Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Fried Egg Podcasts
Speaker 1: and our Superintendent series, which is brought to you by
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Speaker 1: local Toro distributor to schedule a demo. Today, I interview
Speaker 1: Jordan Kaplan, who is the head superintendent at Belvedere Golf Club,
Speaker 1: which is up in the northern part of Lower Peninsula
Speaker 1: of Michigan. That's an important distinction that I learned this week.
Speaker 1: You know, northern Michigan. I think the Upper Peninsula people
Speaker 1: consider Lower Michigan. You know, it's not northern to them.
Speaker 1: So anyways, he's up in Charlevoi, Michigan at Belvedere. It
Speaker 1: is a William Watson design. It's a semi private golf
Speaker 1: club that offers public play tea times every day. It
Speaker 1: is a phenomenal place to play golf, and Jordan has
Speaker 1: done a wonderful job in the recent years. It was
Speaker 1: restored by Bruce Hepner in twenty sixteen, I believe, and
Speaker 1: Jordan took over last year. He had been at Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Cricket Club and came back to Michigan where he was
Speaker 1: from originally, and he has done a wonderful job taking
Speaker 1: care of the place and getting it in some of
Speaker 1: the best shape it's ever been. So we talk about
Speaker 1: just kind of Michigan getting there and his career to
Speaker 1: thus Bar and Belvedere. So, without further ado, here is
Speaker 1: Jordan Kaplan.
Speaker 2: I miss the green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 2: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in a fried Egg Friday.
Speaker 1: Egg the dread and Frida Egg Friday fridagg Brian egg.
Speaker 3: Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but when you were in you were in Philly.
Speaker 1: You're at the Cricket Club when this job came up,
Speaker 1: Like when you came out to interview where you just
Speaker 1: had you been here before? You know what what was?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, So.
Speaker 3: You know I grew up in Michigan, so definitely coming
Speaker 3: up uh up north. I was familiar with Charlavoy. My
Speaker 3: my wife and I actually were married in in Charlavoya.
Speaker 3: There's a cool little castle. It's called Castle Farms. So
Speaker 3: you know, I wanted to get married in a castle.
Speaker 3: My wife wanted to get married at a farm. So
Speaker 3: it worked out perfectly. Did you google Castle Farm? You know,
Speaker 3: we just we just wanted something more of a of
Speaker 3: a destination and it was, uh, it was a beautiful spot.
Speaker 3: So I flew into Traverse City for my interview. I
Speaker 3: knew exactly where I was going and it it it
Speaker 3: you know, it felt like I was here the day before.
Speaker 3: So you know, it definitely helped, uh to be uh
Speaker 3: familiar with the place. And and it beats beats Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: I love Philly, but it beats it by you know,
Speaker 3: a thousand percent.
Speaker 1: What yeah, what talk about quite a transition going from
Speaker 1: Philadelphia in an agronomy job in Philadelphia to northern Michigan.
Speaker 1: What's that? What's that been?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: It's you know, Northern Michigan's a it's a great place
Speaker 3: to grow grass. You can afford a mistake or two.
Speaker 3: Philly East Coast is just just ruthless. It's it's so
Speaker 3: hot and humid, a thousand things can go wrong, uh
Speaker 3: during the summer, you know, on the on the flip side, Well,
Speaker 3: while the summer up here might be a little better,
Speaker 3: easier pace to uh to manage a golf course. I
Speaker 3: I'd kind of compare our winter up here to the
Speaker 3: summer there to where in the winter here anything can
Speaker 3: go wrong you know, under the under the snow or
Speaker 3: with ice. But but yeah, just uh, you know, you're
Speaker 3: you're not walking out the door like you were in
Speaker 3: Philadelphia and it's it's eighty five with with one hundred
Speaker 3: percent humidity and the sun hasn't even come up yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you like walk outside of lather like, yeah, you
Speaker 1: just walk outside and it's you know, here here we go.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I love it, you know, definitely loved working
Speaker 3: working in Philly, you know, despite despite the uh, the
Speaker 3: summers and and the grind.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's just great.
Speaker 1: Up here that had to be a big transition besides
Speaker 1: just the the pace of life from Philadelphia to northern Michigan.
Speaker 1: But like the the club, like a giant club, like
Speaker 1: the Cricket Club, three courses, you know, with probably almost
Speaker 1: a thousand members, maybe more than a thousand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, you're you're you're correcting that. Yeah, the the
Speaker 3: Cricket Club was just a big, a big machine golf,
Speaker 3: but was also fortunate enough to be at the Philadelphia campus,
Speaker 3: the Saint Martin's campus where that that kind of was
Speaker 3: your country club feel where there was the pool, there
Speaker 3: was tennis. Uh, we had grass tennis courts there and
Speaker 3: then the the nine hole Saint Martin's golf course.
Speaker 1: Did you maintain the tennis course too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, which is you know that was that was
Speaker 3: really cool. It was something different. You know, I'm still
Speaker 3: I'm still kind of geeked out by by grass tennis
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, there's a there's a number of
Speaker 3: facilities in in in the States that you know, I
Speaker 3: still follow.
Speaker 1: And was there basically one crossover between golf and tennis
Speaker 1: maintenance or did you do different things for tennis or
Speaker 1: were there things that are standard practice and tennis that
Speaker 1: you could bring to golf.
Speaker 2: I would say, if you can.
Speaker 3: If you can manage turf, you could you could manage
Speaker 3: a grass tennis court. The only difference being some of
Speaker 3: the intricacies with the line painting, but but a lot
Speaker 3: of moving parts. I mean, to mow, to mow an
Speaker 3: approach on a golf course, you just start going, you know,
Speaker 3: to mow a tennis court, you got to move tennis nets.
Speaker 2: You've got to.
Speaker 3: You know, then paint the lines after. Uh, there's divide
Speaker 3: or nettings between between the courts. So that the grass
Speaker 3: part pretty much if you can do it on a
Speaker 3: golf course, you can do it on a tennis court.
Speaker 3: It's it's just there's some additional moving parts and and
Speaker 3: you know, additional running and twisting and uh traffic that
Speaker 3: that that surface would would experience.
Speaker 1: So in terms of difficulty of maintenance, is baseball field
Speaker 1: the easiest? Tennis court? Second? Golf course?
Speaker 2: Third?
Speaker 1: How how would you what's the hierarchy?
Speaker 2: You know, I don't.
Speaker 3: I think each each presents its challenges and we need and.
