Speaker 1: You know, for the for years, the industry has been
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's wrong with the game of golf.
Speaker 1: You know, is it too hard, it takes too much time?
Speaker 1: And what was really wrong with it is people had jobs.
Speaker 1: Now that people are working from home, yeah, you can
Speaker 1: get a lot done, uh until twelve o'clock, one o'clock,
Speaker 1: two o'clock, but then they're racing to the golf course.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot more optimism, uh in the golf world,
Speaker 1: in the golf industry. It's great to see, you know,
Speaker 1: the amount of participation. Um My, my son has started
Speaker 1: playing golf during this because this travel sports have been
Speaker 1: been canceled and so, you know, there's just a lot
Speaker 1: of different reasons people have come into the game. Four
Speaker 1: months ago, we was you know, I felt like gloom
Speaker 1: and doom. And today, you know, you're telling yourself, how
Speaker 1: can it be this good? That was just hopeful, I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, and I feel like it is. You know,
Speaker 1: it is good. So it's coming out of this bad
Speaker 1: spot because it's good. I mean, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: good thing. The golf course has been pretty extraordinarily busy.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a big local membership here and people
Speaker 1: who come down here on holiday for the summer and
Speaker 1: they're having a field day because in normal times, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not as easy for them to get out because
Speaker 1: there's so many tourists. Now it's like they're playing every
Speaker 1: single day because an old said, Maddie, you make hay
Speaker 1: when the sunshines, and that's what all the local golfers
Speaker 1: are doing. They're they're they're playing a lot of the Gulf.
Speaker 1: Put another log five, nobody here is getting time. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the fire Pit with Matt Chinella. Thank you to
Speaker 1: Joe Horowitz, who wrote and recently recorded that song for
Speaker 1: this podcast. The story we tell in season on episode fift.
Speaker 1: Good to be back and I hope you and your
Speaker 1: families are staying safe out there. Some of you know.
Speaker 1: We started this podcast in April, not long after the
Speaker 1: country went into quarantine, and on April eight we dropped
Speaker 1: episode two, a round table with industry leaders who provided
Speaker 1: perspective on the state of the game in the midst
Speaker 1: of a global pandemic. If you go back and listen
Speaker 1: to it, it's somber. It's as if the group was
Speaker 1: in shock, and fair to say they were all scared
Speaker 1: for their business and had concerns for the future of
Speaker 1: the game. Here's Josh Lesnik back in April as president
Speaker 1: of Kemper Sports, which manages over courses in States, and
Speaker 1: that includes everything from nine whole municipals to stream Song,
Speaker 1: Sand Valley and abandoned dunes. How many months can a
Speaker 1: small business go with basically zero revenue? You know, you're
Speaker 1: talking at daily fee golf courses that are closed. You
Speaker 1: have zero or revenue. You know, can you afford to
Speaker 1: keep the superintendent and afford to keep some staff to
Speaker 1: keep the golf courses alive. Tom Pashiley, president of Pinehurst
Speaker 1: in North Carolina, had some membership play in mid April
Speaker 1: and rigs of barstool, of course, but as he said
Speaker 1: back then, the cradle of American golf was being rocked
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. We've gone from undred employees down to
Speaker 1: two hundred employees. A lot of those are on the
Speaker 1: golf maintenance staff just to keep the nine courses mode. Certainly,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a reduced maintenance practice then you would
Speaker 1: normally have. But we're trying to keep the courses in
Speaker 1: good enough condition so that when we are able to
Speaker 1: reopen to the outside world that that everybody will have
Speaker 1: a great experience. Lou Thompson, owner of for Students and
Speaker 1: subject of episode twelve on this podcast, was flying blind
Speaker 1: into what's already a short season in ross Common, Michigan.
Speaker 1: You know, you've got a hundred and fifty employees, You've
Speaker 1: got a man in two golf courses, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get to open. It's a pretty grimsome thought that goes
Speaker 1: through your mind that you're gonna have to to take
Speaker 1: care of them forces and take care of your employees.
