WEBVTT - Trying to Revive a Hometown Nine-Holer 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:05.880 And when I find my. 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.720 Ball in a fried egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:11.880 egg Fridaygg, Frida egged egg, Frida egg bride egg Lie, 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.360 I'm about ready to run off of the hump course game. 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.120 Welcome to the Friday Egg Golf Podcast. I'm Garrett Morrison, 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.920 and today we're talking to a superintendent who's trying to 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:50.080 revive his hometown nine hole golf course. Tom Schwab is 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:56.960 the superintendent at the Municipal Napoleon Golf Course in Napoleon, Ohio. Now, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.360 Tom has also worked at a number of top flight 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.240 clubs like Marion and Irono, Mink and Kirtland, but a 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.680 few years ago he decided to take the job at 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.959 his hometown nine holer Napoleon, and he's hoping to make 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.679 some major improvements to that course. You know, we've talked 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.880 to a few superintendents this year who have taken on 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:21.559 these kinds of projects. Clay Payne at Buffalo Dunes in Kansas, 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.600 Stephen Beale at Wolf River in Michigan. And pretty soon 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.319 we'll have a video coming out featuring Len Curtin at 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.840 George Wight Golf Course in Boston. We like highlighting these 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.399 stories and we think they represent a kind of micro 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.560 trend in the industry right now where some of the 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:44.600 most promising renovation work at public courses is being done 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:52.160 one on a budget and two spearheaded by skilled, ambitious 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:56.720 superintendents who could probably work at the private club of 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:01.000 their choosing, but have decided to take on a challenge. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.760 Right this is a real challenge trying to get a 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.399 local nine hole course in Napoleon, Ohio back on its feet, 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.880 and that's what Tom Schwab is trying to do. He's 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.880 at the very beginning of his work at Napoleon, so 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.600 I thought it would be fun to talk to him now, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.240 at this early point in the process and get a 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.720 sense of what his plans are for the future. And 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.840 my hope is as people listen to this episode, they 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.959 think of their own local nine hole courses and think 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.360 of how those can be improved, because it really can happen. 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.760 But the biggest thing that you need is just a 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.920 great superintendent. This episode is brought to you by Toro. 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.600 Toro is the only brand with a full line of 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.840 equipment and irrigation products to keep your golf course in 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.120 top condition. Toro is serious about R and D and 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.080 they're always out there listening to superintendents so they can 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.160 develop products that help you solve your biggest challenges, come 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.280 to local service and support. Their distributor network is second 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.880 to none. See how Toro is always solving and always 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:11.520 evolving at Toro dot Com. All right, let's get to 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:20.800 my conversation with Tom Schwan. All right, So, Tom, I 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.240 understand that you built a backyard putting green. Tell me 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:25.640 about that. 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:31.639 Yeah, so this is prior to me starting with the city. Oh, 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:37.480 good grief. I think it was maybe twenty eighteen. My 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.680 son and I decided to go on this little adventure together, 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:47.280 and you know, he was getting into the game of golf, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.760 and I thought, you know what, with my experience, we 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.640 can hammer this hell no problem. And we did. It 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.840 came in great, and it's it's it's wonderful. And we 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.960 have a local high school, Patrick Henry High School, the 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.840 girls and boys teams. They come over a few days 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:11.320 during the school week to chip and putt and so 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.400 like it's like I got to keep it now. I 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.159 can't get rid of it. But like I might have 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.680 mentioned before, I it's like the last thing I really 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.160 want to mess with as soon as I get home 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:26.479 from work. But yeah, I'm glad we have it. It's 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.800 it was fun. It kind of filled the kind of 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.000 filled that empty empty space I had. Wallet's kind of 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:40.279 briefly stepped away from the turf industry and before I 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.760 got back into it, it kind of scratched that hitch, 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.320 so to speak. But it's a lot of fun and 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:46.719 we still we use it quite a bit. I have 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.360 a lot of friends come over. We chip and butt 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.520 and have a good time. So it's and it's not 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:55.080 super big at all. It's only maybe a thousand square feet, so. 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.240 You're still maintaining it like it's it's still pretty good. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.359 All right. Yeah, Well I just aerified it last week 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.840 and ripped the entire green surround and reseed and all that. 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:08.520 I know, it's getting kind of late in the fall 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.720 up here in northwest Ohio to be trying to grow grass. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:15.720 But my son he's going to be graduating this upcoming spring. 