Speaker 1: The guys from paying They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters.
Speaker 2: I just love that.
Speaker 1: I can hit any shot.
Speaker 3: I kind of want we're gonna be able to tell
Speaker 3: some fun stories about what goes on here to help
Speaker 3: golfers play better golf.
Speaker 4: Hey, everybody, welcome to the Ping proven Grounds podcast. Shane
Speaker 4: Bak and Marty Jersen got Eric anders Lang with us
Speaker 4: and Eric, I was thinking about your journey the last
Speaker 4: couple of days into golf. Did it start with adventures
Speaker 4: in golf? Is that kind of your first step into
Speaker 4: that space, like the media golf world.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's like the that's like the evidence that
Speaker 1: exists in the world. But there's there was a couple
Speaker 1: of years before that.
Speaker 2: Okay, what were you doing before that?
Speaker 1: But you were a part of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was that at back nine Network?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, that network, babe?
Speaker 1: You remember that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? My fit that was my first step into TV
Speaker 2: was back then. Word.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that you were that involved early into it.
Speaker 4: I mean, I know you'd had a part in it,
Speaker 4: but what were you doing with that crew?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: The only reason I was on Back nine Network, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I can't believe that was your first
Speaker 1: foray into being camera because you were such a professional.
Speaker 2: Ill appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And I had the best time over there. But that
Speaker 1: was when we were talking about a film that is
Speaker 1: this kind of it's this kind of piece of lore. Right,
Speaker 1: So I was working on this documentary about golf and meditation,
Speaker 1: which has never seen the light of day. It exists,
Speaker 1: it's edited, it's sort of so they have a term
Speaker 1: in Hollywood for a film that gets made but doesn't
Speaker 1: get released, and it's called turnaround. And so basically, you know,
Speaker 1: the film exists, and we've actually had some conversations recently
Speaker 1: with the PGA Tour, whom is a large you know,
Speaker 1: they're entitled to a lot of the rights of the footage.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of like mid twenty ten's kind
Speaker 1: of archive. But anyway, so that film was about golf
Speaker 1: and meditation, and so we did an experiment where we
Speaker 1: taught golfers of different skill levels to meditate with no
Speaker 1: other swing instruction, to see if meditation alone could improve
Speaker 1: your results in golf. And the answer was unanimous. All
Speaker 1: the fifty golfers who went through the study got better
Speaker 1: at the game. But that then then there's like a
Speaker 1: dovetail within that where I made this trailer to raise
Speaker 1: money for the film on like Kickstarter, and I got
Speaker 1: a phone call from the PGA tour and they were like, hey,
Speaker 1: you need to take this video down or we're gonna
Speaker 1: sue you. Gotcha? And I was like, well, I'm a
Speaker 1: child and I have no assets that you could get.
Speaker 2: You if you want to assume me, you can have
Speaker 2: like my shirts in a couple of kairs.
Speaker 1: Of I was like, my pants don't even fit, so
Speaker 1: taking them away from it was a thrift store guy.
Speaker 1: But then I got another phone call from a gentleman
Speaker 1: from the tour and he said, hey, this is SO
Speaker 1: and so from the PGA tour and I said, look,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I don't know what to do. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of raising money and I apologize
Speaker 1: and he was like, what are you talking about. We
Speaker 1: want to hire you to be the face of a
Speaker 1: new generation of golfers, right, golfers changing, and we think
Speaker 1: your take on the game as a host could be interested.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, yeah, no, thanks, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be a host. And then he was like, well,
Speaker 1: we'll pay you to do whatever you want and I
Speaker 1: was like, never mind, I'll do whatever whatever I have
Speaker 1: to do to receive this job. So that was really
Speaker 1: the beginning. Yeah, and Adventures in Golf was the first
Speaker 1: thing that people saw, But there was a handful of
Speaker 1: years of becoming fascinated by golf, falling in love with golf,
Speaker 1: you know, just watching golf clips, and there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot out there at that time in twenty ten.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, the interesting thing I want to ask
Speaker 4: you about you and meditation, because I mean, you were
Speaker 4: always trying different stuff and I'd love to know if
Speaker 4: you've ever tried to, Marty. But you know, the interesting
Speaker 4: about back in my network not to like talk about
Speaker 4: our past, but kind of feels a little ahead of
Speaker 4: its time now that you look back on it. I mean,
Speaker 4: this is twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. I don't know how
Speaker 4: much you new about it, Marty, but it was a
Speaker 4: group of people that were trying to talk about golf
Speaker 4: in a different way and bring in younger people. And
Speaker 4: some of the videos and some of the even the
Speaker 4: some of the stuff they bought in, like those are
Speaker 4: the range Picker team and like the ones that would
Speaker 4: go out on the swamps and stuff.