Speaker 1: You can. I couldn't go and just say, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: you're done. I still have to have people to take
Speaker 1: care of the plights and the courses and keep my
Speaker 1: place up. So yeah, it was a pretty grin deal. Uh,
Speaker 1: scary as hell. Do be honest with you whenever you're
Speaker 1: setting up thinking about it. Meanwhile, John Ashworth, who has
Speaker 1: least and led Go to Hill Park for six years,
Speaker 1: a four thousand, four hundred yard thirty dollar green feet
Speaker 1: in Oceanside, California, did his best to see through the
Speaker 1: smoke and seemingly set the stage for the situation. The
Speaker 1: game is in now. I think people are gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot better attitude and just a different perspective on
Speaker 1: having the freedom to actually play golf. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that's gonna be uh, it's gonna be a liberating
Speaker 1: experience once people can come out back out to the
Speaker 1: golf course. And then there was Marty Carr, founder and
Speaker 1: CEO of car Golf Travel, an international travel business based
Speaker 1: in Dublin which customizes golf trips at a wide variety
Speaker 1: of budgets, but also manages several clubs throughout Ireland. Hopefully,
Speaker 1: hopefully at all it all it was back. I think
Speaker 1: I think this year is probably this this this season
Speaker 1: is probably going to be a very tough strugger for everybody.
Speaker 1: But I think, you know, I think things move on
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. I think it's very hard in the eye
Speaker 1: of the store to see the end of it, but
Speaker 1: I think things would pick up, and probably golf would
Speaker 1: pick up much much quicker than meny other industries. That's
Speaker 1: one thing they all said, if they could get open,
Speaker 1: they had a chance. They knew that as long as
Speaker 1: they could get a set of sensible regulations, the game
Speaker 1: could ride a wave of opportunity all the way to
Speaker 1: the beach, and by June or shortly thereafter they were
Speaker 1: all opened and it's as if golf is our only
Speaker 1: option for a safe out or activity. Mike Stertura of
Speaker 1: Golf Digest recently tweeted that Golf Data Tech reports rounds
Speaker 1: played in July were up over last year. US golf
Speaker 1: equipment sales reached the all time greatest single month and
Speaker 1: retail sales since the company started tracking data in the
Speaker 1: year Tiger one his first Masters balls are up. Putters,
Speaker 1: wedges seventy, woods are up sixty and irons. As to
Speaker 1: Chura said, if it's not nailed down, it's selling. And
Speaker 1: so I got the buddies trip of round tables back
Speaker 1: together again to check in on their business, same order throughout.
Speaker 1: So we start again with Josh Lesnik of Kemper Sports,
Speaker 1: who has been pleasantly surprised by this endless summer of golf.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I'm not even sure I had that hope. Really,
Speaker 1: I don't think I could even think about it. Um
Speaker 1: from that standpoint sitting there in April, you know, with
Speaker 1: of our golf course is closed and no idea how
Speaker 1: long all these restrictions state by state we're gonna last.
Speaker 1: And umb I really had no I couldn't even hope
Speaker 1: for the turnaround that's really happened in terms of rounds
Speaker 1: of golf, interest in the game of golf, golf becoming
Speaker 1: known as h a safe, healthy way to get outside
Speaker 1: um during the pandemic. Tom Pastilely of Pine says they're
Speaker 1: back to one thousand employees, which is up eight hundred,
Speaker 1: still down five from pre quarantine. I look back at
Speaker 1: how somber we were in April and and trust me,
Speaker 1: there's still plenty of things that have had to happen
Speaker 1: that we're not We're sad about employee that are no
Speaker 1: longer here, but seeing people return to pinehurs, seeing them
Speaker 1: enjoying being outside, seeing them play golf, seeing seeing you know,
Speaker 1: hundreds of people in the cradle every afternoon has given
Speaker 1: us more reason to be excited. So so it's it's
Speaker 1: still difficult because our our business is also dependent on
Speaker 1: corporate business. We've got a lot of meeting space and
Speaker 1: so that side of the business has really languished, and
Speaker 1: we don't know when gatherings of large groups inside is
Speaker 1: going to be able to happen again. But in the meantime,
Speaker 1: golfers that the path has kind of been cleared for
Speaker 1: for the golfers to come here, and uh and and
Speaker 1: we just enjoy seeing them enjoying pine Hurst. The logo
Speaker 1: of Forest Dudes is a deer. And going back to April,
Speaker 1: Lou Thompson was staring into the headlights of an oncoming car.