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.320 So instead of doing stuff around the house that I 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.440 should be doing to get prepared for this big graduation party, 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.400 I'm outside messing with the putting green. So, you know, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.680 I don't think my wife WI probably would rather have 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.279 me at doing something else, but you know, I think 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.480 she's just happy that I'm doing something. So yeah, yeah, 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.440 it's it's a lot of work, but I wouldn't recommend 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.600 the novice to do this type of thing at all. 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.599 You're at Napoleon golf Course. Now, this is mainly what 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.720 we're going to talk about in this conversation. The work 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.520 that you're doing at this local nine hole course in Ohio, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.039 Napoleon is just to give people an idea. About forty 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:02.600 five minutes west south northwest of Toledo, that's about the 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.200 location of it. Did you grow up in the area. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.159 Yeah, I grew up just south in the Point and 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.800 even a smaller town really only about twenty minutes south 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:18.360 the year, and this kind of was the Honestly, it 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.800 was the first golf course I ever played. It's the 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.040 first time I ever got introduced to the game of golf, 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.000 and it didn't take long for me to instantly wonder 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.760 how they maintained the golf course, how they kept you know, 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.240 maintained the greens. Do you how do you cut grass 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.520 that short? You know, Hey, at an early age, I 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:40.000 would say probably fourteen fifteen, that's, you know, when I 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.560 kind of started dabbling in golf a little bit. And 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:45.560 the point was always just a place to go because 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.440 really this part of northwest Ohio there's not a lot 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.800 of golf per se. You get closer to Toledo out 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.599 that way, yeah, there's more public access golf. But really 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.000 here in Henry County were it, Man, that's all you got. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.520 You got a nine hole union in Napoleon. In the 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.560 surrounding counties there's there's a handful of others, but there's 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.400 just not a lot of golf. It's it's pretty rich 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:15.040 farmland and it's flat, super flat, so everything's gobbled up 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.320 by farmland, you know. So it's it's it's it's rural. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.400 It's it's small town America through and through. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:26.320 So you're at Napoleon Golf Course now right, you came 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:32.280 full circle started there in twenty twenty one, as I understand. Yeah, 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.720 let's talk a bit about this golf course. What's it basically, Like, 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.000 what's the piece of land, Like, what's the course? 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.120 Like? Oh, man, okay, yeah, so Napoleon Golf Club is 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.800 it's the nine hole Munia that I don't think anybody's 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:52.239 ever heard of ever, even neighboring counties. I've Defiance, Ohio 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.520 is only twenty miles to the west. I've had conversations 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:01.080 with people from Defiance. They said, Napoleon's got a golf course. Yeah, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.640 were you crazy? So it's Napoint Golf Club. You know. 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.680 The Point is a small town. We're only probably eight 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:17.960 or nine thousand population wise. It's we were founded in 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:23.640 nineteen twenty two and the course was laid out by 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:28.120 a gentleman named William Rockefeller, which I love talking about 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:33.200 William Rockefeller because one he was a greenskeeper at Inverness 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.960 and he kind of helped lay out several surrounding area 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.800 courses in his time while he was at Inverness. 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.080 So yeah, Inverness being in Toledo, Ohio, which, as I 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.079 mentioned earlier, about forty five minutes away from not to Napoleon. 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.400 And I'm assuming William Rockefeller is not related to the 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.800 famous Rockefeller family of New York. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.079 Yes, actually he is. Yeah, all the research I found 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:03.920 of this guy, yeah, he's a distant cousin. Okay, I 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.040 didn't really I didn't want to get into the whole 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.000 family tree of that. But I think I dabbled in 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:14.520 that during my research of Rockefeller. And yeah, there's a 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.640 lot of Rockefellers, so I didn't really go deep into 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.520 that sort of thing. But what really caught my eye 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.000 about William Rockefeller was one like I said, like, wow, 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.080 this guy was a greenskeeper, Like okay, great. You know, 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.440 just like most guys in my position, we all have 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.560 a soft soft spot for old Tom Morris, you know anything. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.520 You know, I bought a set of Hickory clubs that 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.439 I want to restore at some point here, maybe this 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.200 winter if I got time, just to maybe get myself 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.960 that much closer to old Tom. You know, they try 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.800 to feel that connection with him. I mean, and I 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:57.200 kind of felt the same with William Rockefeller, you know. 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:02.520 And I while I was researching and Rockefeller in the 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:10.120 early history of Napoleon's Golf Club. Michigan State University has 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:22.680 an incredible archive of the USGA Green Section Monthly I 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:23.200 guess the. 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.000 Monthly publication location. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:28.360 Actually they still do it. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:33.200 The Green Section Record, I think is what it's still called. