Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Justin Thomas wants more positive stories, he should
Speaker 1: just pay attention to the fire pit channels, because what
Speaker 1: we're all about, it's telling these these feel good tales.
Speaker 2: That got dots in my head.
Speaker 3: Can't get them, joh and not the thing what I'm
Speaker 3: thinking about.
Speaker 2: I can't get.
Speaker 3: Them, John, not the thing well I'm thinking about.
Speaker 1: Hello, this is Alan Chipnak back for another Fire Drill
Speaker 1: podcast here at the FPC. We're coming off a great
Speaker 1: success at the Wishbone Brawl. Presumably you guys have seen
Speaker 1: all the content we blasted out. It's always a highlight
Speaker 1: of our year and just just one of the real
Speaker 1: feel good events of the golf calendar. One of you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of sponsors of that of that gathering also
Speaker 1: help us keep the lights on here at the fact
Speaker 1: by collective. So big shout out to Link Soul who
Speaker 1: provides all the clothing for us, and just to quality
Speaker 1: people to be involved with. And of course Ola Kai shoes.
Speaker 1: I was telling someone recently that's pretty much all I wear,
Speaker 1: and even if they stop sponsoring this podcast, I would
Speaker 1: continue to wear the shoes like they're just insanely comfortable.
Speaker 1: I have really bad feet. I don't want to describe
Speaker 1: them in detail because I might scare off the listeners,
Speaker 1: but they're the most cumfble shoes I warn't a really
Speaker 1: long time. So thank you to Ola Kai and of
Speaker 1: course Dormy Workshop as well, purveyor of beautiful artisanal leather
Speaker 1: headcovers and stash patches and all kinds of cool stuff.
Speaker 1: So we appreciate all of you. So let's get to
Speaker 1: this podcast. Matt Janella is here. We thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to kind of catch up on what we're
Speaker 1: working on. We've got this in the Dirt series as
Speaker 1: we're calling it. Hopefully you guys have seen some of
Speaker 1: the content we blasted out on Golden Gate Park and
Speaker 1: Pasa Tiempo, and we have some great intel on Shorties,
Speaker 1: the new Part three band and that we're going to
Speaker 1: be putting out shortly as it were. And so just
Speaker 1: to some fun, exciting projects that we'll get into in
Speaker 1: a little more detail here. And so, without further ado, Matt,
Speaker 1: what is going on in your world?
Speaker 2: On Sunday morning, after saying goodbye to laired Shepherd by
Speaker 2: the way, the British am Champ was in town and
Speaker 2: staying at our house, got to play Friday skins and
Speaker 2: Saturday around at goat Hill Park with with the British
Speaker 2: Am champ over the over the sort of the end
Speaker 2: of last week and and he's on his way to
Speaker 2: Palm Springs playing in the Asian Tour Q School in
Speaker 2: Palm Springs. So great to reconnect with Laird. If you've
Speaker 2: watched some of what we did from the grind, you
Speaker 2: know his story in which he was he was eight
Speaker 2: down with nineteen to play in the British Amperagere Championship
Speaker 2: at nare A couple of years ago and came back
Speaker 2: to beat Monti Scousel in a three hole playoff, eight down,
Speaker 2: nineteen to play, four down with four to play and
Speaker 2: wins on the third playoff. Full so really cool that
Speaker 2: he was here and he was teaching bandon how to
Speaker 2: play soccer in our backyard and showing him some stuff
Speaker 2: on the golf course. So it was really sweet. And
Speaker 2: then Sunday morning I darted up to San Jose, went
Speaker 2: out and met Justin Mandon, the superintendent there, and got
Speaker 2: eyes on ultimately what's really a finished product At Pas Tiempo.
Speaker 2: They will reopen to the public on December fourth. The
Speaker 2: Front nine the back nine has been open. You can
Speaker 2: play it, you know, once or twice if you so desire.
Speaker 2: But the front nine will reopen to the public December fourth.