Speaker 1: We can't have their off top.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know the thing about the thing about a
Speaker 3: baseball field or or even you know, the little uh,
Speaker 3: you know, not little, but it was four acres of
Speaker 3: of manicure. I'd say that the difference between a golf
Speaker 3: courses you're spread out and you've got you know, numerous
Speaker 3: different areas of the course. On a baseball field, you
Speaker 3: just you could stand on home plate and see, you know,
Speaker 3: see the whole thing. So uh, you know, I think
Speaker 3: that the vastness of the golf course is what makes
Speaker 3: what makes it a little more challenging. So just the
Speaker 3: sheer size of yeah, yep, I imagine tennis has got
Speaker 3: to have be tough because of the running thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: And then you know, so the kicker is in in Philly,
Speaker 3: it's hot. These courts were predominantly poa and you know,
Speaker 3: definitely need water.
Speaker 2: So you know, the kicker is you on a golf
Speaker 2: course if.
Speaker 3: You needed a cut in between a group and you know,
Speaker 3: spray down the green, you can, I mean you could
Speaker 3: still pot on that. You can't really have a wet
Speaker 3: surface for for tennis players. So uh, you know, another
Speaker 3: facet of that was just having a good rotation, you know,
Speaker 3: tating the tennis players knowing, okay, I need a water here,
Speaker 3: they'll play on this court. That that was watered in
Speaker 3: the morning and.
Speaker 2: Is dry now.
Speaker 1: So top dress a tennis court.
Speaker 3: We we didn't, you know, but you know certainly when
Speaker 3: we when we a rated, we we dragged the.
Speaker 2: Corps around you A.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, is that like just like do tennis players
Speaker 1: react the same way.
Speaker 3: As golfers the cricket Club, it was. It was nice
Speaker 3: at the Cricket Club because the tennis courts were used,
Speaker 3: you know, between Memorial Day and Labor Day in the
Speaker 3: shoulder season, everything nets was stripped off off the area
Speaker 3: and it was used for to actually play cricket.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Still, so we we focused our aerration in the in
Speaker 3: the shoulder season of tennis. But but yeah, you you couldn't.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't want.
Speaker 2: To play tennis on a grass court right after it
Speaker 2: was aerrated.
Speaker 1: Did were tennis players pick here about their playing surface
Speaker 1: or golfers?
Speaker 3: I think it's uh, you know, I'll put it this way. No,
Speaker 3: no tennis at at the Belvidere golf course. And I'm
Speaker 3: I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: I guess like tennis players can't complain about whole location.
Speaker 2: So that's that's true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And the net's where it is every day,
Speaker 1: so you can't complain about the net.
Speaker 2: The net location.
Speaker 1: So I getting to Belvidere there, this place is a
Speaker 1: very historic place. There are not been many golf pros.
Speaker 1: There haven't been many superintendents. What's it like, you know,
Speaker 1: taking over for somebody that's been here for you know, decades.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, the cool part is since
Speaker 3: the club was was built in nineteen twenty five, I'm
Speaker 3: the fourth superintendent in it's in its history and my
Speaker 3: my predecessor, Rick Rick Runch was here for thirty years,
Speaker 3: you know, and and and did did numerous things from
Speaker 3: he started to take the course to where.
Speaker 2: It is now.
Speaker 3: And it's kind of like a passing of the torch
Speaker 3: and I'm going to put put my spin on it
Speaker 3: and take it the direction it needs to go for
Speaker 3: you know, hopefully the next twenty five thirty years as well.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean it always helps, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: to have new eyes on something. You know, Rick Rick
Speaker 3: was Rick was a superintendent and a different generation than
Speaker 3: I am. So you know, I don't know, if you know,
Speaker 3: a robotic mower or something. I'm not saying that's what
Speaker 3: we're we're looking into, but there's so many things that
Speaker 3: you know that I'm learning now and open to that. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: you know, could could benefit the golf course.
Speaker 1: With anything you look at different generations, like you look
Speaker 1: at like building architecture, which I think like mirrors golf
Speaker 1: architecture in a lot of ways, Like you see the
Speaker 1: trends of building architecture today versus you know, what they
Speaker 1: were in the nineties, and it's like starically different. But
Speaker 1: golf course maintenance is obviously changing a lot, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things is less inputs, you know,
Speaker 1: eyes towards a little bit more sustainability from you know
Speaker 1: what we're you know, putting into the into the grass.
Speaker 1: But then also you know, a big emphasis on a
Speaker 1: playing surface that rather than you know, a visual you
Speaker 1: mentioned how you know you're different era of superintendent, Like
Speaker 1: what are the things that you're trying to bring to
Speaker 1: Belvedere that that are kind of new to the club
Speaker 1: in the last two years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, you know, if you know, wherever
Speaker 3: you are, you want to maintain the course, uh to
Speaker 3: the membership's expectations, and you know it's it's it was
Speaker 3: a great golf course when I showed up on on
Speaker 3: day one. You know, if you did nothing, it would
Speaker 3: it would be great. We're we're ultimately just trying to refine,
Speaker 3: refine some details, you know, to to ultimately the keep
Speaker 3: keep it in that William Watson UH vision and and
Speaker 3: and be as close to that as we can. You know,
Speaker 3: one one thing, UH popular term terminology fast, fast, and firm.
Speaker 3: You know, we're definitely trying to be be as judicious
Speaker 3: with our watering uh as as we can be to
Speaker 3: get get some of those crazy bounces out there. You know,
Speaker 3: we we host a Hickory event, the Belvedere Open, every year.
Speaker 3: We've hosted the uh the US Hickory Open in the
Speaker 3: past before I got here. But you know, the course,
Speaker 3: uh when they played in June, we hadn't had a
Speaker 3: lot of rain.
Speaker 2: It was so firm.
Speaker 3: It just played perfectly into what Hickory golf is all about.
Speaker 3: And and get in some cool bounces and you know,
Speaker 3: if you're lucky, it bounced towards the cup. If if
Speaker 3: you're not, it bounced bounced the other way. So yeah,
Speaker 3: just trying to refine some details out out on the course.
Speaker 3: But you know, like like I said, if if we
Speaker 3: didn't do anything, this is a great, great property and
Speaker 3: you know, the greens out here, the green surrounds just
Speaker 3: just you know.