Speaker 1: You know, Jim was best June we've ever had in history. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly the numbers, but I think we
Speaker 1: were probably up in June, and then the first of
Speaker 1: July we were able to open up the lodge and
Speaker 1: everything and restaurants are limited seating, and we were probably
Speaker 1: up dirty percent in July over last year. Uh. Come August,
Speaker 1: you know, we're projecting that we're gonna be up tween
Speaker 1: forty and forty five percent in August this year over
Speaker 1: last year, which is realistically we can't do some more.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know what it's and whats of is
Speaker 1: so strange about this is every day is a record
Speaker 1: day for us. You know, we do three hundred and
Speaker 1: dirty last Friday, Well, just coming Friday, we've got three
Speaker 1: forty on the books. You know, next Saturday, we've got
Speaker 1: three sixty books, uh, known for two courses and that's
Speaker 1: all we didn't get on. As for John Ashworth at
Speaker 1: goat Hill Park, he did what he does best. He
Speaker 1: took a shitty situation, rallied the community and together they
Speaker 1: made several significant course enhancements. You know, we're always trying
Speaker 1: to improve it because it needs a lot of improvement.
Speaker 1: And uh and we were able to. Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: some volunteers, you know, we had we didn't have volunteers days,
Speaker 1: but we we let it known in our little crew
Speaker 1: of guys. You know, if you want to come get dirty,
Speaker 1: we've got plenty of jobs to do. Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: had a lot of takers. Meanwhile, Marty Carr of car
Speaker 1: Golf in Ireland reports the Irish have picked up right
Speaker 1: where they left off, which is loving and playing the
Speaker 1: game of golf. I think, you know, as John Ashford
Speaker 1: identified that, you know, hopefully golf would be part of
Speaker 1: the solution. And clearly there has been an incredible increase
Speaker 1: in interest in in in Gulf given the fact that
Speaker 1: there was a very limited amount of other activities. Golfs
Speaker 1: first back, we've seen an explosion in the new members
Speaker 1: joining clubs because we opened up here post COVID with
Speaker 1: the requirement that you had to be a member, and
Speaker 1: then slowly but surely with member guests and now everybody
Speaker 1: can play. We opened up at reduced capacity. So notwithstanding them,
Speaker 1: the challenges have increased demand and reduced supply, and golf
Speaker 1: is very busy here of courses, obviously depending on where
Speaker 1: they're located. There's still another a lot of courses that
Speaker 1: haven't seen a huge bounce. I would say that that's
Speaker 1: probably the telling sign that they don't really have a
Speaker 1: huge future. But for the most part, the urban golf
Speaker 1: courses have seen a huge bounce. In fact, they're probably
Speaker 1: trading on priority with last year, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: they were closed for two and a half months. So
Speaker 1: I know the n g F came out there recently
Speaker 1: saying that that the rounds are up. I would say
Speaker 1: we're definitely up fift. But it does very convenued to
Speaker 1: venue depending on location, which brings us back to less
Speaker 1: nick onjust how good is it out there right now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you were called. There was a
Speaker 1: study done by the n GF about all the latent demand.
Speaker 1: There wasn't golf people who played before they had kids
Speaker 1: and for one reason another work, kids, everything, they didn't play,
Speaker 1: but they wanted to get back out there, and even
Speaker 1: other people that that may be watched on TVV like
Speaker 1: the idea of being outside walking getting some exercise, but
Speaker 1: hadn't taken it up. There's a lot of latent event. Well,
Speaker 1: those people are playing golf now, and it's seen at
Speaker 1: the golf courses. It's seeing with our PGA professionals giving lessons.