Speaker 2: That'll stay open all the way through April, so you
Speaker 2: can play all eighteen holes with the new front nine
Speaker 2: greens and the back nine as it is until Western Intercollegiate,
Speaker 2: which is at the week after the Masters. So and
Speaker 2: then they'll shut the back nine down and do the
Speaker 2: same exact process that they did on the front line,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, really go down and find the
Speaker 2: original you know, the greens and the intent of doctor
Speaker 2: Alistair McKenzie and Marion Hollins as it relates to those
Speaker 2: putting surfaces and Jim Orbina just amandon erth Sculptures. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, a big sort of team has been a
Speaker 2: part of that project. And I'm I honestly had a
Speaker 2: beautiful morning out there. We had our Roger Our drone shooter,
Speaker 2: a Drone Ninja out there and recreating some of the
Speaker 2: same angles he's been doing throughout this entire process, and
Speaker 2: the before and afters are going to be spectacular. The
Speaker 2: putting surfaces at Pas Tiempo on that front nine went
Speaker 2: from one maybe two pinnable locations to now in some
Speaker 2: cases like five, three, five eight, the part three's are
Speaker 2: going to have you know, seven to eleven different pinnable locations.
Speaker 2: They you know, they took the green side bunkers down
Speaker 2: to their riginal intent. They've got you know, as as
Speaker 2: we've documented, they've got photos and you know information. They
Speaker 2: went and were able to read the layers of the
Speaker 2: sand once they really cut into it, to see that
Speaker 2: original that original green and and the sort of the
Speaker 2: breaks on that green to try to use as as
Speaker 2: a base for the recreation and restoration.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. That's like archaeology. That's not that's not architecture.
Speaker 1: That's that's a different discipline. Like they're they're reading the
Speaker 1: straations of the earth there to figure out the subsoils
Speaker 1: and the sand build ups. Like I love that.
Speaker 2: It's it's actually the word honestly, And I think you know,
Speaker 2: they had done so much soil sampling and understanding, you know,
Speaker 2: in justin mand and that superintendent they you know, Pasa
Speaker 2: Tempo has the perfect guy. Grew up in the area,
Speaker 2: lives in the area, you know obviously, and and uh
Speaker 2: and he is so well versed on that golf Course,
Speaker 2: Scott Hoyt former general manager Steve Vargo now the current
Speaker 2: general manager, that board of directors, that membership. I was
Speaker 2: there that day in April when they kind of shut
Speaker 2: everything down. They had a barbecue, They had two hundred
Speaker 2: plus members out there. The amount of information and education
Speaker 2: that went in to getting that project, excuse me, that
Speaker 2: project lit and getting that to go and where it
Speaker 2: is now as as we here are here in November,
Speaker 2: this is going to go down in history as one
Speaker 2: of the smartest and most effective, you know, restorations of
Speaker 2: very meaningful putting services that you know that are accessible
Speaker 2: you know, to the public. It is a members club,
Speaker 2: it is semi private. It's a very different business model
Speaker 2: than we see in most American clubs in terms of
Speaker 2: the prestige of what we're talking about. Usually these these
Speaker 2: of course like this would be behind gates and we
Speaker 2: would you'd only get access to it if you were
Speaker 2: willing to pay one hundred thousand up front or two
Speaker 2: hundred or five hundred whatever that exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean. This is like the UK model, like even
Speaker 1: your field, you know, which is the Augusta National of Scotland,
Speaker 1: super Stuffy Uptight Joint they still let outsiders play, you know,
Speaker 1: Tuesday and Thursdays. And I've had this argument with so
Speaker 1: many people, like these great private courses. To me, it's
Speaker 1: a travesty that three hundred guys get to play them
Speaker 1: and a select few other guests, Like I mean, like
Speaker 1: Cyper's point to me is like Yosemite, you know, it
Speaker 1: should be a national park and let the members have
Speaker 1: it maybe five days a week that everyone else coming
Speaker 1: and play. And the other two like this is this
Speaker 1: is a part of the California coastline. No one owns California,
Speaker 1: no one owns the Pacific Ocean. Like these things bother
Speaker 1: me and you and I have always loved Pasa Tempa.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it glowingly. I think it's it's still
Speaker 1: an underrated course. It's not always on people's radar screen,
Speaker 1: but it is open to the public. They set aside
Speaker 1: chunks of times every single day. And it's because this
Speaker 1: public private model it's not that expensive relatively speaking. I
Speaker 1: was like, what, it's a third of TPC sawgrass, you know,
Speaker 1: it's half of pebble, you know what, it's it's half
Speaker 1: of you. Some of these these these courses out in
Speaker 1: the desert and it I mean Tita Green, it's phenomenal,
Speaker 1: and the undulations and the land and some of the
Speaker 1: some of the carries, and then these these Alter Mackenzie
Speaker 1: greens are just wild and it's crazy and awesome. And
Speaker 1: the good doctor, you know a lot of people know,
Speaker 1: lived and basically died at Pasa Tiempo. That's how much
Speaker 1: he loved it and cared for it. And so it
Speaker 1: should be the top of every golfer's list as a pilgrimage.