Speaker 1: Like that.
Speaker 2: I mean some of that stuff now would would play
Speaker 2: you know well.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, actually, you're totally right. Back nine
Speaker 1: was sort of this this really great like roll up
Speaker 1: of golf content that right now you see it in
Speaker 1: st Andrey, right, you see it in Roger Steel, right,
Speaker 1: you see it even in Good Good almost like you
Speaker 1: know you're a great player, you were involved. I think
Speaker 1: it's hard to make something grassroots and real, like you
Speaker 1: think about music, right, like Nirvana that was started in
Speaker 1: a garage, that was just pure passion. And when you
Speaker 1: look at all the names I just listed, like individuals
Speaker 1: taking advantage of the ability to you know, create and
Speaker 1: post and host their own content, have their own POV,
Speaker 1: that's hard to do from a corporate standpoint, right, And
Speaker 1: so I think back nine it was totally ahead of
Speaker 1: its time, but it would also be hard to really,
Speaker 1: I think, maintain that sense of authorship, right. And I
Speaker 1: think on some level it was also just too early content.
Speaker 3: What content did you like?
Speaker 1: Eric?
Speaker 3: Just of older content, older storytelling and golf, like even
Speaker 3: before the two thousands, you don't do anything come to
Speaker 3: mind for well.
Speaker 1: I didn't get into golf until two thousand and nine. Ok.
Speaker 1: So I was like, actually not even not into golf.
Speaker 1: I was like anti golf, right, I did not want
Speaker 1: to play golf. I was not interested in the game.
Speaker 1: My brother, ten years older than me, was sort of
Speaker 1: the traditional golfer and I didn't want to.
Speaker 2: Be like him.
Speaker 1: So really not. But when I got into golf, Matt Janella,
Speaker 1: he was kind of this adventurer, storyteller, great writer, great photographer,
Speaker 1: and I remember me one of my good good friends
Speaker 1: from childhood. He and I had gotten into golf separately,
Speaker 1: and I remember we were both talking one day and
Speaker 1: we're like, there's this guy, Matt Janella who goes out
Speaker 1: and just plays these great golf courses and takes photos
Speaker 1: and writes stories about it. And we were both so
Speaker 1: inspired by that. And this was the time where Instagram
Speaker 1: had no video, right yeah, and you couldn't zoom into
Speaker 1: the photos and it was like I don't even know
Speaker 1: if there were carousels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you only was like one picture, one photo, that
Speaker 2: was it.
Speaker 1: And so like Janella to posts a picture of the
Speaker 1: ghost Tree and he would tell you about the ghost Tree,
Speaker 1: and it was really like a really novel concept of
Speaker 1: like how can I learn more about this game that
Speaker 1: is like truly rich in terms of you know, personality, place, culture,
Speaker 1: all these things. And so Janello was really for me
Speaker 1: like inspirational figure in terms of what's possible.
Speaker 4: I mean, you think about golf now in your journey,
Speaker 4: I mean twenty twenty five and you're doing so many
Speaker 4: different things in terms of what you do around golf,
Speaker 4: Like what is your relationship with it now? I mean
Speaker 4: are you in love?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 4: Is it something that you love? I mean, it's part
Speaker 4: of your business, it's part of who you are. But
Speaker 4: like do you get excited to go out and play still?
Speaker 4: I mean is it something that you want to do
Speaker 4: on a daily basis?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've gone up and down, as I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys have as well, right, I mean you spend every
Speaker 1: day kind of thinking about some version of golf, whether
Speaker 1: it's the business of golf or the golf swing or
Speaker 1: the equipment right or the content. But yeah, right now
Speaker 1: I am absolutely in love with golf, and I'm ashamed
Speaker 1: to admit that it's because I watched a thirty second
Speaker 1: swing tip that really just figured everything out for me.
Speaker 4: And now you sound like my uncle right now, my
Speaker 4: uncle's on Instagram like figuring out golf.
Speaker 2: On the thirty second YouTube, it.