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.240 In fact, yeah, and I mean, they have these babies 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.719 going all the way back to the twenties, so Rockefeller 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.640 was he was actually really instrumental in the formation of 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.920 the us J Green Section and the GCSA, which was 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.640 I think the first meeting of the g CSA was 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.079 actually at Savania Country Club. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.280 And this is the Professional Association of Golf of course 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:03.760 attacks in America, the golf sorry, Superintendent. Yeah, yeah, there's 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.600 another organization for the architects. The A is the one 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:07.160 for superow. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.040 Yeah, I mean I was. I was just doing a 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.400 deep dive on Rockefeller, and then I started coming across 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:20.040 all these old articles about Marring Golf Club or even 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:25.120 Pine Valley, like the struggles that Pine Valley had just 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.040 trying to grow grass, you know, for several years, I 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.720 think it was nearly eight years. They were just they 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:33.840 could not get grass to grow on the fairways. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.400 Right, here's a big reason that Pine Valley wasn't finished 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.680 until well after George Crump's death. 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.960 Yeah. And it's like, so oh my lord. I was 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.520 so fast and just going through thumbly, going through all 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.680 these articles of all this old stuff. Yeah, I that 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.880 was great. I loved every second of that. But you know, 0:11:56.000 --> 0:12:00.000 while while the Rockefeller he published a bunch of art 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:05.400 articles himself and the old USGA green sections, kind of 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.840 reading through some of the struggles that you know, he 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.880 had Inverness early on in the twenties, sodding greens, dealing 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.680 with diseases, trying to figure out, you know, what the 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:19.760 best way to do stuff. I mean, he was he 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.360 was a pioneer in our profession, and a lot of 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:24.240 people don't know him, and I'm like, man, this guy 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:28.880 should actually be talking about more, you know, even just 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.520 cutting cups. You know, he kind of helped standardize the 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:38.360 practice of cutting a proper cup and putting green. And 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.240 to me, it was just fascinating to read some of 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:41.760 the articles of some of the stuff they do, and 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.400 you kind of sit back and you think to yourself, God, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.280 I don't wonder what that was like, you know, or 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.680 every time I think I have it bad, I go well, 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.480 or at least I didn't have it like that, you know. 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.520 But yeah, he so he came over the There was 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.439 a gentleman here in town that reached out to Rockefeller 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.440 to come to Napoleon and take a look at a 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:11.480 chunk of ground that they bought to see if they 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:16.360 could fashion some sort of golf course. And I guess 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.960 from reading all the articles at the time, you know, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.800 the Roaring twenties. I think the Point was a little 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:29.440 bit of a boom town at the time. And they 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.760 get they get Rockefeller out to take a site visit. 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:37.719 And here here's an absolutely insane fact. On May fifteenth, 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:42.960 nineteen twenty two, Rockefeller made his first visits in the Point, Ohio. 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:49.520 I think he hopped on the Walbash railroad that connects 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.360 you probably used to connect Fort Wayne the Point in 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:58.720 Toledo all together. That was May fifteenth. He painted, he 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.040 showed up, took a site visit. They kind of picked 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:06.320 out the natural green sites and where the teas would be, 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:11.920 and he kind of gave the locals some directions on 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.760 what to do and try to prep the green sites 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.719 and get some grass growing. And I'm not kidding you. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.120 About seven weeks later, Napointing Golf Club had their first 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:27.040 men's tournament on July fourth, nineteen twenty two, and about 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:31.040 two weeks later they had the first women's event. So 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.800 I'm thinking, can you imagine what the state of that 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:39.520 golf course was, you know, like so I think I 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.240 would venture the guess that the golf course was pretty 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.720 rough and rugged, and the people here in town. They 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.320 were just so golf hungry. I don't think they really cared, 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:49.560 you know. I think they're just like, let's put the 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.560 green over there and put a flag up, let's do this. 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.080 So they were so excited to get the game of 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.440 golf here in town. I don't think they really cared much. 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.600 So I think they were willing to kind of you know, 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.080 push push it, kind of kick the hand down the 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.840 road until they finally get the golf course into an acceptable, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:13.880 you know fashion, which I find that absolutely fascinating. That 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:16.480 that that that you can imagine trying to build, like 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.800 build just a nine to old golf course and seven 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:21.840 weeks and you're like, hey, let's play some golf. You know. 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.440 It's not waiting for the growing process too. 