Speaker 1: And just wait, you know, maybe at this point you
Speaker 1: could wait another year when it's done done and it
Speaker 1: is going to be so spectacular because they didn't really
Speaker 1: touch anything Tita Green, although they they're tweaking some bunkers
Speaker 1: along the way and the fairways. But the greens had
Speaker 1: gotten so extreme from the sand build up, and I
Speaker 1: don't think average golfers recognized, like every time you splashed
Speaker 1: out of a bunker that like starts to raise the
Speaker 1: contours or the greens times one hundred and fifty players
Speaker 1: a day, times you know, almost one hundred years. And
Speaker 1: so the greens had just evolved to the point they
Speaker 1: were too extreme. So now you're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: see the contours as they were designed, and it's going
Speaker 1: to be tremendous.
Speaker 2: It was almost it had gotten to a point where
Speaker 2: they weren't even able to like mow the greens, let
Speaker 2: alone put pins on them. And it wasn't It's not
Speaker 2: just that sand splash that you're talking about. It's top dressing.
Speaker 2: It's natural runoff on the you know, on that on
Speaker 2: those hillsides and how that settles, and then you know,
Speaker 2: and then it's the agronomy underneath it, with drainage and
Speaker 2: sprinkler systems and you know, and just the general health
Speaker 2: of the grass itself. So you know, if you talk
Speaker 2: to some people involved and you find out that, you know,
Speaker 2: they were really you know, Justin was very good at
Speaker 2: what he does, obviously, and he would get the greens
Speaker 2: very good, but there was only a limited number of
Speaker 2: seasons in which he was going to be able to
Speaker 2: do what he was doing without you know, without having
Speaker 2: to try to, you know, sort of push forward with
Speaker 2: the project like this. And and they they what they've
Speaker 2: ultimately decided to do is go back to some of
Speaker 2: that that original intent and and and reveal some of
Speaker 2: the original pinlotions but also some of the views and
Speaker 2: looks you see of some of the bunkers behind or
Speaker 2: to the right or left of some of these holes
Speaker 2: that you could see in images but had been disappeared
Speaker 2: over these decades of time. And in Jim Orbina, you
Speaker 2: have a guy who spent a lot of time out
Speaker 2: of pass Tempo. He knows Mackenzie. He worked with Doak
Speaker 2: on the sort of the restoration in which they you know,
Speaker 2: go back fifteen years ago. They didn't touch any of
Speaker 2: the of the greens at that time. And so you
Speaker 2: got this real thoughtful, well informed architect and you have
Speaker 2: Justin Mannon, and then you have earth Sculptures, and you
Speaker 2: have this membership. It is what we've documented and you know,
Speaker 2: the dirt that we were able to get into, so
Speaker 2: to speak, and see this process and the greens that
Speaker 2: we've played so many times that have befuddled us. And
Speaker 2: it's not to say they've made they've made it. You know,
Speaker 2: people were like, oh, they're going to make it too easy.