Speaker 1: It's seen with the equipment companies, uh selling out of
Speaker 1: equipment and even golf balls. Um, it's look, we lost
Speaker 1: twenty million rounds of golf in the spring when the
Speaker 1: rounds were goes not we kemper sports. We the industry
Speaker 1: lost something like twenty million rounds. Never thought we could
Speaker 1: ever make it up. Um, but we're gonna. We're gonna
Speaker 1: come awfully both, if not exceed to make up the
Speaker 1: lost rounds because we have this in season in a
Speaker 1: lot of the country. Um. Just boom, It's amazing. I
Speaker 1: asked pastially of pine Hurst. If a buddy's trip rocked
Speaker 1: up to the Carolina Hotel right now, would they notice
Speaker 1: a difference from previous trips. Absolutely, they'll they'll notice differently.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody will have their masks on. As long
Speaker 1: as masks are required and and so that you'll see
Speaker 1: and they'll be required to wear masks. Is they're kind
Speaker 1: of indoors throughout North Carolina. We've got a date coming
Speaker 1: up September eleven is when the governor revisits our status
Speaker 1: with with all these things. So if if they come
Speaker 1: after then hopefully things are loosened up a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're taking it all very seriously. And
Speaker 1: so they're gonna see signage telling them, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a space out. They're gonna see our breakfast buffet that
Speaker 1: is world famous is now being served by employees. You're
Speaker 1: not able to decide, you know, what portions you want.
Speaker 1: You can ask for it, we'll provide it for you.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there'll be subtle things, um that they'll notice.
Speaker 1: And I think what we're finding is people appreciate it.
Speaker 1: People want to feel safe. They're anxious, and when you
Speaker 1: get to the place and you see that folks are
Speaker 1: taking it seriously, it puts you a little more at ease.
Speaker 1: At Forest Dunes, which is quite literally in the middle
Speaker 1: of Michigan, which also makes it very remote, lou Thompson
Speaker 1: says that's exactly what's working in his favor. I was
Speaker 1: up there a couple weeks ago with a friend of
Speaker 1: mine and he said, you know how many people here
Speaker 1: to day? And I saw, how about three hundred? And
Speaker 1: that just blows me away because I feel a lot
Speaker 1: more the only ones up here. You know, we're spread
Speaker 1: out over twenty acres. You know, tea times are back
Speaker 1: to you know, they're not just a on top of everybody.
Speaker 1: And he said, it's just amazing to me that the
Speaker 1: story hundred fifty people here to die and I feel
Speaker 1: like we're the only ones out here. You know, It's
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. You know. I feel very comfortable being
Speaker 1: up there playing golf. Uh And I feel very comptful
Speaker 1: dinning outside, even with people around, because you know, I
Speaker 1: just don't feel like we have me exposer that's obviously
Speaker 1: particiarly have insight. John Ashworth is all about seizing this
Speaker 1: momentum and running with it. I think we've got this
Speaker 1: big opportunity. You know, if there is a renaissance in
Speaker 1: golf to capture a new spirit for the game, if
Speaker 1: you will, you know, that is more of this. Goat
Speaker 1: Hill Park Winter Park nine recreational golf community golf using
Speaker 1: the golf course as the center for a community, you know,
Speaker 1: versus back in the nineties, which I happen to live
Speaker 1: through as well, when it was always like it's build
Speaker 1: a big country club, that's you know, gonna hosted tour event,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm going to have the biggest, hardest
Speaker 1: golf course. All these billionaire you know, Dot Com guys
Speaker 1: or whatever that you know, did all that stuff. Marty
Speaker 1: Carr says that in Ireland, the courses usually sought after
Speaker 1: by the big game hunters of golf are busy, but
Speaker 1: it's because they've drastically reduced their green fees for locals.