Speaker 2: Blow people away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've imagine having Hickory like a Hickory golf culture
Speaker 1: like this place has, like your pro Marty very into
Speaker 1: Hickory golf like and I think you imagine that helps
Speaker 1: because when people come out and play Hickory's and it's firm,
Speaker 1: it's such a different experience than when you play Hickory's
Speaker 1: and it's soft because the ball just doesn't you know,
Speaker 1: react and move the way it needs to with Hickory
Speaker 1: equipment if it's soft.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you know, it's just it's just
Speaker 3: really cool that you know, members you know and invest
Speaker 3: the time in the in their equipment. I mean, you
Speaker 3: might find a golf club and you don't if it's
Speaker 3: an original club, you don't know who used it before
Speaker 3: you you know, they definitely you know, where the outfits
Speaker 3: and and and dress the part, and it just it
Speaker 3: fits in great for the culture here that you know, belvidere, play, belvitere,
Speaker 3: step back in time. What could go better than you know,
Speaker 3: some some old school Hickory golf.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about the place is, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you go in like the golf house or
Speaker 1: I don't know what they call it, the pro shop,
Speaker 1: probably pro shop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's like you go into there and it's like they
Speaker 1: just there's such an embrace with the history of the place.
Speaker 1: And I think obviously I played here maybe a decade
Speaker 1: and a half ago, and you know, it wasn't backed.
Speaker 1: And obviously they did the restoration with Bruce Happner where
Speaker 1: they got a lot of the green surrounds back, but
Speaker 1: like you know, getting that playing surface where it is
Speaker 1: browned out where like you know, you look at old
Speaker 1: ariols and golf courses weren't heavily watered and everything like
Speaker 1: matching that golf course to you. The feel of the
Speaker 1: the golf shop and and then the you know, the
Speaker 1: old school clubhouse is is such an important part of
Speaker 1: the whole experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I would I would also describe uh,
Speaker 3: Marty's Little Pro Shop as a you know, museum of sorts.
Speaker 3: He's got he's got pictures of all the great golfers
Speaker 3: who have who have played here. Uh, Sarah's in and
Speaker 3: you know, could could go on and on. Uh He's
Speaker 3: always got you know, this kind of old school jazz
Speaker 3: music playing in there. So I mean really that that's
Speaker 3: the experience at Elevet Here. You know, forget, forget everything
Speaker 3: else going on in the outside world, come come play
Speaker 3: golf here. Uh get get sucked into it, and you know,
Speaker 3: realize that it's it's one of the few William Watson
Speaker 3: golf courses in America that really hasn't been been touched.
Speaker 3: I mean, granted the greens trunk, but there there wasn't
Speaker 3: a bulldozer brought on him or something. So so the
Speaker 3: contours and stuff are all there, and you know, every
Speaker 3: everything that William Watson did with his with his horse teams.
Speaker 2: Have as has survived to this day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's it's such a neat property because
Speaker 1: obviously you have the you have the ridge that the
Speaker 1: clubhouse sits on, and you know some of the you know,
Speaker 1: the road runs through, dividing the front and the back
Speaker 1: nine for those that haven't been to Velvet Yere, and
Speaker 1: you've got a ridge that this road sits on the
Speaker 1: ninth hole, the first tee and then the tenth tee
Speaker 1: and the eighteenth hole sits on that's like the prominent ridge.
Speaker 1: Seventeen plays on the ridge and sixteen plays up to it,
Speaker 1: but then everything kind of goes off that ridge and
Speaker 1: there's a low point and they come back up. But like,
Speaker 1: just how simple the golf course is with this one
Speaker 1: defined ridge really that everything dictates off of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, huge, huge ridge, you know.
Speaker 3: To finish, you finish the front nine on it, you
Speaker 3: finish eighteen on it, and then you're kind of winding
Speaker 3: your way through these ups and downs, you know. I Uh,
Speaker 3: one of my favorite things to do, uh in Charlavoy
Speaker 3: is just drive around on some of these country back roads.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, and I just go, oh, golf course there.
Speaker 3: You can put a golf course there, and it's just
Speaker 3: you gotta wonder what, you know, what if they decided
Speaker 3: to go a mile down the road, would it have
Speaker 3: been as good? You know, they really they really did
Speaker 3: a fine job select in their spot.
Speaker 1: It's a so Wasson lived in the winters in San
Speaker 1: Francisco and he came here every summer.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So he he came here for you know, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five years after after he built it, and you know,
Speaker 3: was was the golf pro here, you know, so that
Speaker 3: that gave him all that time too to kind of
Speaker 3: see his product and protect it from being from being tweaked.
Speaker 1: I wonder how much like fine tuning he did over
Speaker 1: the years, like how many little tweaks And he probably
Speaker 1: never like you know, he had he kept decent notes,
Speaker 1: like you have some hole by hole things from him,
Speaker 1: But like you know, I wonder because like Ross, you
Speaker 1: always hear about Ross lived on you know, Pinehurst on
Speaker 1: like the third hole there, right, and then he lived
Speaker 1: at Essex County, I believe, up in Boston for a
Speaker 1: period of time. And you see the holes by his
Speaker 1: house have like a little bit more pizazzed. And this
Speaker 1: is a golf course that Boston effectively lived on for
Speaker 1: summers for and the greens here are like unmistakably like
Speaker 1: they're just unbelievable, like as potato chippy, as potato chip greens.
Speaker 3: Got yeah you know you got a one er two.
Speaker 3: I mean, how willing were those guys, you know to admit,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, I did make a mistake there. I mean
Speaker 3: they were probably pretty attached to their work. And you know,
Speaker 3: take take the Cricket Club for example, the Tiling House course.
Speaker 3: I believe there were some alterations by someone other than
Speaker 3: tilling Hass not too long after they did it. You know,
Speaker 3: Tilly probably wouldn't have you know, condoned any of that.
Speaker 3: So I I think you're probably right. He was probably
Speaker 3: happy with with what he had and any any kind
Speaker 3: of major overhaul would have admitted, hey, you got this
Speaker 3: wrong or something.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting thing with today, Like an architect builds
Speaker 1: a golf course and sometimes like they don't even play
Speaker 1: the golf course for years like versus then like a
Speaker 1: lot of times an architect might work at the club
Speaker 1: or live at the club, or you know, build the
Speaker 1: golf course and was a member, you know, prominent member
Speaker 1: like Stevie McDonald obviously had houses at every golf course
Speaker 1: he built, like you know these you think about how
Speaker 1: much architecture changed obviously, like Ross didn't play every golf course.
Speaker 1: But like with Watson living here, like it's just such
Speaker 1: a different dynamic, Like we don't have golf architects that
Speaker 1: necessarily build their golf courses and then just spend every
Speaker 1: summer at them for two decades, three decades.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so you know, a labor of love for
Speaker 3: mister William Watson for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean the one thing, obviously, I think, like the
Speaker 1: one glaring thing the golf course is the bunker style,
Speaker 1: Like that's the one thing that is a little bit
Speaker 1: missing from like just pure throwback as you come out.