Speaker 2: Those greens are what make Pasa Tempo. First of all,
Speaker 2: there's no way Passe Tempo is a bunch of half pars,
Speaker 2: and most of them are on the high side half
Speaker 2: you know, they're they're like they're you know, number one
Speaker 2: is a part four and a half. Number two is
Speaker 2: like a part four and a half. Number three is
Speaker 2: a par three and a half. You know, like you
Speaker 2: just keep going and you're like, oh, this is just
Speaker 2: a bunch of you know, half pars that are that
Speaker 2: are working. Were you against it? But it's also part
Speaker 2: of why it makes it so fun? But what's this?
Speaker 2: What what they've done now is going to afford justin
Speaker 2: to run those greens like he wants to at a
Speaker 2: ten eleven or even you know, upwards of eleven and
Speaker 2: a half twelve Western Intercollegiate or something like that, and
Speaker 2: have pin locations that are still fair. Because when those
Speaker 2: when those greens were running eleven and you know, when
Speaker 2: when the cameras were on in the Western Intercollegiate was
Speaker 2: being played and you saw the ball never stop rolling,
Speaker 2: it was like, oh, this is unfair, you've lost it.
Speaker 2: This is no right, makes any sense. But that's not
Speaker 2: going to be the case anymore. There's real, like legitimate
Speaker 2: shelfing and pin locations. They're going to be tough to
Speaker 2: get to, but they're gonna be fair.
Speaker 1: Do you remember we were playing there on the third
Speaker 1: hole that incredible part. Three up the hill, hit a
Speaker 1: career hybrid like to four feet, but it was past
Speaker 1: the flag and it was straight down, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I'm either going to make a two here or I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make a four, And sure enough I nudged the ball.
Speaker 1: It ran like ten feet by I missed the comeback.
Speaker 1: It was so deflating, like I did one of the
Speaker 1: top ten shots of my entire life and I left
Speaker 1: with a bogie. I think I had to rattle in
Speaker 1: like a three footer for my three putt. It was Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could just get in some spots where you were
Speaker 1: absolutely dead, So it's gonna be exciting.
Speaker 2: And as much as I didn't want to see you miss,
Speaker 2: that definitely had to make you put it, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 1: I seemed to Yeah, No, yeah, it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 1: a half. It was like.
Speaker 2: But but same that could be said on eight You
Speaker 2: know five, if you're above the holes there. Eighteen obviously
Speaker 2: was a mess. They had totally lost any you know,
Speaker 2: legitimate pinnable locations on eighteen. So this is this is
Speaker 2: you know, I'm very Look, we're we're in this, We're
Speaker 2: in bed with Pasa tempo and telling the story. So
Speaker 2: but and and obviously that's that's pretty pretty well known.
Speaker 2: But I'm telling you, regardless of that, I think there's
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot of you know, opinionated people that
Speaker 2: are going to take to Pasa Tempo. I don't think
Speaker 2: there's anybody who's gonna walk away and go what's been
Speaker 2: done here is is phenomenal. And there's a great big
Speaker 2: congratulations to everybody involved. And they can't wait to get
Speaker 2: started on the back nine. They very smartly did the
Speaker 2: nine first, although there are these iconic holes in these
Speaker 2: greens and those three part threes that we've already mentioned,
Speaker 2: plus number nine two really needed a lot of work.
Speaker 2: I mean, the back nine you've got you know, ten, eleven, twelve,
Speaker 2: I mean sixteen, eighteen, those are those those should be
Speaker 2: hanging in the louver like that's that's legitimate artwork out there.
Speaker 2: So for them to get a real grasp on the process,
Speaker 2: get a system in place, learn what they needed to
Speaker 2: learn on the front nine, and now take all that
Speaker 2: knowledge into the back nine. This is you know, come
Speaker 2: this time next year, they're going to reopen all eighteen
Speaker 2: with all new greens and it's gonna it's going to be.
Speaker 2: It's going to be something to behold in, something to
Speaker 2: see and feel and play.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we do have a business relationship with
Speaker 1: Pasa Tempo now, but we've been touting that place for
Speaker 1: thirty years, so I don't I don't think we're in
Speaker 1: the pocket Apostle. We've always loved it.