Speaker 1: The tourism courses remain challenged because they can't replace the
Speaker 1: the tens of thousands of overseas tourists who will come
Speaker 1: in here and pay the premium rates. So many of
Speaker 1: them have put together a rate for members of Irish
Speaker 1: golf clubs and they have seen an increase in play,
Speaker 1: but the yield will be significantly down. The municipal courses
Speaker 1: and the and the and the courses that offer access
Speaker 1: around Dublin would have seen a significant increase in play
Speaker 1: at a rate, and and then some more of the
Speaker 1: rural courses probably haven't seen that much so, to be honest,
Speaker 1: you depending on what segments you're talking about it, there
Speaker 1: has been differing impacts. I asked les Nick if he
Speaker 1: thought that because of the evolution of the industry over
Speaker 1: the course of the last two decades, is golf better
Speaker 1: positioned to keep more of this tsunami of interest beyond
Speaker 1: the pandemic As rounds were dwindling, and you know, we
Speaker 1: had this great oversupply of golf courses in the United States.
Speaker 1: We just built too many golf courses and demand wasn't
Speaker 1: keeping up with the supply, and so golf course owners
Speaker 1: were getting together, like, you know, we need we need
Speaker 1: to change the industry a little bit. We need to
Speaker 1: make it more welcoming. And I wasn't getting We were
Speaker 1: sitting around kind of talking about, you know, what's wrong
Speaker 1: with the game. How do we make the game more fun,
Speaker 1: more friendly, more inclusive. And the industry did a great
Speaker 1: job of doing that. Um, you know, all the all
Speaker 1: the things you're talking about, just making it more fun,
Speaker 1: short courses, music on course. Knowing that we need to
Speaker 1: treat people when they walk into our pro shop. We
Speaker 1: just need to treat people better. We need to treat
Speaker 1: beginners better. We don't want to scare them away from
Speaker 1: the golf course. We want to bring them in to golf.
Speaker 1: And the industry really had changed over let's call it
Speaker 1: the last decade or or a little more, um so,
Speaker 1: for that type of demand. Now, let's say, I mean
Speaker 1: top golf is a perfect example. Top golf. People are
Speaker 1: learning the swing, they're learning the game, they're getting that
Speaker 1: feeling of hitting a good golf shot. But unfortunately, still
Speaker 1: our industry can't in many areas, can't do social functions
Speaker 1: of larger than a certain number um and you know,
Speaker 1: driving ranges can be closed things like that. But those
Speaker 1: people are now coming to the golf course for that
Speaker 1: socially distanced, touch free golf experience, and well that stick.
Speaker 1: You know, I think some of it will. It's not
Speaker 1: realistic to think that this boom will last forever. I
Speaker 1: think offices will open up again, people start working, there
Speaker 1: will be baseball games you can go to, there will
Speaker 1: be kids sports again, and parents have to go to
Speaker 1: their kids sporting games. You know. So it's unrealistic to
Speaker 1: think that people can continue to play this amount. But
Speaker 1: the industry is certainly ready to welcome all these people
Speaker 1: and treat them in the way we need to treat
Speaker 1: them to bring them back. Meanwhile, Pastilely and pine Hurst
Speaker 1: continue to benefit from the revolutionary moves they made a
Speaker 1: few years ago by adding a putting and Part three
Speaker 1: course to their front porch. The cradle has been amazing,
Speaker 1: and thank goodness we have it, because, yeah, all this
Speaker 1: new participation, what what better of course to learn the
Speaker 1: game on? Then a short course and then the cradle
Speaker 1: where there's no intimidation, where it's all about fun and
Speaker 1: so the you know, last year we thought we were
Speaker 1: setting records for rounds on the Cradle, and so far
Speaker 1: this summer we're up and rounds played on the Cradle
Speaker 1: over a number that we never imagined we can top.
Speaker 1: It's it's been so good and and a lot of
Speaker 1: them are people who are who are staying with us
Speaker 1: at the resort. A lot of them are people who
Speaker 1: were just passing through and and they're they're able to
Speaker 1: get their piece of the pine Hurst experience at the
Speaker 1: putting course. This will do is super popular right now.
