3:If you don't have yeah, that's a steal for Cheaper than Sea Island. Well, I mean, you just sell it at $480 for walking course only at the Roost, and you're $110 more to play both.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah. Now if you're like a Florida resident, they have months that you can go play. They're called Die Outside the end of June, july, august and I think that's it right. B September it stops. And if you're a Florida resident or a county resident in that area, I think they're letting people play for like 200. But it's hot bro, oh, okay. It's hot, it's 100 degrees, with 100% humidity and 100% lightning almost guaranteed.
Speaker 4:There you go.
Speaker 6:I don't know if you've been to Florida in the summer but it's nasty. It's probably like Hilton Ham, yeah. But yeah, I think guys are going to be really excited about it. It's a unique property. The golf course is just disgusting. I had so much fun there. I was like, like I said, I played a lot of the other top dogs and really kind of walked away with like eh not my favorite course and this was, this was definitely a top four course for me.
Speaker 3:Will you guys be having accommodation rates?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so we'll, we'll get together with the hotels around there and we'll get a group rate at the couple hotels that are within about 15, 20 minutes of the golf course. I think there's one that's like 10 or 12,. You know, out on the highway there's a toll road that comes in from it, right from the airport, that you can get to it pretty easily. If you fly into Orlando you can do I-4 to a toll road and then up, um, so you can get a hotel, you know, and then if you're over you want to be west of it, you can be within 10 or 15 minutes of the beach if your family wants to go to the beach.
Speaker 6:So, um, yeah, I mean it's that far west in florida, that, um, you can almost smell the ocean right and it's funny because the way the sun hits the water on the gulf, the, the sky over there has a different look. All right, it has almost like a different atmospheric look because it's on the ocean. I don't know if you guys get that like in Hilton Head, where you kind of get that glare off the water, where the sky just looks different. That's what this looks like.
Speaker 2:So I know what you're talking about down there and it's not nearly what it is in Florida, but we do get that a little bit. So you guys also do tournaments with some really good trophies. Are you still going to do the Axe trophy again this year? Oh yeah. That's like our number one staple.
Speaker 3:It's tradition.
Speaker 4:You want to see the Axe, I'll give you the Axe. Let's show everybody the Axe, because last time we had you One staple, you know? Yeah, I love that. It's tradition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that you want to see the axe. I'll give you the axe. Yeah, let's show everybody the axe, because last time we had you on Brandon, we didn't have video.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and then I also just want to correct myself. So if you stayed at the resort, if you stay at the resort at Cabot Farms, it's $2.80 to walk, but and they have a peak and a shoulder season, so it's really interesting how they have it all set up and I think it's going to be an unbelievable deal for everybody to come check out Cabot and I get addicted to looking at Golf Digest and their flyovers of courses. There's the Cabot Cliffs, there's the Cabot St Lucia, now you have Cabot Citrus Farms. Like the Cabot name has a wonderful brand and I mean just as Steve and I were able to really digest everything, it was really just an immaculate experience.
Speaker 2:That's cool. I'm looking forward to seeing you guys down there. This is what I want to see.
Speaker 5:I get these every Black Friday.
Speaker 2:See, that's awesome, and those are not the axes that we're throwing at each other.
Speaker 6:No, not a cabin. No, not a cabin. No, not a cabin, because if you did, I'm not sure you'd make it out.
Speaker 5:We have that one, although Steve will carry us around with him, just to show it.
Speaker 6:I will put it on a belt, Like for our first event. I'll bring it, you know, and I'll put it on my belt and I'll wear it before the round.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 6:So this is what we give our, our, our champion, for each flight. All right.
Speaker 4:I like it.
Speaker 6:They get a little, a little. Yeah, it'll fit on your head, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the mini belt from Undisputed to be wearing that after a few.
Speaker 6:We play one tournament very close to where Ted Williams is from. We got one of those. I don't know if you can see the.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Brandon put the Phillies on there because I'm a Phillies fan.
Speaker 6:That's one of our trophies. Do we do minis of these right b, or is it yeah? We do the minis for that, or is it yeah?
Speaker 5:it's a mini bat um and uh we did.
Speaker 6:We did like a um a deer antler, um, we did a. We did a deer antler that actually had, uh, native american era head on it for our deer creek, event. That one right there, that guy right there, yeah, nice, really cool looking and this was put in a crystal.
Speaker 5:So this was part of the trophy.
Speaker 6:Yeah, we did uh yeah, we did dos boot. So like uh, what's the movie, uh, what's?
Speaker 5:the movie uh beer, fast beer fast, super troopers.
Speaker 6:But it's a beer beer fest. Yeah, where you got to turn the boot, so we have. We have dos boot. We gave that away for one of ours. So, um, yeah, we got.
Speaker 2:We got some crazy trophies yeah, so anybody who who wants to go down and and win a unique trophy, north Central Florida is the place to be. That's where you go.
Speaker 6:Here's what we got going for our regionals. So you know, I think Brandon and I are going to try and get this to where, if any tour brings five players, all right, we can do, of course, like a cup, you know, like a team cup, and we have ordered the gator head. Sorry, yeah, it's a gator skull. Yeah, it's a gator skull, yeah, with big ass teeth so that's awesome. The winner, the winner of the the cabbage citrus farms regional, you get to get take home this big ass gator head with big ass teeth for the year, for the year with big ass, teeth, yeah, so all right.
Speaker 6:Chris we try and we try and we're like what would you, what would you want to win, bro? I'm like I don't know. Yeah, so we have fun with it.