Speaker 1: And the bunkers were renovated in the nineties and obviously
Speaker 1: they probably were like a you know, needed renovation of
Speaker 1: some sort, needed work. But now you have not really
Speaker 1: a intricately shaped they're kind of a you know, imagine
Speaker 1: if I built a bunker might look like that, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 3: We have old aerols and the nineteen thirty six, but
Speaker 3: then some stuff in the fifties.
Speaker 2: So even in the fifties, the.
Speaker 3: Bunkers, you know, mimic the you know what we saw
Speaker 3: in the nineteen thirty six areas, So a Watson bunker
Speaker 3: you know around the sixties, uh, definitely kind of you know,
Speaker 3: joined joined some bunkers together, made them a little rounder.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of that goes into play too
Speaker 3: with Hey, those were easy to maintain.
Speaker 1: Well, this is the whole architecture thing too, is like
Speaker 1: that just became like you look at building architecture, like
Speaker 1: subdivisions came in vogue in the fifties and sixties and
Speaker 1: like the cookie cutter like you know, right, right, So
Speaker 1: that's that's culture perfectly how I would describe the the
Speaker 1: bunkers now, you know, kind of a cookie cutter look
Speaker 1: to it. You know, that's what happened to every golf
Speaker 1: course in the sixties. Hey, let's put some trees there,
Speaker 1: and and you know, let's so I think it was
Speaker 1: at the time it was done, it was you know,
Speaker 1: trendy and and what other courses were doing. You know,
Speaker 1: you come forty years later and you're right, you step
Speaker 1: back in time and and and and that's the that's
Speaker 1: the element that's missing. Kind of a cool side note,
Speaker 1: Bruce Hepner, Uh was out this summer and we're doing
Speaker 1: a little short game area off off to the side
Speaker 1: in an old turf nursery and he he was, you know,
Speaker 1: definitely experimenting with the with the Watson style. So you
Speaker 1: know that that would be the first step. Let's kind
Speaker 1: of figure out what the Watson style is. It's it's
Speaker 1: safe to say Watson had some different bunker styles depending
Speaker 1: on where he was working. One one kind of uh
Speaker 1: comparison that I like a lot a year before nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four Arenda Golf Club in in California. You know,
Speaker 1: they they did some some restoration work there. And I
Speaker 1: think it's safe to say that Watson's style here was
Speaker 1: was heavily influenced by by the California UH work and
Speaker 1: and folks he was hanging out without there and he
Speaker 1: that that look would would fit so well into this
Speaker 1: landscape too, because it's got you know, is it would
Speaker 1: sit really nicely into the hills and it would give
Speaker 1: that kind of artistic flare that would match the the
Speaker 1: flare of.
Speaker 3: The greens absolutely. And you know, so so we we
Speaker 3: you know, we know what what needs to be done.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously there's there's a lot of stuff that
Speaker 3: goes into a into a bunker restoration. There's money, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of things with with sand and and bunker liners.
Speaker 3: We we won't get into that, but I think one
Speaker 3: of the other things we we when we were driving
Speaker 3: around the golf course is, uh, you know, some of
Speaker 3: the bunkers are just overbearing in in the landscape, you know,
Speaker 3: so there there's definitely some something to be gained from
Speaker 3: from a stylistic UH changes. Certainly the playability and drainage
Speaker 3: would improve in the bunkers. And yeah, I mean if
Speaker 3: if if one of the best in the game, Bruce Hepner,
Speaker 3: you know, could get to get as mini X bucket
Speaker 3: on some of that stuff would be amazing, But you know,
Speaker 3: one step at a time. You know, we also don't
Speaker 3: want to get ahead of ourselves because like we did say,
Speaker 3: I mean, regardless of bunkers or this or that, you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's all about the.
Speaker 2: Greens out here, you know. So so we'll keep on it.
Speaker 1: We'll be I think that's a cool way to do
Speaker 1: it too, is like you get the short game area.
Speaker 1: It gives like members a chance to see you know,
Speaker 1: like I think it's really hard for a lot of
Speaker 1: times people to envision what something might look like unless
Speaker 1: somebody does like a very intricate photoshop rendering.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But like you know, for somebody to be able to
Speaker 1: go out play in it and like hit shots out
Speaker 1: of it and also look at it, it just does
Speaker 1: wonders for the you know, them being able to see, oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to do bunkers like this out on the
Speaker 1: golf course, right.
Speaker 3: And I truly believe you know, shapers like Bruce and others,
Speaker 3: while they can put something on a plan, I think
Speaker 3: they do their best work when they just roll up
Speaker 3: to the bunker and and and I don't want to
Speaker 3: I don't want to describe it as winging it. They
Speaker 3: certainly know what they're doing, but you know, let the
Speaker 3: let the juices flow out in the field and and
Speaker 3: then be really hard to to kind of unless you're
Speaker 3: an excellent artist to to draw what that bunker looks like.
Speaker 2: You. So, I I think we're on the right track.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're gonna have a bunker that you can
Speaker 3: get your get your feet in and play around, and
Speaker 3: we'll try some different bunker sands and you know, go
Speaker 3: from there. But yeah, it was just really cool to
Speaker 3: watch him, watch him go. He actually he dug the
Speaker 3: bunkers out and then he shaped a couple of green
Speaker 3: pads and he actually said, I've never I've never built
Speaker 3: a green.
Speaker 2: With a mini excavator before. This is this is kind
Speaker 2: of cool.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying he would switch to just doing it
Speaker 3: that way in the future, but yeah, he was definitely
Speaker 3: kind of in the zone and and making it happen.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things was you're you're very like
Speaker 1: I'm a big self deprecator of myself, and I love
Speaker 1: that we pulled up to your your chip here. So
Speaker 1: this is this I built this bucker is terrible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean just uh, just being honest. But you know,
Speaker 1: the difference between you know, the professionals and myself is, yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't they don't make mistakes. You know, you have
Speaker 1: a staff of ten or so people, Like there's a
Speaker 1: there's definitely a balance of like what can we do
Speaker 1: in house versus makes sense to outsource?
Speaker 2: Right right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, i mean tree tree work for example. You know,
Speaker 3: we we do a lot of that in house, you know,
Speaker 3: but but we know too want to wave the white
Speaker 3: flag and hey, this is a little it's a little crazy.
Speaker 2: Let's bring in the professionals.