Speaker 1: Was it's a video of Rory. I've screen recorded it
Speaker 1: so I don't lose it. And it's a video of
Speaker 1: Rory at night, like after sunset, and there's even bleeps
Speaker 1: in the video, like it's just a cell phone video
Speaker 1: of him talking to maybe his friend about his takeaway
Speaker 1: and how he's trying to keep his arms outside. And
Speaker 1: then the swing really is just one move and so
Speaker 1: and for me, I've got this.
Speaker 2: Problem the chicken for people listening, yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 1: This is why you never want to emulate Scheffler swing.
Speaker 1: You don't even want to watch him swing. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: him and Norman and everybody just like, don't even get
Speaker 1: so anyway, this is this Rory. Rory's got the best
Speaker 1: swing on tour, I think. So it's so compact, and
Speaker 1: it's so the tempo is so nice, and he moves
Speaker 1: so well through the ball that I just watched that
Speaker 1: video about seventy times, and the last three rounds I've
Speaker 1: played have gotten lower and lower and lower, and as
Speaker 1: a six handicap, I can easily shoot mid eighties and
Speaker 1: right and still kind of be satisfied. But now I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm about to just sort of hit several
Speaker 1: rounds in the seventies.
Speaker 2: Marty.
Speaker 4: Your love of golf, I mean, it's your business, and
Speaker 4: I mean you've created golf clubs and it's been a
Speaker 4: big part of who you are. Does how you play
Speaker 4: kind of coincide with how much you like it at
Speaker 4: the time?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I think if it's like I get, I go in waves,
Speaker 3: just like you Eric, like little highs and lows. Last
Speaker 3: summer I was on a high, like I was into it,
Speaker 3: My kids were into it, My equipment was good. You know,
Speaker 3: I had a good groove on practicing, the scores were
Speaker 3: were showing up with the works. I was getting rewarded.
Speaker 3: I just got that momentum.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but I've had other times where you got
Speaker 3: a lot of life, a lot going on in life,
Speaker 3: and you just got to let it down. But what
Speaker 3: I love about golf is a game for a lifetime.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's like it's okay if you have a bad year,
Speaker 3: like you can get it back, just put the effort in.
Speaker 3: I remember focus second twenty two I had that. I
Speaker 3: had a good summer and like you know, qualify for
Speaker 3: the amateur and do all this stuff, and then I
Speaker 3: remember the next year, the first two tournaments I played in,
Speaker 3: I played like a total dog and it's like.
Speaker 4: Is this who I am now? You know, like is
Speaker 4: this the golfer that I am now? And you have
Speaker 4: to remind yourself that it's that's such a micro version
Speaker 4: of who you are as a golfer, and like, look
Speaker 4: at the macro and what you're able to accomplish. I mean,
Speaker 4: you've done so many things, Eric. I want to talk
Speaker 4: about the random golf club because when this popped up,
Speaker 4: I remember it was a novel concept.
Speaker 2: I was very interested in what you were doing with it.
Speaker 4: And then it's you know, you were a guy like
Speaker 4: you've talked about being a country club guy and then
Speaker 4: kind of stepping away from that and wanting to following
Speaker 4: what you're talking about. So when you do these mad
Speaker 4: scrambles and you get all these people out of the
Speaker 4: golf course like Dobson Ranch, I know you've done that
Speaker 4: in Arizona. Like, what's the fulfillment for you at the
Speaker 4: end of the day?
Speaker 1: Oh man, I mean, uh, well, it's interesting to come
Speaker 1: off of the previous question, which is you know my
Speaker 1: golf game right right, and I have this kind of
Speaker 1: it's sort of a weird, weird take, but I actually
Speaker 1: think golf is an inherently selfish game for sure, which
Speaker 1: is okay. But the best example is you're playing mediocre.
Speaker 1: I feel like you guys are probably beyond this in
Speaker 1: terms of a social awareness golf, I Q standpoint. But
Speaker 1: for me, I've experienced this on my own, which is
Speaker 1: I'm playing below what I was expecting, and it's all
Speaker 1: that it's about. Yep, no matter who's around me, no
Speaker 1: matter who I'm playing with, Like.
Speaker 4: You kind of get quiet, you're not talking like yeah,
Speaker 4: and you're not being rude.
Speaker 2: Nope, you're not being like mean to other people.