Speaker 1: So thank goodness, thank goodness we made the changes we
Speaker 1: made when we did, because it put us kind of
Speaker 1: in a in a great position to take advantage of
Speaker 1: all these new people who have been coming into the game.
Speaker 1: For sure. Forest Dudes opened their new ten hole Part
Speaker 1: three course on August one. You know something that I
Speaker 1: thought was pretty cool, Matt. We had to we had
Speaker 1: to build a shoe rack at the tea box because
Speaker 1: when we told some of the guys to start with
Speaker 1: the rules, you know, have fun if you want to
Speaker 1: keep shoes off playing music. Well, after about an hour
Speaker 1: we had about a hundred pairs of shoes all over
Speaker 1: the ground and didn't stand that. So the next week
Speaker 1: we built in shoe racks too, so people's got a
Speaker 1: replace to put their shoes. So exactly what I wanted.
Speaker 1: You tell people if you want to go there. But man,
Speaker 1: everybody hits the deck and the shoes dart climbed. And
Speaker 1: the best part is it's not unlock. It's a certain
Speaker 1: nights group. I mean sixties seven year old man's kicking
Speaker 1: the shoes off. You know, six year old kids are
Speaker 1: kicking their shoes off. You know. It was just it
Speaker 1: was just pretty cool, just set there to pavilion and
Speaker 1: experience that. I asked Ashworth and then Car if some
Speaker 1: of the new rules and regulations have a place in
Speaker 1: the game. Post COVID. Everyone's kind of getting used to
Speaker 1: the pen in the hole with the with the foamy thing.
Speaker 1: Although I will say, you gotta get that phone down
Speaker 1: a little bit. Man. I feel like I got kind
Speaker 1: of screwed it. Grizzy had a bumplipout. I know it,
Speaker 1: but no, I mean at the goat we do that.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, I never thought i'd be into it,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know if I am into it, but
Speaker 1: it's sure, Yeah, I think that's speed up play, you know,
Speaker 1: for sure, U Rakes and the bunkers. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know if if you if you don't have rakes,
Speaker 1: and you probably have to like everybody's bumping it, which
Speaker 1: I don't really like, to be honest with you. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if I like that one. Um more walking, right,
Speaker 1: I think a little bit more walking, you know. Um
Speaker 1: Less hugging, which I don't know if that's a good
Speaker 1: thing or bad. But um, I miss a good hug.
Speaker 1: I missed I missed the hug at the end of
Speaker 1: the round, the high five bro hug. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: miss that. I I kind of like the idea of
Speaker 1: the flag leaving the pin and the whole people are
Speaker 1: maybe we used to be optional before and it was in,
Speaker 1: it was out. I'd like to see things like the
Speaker 1: bunker's facing in the bunker and then smooth it over
Speaker 1: your foot's sartainly speeding up the game. And rounds are
Speaker 1: much faster over here now than they were at pre COVID,
Speaker 1: no question, which is saying something because rounds in Ireland
Speaker 1: were already pretty fast. On the subject of speed, here's
Speaker 1: Lesnik again on planning a trip in full alert. If
Speaker 1: you want to go to Streams Song, Abandoned Dunes, Sand Valley,
Speaker 1: if you want to go next year, I mean book
Speaker 1: right now for next year. You can't. You can't get
Speaker 1: in this year. It's it's it's near impossible, as you
Speaker 1: found out. And I've tried to, you know, make tea
Speaker 1: times for people, and we're talking next June at Bannon. Dudes,
Speaker 1: it's hard to get times for people if the group's
Speaker 1: big enough, so you know, you really it looks like
Speaker 1: interest in the game of golf and interest in destinations
Speaker 1: is continuing to grow. This is not a temporary thing,
Speaker 1: because the reservations are get very good for next season
Speaker 1: as well. Pastially is cautiously optimistic, but also can't ignore
Speaker 1: what he sees as we get into what will surely
Speaker 1: be an epic September for not only Pineers, but for
Speaker 1: golf all across the country. We don't know. Is it
Speaker 1: that the travel patterns have changed because people couldn't do
Speaker 1: their spring trips, they've been doing summer trips. How much
Speaker 1: of it is sustainable? You know, we don't know, um,
Speaker 1: but but for right now it is. It is very encouraging.