Speaker 3: How big is it that a tree? It's not necessarily
Speaker 3: the size. It's kind of like what's going on up top?
Speaker 3: What's you know, where it's uh.
Speaker 2: Where it's leaning.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm I'm scared to death of willow trees.
Speaker 3: That's got to be done by a professional from from
Speaker 3: the top down.
Speaker 1: So that's that like when there's more going on up top,
Speaker 1: that's when you have to start up top. You can't
Speaker 1: just cut.
Speaker 2: It and yeah, yeah, yep, yep.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's it's it's awesome to be able to
Speaker 3: to do things yourself out here and and be self
Speaker 3: you know, self sufficient. You know you also you got
Speaker 3: to know when to call him in. You know at
Speaker 3: the Cricket Club, we uh we laid like a mile
Speaker 3: of brick paths walk pass around the around the club
Speaker 3: and we did it all ourselves in house. You know,
Speaker 3: the savings on that to have a contractor do it.
Speaker 1: Just just everybody can relate to that. That's ever done
Speaker 1: like a house project. And they turned out, you know,
Speaker 1: they turned out great. Now for a quick word from
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Speaker 1: front nine covered and your back nine two. In fact,
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Speaker 1: to Jordan Kaplan talking about Winner a like is everybody
Speaker 1: talks about Winner being awful here from just a living standpoint,
Speaker 1: I kind of disagree. I think there's stuff to do,
Speaker 1: is that true?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean one hundred percent. You know, skiing, snowboarding.
Speaker 3: There's a cool little little just slope in town with
Speaker 3: toe ropes for kids to use. The boying resorts which
Speaker 3: aren't too far away. I mean that's probably classified as
Speaker 3: the best skiing up in you know, this part of
Speaker 3: the in the Midwest, in the Midwest.
Speaker 1: Which is like below average. Yeah, yeah, before any ski snobs.
Speaker 3: So there's I mean, it's it's what you make of it,
Speaker 3: you know. I guess my biggest thing is it can
Speaker 3: snow as much as it wants up here. Snow living
Speaker 3: in you know, in inner city like Chicago or Philadelphia
Speaker 3: is just miserable.
Speaker 1: So just after like two days, it turns stuff brown.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Ice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I'll take the snow as long as you're
Speaker 3: in the right in the right setting and and you
Speaker 3: have some good, good outlets to you know, enjoy it.
Speaker 1: What do you what do you what are you doing
Speaker 1: in the winter? Like, what's that look like? You said,
Speaker 1: that's that when you have to be really careful with
Speaker 1: ice and such and damage on the greens. How do
Speaker 1: you monitor that? Like, what's a recipe for something that
Speaker 1: you really need to be worried about?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the best is you know, when you
Speaker 3: just have kind of a light, fluffy snow on there,
Speaker 3: even if it's a foot deep, you know that snow's
Speaker 3: got you know, poor spaces in it. And and I'll
Speaker 3: get the the nightmare scenario is if you get a
Speaker 3: melt down and then you get an ice layer that forms,
Speaker 3: you don't want your grass to.
Speaker 1: Be uh essentially creates like an impermeable surface. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: grass can't breathe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the snow, the snow itself is nice, you know,
Speaker 3: protection from from wind and and and everything else. In fact,
Speaker 3: you know this this spring, our snow melted pretty early
Speaker 3: and uh it got it got pretty hot and uh
Speaker 3: you know for that time of year and windy and
Speaker 3: and things were drying out before the irrigation system was
Speaker 3: turned on. So you know, to to have had that
Speaker 3: snow cover for an extra two weeks would actually been
Speaker 3: you know favorable, uh, to to just protect the protect
Speaker 3: the grass. So yeah, I do a lot of you know,
Speaker 3: I'll walk around, I'll get some snow shoes on, and
Speaker 3: and and walk around the course just kind of check
Speaker 3: on things.
Speaker 2: I know, which harder is it.
Speaker 1: To walk with snow shoes?
Speaker 2: It's I think it beats it beats going in.
Speaker 1: Is it like one point five times walking or you know, like.
Speaker 2: I think it?
Speaker 3: Uh, if anything, it's a good it's a good workout.
Speaker 3: It beats you know, sinking down a well.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's better. You know, they exist for a reason.
Speaker 1: But like, you know, are we talking like what's the
Speaker 1: strain level versus walking on just grass? You feel the burn? Yeah,
Speaker 1: feel the burn? Yeah, yeah, you might be in better
Speaker 1: shape in the winter.
Speaker 2: And yeah that's a good that's a good point. You know.
Speaker 3: You you almost need to get yourself in pre winter,
Speaker 3: pre winter shape for that.
Speaker 1: You gotta start walking snow shoes on the grass.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now, if I if I wanted to get fancy, maybe
Speaker 3: someday I'll buy myself a snowmobile and drive that around.
Speaker 3: But I also don't want I wouldn't want anybody driving
Speaker 3: by to see me on that because you know, they
Speaker 3: might think, oh, it's the new new.
Speaker 2: Snowmobile park at the Belvitere So.
Speaker 1: And then you wouldn't get all the exercise right right right,
Speaker 1: So so with the you know, with the I wonder
Speaker 1: if global warming obviously, like everywhere it's getting hotter, So
Speaker 1: like do you think like that early spring might become
Speaker 1: more and more of a thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 1: It's have you talked to Rick at all about like
Speaker 1: how it changed over his career. I think the bottom
Speaker 1: line is living on Lake Michigan is you never know
Speaker 1: what you're gonna get with with the amount of snowfall.
Speaker 1: And it's for me, it's just really hard to keep
Speaker 1: track of what is normal now, you know, even even
Speaker 1: in Philly.
Speaker 2: Uh to say, hey this.
Speaker 3: This is the hottest year ever and you're like, well
Speaker 3: last year was pretty hot or so It's it's tough.
Speaker 3: The big issue around here is, uh, when when the
Speaker 3: lake levels start to rise, and you know, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of beautiful homes on Lake Charlavoie and Lake Michigan
Speaker 3: and and maybe not quite equipped to handle it, you know,
Speaker 3: rise in water level, you know, so so the lakes
Speaker 3: up here changes in water level. I think that all
Speaker 3: plays hand to hand and in the climate that that
Speaker 3: we experience here in Michigan in the winter.
Speaker 1: I always think snow on a golf course like kind
Speaker 1: of accentuates sometimes contour like and then obviously the trees
Speaker 1: don't have any leaves, do you Are there things that
Speaker 1: you've noticed in the winter, like any examples of stuff
Speaker 1: that you've noticed on the golf course in the winter
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have seen if you weren't walking around.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean that that I love looking at that.