Speaker 2: I know, and the fact that it's so underrated on
Speaker 2: these rankings just pisses me off. It's like, do people
Speaker 2: even understand what they're looking at when they stand on
Speaker 2: some of those te boxes and look out to those
Speaker 2: green those bunker complexes and the green complexes, and you know,
Speaker 2: as someone was just saying in one of the social
Speaker 2: comments that Doake said, how do you make such a
Speaker 2: short course play so long? Well, you know it's because
Speaker 2: of the undulation, That's how That's how you got to
Speaker 2: It's a hike to get around there.
Speaker 1: For sure. For sure. Well, so you know we talked
Speaker 1: about the dirt. We've kind of got this. We're calling
Speaker 1: in the dirt. It's it's it's going to be the
Speaker 1: umbrella for all these projects are working on the fire
Speaker 1: pit course, restorations, new builds, anything related to bringing golf
Speaker 1: courses to life, which we've already been doing over the
Speaker 1: last two and a half years, but it feels like
Speaker 1: it's accelerating. And one project that we're both you and
Speaker 1: I are super excited about as we put a few
Speaker 1: things out on social so you can detect the the
Speaker 1: energy and the whole golfing world is Golden Gate Park
Speaker 1: Golf Course. This little part three, a lot of people
Speaker 1: never knew it was there. It's the very western edge
Speaker 1: of Golden Gate Park. I mean, you're about one good drive.
Speaker 1: It's probably three hundred yards to the beach, and it's
Speaker 1: right in the shadow of those famous like Sutral windmills
Speaker 1: that are out there, and just an incredible spot in
Speaker 1: one of America's greatest you know, urban oases. And this
Speaker 1: you know, you and I have both been there in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks and to see you know, we've
Speaker 1: been we've been in the dirt since you know, I
Speaker 1: guess eight months ago, and to see it come into
Speaker 1: life now the grass has grown in the sand, scrapes
Speaker 1: are are visible, the greens, you can see the you
Speaker 1: can see undulations. After your last visit to the completed
Speaker 1: Golden Gate Park Part three, what you're feeling about that
Speaker 1: place again.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm just really happy for everybody involved, and you know,
Speaker 2: Josh Lewis, j Blasi, Dan Burke, I met some locals
Speaker 2: on this last trip. After Pasa Tempo, I darted over
Speaker 2: to Golden Gate Park and and you know, sort of
Speaker 2: it's it's not as far along in terms of the
Speaker 2: health and strength of the grass, but it's pretty close.
Speaker 2: You know, one's bent and bent bent grass greens, and
Speaker 2: the other at at Golden Gate Park is using fescue
Speaker 2: and fescue you know, needs a little you know, a
Speaker 2: little more time to sort of get in and get
Speaker 2: get get some strength. But I think long term it
Speaker 2: was the right move for the way they want that
Speaker 2: golf course to play firm and fast and have the
Speaker 2: ball move around after it's on the ground. Jay BLASEI
Speaker 2: obviously a big part of the Chambers Bay project with
Speaker 2: Robert Trent Jones Junior. And you know, this was a
Speaker 2: cool project all along, you know, and we talk about
Speaker 2: it in our docuseries. That's going to be you know,
Speaker 2: starting to drop. Content started to drop next week. But
Speaker 2: you know, in the legacy of Sandy Tatum and what
Speaker 2: happened at Harding Park, and Dan Burke knowing Sandy Tatum
Speaker 2: and working and being a big part of the San
Speaker 2: Francisco golf community and what it meant to him now
Speaker 2: the CEO of San Francisco first t for him to
Speaker 2: get some private donors two point seven million to get
Speaker 2: Jay Blasey again lives locally, and Josh Lewis, who's got
Speaker 2: a history going back to agronomy at Bandon Dunes and
Speaker 2: other prominent projects. This team, you know, walking around with
Speaker 2: them and some of the locals and what's about to
Speaker 2: you know, sort of be presented to the public affordable, accessible,
Speaker 2: everything that you'd want from from a nine hole golf
Speaker 2: course in Golden Gate Park and a hub of a
Speaker 2: first tea program that needs a place to play. It's
Speaker 2: just it's just going to get rave reviews. It's going
Speaker 2: to be a national curiosity. It's going to be a
Speaker 2: blueprint for what's possible. You know, We've said it many times.