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.520 Like I said, I'm like, I don't think they really 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.800 minded much. I think it was more like a pasture 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:38.280 style golf time. But I think over the over the 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.200 years and they started fashioning it back into you know, 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:46.240 something more of a of a golf course than originally 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.880 started off ass But yeah, that's and I know Rockefeller 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.600 gave he let the city borrow a greensmower from Inverness 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.640 for a short period of time until they were able 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:01.920 to purch just want to it won't get shipped to us, 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.640 So that was kind of neat. And I know that 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.680 he did make He did make several returns back to 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.840 Napoint throughout that summer. I think he came in July 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.840 and later in September he made another site visit. 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:21.040 So yeah, yeah, so that golf course emerged pretty quickly. 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.480 How would you describe the design out there? What are 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:30.800 you know, as as far as you can see the 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.880 architecture of William Rockefeller out there, how would you how 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:35.800 would you describe it? 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.280 You know, that's kind of weird because I'm not quite 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.000 sure how to describe it because I'm not so certain 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.520 how much of our current golf course is really original. 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.920 Throughout all my research of trying to find everything I can, 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.960 and it's tough here in town because it seems like 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.320 every every building in this town must have caught on 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.240 fire at some point within the last hundred years. Is 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.480 like hardly any records of anything. So I kind of 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:12.159 get stonewalled with that a lot. But I have a 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.719 hand drawing that I don't know who drew it, I 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.399 don't know when they drew it, but it's kind of 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.080 just a scribble almost on a napkin of the original 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.359 layout of the poem, and it's nowhere near what we 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:32.000 have now, I know, our current state that we're sitting 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.960 in right now. At least, the oldest aerial image I 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.440 can find of our golf course is from I think 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:43.160 nineteen fifty three or fifty six, and not a whole 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:47.639 lot's changed since then. Obsolutely in the seventies, somebody decided 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:49.359 playing a lot of trees that all need to go. 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:56.040 But it's the bones are there. I mean, from the 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.760 early fifties to now. Obviously, the two things that are 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:06.960 glaringly obvious our our greens have shrunk tremendously. We have 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:10.479 very small greens, and you can if you walk up 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:12.520 on one of our putting surfaces, you can kind of 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.000 look at the shoulders of the greens surround and say 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.000 that guarantee was putting green. And looking at that fifty 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:26.400 fifty two to fifty three or early nineteen fifties image, 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.800 you can tell it's very apparent the plane corridors are 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:31.760 a little bit wider back then, they weren't so choked 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:38.160 off with trees. But so I don't know, like that's 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.440 another deep dive I got to get into, and I'm 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.880 not quite sure where to start. So if we if 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:51.639 the door's opened in twenty two, twenty two to nineteen fifty, 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.399 you're looking at what a twenty five twenty seven year window. 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.960 I can't imagine a whole lot changed in the nineteen thirties, 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.520 during the depression, late twenties, thirties, then we had the 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.520 World War Two? So was there a renaissance in the 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.160 forties after the war. Did somebody decide, Hey, this golf course, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.760 this current golf course isn't quite big enough. Let's kind 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.560 of stretch it out. I don't know, that's yet to 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:20.440 be determined. I'm gonna have to keep digging. But current currently, currently, 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.480 the way the golf course sits well, I think kind 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:28.600 of separates us from our neighbors in the surrounding counties. 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:34.199 As far as public access courses we have, we have 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:38.360 loads of terrain like you wouldn't you wouldn't You wouldn't 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.280 know you were in Northwest Ohio. As soon as you 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.520 step out onto our course coming in, whether you're coming 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:50.600 off coming through Northwest Ohio and the or the turnpike, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:57.359 you kind of see like cornfield cornfield, flat flat, flat flat. 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.240 You you forget real quick what you see because there's 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:06.320 just nothing there. Our golf course kind of lays in 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.760 this in a river valley right next to the Maumee River, 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.439 which the Mammy runs from Fort Wayne, Indiana kind of 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:21.199 diagonally up through Toledo into the Erie Lake Erie. And 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.560 I don't know what sort of glacier melt created our 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:30.840 golf course, but it's phenomenal it to me. And I've 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:34.920 had someone described to me the way our golf course is. 