Speaker 3: You know, snow cover the other really nice way to
Speaker 3: see uh, contours on the golf course. It's it's hard
Speaker 3: to video, but if you if you drive around the
Speaker 3: course at night with your lif on you you see
Speaker 3: the funkiest stuff going on that you would never see
Speaker 3: in daylight. So so with the snow you can also
Speaker 3: kind of Okay, so there's a big snow bank over here,
Speaker 3: that means that area the golf course gets gets wind swept.
Speaker 3: You know, Hey, that's why that area dries out because
Speaker 3: of the wind in the in the in the summertime.
Speaker 3: So there there are a number of things, you know,
Speaker 3: that that you can gather. You know, snow snow melted
Speaker 3: here first in the in the valley.
Speaker 1: That means it gets probably a lot of sun right
Speaker 1: right right, and.
Speaker 3: You know the the when you're coming out of snow melt.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'd still consider that winter time, that winter
Speaker 3: sun is just as important too to the grass as
Speaker 3: you know, sunlight would be during the growing season. You know,
Speaker 3: so even even though a tree might not have its
Speaker 3: leaves on it, it very well could be you know,
Speaker 3: hindering some of that that winter sunshine and that you know,
Speaker 3: ultimately you need to get the get the place green
Speaker 3: and growing again.
Speaker 2: Come come the season.
Speaker 3: We had a uh, I've been a little spoiled. I
Speaker 3: mean we've had to two pretty good starts of the
Speaker 3: season in my in my two years here. That that
Speaker 3: that I will take.
Speaker 1: What you took over for long time superintendent, retain the
Speaker 1: staff like was there, you know, what were the things
Speaker 1: that you know, obviously you wanted to impart your your practices,
Speaker 1: but you have a staff that's been used to, you know,
Speaker 1: doing things one way. How is the process of kind
Speaker 1: of of of working and things that you wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I imagine you can't just be a heavy handed approach like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I have to I have to commend
Speaker 3: them because I mean it probably was a little scary. Hey,
Speaker 3: I've I've worked here for.
Speaker 2: Rick for for X.
Speaker 3: Number of years, a new guy coming in. I mean,
Speaker 3: and in some situations that probably is what happens. New
Speaker 3: guy comes in and just clean cleans house. They they
Speaker 3: were all very uh, you know, willing and and helpful
Speaker 3: and in my transition. And and I think they're kind
Speaker 3: of seeing the method to the madness. You know, if
Speaker 3: if if they're noticing the courses looking good and and
Speaker 3: they're getting some high fives when they're out there, you know,
Speaker 3: I think we're on the right track. And they're all
Speaker 3: they're all great guys, and and they you know, come
Speaker 3: to come to work and give it all they got
Speaker 3: and they all care about this place too. So that
Speaker 3: that's been you know, one of one of the blessings
Speaker 3: to to have had the staff that that Rick hat
Speaker 3: in place and and and just make make make some
Speaker 3: tweaks to to you know, take it, take it the
Speaker 3: next level direction that that we want to go in.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously Philly people versus Upper Midwest people. It's
Speaker 1: you know, coming back, leaving and coming back. You know
Speaker 1: what what are the different is it? Just working with
Speaker 1: people in the midwect. I don't want to get you
Speaker 1: in trouble with anybody in Philadelphia. I think all the
Speaker 1: Philadelphians are pretty aware of their you know, of their
Speaker 1: personas is there is it, you know, managing people in
Speaker 1: the two different places, Is it distinctly different?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean as as far as you know, we're
Speaker 3: working side by side, hard working folks who work on
Speaker 3: the golf course. I mean, that's that's the same, you know.
Speaker 3: And then membership too, it's got I think I just
Speaker 3: feel like people are a little more relaxed up here.
Speaker 3: You just come, you come, and you throw it all away.
Speaker 3: It's a vacation club too, versus an everyday CLUBB true, true,
Speaker 3: So I think there's just a little more you know,
Speaker 3: it's a little more chill up here. If it's if
Speaker 3: it's my personality, well, you know, I I'm I'm a
Speaker 3: little more laid back in in some regards too. So
Speaker 3: it's it's just a good lifestyle up here, you know.
Speaker 3: You know why why our.
Speaker 2: Members choose to spend summers up in Charlavoie.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously Belvidere is a well known vacation club,
Speaker 1: right because and it's well known because it's public. But
Speaker 1: then there's all these other ones up here that are
Speaker 1: just like kind of like these little places that have
Speaker 1: some neat stuff going on, and what's the dynamic with
Speaker 1: like the superintendent's up here, did everybody everybody kind of
Speaker 1: do you guys get together every once in a while
Speaker 1: or how does that work because you're all at these
Speaker 1: little lake town clubs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So so one thing about so Belvidere, I think this
Speaker 3: is a misconception, but Belvidere is a private golf club
Speaker 3: that that allows you know, outside play. I think the
Speaker 3: term semi private's kind of kind of weird. But but
Speaker 3: as far as the area, there's there's so many great
Speaker 3: golf courses. There's the golf course. Uh, Superintendent Association Michigan
Speaker 3: is is top notch. It's all, uh, it's all under
Speaker 3: one umbrella. So everybody in the state gets together. And
Speaker 3: in particular, the the superintendent's up north who I've met
Speaker 3: and interacted with, were just you know, super welcoming. I
Speaker 3: was was obviously an outsider, but you know, welcomed me
Speaker 3: with open arms. And gosh, there's some there's some talented
Speaker 3: superintendents up here who would be successful at you know,
Speaker 3: in any region of the of the country. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a great uh, great, great state to be a superintendent,
Speaker 3: and it's a great state for golf courses.
Speaker 1: I feel like Central Michigan superintendent in southeast probably you know,
Speaker 1: have just you know, some anngst about you guys and
Speaker 1: your growing conditions. Yeah, gosh, I like to poke fund
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 2: I've talked to.
Speaker 3: You know, this year in particular, I've talked to some
Speaker 3: folks in the Detroit area and they've had a lot
Speaker 3: of a lot of rain. So I mean I feel
Speaker 3: for them, uh for sure. But yeah, it's it's a
Speaker 3: good it's a good community.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Obviously up north we're a little a little farther away
Speaker 3: from everybody else, so maybe we are a little a
Speaker 3: little tighter of a group. But you know, you can't
Speaker 3: if I mean talk about a golf trip. You know,
Speaker 3: if if you wanted to spend some time in northern Michigan,
Speaker 3: you you couldn't go wrong.