Speaker 1: I'm sulking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're kind of in your own little like bubble. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I'm allowed to salve for sure, because I
Speaker 1: should have made that putt. And there's a story of
Speaker 1: Bill Murray story where he's playing in a prom. These
Speaker 1: guys have paid ten thousand dollars to bee in his
Speaker 1: group and he's on the tenth te box. So he's
Speaker 1: halfway through the round and he says, look, if I
Speaker 1: hit a good drive, I'll be happy in jovial for
Speaker 1: the rest of the round. But if I had a
Speaker 1: bad drive. I'm not talking for the rest of the round,
Speaker 1: and you know, you hit a bad drive and didn't
Speaker 1: say another word. And I mean he's obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: involved in some other type of experience of being a human.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think I think golf has that inherent
Speaker 1: selfishness too, where it's like my attitude and my ability
Speaker 1: to kind of ask other people about their shots or
Speaker 1: their lives or like what's going on at work, it
Speaker 1: goes away the worst I play, which is sort of
Speaker 1: I believe that maybe the biggest lesson in golf is
Speaker 1: to let my score and my ball striking be secondary
Speaker 1: to my experience. Yep. And so that's one side of it.
Speaker 1: But the other side is your question about random Golf
Speaker 1: Club is you know for me, you know, we host
Speaker 1: these great events. It's one hundred people come out. Everyone
Speaker 1: gets a chance to hang out and play and hit
Speaker 1: and you know, we all are on the same team
Speaker 1: and so we pretty much birdy every hole except for
Speaker 1: the holes we eagle. And you know, it's wild and
Speaker 1: you can be a part of something without even really
Speaker 1: contributing to whatever the score is. But but you're a
Speaker 1: part of this kind of like really like a metaphor
Speaker 1: of like, together we're greater than we are as a
Speaker 1: as an individual and so. And really the crescendo of
Speaker 1: that for me is at the end of those events,
Speaker 1: when people come out and they're nervous and you're hitting
Speaker 1: a ball in front of one hundred people. It's like
Speaker 1: not normal. Most of us out there are you know,
Speaker 1: high single digits, double digits, new to golf. And at
Speaker 1: the end of it all, there's this kind of glow
Speaker 1: where people realize they've found a group of people.
Speaker 2: There's a kinship involved in all the Oh you're doing.
Speaker 1: It totally and and and what's funny is very rarely
Speaker 1: if we were playing golf, three of us were playing
Speaker 1: golf and you topped it, I would laugh.
Speaker 2: I would expect you to laugh.
Speaker 1: And that's because that's something I've learned, right, is that
Speaker 1: that is what should happen.
Speaker 4: Well, I remember, you know, there's different cultures in the
Speaker 4: way we react to golf, and America is probably the
Speaker 4: most serious culture about it. But you know, if you
Speaker 4: go to like Asian countries and you've traveled over the
Speaker 4: world and played golf everywhere, but there is that laughing
Speaker 4: about bad golf clups. That was something when I caddied
Speaker 4: at the old course, you know, out of college, and
Speaker 4: you'd get these groups of players from Korea and you're
Speaker 4: being a bunker leaving in the bunker, and they would
Speaker 4: be laughing at their friend, and the friend wouldn't be
Speaker 4: taking it offensively, right, they would be kind of in
Speaker 4: on the joke. And I just love that approach to
Speaker 4: the game because again, I do feel like the moment
Speaker 4: your buddy starts going south, everybody kind of wants to
Speaker 4: step away from them because you know they're either going
Speaker 4: to blow up or they're struggling, or they're kind of
Speaker 4: going to that place we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: And that's and that's the unfortunate thing is because then
Speaker 1: as a spectator or a partner, you're co signing the sulk, right,
Speaker 1: And that's what Random Golf Club really aims to, like,
Speaker 1: you know combat, which is like, oh my god, you
Speaker 1: missed the ball completely, that's amazing. You know, you get
Speaker 1: a whole other shot and nobody cares.
Speaker 2: It's all good.
Speaker 3: That's where did you get inspiration? Where where do your
Speaker 3: ideas come from? You know you see them from in
Speaker 3: other places.
Speaker 2: Well, well, the.