Speaker 5:Chris, you need to have that would be like for, like, the Florida Cup or something between the tours.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, we're going to call it the Florida Cup. Yeah, but, like Chris, if you brought five guys from El Paso, you're in, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even though you guys were the first guest, we saw the list and we were already trying to figure out where, but I think you guys want to sold me. Tim, mark it down, I'm sold already.
Speaker 2:Yeah, See, so for me it's a drive. You know I can get there in a couple hours, so I'm already there.
Speaker 6:Well, yeah, you come to Jack's first and then stay with me the night, and then we drive down the next day.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to shame you, chris. I'll just shame you into you know you got to be there.
Speaker 3:And all you have to do is tell your wife I already looked it's only an hour and a half away from Orlando, so I can convince my wife to go easily. I can just leave her there and drive to the tournament. Yeah.
Speaker 5:How old are the kids?
Speaker 3:60 miles north of Tampa Right, she'd be happy just to go to Disney for a week by herself.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:No convincing there.
Speaker 2:Well, guys, thanks so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it. Steve, congratulations on being the very first Directors' Cup winner, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys at Cabbage Farms.
Speaker 6:Yeah, hope so All right, thanks guys. All right gentlemen, we appreciate you. All right, thanks guys.
Speaker 2:All right, gentlemen, we appreciate you All right, let's take a break from the show to hear about Strixon's ZX Mark II drivers.
Speaker 7:ZX Mark II drivers are for major players, major winners, major power. All new ZX Mark II drivers Only from Shrixod.
Speaker 3:What a great conversation with Steve and Brandon. You know their regional is enticing. I mean, all these regionals that we have are enticing. But to play a brand new course, literally that they're barely opening up. And you know, I think they said the first groups that are going to be able to use carts out there and have a four caddy and all that. They said the first groups that are going to be able to use carts out there have a four caddy and all that you know that's a solid way to kind of win us over if we're going to be traveling the regionals, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you know they talk about. You know, for me, you know, yeah, I'll ride around the course and it'll the axes and the whiskey and bourbon and all the other stuff. You know lots of stuff to do. And again, you know, if you look at their price point it's a bargain.
Speaker 3:Right, I mean, but honestly, like all these regional price points are a bargain. There's nothing you can't go wrong with them. Yeah, are a bargain. There's nothing you, you can't go wrong with them. Um, yeah, but I just think you know, being able to go to florida, be you know an hour, you know, whichever, whichever way you decide to a major city and have things to do for the family, you know, have the resort with things, to do for the family.
Speaker 3:Um, I think that's what these regionals bring, because you're able to to take everybody with you and not just go and golf yeah yeah, I mean, which is it that isn't the wrong thing to do either? It's not a bad thing to do. Just go out there and golf and and relax.
Speaker 2:Don't get me wrong, let me just cover both sides no, no, I, I understand, but, but you know you, you've locked yourself in, which I think is a good thing.
Speaker 3:I think so, and you know it's. There'll be a lot of planning because I have a big trip next year that I'm kind of saving up for, so we'll see what happens. But I know we're going to travel a little bit, so that's exciting as well.
Speaker 2:Well, I think we're going to you and I are going to spend a lot of time in Florida.
Speaker 3:That's what it sounds like. I mean, we still got a long ways to go before we decide, but you know, there's that one, there's the one in Ohio that we're planning on Like it's going to be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is the one in Ohio. It's going to be phenomenal. But our next guests they're from Florida, so we're going to be the Florida episode. Hook them. Two more Directors' Cup winners and they also have a senior regional and a golf week regional. So let's go ahead and we'll bring in the South Florida Tour Directors, mark Klink and somebody who has been on the show before, terry Lawson. Mark and Terry, thank you so much for spending some time with us tonight and welcome to the show. And Terry just left us. He just come in and he leaves that's.
Speaker 2:That's the way I'm used to it well, mark, let's start with you till we get Terry back. Congratulations on winning, uh, director's cup, yeah thanks that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it was really neat. Um, so I'm trying to compete for the win. I ended up third place, but also me and robbie robinson who, for taking over the lando senior from, we're battling it out for the Director's Cup. I think I beat Robbie by one stroke, and on top of that, robbie and I were doing the two-man together, so I'm wanting him to play well, but I don't want him to beat me Play well, robbie, but not too well right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I beat Robbie by one stroke, and we won the two-man event too, so that was fun, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you, you shot 82, 79, and what courses did you play?
Speaker 4:oh man, now you're going back. Uh, robert, robert trent jones on day two and that's right yeah yeah, I like robert trent, because nine holes to me are like Florida. Right, so the other nine are Hilton had holes, but the other nine holes are really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know out of you know all the people that are on this call right now who won Director's Cup, and that's three of you you're the only one that actually shot within your flight range.
Speaker 3:Settle down. Settle down.
Speaker 2:So you had two good B-flight rounds.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the senior side. I don't want to talk about the golf week side.
Speaker 2:The senior side. Yes, you know that is what it is, but we've got Terry over there, who is the first two-time Director's Cup winner. He won both the Golf Week side and the Senior side and he shot and this is in the sea flight he shot five solid deflate rounds to win the Director's Cup Wait.