Speaker 2: I mean I would.
Speaker 3: I would hit up Arcadia Bluffs, you know, spend some
Speaker 3: time at Forest Dunes. You know, certainly stop by and
Speaker 3: see us at at Belvetere. But you know, if you
Speaker 3: also just get off the beaten path, I mean, you're
Speaker 3: bound to discover kind of a sleeper.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. There's so many courses up here. Just stop,
Speaker 1: Like this is why I find myself. I just get
Speaker 1: off the road and go look. Even if you just
Speaker 1: go pull into the parking lot and get out and
Speaker 1: walk a couple of hundred yards, you'd probably see something
Speaker 1: cool because, like you said about driving around, like the
Speaker 1: land's just so good that like it's almost hard to
Speaker 1: build bad golf when you have the land. And I
Speaker 1: mean the playing the sandy soil up here is also
Speaker 1: this is sand, right, yeah, yeah, I mean, like that's
Speaker 1: the thing. I was look at the side of the
Speaker 1: road when I'm driving down the road to see if
Speaker 1: it's like sand or not, and it's like everything up
Speaker 1: here sand. That's the It's the amazing thing about the
Speaker 1: whole place. It's just like all the little lakes, all
Speaker 1: the sand bottomed lakes, like all the you know, it's
Speaker 1: just such an amazing place.
Speaker 3: It's I mean, it's it's it's right up there with
Speaker 3: any other you know, popular golf destination trip. Now granted
Speaker 3: you can't do it in the winter, so yeah, go
Speaker 3: to go to Pinehurst then, but yeah, it's uh, it's
Speaker 3: it's awesome.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Our courses. Uh that there are some sandy spots. You know,
Speaker 3: some of it was cut through an old seed or swamp.
Speaker 3: So that's a little more of a you know, mucky
Speaker 3: kind of soil. But it's not it's not really it's
Speaker 3: not a heavy clay soil.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: It's it's uh, you almost you could have a golf
Speaker 3: course every every square mile up here.
Speaker 1: You know what you did a little bit of a
Speaker 1: green expansion on the back of eight. How did you
Speaker 1: go about that that? Like what process did you do
Speaker 1: to expand the green in the back of.
Speaker 3: The Yeah, so there was a maple tree that grew
Speaker 3: behind eight, you know through some old pictures. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe it was considered the iconic tree, but
Speaker 3: in reality, that tree wasn't there when when William Watson
Speaker 3: built that green. He built that green to kind of
Speaker 3: be uh you know infinity green that sits up on
Speaker 3: the horizon, right up.
Speaker 1: On that prominent ridge. We talked about early early, and so.
Speaker 3: Once once the tree, once we removed the tree, where
Speaker 3: we we basically just took the old approach and started moaning,
Speaker 3: moan it lower. And we've got some uh, you know,
Speaker 3: top dressing to catch it up on and so you
Speaker 3: mowed it like scalped it. Yeah, yeah, pretty much scalped it.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't too it wasn't too dramatic.
Speaker 2: And then what do you do? Then you will, we'll, we'll.
Speaker 3: We'll definitely you know, included in our zeration top dressing.
Speaker 3: Get some get some seed in there.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: Another another thing is anytime there's a void, just just
Speaker 3: put a plug in it, you know. So we're we're
Speaker 3: getting it to where it will be, you know, look
Speaker 3: uniform with the rest of the green. It will obviously
Speaker 3: grow better because it doesn't have the the canopy of
Speaker 3: the tree above it. And there's some pinnable spots back
Speaker 3: there that that we'll be excited to use, you know.
Speaker 3: We uh twenty twenty five will be our one hundred
Speaker 3: year anniversary and we'll be hosting the Michigan Amateur again.
Speaker 1: They this course was the every year host for long.
Speaker 2: This course.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was known as the home of of the
Speaker 3: Michigan Amateur. I think forty forty times. It will be
Speaker 3: forty forty one and twenty five. We wanted to uh
Speaker 3: do it then to coincide with our our anniversary.
Speaker 1: So you're just gearing up for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's you know, it's it's coming up and
Speaker 3: you know, to see kind of what we've accomplished in
Speaker 3: just a short amount of time. We're gonna be we're
Speaker 3: gonna be looking awesome for that, and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: can't wait. It's uh, it's not the longest courset. You know,
Speaker 3: those guys probably play, but again, I think the greens
Speaker 3: will keep them honest. If it's windy, you know, good
Speaker 3: luck guys.
Speaker 1: And I, you know, having played a few state ams
Speaker 1: like I would hate to have to play the sixteenth
Speaker 1: hole and in a very high pressure situent, a wedge
Speaker 1: into that green. Yep, it's just terrifying, could make or
Speaker 1: break you. Yeah, and if you bail, it's just the
Speaker 1: ultimate delayed penalty. Depending on where the pin is, like
Speaker 1: you might be laying up to just hope to get
Speaker 1: out of with five from just off the green. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: The good news is I will gladly let the Golf
Speaker 3: Association of Michigan select the pin locations for for events
Speaker 3: like that, although I will say you would you would
Speaker 3: be qualified yourself to to do that as well. When
Speaker 3: you were out changing changing cups with me this morning.
Speaker 1: Oh no, yes, well I think that's like the most
Speaker 1: fun thing to do is that pens.
Speaker 2: I love you. That's like what you have all that
Speaker 2: power in your hand every every morning.
Speaker 1: You know. The reason we have all of our events
Speaker 1: is just so I get to set up set up
Speaker 1: a golf course. I think that's like one of the
Speaker 1: most fun things to do is And I always wish
Speaker 1: like in I don't know, you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: any membership or any course that's ready for this, but
Speaker 1: I always want to have back tea's in front of
Speaker 1: middle tea's, maybe front tee behind a middle tea. You know,
Speaker 1: change it up. Have people played different places. I think,
Speaker 1: for like a your back tea, moving sixteen up to
Speaker 1: two seventy would create a very interesting decision. Yeah, for
Speaker 1: long hitters like what do I what do I do?
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily want to miss this twenty yards left
Speaker 1: to that green and that brings that's what could bring
Speaker 1: in play when you move it up to where you could.
Speaker 2: Drive the hole right right. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I know you've you've made this point before,
Speaker 3: but you know, switch it up. Don't play the same
Speaker 3: golf course every day. One thing my daughters are five
Speaker 3: and three. My five year old just got her first
Speaker 3: set of golf clubs. But as she gets better, I mean,
Speaker 3: in my mind, I'm just gonna play the you know,
Speaker 3: the forward teas that she plays with, you know, with
Speaker 3: hickory clubs or something. You could take the driver out
Speaker 3: of your bag.