Speaker 2: We're going to continue to say it, you know, for me,
Speaker 2: you know, and you know John Ashworth at goat Hill
Speaker 2: Park and and uh and Dan Burke at at Golden
Speaker 2: Gate Park, and and you know what, obviously, you know,
Speaker 2: Mike Kaiser at bandon Dune's and sort of Tom Pashley
Speaker 2: at at Pineer's putting in the cradle off the front
Speaker 2: porch of Piner's resort. And uh, you know Steve Leary,
Speaker 2: the mayor of Winter Park who decided to do what
Speaker 2: he did, you know, Western Golf Association and Camper Sports
Speaker 2: and some of the people who are behind the Canal
Speaker 2: Shores renovation and restoration of that property which will be
Speaker 2: home to uh to uh you know, you know Junior
Speaker 2: Caddy program and these to me Alan, you know are
Speaker 2: leaders in golf.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: This to me is you know, I'm super frustrated with
Speaker 2: professional golf PGA Tour live, the dysfunction, the greed, the bullshittery.
Speaker 2: As we say, I just I just find it, you know,
Speaker 2: I just find to justin Thomas's point, actually, it's way
Speaker 2: more interesting and exciting to stay focused on some of
Speaker 2: these types of stories that you know, this Golden Gate
Speaker 2: Park is going to be a rock and a pond,
Speaker 2: and the ripple effect that it's going to have on
Speaker 2: this community as it relates to golf and kids and
Speaker 2: accessibility and affordability is is going to go on again
Speaker 2: now for decades and it's really cool.
Speaker 1: It's just a feel good project for everyone involved because
Speaker 1: the you know, the locals. And I was out there
Speaker 1: on closing day for the old Golden Gate Park and
Speaker 1: interviewed this Japanese guy who's ninety one years old. He
Speaker 1: taught his daughters and his grandkids to play there, and
Speaker 1: he plays there all the time, so much he has
Speaker 1: his own private parking plays and you know, this is
Speaker 1: this is fundamental to his daily existence, this little course.
Speaker 1: And then all these first tea kids from very diverse backgrounds,
Speaker 1: you know, that's been it's been their portal into the game.
Speaker 1: And then you have you know, retirees who they're in
Speaker 1: the fifties and sixties and that's just where they like
Speaker 1: to play because that's the community they I mean, the
Speaker 1: fact that they get this beautiful new course at no
Speaker 1: cost to them, the city gets, you know, an asset
Speaker 1: massively upgraded at no cost to them. It's going to
Speaker 1: generate more revenue. It's just a win win win for everyone.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think people in golf have been
Speaker 1: waiting for this leadership to come from the top down,
Speaker 1: like let the USGA and the PG of America guide
Speaker 1: us through how the game should evolve, but it's really
Speaker 1: coming from the ground up. Like all these people you
Speaker 1: name check, like they they are in the dirt. They're
Speaker 1: the ones who are actually doing the work with the
Speaker 1: golf courses, with the customers, and it's just a more
Speaker 1: effective model. It's great if if the usg will come
Speaker 1: in and sprinkle ten million dollars on the Maggie Hathaway
Speaker 1: and you know this, this this little part three in
Speaker 1: central Los Angeles, Like that's helpful, and no one's gonna
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a cool project that everyone's gonna enjoy,
Speaker 1: but it's not really replicable. But when you what is
Speaker 1: is if every community bands together and says, you know what,
Speaker 1: we have potential here. We've got this old tired golf
Speaker 1: course that needs to be redone, and you know that
Speaker 1: you can do You can do it like Ashworth, like
Speaker 1: he's just out there in the tractory day more or
Speaker 1: less doing it himself with the community volunteers. You can
Speaker 1: fundraise privately like they did it go olden Gate Park.