Speaker 8:Oh, terry, y'all hear me. Yeah, we got you bud. Ok, good, middle of my shift. I know, you know I'm a night shift guy, I'm a vampire, so trying to stay awake for the rest of the shift, I got lucky, you know, first of all. You know Dennis had talked about having a director's cup, but you know he always talks about a lot of stuff. I got lucky, you know, first of all, dennis had talked about having a Director's Cup, but he always talks about a lot of stuff. So we went in there thinking, oh man, we're going to play for the Director's Cup. Well then it kind of turned it into a big deal and it kind of turned it into something super fun, super fun With the freaking 6,400 yards. And then the second day we got into Hilton Head and that was good. You know I like Hilton Head golf, just because I normally can keep it in play. Then the third day, back to that freezing cold too, by the way, in the morning and we went back to Hampton Hall again and got my butt kicked by the wind, just playing, stupid, you know. I lost my focus but held on and won and went back and tried to catch Chris in the playoff, but missed it, lollygagging around, probably in the food tent, while he was out there in the playoff, but you know it was super fun. And then that was cool. When the first ever sea flight director, uh, then we lollygagged around.
Speaker 8:I played golf every single day, by the way. While we were. I mean I played like 10 rounds in 11 days. It was sick. I just ran out of gas in the seniors. I came out and played well on the first day in the seniors and the second day I just my driver went. I should have thrown in the lake. My driver quit on me after 10 days of being on, it was off and I had my sights on that sea flight championship. I think my window is getting smaller and smaller as I get older. I'm 63 years old. There's 50-year-old senior guys out there bombing a ball 275 all day long, like Mark. Have you ever seen Mark play golf? Mark cuts it loose, buddy. He don't hold nothing back on that driver. I just, you know, I probably saw a squirrel or something and ran off in the woods to try to catch it.
Speaker 2:And next thing you know, hey, what did you do in the woods man? You don't need to tell us what you're doing in the woods man.
Speaker 8:A lot of stuff goes on in the woods during the golf tournaments.
Speaker 4:sir, I'm sure I'm sure, I'm sure I can tell you this. Terry and I are sharing a house with five of our other players and I think he was more excited to win that Director's Cup trophy and bring it to the house than if he had won the National Championship. I swear, I think he was more excited about the.
Speaker 8:Director's Cup. You know, what really got excited was winning an award at the Director's meeting. That meant a lot to me. That really meant a lot to me. That that really a lot. Because you know mark and I, and mark particularly, because you know, without mark I'm freaking dead in the water but he worked so freaking hard at this. And um, when we got called up at the director's meeting, total shock. You know I, it was a new award, it was a based on your percentage of growth and things like that, and I mean that was that was really exciting. Got a mule cup that I could. I'm going to, I'm going to make one drink in that cup one of these days. It'll take me about two hours to finish it, but and then, um, then then the Smith Awards came out.
Speaker 8:I don't know if you guys saw it, you probably looked at it, but super proud of our tour man. You know we have about a 90-member tour this year in the golf week side and you know we came in second place in the people showing up. So that says a lot about our players people showing up. So that says a lot about our players. It says a lot about the emailing and the networking we do with our players. We encourage them all year long to come to Nationals because it's so much fun. Over 20 South Florida players come to the Bell this year and that's pretty impressive. When we had some guys up there in the money, we had a couple that were. You know, we're bringing it when we come somewhere. That's for damn sure.
Speaker 8:Next year, you know, representing Orlando, we're going to bring a big car.
Speaker 2:Well my guess is, you know, with the regional I mean, you're going to have, you know, five guaranteed winners. That's true.
Speaker 8:Right, that's true, and I don't know, you know, if Mark talked to you at all about these regionals. But the PGA Village in Port St Lucie, honest to goodness, guys and this is not just because we're there it's a straight up five star resort. There is not one thing that you can think of at a golf course that they don't have, and I'm talking about service conditions, treatment, professionalism, quality course. I mean there's some hard damn golf courses, but they're fair golf courses. There's three different courses and I mean they're all championship courses in my opinion, and everybody who plays there feels exactly the same way. I mean it's amazing. And that's on the golf week side. You know we're excited. We've always wanted to have a regional there.
Speaker 8:We call PJ Village our unofficial headquarters of South Florida Golf Tour and man, what a I mean five-star is. You can get very private. That's what I mean. Marks work so hard to build this relationship with them. The members don't like it because we come in there and we maybe hoop it up a little bit too much. You know, on the last day or whenever we're giving out the trophies, we may or we may not have been asked to keep it down in the bar at what time it is, but a couple of members may have ventured over into the members area of the clubhouse, where we weren't supposed to be. But you know, and we're just looking around and we're just trying to catch a deal, but what a great place. Like I said, mark did a great job on that this year.
Speaker 4:We're excited for both the regionals mission in for the senior, the same timeframe that Robbie's always done it in March. And then I think it's the Florida Zotas course, the one horse, and then the PGA Village one. I mean, we're so excited. It's Memorial Weekend. We're doing it on Sunday, Monday and not everybody knows it, but they will on Saturday on their third course we're going to do a senior event in the afternoon. So for some of the guys who come in for the weekend that are seniors, they'll be able to play a senior event with us and then do the two-day regional for golf week.
Speaker 2:That's a pretty good weekend right there.
Speaker 4:It is Memorial weekend.
Speaker 8:Sorry, chris you don't qualify for the Saturday round yet. Oh man, Tim, you do well, so you can Come on down.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe I will bring my clubs for that.
Speaker 8:We'll see, Heck yeah, man, love that. We would love that. You know we would. We've really been lucky this year. We're super lucky.