Speaker 1: And like I said that the long faces in uh
Speaker 1: and in our tone that I really listened to from
Speaker 1: our April thing is just so much different right now,
Speaker 1: so much more optimism. Again, harsh realities have happened, and
Speaker 1: there have been some some fundamental changes in the way
Speaker 1: we do certain things. But boy, oh boy, um, as
Speaker 1: I as I look out over Pineer's number two and
Speaker 1: Pineers number four right now, there's a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: activity that makes me, makes me happy for the future.
Speaker 1: Back at Forest Dunes, I asked Thompson the new Part
Speaker 1: three course has had an impact on his demographic. Rob
Speaker 1: sent an email the other day the superintendent and said
Speaker 1: it was so cool every day to look up there
Speaker 1: and see moms and Dad's with two and three kids
Speaker 1: sharing clubs and the kids dad's over there, shown the
Speaker 1: kid how to put mom's over there, got someone else
Speaker 1: showing him how to swing a club. You know, it's
Speaker 1: that's pretty exciting because you know, we're introducing people to
Speaker 1: the game of golf that's never been involved in the
Speaker 1: game of golf. And uh, you know, I'm at the
Speaker 1: COVID deal for the golf course industry. You know, somebody's
Speaker 1: suffered from it, but the golf course industry. I think
Speaker 1: it's going to a cross work from this because we're
Speaker 1: gonna get people back to in the golf scene that
Speaker 1: has either never was in it, or was in it
Speaker 1: and got out of it, and now they're realizing, right,
Speaker 1: this is a good safe white act saws and enjoy
Speaker 1: myself outside and have very little expulsiures, Amen Lou. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Ashworth is co founder of Link Soul, the lifestyle and
Speaker 1: apparel company that hosts Link Soul to Man's, which look
Speaker 1: and feel a lot like one big Buddy strip. We
Speaker 1: just had our Link Soul Too Man Grizzly Ranch and
Speaker 1: you know, we were back and it's the first one
Speaker 1: we've had all year, and we were back and forth
Speaker 1: should we have it, should we not have it? Cheese
Speaker 1: were doing the right thing and talked to the course
Speaker 1: a bunch of course they were open and and we
Speaker 1: we finally said, yeah, let's do it. Let's you know,
Speaker 1: let's let's do it. Let's do all these safeguards in place.
Speaker 1: And you know, we gave out masks in the whole deal.
Speaker 1: But I cannot tell you how many guys came up
Speaker 1: to me and said, I am so glad you guys
Speaker 1: had this thing. I needed it so bad, like, you know, seriously.
Speaker 1: It was like okay, okay, you know it was cool
Speaker 1: though a lot of guys really really needed They love
Speaker 1: they love that. I mean, we had camaraderie, but it
Speaker 1: was you know, we were a part. Everybody was cool.
Speaker 1: You know, I really did the right thing. I missed
Speaker 1: this one at Grizzly Ranch, but as an Avid Link
Speaker 1: Soul ambassador, there will be a lot more Links Soul
Speaker 1: two Man's in my future and I'll definitely be back
Speaker 1: to Ireland. But had to miss my annual trip to
Speaker 1: Waterville this year for car Golf's Father Son Tournament again.