Speaker 1: Random Golf club inspiration was really too experienced. One is
Speaker 1: I was. They happened around the same time. One was
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to be married to a woman
Speaker 1: who insisted that we joined a private club. I said, fine,
Speaker 1: I couldn't afford it on my own, but but we
Speaker 1: joined and I thought it was great. And after three
Speaker 1: years I realized I didn't need to be a member
Speaker 1: there anymore because I just felt like there were so
Speaker 1: many other types of people that play golf. And I
Speaker 1: really liked the municipal golf courses in LA. They're so rich,
Speaker 1: they're so real, and the golf was fine. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the golf was very The greens were great, and they
Speaker 1: weren't the problem, right, My problem was the stuff, and
Speaker 1: it's around the greens. And so I drove out of
Speaker 1: the golf course after quitting one day, and I just
Speaker 1: walked in the club and I said, I quit. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be a member anymore, and they were
Speaker 1: like WHOA. I was like, you know, everything's fine, you
Speaker 1: guys are cool. I'm cool. I'm just doing a different thing.
Speaker 1: And on my way out, the door opened and I
Speaker 1: was like, man, they're the gate. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: gate to the parking lot. I guess you can't get it.
Speaker 1: You can't sneak in, which is amazing. And I was
Speaker 1: the gate open and I was like, man, it'd be
Speaker 1: cool there was a club where anyone could play golf
Speaker 1: with anyone else anywhere. And then I sort of chuckled
Speaker 1: as I rolled over the spike strip, you know, and
Speaker 1: I was like, it'd be cool if it was called
Speaker 1: Random Golf Club. So that was kind of the original idea.
Speaker 1: And then right after that, I was in Australia and
Speaker 1: I had gotten a couple dms from some dudes that
Speaker 1: wanted to play golf, and I said yes to everybody,
Speaker 1: and after four days I had somehow accepted eleven invitations
Speaker 1: to play golf, and I realized, I only have two
Speaker 1: days left in this country. Let's all meet at Royal Park,
Speaker 1: which is a little nine hole executive course right in
Speaker 1: the middle of Melbourne. I was like, let's just all
Speaker 1: meet there, and so we get to the clubhouse on
Speaker 1: Friday at five o'clock. I walked into the pro shop
Speaker 1: and I said, Hey, what's your name, Tom, Tom? Look,
Speaker 1: is there any chance the eleven of us could play
Speaker 1: as one group? And he was like, no, ilet's say
Speaker 1: a problem with that, And so first hole little awkward,
Speaker 1: second hole less awkward. By the time we're at the
Speaker 1: ninth hole were old friends. And Tom comes out of
Speaker 1: the pro shop and he says, hey, I got glow balls.
Speaker 1: If you want to keep playing, I'll join you. So
Speaker 1: we play four more holes in the dark. We get
Speaker 1: back to the clubhouse again. Yeah, and now we got
Speaker 1: to twelve and then there were twelve and we get
Speaker 1: back to the press shop and he says, hey, look,
Speaker 1: I'll open up if you guys want to grab some drinks.
Speaker 1: We can hang out here forever, hung out till midnight.
Speaker 1: We all exchange numbers. And that was when I first saw.
Speaker 1: When I left the parking lot at Wilshre Country Club
Speaker 1: in LA, That's when I first saw how a golf
Speaker 1: club can be created in a truly random environment where
Speaker 1: all of us had really one thing in common. And
Speaker 1: that almost seemed richer than being a member of a
Speaker 1: private club where there's a selection committee. You obviously have
Speaker 1: a certain salary, you live in a certain area for
Speaker 1: some reason. You also happen to sell insurance. Whatever it
Speaker 1: is you know, whatever type of club you're at. Random
Speaker 1: golf club really seemed like there was an opportunity to
Speaker 1: just bring together people who really love golf. And the
Speaker 1: difference is that we have actually strengthened what we can
Speaker 1: learn from each other on the golf course.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, you did one of your mad scrambles
Speaker 4: at Doobts and ran. So when I lived in Arizona,
Speaker 4: I played in a money game. And we've talked a
Speaker 4: lot about Friday Adopts and which has kind of gone away,
Speaker 4: which is such a bummer, But there was a Friday
Speaker 4: honey game every Friday adoptson and what you talk about
Speaker 4: with random Golf Club is is very much like what
Speaker 4: the Friday game was Adopts and where it would be
Speaker 4: a group of seventy or eighty people and you'd have
Speaker 4: private club golfers there that were coming down from the
Speaker 4: Astantias and from you know, the silver Leafs in place
Speaker 4: like that to play in this money game. But I
Speaker 4: would play with a construction guy every Friday. And I
Speaker 4: would play with a guy that was like he worked
Speaker 4: in tech, and you could wear jeans, and you could
Speaker 4: wear a T shirt, but you could wear your polo.
Speaker 2: And all that stuff.