Speaker 2:What We've really been lucky this year. We're super lucky. What a great year. You know what a great year? Yeah, I mean, you've got the regionals that are in Florida, okay, so you guys are the 25th and 26th. You know almost what. A week later, 10 days later, cabot Citrus Farms. I think what people need to do is just take two weeks vacation and go down there and play these regionals.
Speaker 8:What do you think the snowbirds do every year, bro? Take a longer vacation. They're already trekking into our state.
Speaker 2:At that time of year they're probably heading north.
Speaker 8:Yeah, Easter Easter, they all leave just like a train. We all leave, bye train.
Speaker 4:We all leave.
Speaker 8:Bye-bye. Thank you for your dollars, thank you for keeping our state, thank you for keeping having a snow state to come. Tex, we love you. Get the hell out of here.
Speaker 2:But even when the snowbirds leave, people still can't drive in Florida.
Speaker 8:That's true it's the wild, wild west. Down there you can drive a wagon, you can drive a rocket, you can drive, you can ride a kangaroo. They don't give a damn about Florida, man, it's all fine, great place to live. It's a great place to be from too have you all priced the regionals out yet?
Speaker 2:If you haven't, that's fine.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just send it to her it's going to be three, and to Nicole it's going to be $335 for the Mission Inn and $350 for the PGA Village.
Speaker 8:Stop it, that's a deal and a half right there. That's a million-dollar deal. That's an unbelievable pricing. Like I said, Mark works his ass off with these people. I mean back and forth, and you guys are both tour directors. You know how difficult it is to get somebody on the phone first and then you get them to agree to something and give us a deal like this they're letting us a deal like this. They're letting us into a private club, not one time, not two, not three, but like Marco, we're going five times to PGA village in 2025.
Speaker 8:Yes, Our schedule is sick man. The sickest schedule is unbelievable. We're going to have a fricking amazing 2025. Amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about that then. What do you have? Because we haven't been able to post it yet. Everybody knows registration opens up on Green Monday. Whatever that is, it's the 25th.
Speaker 2:It's right before Thanksgiving. So we're just going to name every day something special so the day doesn't have its feelings hurt. But it's the Monday before Thanksgiving. So we're just going to name every day something special so the day doesn't have its feelings hurt, but it's Monday before Thanksgiving and that's when the schedule will open up and you can register. So talk about what you've got. Well.
Speaker 4:I'll talk about our senior tour. So this is our first year taking over the Orlando Senior and when we took it over we talked to Dennis and said you know we'll do it in Orlando, but Terry and I live on the coast. That's why we started the South Florida one, because we were tired of driving Orlando all the time. So we're splitting it up between the East Coast and Orlando, so now we're not using the same old courses over and over again. In Orlando we're getting to be able to pick the best courses from the coast and the best courses from Orlando to play on. But we are going to have, besides, our regional mission in, we're going to have a two-day at a place called Reunion Resort, which I it's phenomenal. We're doing the oh yeah, we're doing a combo two day with Jacksonville down at the PGA in West Palm PGA National home of the Bear Trap it's the Bear Trap, yeah, the Honda Classic.
Speaker 4:So we're doing a combo event with them and then we wrap up our year end. We'll be back down at PGA Village again for another two day for our seniors and our golf week guys. So we're really excited.
Speaker 8:We're on the roll man, we are PGA. It's the 2025 PGA golf course tour. For us, this year Exciting.
Speaker 2:Do you have an extra room in your house?
Speaker 8:Right For you guys. Always, man, what are you kidding me? We got a pond and everything for you to swim in. What are you talking?
Speaker 2:about Pool or pond, the pond will be good for you.
Speaker 3:As long as it's a whiskey, we'll be all right.
Speaker 8:That's right. We got that too, brother. You guys need to stop by our party one year at Nationals. If you think there's any shortage of adult beverages, it's quite a time. I'm sure it is. Mark's a hell of a cook. We put on a big old cookout every year at.
Speaker 3:Nationals. That pigeon must have been lost for our invitation, Tim, because we didn't get it this last year.
Speaker 8:It's open, man, it's open. We invite people, we invite everybody. We're just like come on by man, have fun. We had a poker game this year.
Speaker 3:We had a freaking football blast. You're hurting my feelings now.
Speaker 8:Plus we don't rent a shack.
Speaker 4:We're taking a donation.
Speaker 3:Please, tim, this is about to get ugly, well see they figure out how to attract us.
Speaker 2:now they're talking about food and booze. Yes, sir.
Speaker 8:And gambling and poker.
Speaker 2:So if anybody's listening, that's how you get us to come around. If you don't want us to come around don't talk about those things, and if you do, food, booze and poker, we're there.
Speaker 3:Count me in next year, right? Yeah, we're excited.
Speaker 8:And we rent a big old house. It sucks because I don't like stairs, but we always get a two or three story house and he'll put me on the top. I think he tries to get me down, even though I'm not in his life.
Speaker 4:He'll put me on the top I think he tries to get me down, even though I'm not in his life. It's always my fault, of course, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what about the golf week? Simon, I'm looking at our schedule.
Speaker 8:Right now. We're going to some courses, tim, that I mean. I see on here two or three private courses. There's a course that we played this year in Palm Beach County and it's called the North Palm Beach Country Club. It is actually a public golf course and it's Jack Nicklaus designed, and it is in the town where Jack Nicklaus lives, just a few minutes away from his home. And you want to talk about a fun golf course, man? We had a blast there. We're going back there again this year. We're going to the Florida Club, which is a five-star club in Jupiter area. More really, it's not that far south and I mean I'm looking at it Point West, another private course in Vero Beach. Mark's done a hell of a job, man. We are booked five-star, we're going over and those are all golf week tours. I mean, just looking at golf week, we're slam-packed. There's a very good chance. Mark and I will be single at the end of 2025 golf season.