Speaker 1: As Marty Carr explains, local golf and drive travel are up,
Speaker 1: but it's the mega trips out of the country that
Speaker 1: are basically non existent for now. Travel business basically is
Speaker 1: down last year, so clearly nobody can travel with the
Speaker 1: fourteen day quarantine right now. I guess it's very hard
Speaker 1: for people to to understand the rules because there's so
Speaker 1: many different rules. Americans are not permitted to travel to
Speaker 1: Europe as far as I know, but Ireland is not
Speaker 1: part of that. And if you come to Ireland you
Speaker 1: need to quarantine for fourteen days. And quarantine basically means
Speaker 1: you need to stay. You need to tell a start
Speaker 1: when you land where you're going to be staying. You
Speaker 1: can change where you're staying, but you need to stay indoors.
Speaker 1: You can't go out to restaurants, you can't take golf,
Speaker 1: but you could. You can go out for a psychle,
Speaker 1: you can go head for a walk if you need to.
Speaker 1: You can go to the shops. So it's not as
Speaker 1: if you've gotta In some countries you've gotta lock yourself
Speaker 1: in a room and they bring three meals a day,
Speaker 1: which I understand is happening in New Zealand. Terra eating
Speaker 1: is in New Zealand, which is where they have a
Speaker 1: tom Doake of course and want to build another plus
Speaker 1: a core and crunchhap but that thirty six whole edition
Speaker 1: is on hold for now. And that's just about it
Speaker 1: for this Firepin. Special appreciation for the guests of this
Speaker 1: podcast for their time, transparency, and all that they do
Speaker 1: for the game of golf. More to come as we
Speaker 1: continue to prep and record season two, which will officially
Speaker 1: start dropping soon. But in keeping with tradition, we're ending
Speaker 1: this roundtable just like we did the first one, with
Speaker 1: a joke from Marty Carr. Anyway I can I can't
Speaker 1: use the effort, can abreviate? Oh yeah, of course you can.
Speaker 1: Ashworths used in multiple times in the podcast. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: this this so this guy and he's given the fact
Speaker 1: that we're in Carry. Is this guy in a Carry
Speaker 1: radio station and he runs the program every Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: and he says, we're going to have a competition today
Speaker 1: and we want you to call him with unusual words.
Speaker 1: So we want you to call up, give us your name,
Speaker 1: tell us where you're from, and give us your word
Speaker 1: and the winner gets two nights in the buddler Arms
Speaker 1: Hotel and a random water girlfriends. Anyway that all the
Speaker 1: Carry people are calling in there a huge queue of
Speaker 1: people on the line, and the DJ goes, okay, call
Speaker 1: a number one. He goes, hell, oh, yes, my name
Speaker 1: is Mattie and I'm calling from kin Sale. This is
Speaker 1: how your matter? He says, what's your word? He goes
Speaker 1: gan and he goes grant. He said that's an unusual
Speaker 1: where He says, can you spell it? He says, I
Speaker 1: can g w an grand. He said, I've never heard
Speaker 1: that word. Now, that's a fantastic word. That could be
Speaker 1: a winner. He says, could you put it in context?
Speaker 1: He says, I can't gonna fund yourself. So anyway, the
Speaker 1: the DJ gets very upset, both sorts of complaints coming,
Speaker 1: and he goes to an ad break. He comes back
Speaker 1: on and he apologizes profusely for the for the for
Speaker 1: the use of profanity on the airways, and then he said,
Speaker 1: we've good time for one more caller and then we
Speaker 1: have to call it quits. So he goes, okay, caller,
Speaker 1: he's about your name because my name is Samous. He said,
Speaker 1: how are you Shamus Heason? Where are you calling from? Shamus?
Speaker 1: He's don't call h from True County County. It's a
Speaker 1: good man, Jamus. What's your word. He goes, sh me.
Speaker 1: He says me. He says, I've never heard that word. Sis.
Speaker 1: Can you Spellali says I can M e h B,
Speaker 1: And he goes, she's could you put it in context?
Speaker 1: He said, I cantch me again. Go fund yourself. Remember
Speaker 1: use promo code Maddie G to get off your next
Speaker 1: purchase of apparel at link soul dot com. Ongoing appreciation
Speaker 1: for Alex up Peggy who helps me produce this podcast,
Speaker 1: Rexcellent who adds the sound and music