Speaker 4: And I always found that Friday game my favorite golf
Speaker 4: because it felt it felt inclusive, but it didn't feel
Speaker 4: like it was forcing everybody to be inclusive. It was like,
Speaker 4: you're coming out because you want to play golf and
Speaker 4: you want to play with this group. You might win
Speaker 4: a hundred bucks, you might not, but we're all gonna
Speaker 4: sit around and have some beers after and enjoy it,
Speaker 4: you know well.
Speaker 1: And I think also there's there's something about mindset when
Speaker 1: you look at you know that when you when you
Speaker 1: bring together that group of people, that there tends to
Speaker 1: be an optimism and that's really valuable. And I found like, look,
Speaker 1: I just as much as anybody else, Like I love
Speaker 1: a nice private course, ye for sure. I love great greens.
Speaker 1: I love like yesterday. We were at San the other
Speaker 1: day thanks to John, and I remember I was on
Speaker 1: the range and I hit I put my wedge away
Speaker 1: and he goes, can I wait clean that for you?
Speaker 4: And I was like, they like happened upon you at
Speaker 4: times and You're like, who's this guy?
Speaker 1: He's a cleaner guy, clean my club between shots on
Speaker 1: the range.
Speaker 2: Sweet.
Speaker 1: But there's honestly some part of that that I think,
Speaker 1: you know, that's not really golf, that's that's service, right.
Speaker 1: That's that's like a hotel or a restaurant. Golf is
Speaker 1: is just sort of going out and being like, where's
Speaker 1: the ball gonna go? And who do I want to
Speaker 1: walk with? And and that happens I think more often
Speaker 1: at places like Dobson Range, and I think that's why
Speaker 1: Matt and the team there has done such a great
Speaker 1: job and why I hope the next ten years seems
Speaker 1: sees even more places like that. It's probably like grass clippings. Wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: really cool, love it.
Speaker 2: Eric.
Speaker 3: Now, you started your journey here in partnership with with Paying.
Speaker 3: You talked about John John K Solheim, our president CEO.
Speaker 3: You guys started off kicking off with the break ninety
Speaker 3: at Pinehurst last summer. Tell us a little bit about
Speaker 3: that and what are you excited about with your relationship
Speaker 3: now with with us hare Ping?
Speaker 1: Well, Ping for me has long been h you know,
Speaker 1: a product and a brand and and kind of like
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys remember when before before you had the
Speaker 1: keys to golf, you know what I mean, when you
Speaker 1: were just like on the outside, you know, you're looking
Speaker 1: at all these brands and for some reason, ping always
Speaker 1: resonated with me. And it was the first set of
Speaker 1: clubs I ever bought. And which were they? What were they?
Speaker 1: I had? I had, I was misfitted. I got black
Speaker 1: Dot iTunes off Crankslist. Yeah, I had to regrip them.
Speaker 1: They were wrapped in a rubber band, you know. But
Speaker 1: I want to tell stories in golf, and I want
Speaker 1: to you know, be a part of talking about why
Speaker 1: I care about what I care about, right, And you know,
Speaker 1: going back to all the random golf club history moments
Speaker 1: like those are things that are about authenticity. Those are
Speaker 1: things are about real experiences. And you know, the more
Speaker 1: I learned about the golf industry, the more I learned
Speaker 1: that paying really is unique. But a lot of people
Speaker 1: didn't know that. And so that was really where I thought, man, Like,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity to create great content with a company
Speaker 1: that cares maybe more about their customer than any of
Speaker 1: their competitors. And it shows up in all these different ways, right,
Speaker 1: whether it's the commitment to engineering, the commitment to design,
Speaker 1: you know, the commitment to the team, right, the staff
Speaker 1: that makes these products, the customers, the retailers that sell
Speaker 1: the products. You know, they're all treated differently, and so
Speaker 1: you know, the more I learn about all this stuff,
Speaker 1: the more I just got really really excited about it.
Speaker 1: But I kept hitting dead ends, and so finally I
Speaker 1: was like, I need to meet John. I need to
Speaker 1: meet John K. Solheim. And so we had dinner. It's
Speaker 1: almost exactly a year ago, and he didn't know I was,
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about what I do, and I was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'd like to propose something to you. And so that
Speaker 1: kind of began this process where I was able to
Speaker 1: get a foot in the door here, which you know,
Speaker 1: for me was really exciting and it reakes me really
Speaker 1: proud because I care so much about not only the
Speaker 1: things that we look at when we're filming, but also
Speaker 1: how people respond when we share it. Right, So we
Speaker 1: have this community that watches our content, right, it's like
Speaker 1: and it's like so rewarding for me to see that
Speaker 1: people get it, people get why Random Golf Club and
Speaker 1: Paying make a great partnership. And I think it's because
Speaker 1: of that authenticity and that commitment to quality. And so
Speaker 1: it's been really fun to learn more. And this is
Speaker 1: probably I guess I had never been to this location.