Speaker 4:I'll tell you this, tim, and I'm sure you've run multiple tours, but running multiple tours in the same area and then still not trying to overlap the Orlando Golf Week tours and not overlap other regionals, right, it's hard to fill out a schedule.
Speaker 2:It's tough it is, and you know, even with as many courses that you have in that area, right, you know, even with as many courses that you have in that area, right? I mean, with all the good courses that you have in Florida, with the different tours, it's like I said, it's hard to get courses without overlapping. But the positive that you have is it doesn't really matter where you have it, you're going to get crossover play from at least one other tour every tournament, right? So whether it's Jacksonville, whether it's Tampa, north Central Florida, I mean it doesn't really matter. If you're playing a good course in Florida, you're going to attract, I mean, people from other Florida tours almost every week.
Speaker 8:Yeah, we always do. And don't forget, we throw in the Orlando Golf Week that Armin just took over this year and, uh, you know, we got to meet him at the director's meeting. So, first and foremost, we have to not, you know, butt heads with arman, simply because you know we're, first of all, we're in the same city with our senior tour and we cross, we cross play with orlando, you know, all the time anyway, with both tours and, um, you know, now we're dragging shane into our senior. So I don't know if you've seen that, but shame. And maria and the tampa are actually going to offer a combo membership by joining tampa and the orlando senior to bring us to West Coast players. Oh man.
Speaker 2:That's going to be really good for you guys. It really is.
Speaker 8:I reached out to Brandon. I need to make a call to him because I write emails about the way I talk.
Speaker 2:I stutter and I hum and I hum. Well, hold on Terry. Hold on, Terry. Stop right there for a second. But you know, I teach a course on how to help people be better public speakers.
Speaker 8:Yeah, well, guess what?
Speaker 2:I'll give you a discount.
Speaker 8:I need one, I need one. But I just you know I'm a redneck man, I have to catch myself so I don't throw a TD or MF out there when I'm talking to a CEO. So I just got to be careful with it. And you know I'm a construction guy. I've been all my life, so it's real easy to say the wrong things. And we're getting there. You know, we're getting there. We have a lot of fun. If you come around and ask your wife, she's been at one of our tournaments early in our very first year. We have so much fun out there in our tour, the bars in every course that we go to absolutely love us. When the tournament's over we go in there. We don't just say here's your trophy, see you later. Everybody comes in for that part. We have a ball man, just a family, you know.
Speaker 2:You're going through your fourth year or fifth year?
Speaker 8:This will be four for golf week, so I think it's going to blow up this year. I really do. We've had steady growth. Obviously, we won an award for it. It's called a major award, by the way. We call it that. We call it that now. It's a major award.
Speaker 4:Yeah, our goal for next year is to get both of them over 100 members.
Speaker 8:We're pretty close. Get in the circle like the directors. Yeah, get in the circle. Get in the circle like the directors. Get in the golden circle yeah.
Speaker 2:I see you guys getting to at least 125 with golf week.
Speaker 8:Man, I'd love that.
Speaker 2:You're not that far away.
Speaker 8:I agree, yep.
Speaker 2:And it's really you know, once you get a good piece of incremental growth, like you got this past year, it's really you know, once you get a good piece of incremental growth like you got this past year, the next year you're going to get about that same size incremental growth. And then you know, from there, it's really about making sure that your guys are bringing people with them. You know, if half of the field brings somebody with them every week, you know. Just think about what that can do. And again, with the courses that you all are playing on, I mean heck $300-some for a two-day regional at the PGA Village, Right?
Speaker 2:Join just for that, right yeah exactly.
Speaker 8:And then you're hooked. Some will. They'll show up that week, right.
Speaker 2:So that's awesome.
Speaker 8:Yeah, we're happy, man, we're happy, we're excited. We're pumping out freaking deposits like it's a little Holy smokes.
Speaker 4:Nobody told us what we had to do to deposit for the regional homeless. That wasn't going to be.
Speaker 2:So Mark is pumping out deposits.
Speaker 4:I tell Terry how much there you put on his credit card.
Speaker 8:Thank God for Ant-Man. They're undying trust in me. They're so stupid yeah.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, guys, thanks so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it and I'm going to see you guys a lot. For sure, that's good, you know. Definitely come down. We'd love to see you guys a lot. For sure, that's good, you know.
Speaker 4:Chris, we'd love to have you. You can know that, bro. Definitely come down for the PGA one.
Speaker 2:Well, I will, because it's driving distance for me and we can work something out. We'll guilt Chris on some other things, you know, to get him whatever. But you know I can drive down, you know, to both of those and you know, like I said, I'm going to be in Florida a lot. I might as well just get a driver's license and stay at your house, terry.
Speaker 8:Oh, you can get one of those easy in Florida. You don't just go in there and just give them the money.
Speaker 2:Don't even need ID right.
Speaker 8:You just need a driver's license. Just say, hey, driver's license here, and that's all. I don't use my turn signals. Oh, you must. Yeah, you're going to have one, you're good sir, oh guys. Chris congratulations on that playoff win. By the way, that was freaking smoking deal. That was cool.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I mean that was a lot of fun, probably the most pressure I've had all weekend.