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:39.200 On the north edge of the property, we have the 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.800 the old I don't know if that's the old Walbash 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.280 railroad that maybe Rockefeller rode in on or not, but 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:51.040 it's still in use. A big, a big freight train 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.680 rumbles slowly past the golf course every once or twice 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.280 a day, about five miles an hour. It comes troumbling 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:02.720 down the tracks basically for that rail road down through 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.560 the river valley. It just kind of looks like the 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.359 whole property cascades and flows right down to Garrett Creek 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:17.600 that that dumps into the Malmee River. It's it's it's 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:23.760 just it's it's got great terrain. You hit shots here 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.440 and the point that you just don't hit anywhere else. 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.680 The eighth hole, which I absolutely love. It's a short 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.280 part five. If you poke, if you poke out a 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.320 good T shot, you know, then you're you're approach shots 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.479 into this par five green. It's blind, it's it's up 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:47.480 probably a thirty thirty five foot elevation change. But to me, like, 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:49.760 you just don't hit that. Like a lot of people 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:51.680 are like, I don't like that it's blind. I'm like, well, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.639 it's only blind once. And the eighth green it sits 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.520 right next to the first green, so like if you're 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:01.840 putting out on one, you can take a peek to 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:03.920 your left and see where the pins cut on eight. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.280 I love that whole. I I already I already kind 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:12.040 of named most of the golf holes informally. Nothing's on 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.520 our scorecards quite yet. But I always call that whole 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.880 hopeful approach, because you know that that blind approach shot man, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.320 you just have to grip it and and whack away, 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.720 and and as you lumber up the hill, you just 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:27.879 you're kind of hopeful that baby sitting on the green 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.840 for you know, a good chance that either eat or 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:37.840 dirty or eagle. You know, so but the golf course itself, 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:43.040 I think we need I don't know, we we we 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:45.840 could probably use a little bit of an injection of 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:52.200 strategic value maybe to the course, something unique and different. 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:55.280 That's what That's what I kind of keep preaching what 0:22:56.080 --> 0:23:00.879 we're already different from our competition, So just be with 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.400 just the way the golf course lays. But I think 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:07.240 we just maybe need a fuzz more And that's what 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:09.600 I'm kind of I'm in the process of searching for 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:16.320 and trying to exactly figure out what to do to 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:18.960 try to do some of the things, you know, that 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:20.960 would benefit us in the golf course. 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.240 Yeah, well, that's that's what I wanted to talk about. 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:28.199 You know, you're you're in this interesting position where you 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:30.879 have a golf course that sits on really good land. 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:35.640 But we're not necessarily talking about precious architecture that needs 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:40.040 to be restored. Yeah, this is not a Merran or 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:44.119 ironomic situation where you had, you know, Hugh Wilson, William Flynn, 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:47.439 Donald Ross's design that you just need to put it 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:49.480 back and that's the best that the course can be. 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:52.639 You're in a position where you can you can exercise 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.920 some creativity, so you said, injecting some strategic value into 0:23:56.920 --> 0:23:59.600 the course. How are you thinking about doing that? I'm 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:02.600 actually carry us at how you know what what might 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:04.960 be some of the main ways that that could be accomplished. 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:10.119 Well, I mean, like I said, obviously, since you know, 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:14.480 looking at the old aral images, are if if we 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:17.840 were just to recapture some of the lost whole locations, 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:22.760 that would benefit us greatly. Prior to me starting with 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.080 the city, I don't I don't think. I don't know 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:28.640 if those greens got rolled ever in the hundred years 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:31.960 of their existence. Well, I got a cell school greens 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:35.200 roller and you know we we I wouldn't say they're 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:39.760 lightning fast, but to to the locals, yeah, they're they're 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:43.560 loving it. Like I almost at times think, man, I can't, 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:47.080 I got to lay off the roller. These if we 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:49.840 get a if we get our putting surfaces, and they're small, 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:55.040 but there's there's there's enough, there's enough movement through them 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:59.199 to make them a little bit suspicious, you know, like 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:01.280 when you're putting your like, all right, you know, I 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:03.240 might have a little bit of doubt. Does this go 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:06.920 that much to me? A flat puts the hardest, hard, 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:10.080 hardest thing in the world because like my brain instantly 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.800 thinks it's got to move somewhere. But if we were 0:25:13.800 --> 0:25:16.560 to if we were to do green expansions, which is 0:25:16.640 --> 0:25:19.240 kind of a I mean as soon as day one, 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:24.520 I started building a nursery for that. So I like, obviously, 0:25:24.520 --> 0:25:26.560 since we're at a nine home union and you know, 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:30.879 we're not flush with cash. You know, I'm trying to 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:33.879 attack this at every angle to make it affordable. Anything 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:37.960 that we do, it's got to be as cheap as possible. 0:25:38.600 --> 0:25:43.000 So growing in your own nursery stock is probably one 0:25:43.040 --> 0:25:47.600 of the best ways to save a ton of money, 0:25:47.640 --> 0:25:51.959 you know. So that covers the greens, you know, Like 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:55.880 I said, since the greens are so small, and if 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:59.040