Speaker 1: You know, we're at the headquarters here as of January
Speaker 1: of last year. I've been here like seven times since,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And James got me fitted
Speaker 1: and like I've just really enjoyed the journey. So I
Speaker 1: don't know if I answered your question, but yeah, for me,
Speaker 1: it's just it. It just feels good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Marty.
Speaker 4: The wall always stands out to me. When you go
Speaker 4: on the wall and you see the years that employees
Speaker 4: have been here, it's always just so crazy, like twenty five, thirty,
Speaker 4: forty years, you know, and we talked so much. We
Speaker 4: have so many players on here that talk about the
Speaker 4: Ping family. Yeah, you know what, And it does feel
Speaker 4: I don't know if you get the same vibe, but
Speaker 4: I felt it for a long time. It's like you
Speaker 4: feel like you're a part of the Ping family now,
Speaker 4: you know, like like now you're in here and you
Speaker 4: know people's names and you know who does what, and
Speaker 4: you know when you come back, they're still gonna be here. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because they care about it as well.
Speaker 1: There was a there was a moment yesterday during the
Speaker 1: pro am where we were playing and you know, on
Speaker 1: on the our eleventh hole, the first t came out
Speaker 1: and joined us and they carried MATV mcneely's bag and
Speaker 1: at the end on the green one of the kids
Speaker 1: said to me.
Speaker 2: Are you part of the Ping family?
Speaker 1: And I looked at John and I was like, and
Speaker 1: John goes, I have the adoption paperwork at my desk.
Speaker 2: Clothes. It's gonna work out before we let you go.
Speaker 4: I did want to ask one thing about adventures in golf,
Speaker 4: and I know you to get this question a lot.
Speaker 4: Is there one destination, one place that kind of stands
Speaker 4: out above the rest for you?
Speaker 1: Well, we have been trying to get to South America
Speaker 1: for the last five years, and there's a whole like
Speaker 1: we we have like every episode scripted out. We know
Speaker 1: who's in the episodes. You know, we're down on New
Speaker 1: Shuaia at the southern tip of like kind of Tira
Speaker 1: Dope Weggo. There's a nine hole course we're in. You know,
Speaker 1: in Buenos Aires there's a an Alistair McKenzie course. You know.
Speaker 1: Uruguay you know has these like there's like these links courses.
Speaker 1: There's a course at the highest course of the world.
Speaker 1: In Bolivia, yep, there's an Amazon course right when you
Speaker 1: get a machete at the tea box. And we have
Speaker 1: literally scripted out these episodes we've were on WhatsApp. I
Speaker 1: know everybody in these locations, they're all aware of us.
Speaker 1: It's been hard to do because of the hemispheres. So
Speaker 1: you need to shoot these episodes in you know, December, January, February, March.
Speaker 1: If you go in this in our summer, it'd be
Speaker 1: too cold in these places. So but for some reason,
Speaker 1: the time, you know, it ever works out. I don't
Speaker 1: know when we're gonna go. I've never been to South America.
Speaker 1: It feels like a total tragedy. But yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: cannot wait. I speak just enough Spanish to get myself
Speaker 1: in trouble, so I'm really looking forward to that. Part
Speaker 1: of it too, is it's like, if I'm gonna go,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go for eleven days, right, I
Speaker 1: want to go for like a month and a half, correct,
Speaker 1: you know? And so that's that's my white Well, okay,
Speaker 1: South America.
Speaker 2: South America. Did not expect that to be the answer.
Speaker 2: That's cool.
Speaker 4: I know that no Lane up voice just win and
Speaker 4: the videos looked unbelievable from there, so yeah, that makes
Speaker 4: a lot of sense. Well, Eric, I appreciate the time
Speaker 4: as always a good catching up with you so cool
Speaker 4: that you're kind of what you're doing and your involvement
Speaker 4: with ping, and we appreciate it.
Speaker 2: This is the Ping proven Grounds podcast.