Speaker 8:Yeah, but still say you played well all week. I watched your scores, man. You had a great. You had a great hilton head, so that was cool to see. I know that you were sweating it. You've been sweating it, I've been listening all year. Yeah about it. And then you, you showed up, man, and so congratulations on that, bro I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:That means a lot, thank you yes, sir, absolutely.
Speaker 8:And newman, you know how I feel about you. You're my homeboy. You are welcome at our house anytime, either one of you, so we'd love to have you when you come down for those regionals. Just load up some of those old Atlanta members and have them buy the gas, and you're good to go. Bring them with you.
Speaker 2:I'll be coming from Hilton Head, so they'll have to find their own way down there load up, some of them old boys.
Speaker 8:Throw McCormick in the trunk.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 8:That's dangerous.
Speaker 2:If you've got food, booze and gambling. He's in.
Speaker 8:Exactly.
Speaker 2:There we go, exactly.
Speaker 8:Looking forward to it. Man, we appreciate everything y'all do for the tour. We're going to really, really, really push the podcast on our weekly emails and everything going out this year, so we're going to bring you guys some more followers. So that's our goal to help you grow as well.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. We need it. I think this is going to be a big year for us as well. Again, just look at some of the things we're doing. We're doing video now. We're going to be doing a couple other things that we're going to roll out throughout the year. It's kind of taken on a life of its own. You know, in a good way. I love doing it. You know, from my perspective, you know, being able to talk to people all across the country and find out what's going on and listen to the fun stuff that's going on in their tours, and being able to talk to people all across the country and find out what's going on and listen to the fun stuff that's going on in their tours, and being able to share that, you know, with all of our members, it's just a lot of fun for me.
Speaker 8:Sure. How cool is it, though, too, when you show up at nationals. I got guys coming up I haven't seen in 365 days hugging it out. I got Tony James from New Augusta Tour. Hey Terry, let's two-man up, and then we go and we make some money in the senior two-man. It's super cool, I see him. He was in my group at the regional. Did I tell you that I won a regional in 2024? Also the Myrtle Beach that Marty put on? Remember? We talked about that before, but man, weren't you on the podcast, right?
Speaker 2:we're gonna try, we're gonna try to.
Speaker 8:We're gonna try to emulate marty's um regional because, man, I told you guys this already, but that's been way back at st patrick state, but what a freaking class act, what a first-class regional. That's our goal this year at the regionals, for both the seniors and the golf week. If you come to those you're going to get treated like a champion. I hope you believe what's won, or, if not, second behind me, whatever.
Speaker 4:Terry's putting a lot of pressure on us. They're in some great regionals here. I'm sure that you will it's going to be fun yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm really looking forward to it and, terry, I'll be in touch because I got some ideas. I want to run by you about some other stuff and maybe we can help each other out Awesome.
Speaker 8:We're in downtown Houston, where we're a good time.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about it he lost him again.
Speaker 8:Yeah, here I come.
Speaker 2:All right, here we go.
Speaker 8:I don't know what happened to my computer. I'll have to talk to you offline about that. Mark, something went haywire, but it's all good. Running two emails now you know, golf week and senior Try to toggle back and forth. Yeah, I'm not really a good toggler. I'm going to tell you that much. Yeah, that's not good. Thanks for your time, guys. Man, I don't want to hold you up. I appreciate y'all alright, guys.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it and I'm looking forward to seeing you guys take care alright, appreciate it. See you guys, see you Chris let's take a break from the show to hear about Strixon ZX Mark II irons a great iron set needs more than good looks.
Speaker 7:it it's got to be fast and got to be pure, but good looks never hurt either. The all-new ZX Mark II irons from Strixon.
Speaker 2:Chris, you know, anytime Terry Lawson's on it's a fun time, it's a fun conversation. But you know, again, as we go through we're really going to try as hard as we can to make sure that we get every one of the Directors' Cup champions in because, you know, make a little light of it. But whoever's idea that was whether it was Dennis's or another member's or tour directors that I think is one of the best ideas that has come down the road for us as tour directors in a long time. What that did in terms of anticipation and excitement from the tour directors playing in the national championship, I thought was a phenomenal idea and huge success.
Speaker 3:You're telling me We'll get to mine in a bit, but when I first saw the email saying that you know this idea was floating around and we're going to do it, I immediately got excited. Because obviously you know number one, everyone's goal is to become a national champ. But let's be real, only one person can actually do it right. So me personally, when I since the first time I've been out, there was one first goal is to obviously be in contention and be at that top half of the course for day three, because then that means that you still have a chance, regardless of how far back you are. Goal two is make the money. Again, they're going to be one champion, but if I can make the money, I think that's a successful national championship.
Speaker 3:But adding this was also like okay, where am I at? You know, yeah, I'm four strokes back from the lead, but also, where am I at between all my other directors? Because, one, this is the first time we're doing this and for me me, this is the first and last time in B-Flight to have a chance. Because I've talked about it numerous times come January 1st I'm going to be in A-Flight and I'm going to give it all I can. I don't want to have to put down. I want to continue to grow and become a better golfer. I mean, that's what this tour is all about. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:It was just so much fun at that point. Yes, and again it's the bragging rights thing. And I mean you heard Mark, you heard Mark bragging on Robbie, right, bragging on Robbie. I mean you know he beat Robbie and I think it was on the last hole because I was at that course that they were at, and I think he beat him on the last hole and they were neck and neck the whole time. You know, you and Rick Wiginton, playoff, right, huge. But let me just run down the overall winners, just so everybody knows. On the senior side was Trey Coker, he's Louisiana. A-flight was Chuck Smith from Central Carolina. Then we had Mark Lenk, who we just had on, and he was B-flight. Terry Lawson was C-flight and D-flight was Solosmith. So we had husband and wife winners, you know, in A-flight and C-flight. That in and of itself was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, anything can happen. And you know, I don't think there was one flight where it was just one director in there. I think they had multiple directors in so they were able to compete against other people. And you know, the trophies that Dennis got us were outstanding. Can't wait to, you know, after Christmas decorations go away and all that, be able to to show that loud and proud. But uh, you know, a belt would have been pretty cool too to be able to pass the belt around every year, turn it in at director's meeting and see who takes it away for a year. Um, dennis, if you're listening, you know my address. You can send me mine if you'd like, if you want to change it up, cause you know, tim, I'll wear that belt around my waist, that whole director's meeting before I got to turn that thing in.