Speaker 1: Or well that's like, if you're a good player, one
Speaker 1: of the best activities.
Speaker 2: Well I'm not saying I'm a good player.
Speaker 1: I know, but like any player, this is one of
Speaker 1: the best activities you can do. Like, if you're trying
Speaker 1: to break eighty, if you're trying to break ninety, go
Speaker 1: play the forward tees and you like probably will get
Speaker 1: to feel the pressure of like, and it's the same
Speaker 1: thing for like a good player who's trying to shoot
Speaker 1: more and more under par. Is like the best thing
Speaker 1: you can do is put yourself into a position where
Speaker 1: you get under par quickly and have to keep going
Speaker 1: because you're playing. Just play the up teas, play the
Speaker 1: forward te and just try and shoot as low as
Speaker 1: you can. Or if you're trying to break ninety, you're
Speaker 1: struggling to get over the threshold of breaking ninety or eighty,
Speaker 1: go play like way up and get yourself.
Speaker 2: Into the feeling like oh.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna break, like your expectation changes, and that's a good.
Speaker 2: Thing to me. It's it's still golf. You know, it's
Speaker 2: all golf.
Speaker 1: It's it's fun. How have you gone about getting your
Speaker 1: daughter into the game. Has she been really interested? Because
Speaker 1: that's what you do. Like, I'm Matt, I have a
Speaker 1: one year old and this is something I'm I'm very
Speaker 1: interested in now is how people get there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be you know, pushy on them.
Speaker 3: But you know, she sees that it's something dad does
Speaker 3: or you know, dad's got it on on TV. You know,
Speaker 3: I think for her, I hope she loves the sport.
Speaker 3: But if we spend time on the golf course, it'll
Speaker 3: be more about you know, us us spending time together.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm I'm excited. You know.
Speaker 3: We we started with the uh with the plastic clubs.
Speaker 3: Hit those in the backyard and she she just got
Speaker 3: her own little bag with the with the four clubs
Speaker 3: in it and she'll just she'll just walk around the
Speaker 3: backyard with it on.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think she loves it. She asked.
Speaker 3: She asked me to get my golf bag the other
Speaker 3: day and walk with her and no, I don't I
Speaker 3: just need this this sixty degree wedge.
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't need to carry my whole bag, but.
Speaker 3: Just walking around the back, it might be about all
Speaker 3: the accessories for you know.
Speaker 1: That's that I think that's the hands off approach is
Speaker 1: probably the best way. Yeah, yep, yeah, I'm excited. We
Speaker 1: have this one hickory club. A friend of mine got
Speaker 1: like a it was like a birth gift with her
Speaker 1: name out, and she just sits and hammers it into
Speaker 1: the under the ground, Like I don't know what to
Speaker 1: do with the club, Like is it she hang it
Speaker 1: up somewhere, But I just give it to her.
Speaker 3: She'll if she knows golf is something that you do,
Speaker 3: she'll she'll she'll do it, you know, just the.
Speaker 2: Humor of me. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, what's what's in the plans for this
Speaker 1: fall and uh in the winter here?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: What are what are your big projects?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're just gonna we've got to wrap up our
Speaker 3: little short game project.
Speaker 1: You gotta get seed down soon, right yeah? Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is like peak growing time. Yeah, we're we're in it,
Speaker 1: so for for sure, you know, uh, definitely want to
Speaker 1: want to see some green before before winter out there
Speaker 1: and then just uh, you know this this uh, there'll
Speaker 1: be a gradual drop off of you know, membership leaving
Speaker 1: and things, things slowing down on the golf course. Marty
Speaker 1: holds a fun uh he calls it the Blitz tournament
Speaker 1: at the end of the year, and it's it's crazy
Speaker 1: cups and and everything. So that's kind of the last
Speaker 1: last hurrah in October and then you know, we will
Speaker 1: we'll have the place to ourselves a little bit, get
Speaker 1: some things done, you know, before the winter, and.
Speaker 2: See where it takes us. I'm I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know, just just a little bit of peace
Speaker 3: and quiet on the golf course. It's been it's been
Speaker 3: busy this year. I I love seeing golfers enjoy the place,
Speaker 3: but you know sometimes I love being out there by
Speaker 3: myself in the winter too.
Speaker 1: So peace and quiet. And I assume you're Alliance football fan.
Speaker 3: No, no, it's good for you.
Speaker 2: I'm not doing that, No, no thanks.
Speaker 3: I decided that I grew up in Michigan, I moved
Speaker 3: around a lot, so I never truly had a professional team.
Speaker 3: But I decided when I left Philly, lived there for
Speaker 3: seven years, that I would stay allegiant to uh to
Speaker 3: the Philly teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, transplant Philly Philly.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I've got too many people, took too many hats
Speaker 3: and shirts to uh to go the other way.
Speaker 1: Man, that's I didn't see that color. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: Midwestern turned into a Philly sports fan is quite the.
Speaker 2: I would have thought.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Jordan, thank Hooper, coming on. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see you know the next next dozens of years
Speaker 1: that you're here and where Belvedere goes.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to another edition of the Friday Podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was edited by Meg Atkins. As a reminder,
Speaker 1: we have some great stuff in the pro Shop. One
Speaker 1: of my favorites with fall approaching is our hoodie. We
Speaker 1: get lots of comments about this hoodie. I would size
Speaker 1: up if you're in between sizes, if you're kind of
Speaker 1: medium large, go large. They're a little they run a
Speaker 1: little small. But a lot of people say this is
Speaker 1: like the softest hoodie they own, this is the most
Speaker 1: comfortable hoodie they own. I agree. I love I love
Speaker 1: our hoodies, so I would check that out. It's got
Speaker 1: the cool alternate with the green and that's available in
Speaker 1: the fridayg Pro Shop. Go to the Friday dot com.
Speaker 1: In the top right corner you can see the pro
Speaker 1: shop link and you can find it there. It's affordable
Speaker 1: and uh, it's a great hoodie. Thanks and look for
Speaker 1: another episode later this week about Solheim Cup and really
Speaker 1: team picking strategy. Garrett's going to doing a podcast with
Speaker 1: Joe Lemania, a great golf analytics follow about team strategy
Speaker 1: and just pairing strategy, a really cool stuff, So look
Speaker 1: for that later this week and thanks for listening again