Speaker 2:There you go, but that's that's what you should do, right.
Speaker 3:Right, and now you know what? I might just buy my own and just continue, continue that, that tradition for B flight. But no, it was great, it was awesome and I was.
Speaker 2:I think I got more congratulations when I posted that from my tour than actually placing, which was pretty cool getting those text messages that's pretty awesome feeling right there yeah for sure on the golf week side champ flight we had Steve Calhoun who we had on earlier tonight A flight is Derek Barnes from Denver and that was pretty tough, pretty close as well.
Speaker 2:Brandon Peterson, who we had on Derek, beat him by two strokes so it was pretty close. He won in the playoff over Rick Wigington for B-Flight, terry Lawson who we just had on he did the rare double, both golf week and senior and Patino Martinez from 1D Flight yeah, 1d Flight. So we're going to do our best to get every one of those on at some point in the near future, hopefully by the end of January. Get them on and congratulate them properly, because it's again what that did for you know, for tour directors and camaraderie and the anticipation and that you know, bragging rights and all that other good stuff was, I thought, was really really good, and so kudos on whoever's idea it was, whether it was Dennis's other tour directors and I say that because I don't know one way or the other whose idea it was. So, whoever's idea, it was nice job.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think what was cool was, you know, we knew we had a tie in B flight and I asked Jen because she was at the course. I said, what do we do for a tie? Like do we go play it out? You know, like if it was a normal national championship, we go play it out. And she's like I don't even know. Call Dennis, ask him. So sure enough, I text Dennis hey, what do we do for the tie? He's like come over here to where the main party is and you're going to play 18. I'm like, oh great, because I know 18, a par 5, long, par 5, dog leg. You've got to go through the shoot of trees and we haven't played that course. So we don't know how the greens are rolling. We don't know anything about what's going on. Show up first thing. Where's your clubs? And you're waiting for me. It's like now I got double pressure, I gotta get on the podcast and you're holding everybody up.
Speaker 2:Hold up the whole progress, man. The whole plan of what's supposed to go on is all held up because of you I know, I know, but uh, you know, we got our clubs.
Speaker 3:We, we drive out to the t-box and you can't see anything off this t-box. No, you can't, um. So we hit our second. You know, we hit our tees. We go to our second shot and we look at the green and 20 directors are there just watching a gallery of them on the green. You know, hit our approach, shots of par fives, they both laid up and then we get on the green and, um, he hits his shot and you know they're, they're cheering for him and I'm like, all right, well, let's see what I can do.
Speaker 3:Lovely, gina is standing right behind the fly. I'm thinking to myself, gina, if you don't move in your highlighter yellow shirt, if I hit this thing too well, it's going to hit you. Let's just go after it. I hit it right over this tree and I'm telling you it was like a roar of tiger coming down 18 at Augusta, just about to win the Masters. It was crazy. And you can't see where the ball lands on this green because there's this big hill in front of it and you roll up and I'm four feet. I think it was the best shot I hit all weekend.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That green is pretty well protected. I mean it really is Right and it's again, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's narrow, I mean it's not very deep.
Speaker 3:It's very skinny, it's very skinny and it doesn't even go with the hole. It goes, you know, perpendicular to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, but you know we talk about nationals and the directors and the camaraderie, and you know the trash talking and all this. I nationals and the directors and the camaraderie, and you know the trash talking and all this. I kid you not. I walk up and see this right off the gate. I didn't even grab my putter yet. Oh, we don't want to see a three putt. We'd hate to see a three putt from four feet. I'm like, oh my God, dude, let me, let me grab my putt, and I am not lying to you when I tell you this.
Speaker 3:I was shaking on that first putt. I couldn't calm my nerves. I don't think I've shaken over a putt in forever since my first victory. And, yeah, I missed it and made the backup, which was longer than the downhill. So it was great. You know, it was a lot of fun. I've seen the pictures online and they look amazing and thankfully, gina recorded it and I mean it was a great time. And you know, like you said, whoever brought up that idea kudos, because I think it's going to be something that's going to be popular for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And what you should have said to Cephas was don't worry about what I'm doing, Just make sure you got all your stuff off your cart.
Speaker 3:I was just trying to stay calm. I couldn't even think about anything. I think because I wanted it that bad. Right, it meant a little bit more, and I think the bragging rights for that year means a lot.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, overall and I told you this, you know, when we were doing the interviews with the winners, I'm really proud of how you played. You know, especially after that conversation that we had, was it Wednesday night, thursday night, whatever it was you know, when we were there with Matt, and Scott With Dennis and them yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you know, I think not that I'm not saying that I had any role in it, but I think your mindset changed after that conversation. You know the whole idea is, you know you came down here to win and that's your mindset. Don't worry about, you know, the haggling over this or haggling over that, because the reality is, and I'm sure, and I know you picked up on this, you know the people that are that are good, good golfers and, um, good gambling golfers. That's how they get, get in your head, right, right. They nickel and dime you over a stroke here or a stroke there and now you know the people that may not be as good golfers are.
Speaker 2:Now all of a sudden oh my gosh, we're in our head. Don't worry about that, just go out there and hit your ball, play your game and it'll work out, and you? Did that.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:Because you know, think about this. You know we joked with Terry and Mark. That Terry, you know, in a C flight he shot five solid D flight rounds, and Mark in the B flight he shot two solid C flight rounds. Out of those people and I need to go back and look at the other scores you shot three solid B flight rounds, right where you should have been. Yeah, solid B flight rounds.
Speaker 3:It was great to have to learn to step back when I was on the bogey train and figure out what's going on in a split second and not really try and fix it but adjust to it. You know my hybrids were fading a little bit more than I would like, so then just adjust a little bit to the left and have it fall in like a a butterfly with sore feet and I mean it was working out and and being able to do that kind of, I think, like you said, took me to the next level and was able to get me where I really wanted to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm not really calling anybody out, but you know the A flight won A round, two B rounds. We know what you did, we know what Terry did and obviously D flightlate well, so patina, 92, 94, 89, I mean good, I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know where she finished it in the standings, you know in the overall standings. But that that's a, that's respectable, I mean that's you know right. And then if you look at the seniors again, I'm not looking at looking at championship, but A flight, two B flight rounds, b flight you know we talked about. You know a B flight and a C flight, terry again B flight and a C flight, terry again D flight and D flight is D flight. So when you look at all 10 of those, all 10 of the winners let's say eight winners, let's take out the champ flight guys. Right, you're the only one that really shot the. You know the flight rounds, good, solid flight rounds. Yeah, I'm really proud of the way you did it.
Speaker 3:Anyway, Appreciate it. I can't wait for next year's honestly.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think you know, like I said, you're moving up to A-flight, yeah, and let's talk about setting some realistic goals, Right, and we don't have to do that now or you know, even, but maybe come January we talk about setting realistic goals and you know, where do you want to be in March? Where do you want to be in July? Where do you want to be in September? Right, and work on certain things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's a good thing to set goals, regardless of what flight you're in, because it gives you something to look forward to. And I will say this I think playing these regional events gets you ready for nationals. I mean, before you and me traveled uh, I don't play TPC and then that was it. Maybe one more if we traveled, you know, as the guys trip, um, but being able to do as many as I did, I think got me prepared for the bigger groups and the more the tougher competition and, uh, you know, taking second and third and and two out of town regionals uh, two out-of-town regionals gives you a real confidence boost.
Speaker 3:moving forward to the Nationals it does, it does Well.
Speaker 2:So that's that. You know we're going to—this is the last episode of the 2024 season, you know. I think we've done a good job wrapping things up from that perspective. But registration is opening up differently this year than it has in the past. It's generally been on Black Friday, but it's going to be on Green Monday.
Speaker 3:Green Monday- Again, we don't know what that means, but okay.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about you. Hit the ball in the green. It's golf terminology.
Speaker 3:Okay, the grass is green, Money's green.
Speaker 2:You know we all want more of that Savings More green in your pocket. Yes. So again, that's going to open up on the 25th of November, right before Thanksgiving, Yep. So again, register early. You know, you fill felt the joint tour form, pay your local tour membership and get registered soon, because you know, here we go already, it's going to go by quick.
Speaker 3:It's the. You know we're getting in the roller coaster, we're getting buck buckled. They're coming and checking their harnesses and and once that membership kicks off, you know that's the start of of of the lead up to that roller coaster until your first event. And once your, once your first event starts, it's it's downhill. From there, I mean it's, it's a fun ride and uh, and you know it all comes down to national championship and and then the ride's over for a little while, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly I mean, but you know, if you think about it. Okay, you know we're 50, some days away from the first tournament.
Speaker 3:Don't say it like that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, think about it. I mean, that's we're ready to get rolling man. Yeah, 50-some days away from Southern Lights Breaker at Harbortown, robert Trent Jones, january 4th and 5th, you know. So do what you got to do. Get it done. Register. You know we're what you got to do. Get it done, register. You know we're going to have another couple big announcements coming up over the next few weeks for podcasts and some other things going on. So register and let's do this. Let's look forward to a good 2025 season.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely it's going to be fun. It keeps getting better and better every year. It does Just bring your friends. Let your friends know about it. If your friends are on the fence about joining us or joining the tour, show them the podcast and I'm pretty sure we'll convince them, because there's no other tour in the country that has two of their own guys hosting a podcast for just information on their tour.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. All right, my friend. I hope everybody has a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving Again. Registration opens up on November 25th for Green Monday. Make sure you get that done. Our next episode, first episode of the 2025 season, will drop on. I think it's the 2nd December 2nd, it's in two weeks bud.
Speaker 3:It's right. After Thanksgiving, it's right after Thanksgiving. Since we are a video podcast, if I'm eating some cherry pie or we're drinking a few, don't get mad at me, all right, Well if you're eating cherry pie, you better ship me some.
Speaker 2:Will do All right, my friend, it was good seeing you. I hope you got some rest because we're ready to get rolling.
Speaker 3:I'm ready, I'm excited. Let's do this. All right, bud, take care Likewise. Thank you.