Speaker 1: But there's a way for every community to get itself
Speaker 1: an amazing public asset. And it's not going to come
Speaker 1: from the Fred Ridley's of the world. The seth wahs,
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're kind of in their ivory towers.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really incumbent on each golf community. Like
Speaker 1: it it takes some leadership and some passion, and of
Speaker 1: course takes some money, but it's this movement that I feel.
Speaker 1: It feels like it's happening around the US where people
Speaker 1: aren't waiting anymore for the USGA to come in and
Speaker 1: solve their problem, like they're they're taking the initiative. And
Speaker 1: we're lucky now as golfers to have all these cool
Speaker 1: courses to look forward to. And I can't wait to
Speaker 1: go up and play Golden Gate. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: regular thing for me. And you know, the like Peter
Speaker 1: Hay it's on seven acres and the Cradles on ten acres,
Speaker 1: and Golden Gate is on like twenty two acres. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really feels expansive. And there's some there's some long holes,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, if you're a good golfer,
Speaker 1: you don't need to any woods, but you might watch
Speaker 1: a five iron. You know, there's a couple there's like
Speaker 1: a couple of hundred and eighty yard holes and you know,
Speaker 1: it's like real golf. It's not just a bunch of
Speaker 1: little half wedges and super interesting greens. You have ocean
Speaker 1: views up there at the top of the property. It's
Speaker 1: really all you want. And I'm as excited about Golden
Speaker 1: Gate in its own way as I am out Passe Tempo.
Speaker 1: There are different experiences, but both are going to be just,
Speaker 1: you know, fun factories. And it's just cool that the
Speaker 1: local golf communities have made these things happen on their
Speaker 1: own but all of us get to enjoy them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I.
Speaker 2: Think too, you know, going on the list of people
Speaker 2: who are having impact. But Adam Hike, the CEO of
Speaker 2: Youth on Course, I was just at a Youth on
Speaker 2: Course board meeting. I've served on honor to be part
Speaker 2: of that board for the last three years, and I
Speaker 2: tweeted out recently that they in twenty nineteen they had
Speaker 2: one thousand and forty five courses signed up to participate
Speaker 2: in a program in which, you know, all the course
Speaker 2: has to say is, yeah, we're a part of this
Speaker 2: program Youth on Course, and kids play for five dollars
Speaker 2: or less, and then Youth on Course subsidizes the difference
Speaker 2: between whatever they charge those kids and whatever they would
Speaker 2: normally charge a junior green fee, so youth on courses
Speaker 2: subsidizing kids to make sure that they have access to
Speaker 2: these courses, you know, for five dollars or less. They've
Speaker 2: doubled the number of courses in the last four years
Speaker 2: and went from one thousand, forty five to two thousand
Speaker 2: and thirty five. They've gone from seventy thousand members of
Speaker 2: kids in twenty nineteen to one hundred and eighty nine
Speaker 2: thousand members in twenty twenty three. They went from subsidizing
Speaker 2: two hundred and four thousand rounds in twenty nineteen this
Speaker 2: year they are up to seven hundred thousand subsidized rounds
Speaker 2: of golf for kids playing for five dollars or less.
Speaker 2: So you talk about like leadership, you know, and the
Speaker 2: USGA has sniffed around on trying to be a part
Speaker 2: of youthon course, but they wanted to kind of own
Speaker 2: that concept and idea other big you know, uh sort
Speaker 2: of you know, brands within the game have talked about, like,
Speaker 2: you know, partnering with but but in the end it's
Speaker 2: just been youthon courses.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Adam Hike started as an intern and he's now the CEO,
Speaker 2: and look, you know the kind of impact that that
Speaker 2: program is having. That's you know, it's it's one thing
Speaker 2: to like throw up a bunch of commercials and use
Speaker 2: hashtag grow the game. That's growing the game. Golden Gate
Speaker 2: Park is growing the game. You know, Goldhill Park is
Speaker 2: growing the game. You know, Canal Shores will grow the game.
Speaker 2: Western Golf Association is helping kids not not only become
Speaker 2: like golfers or caddies, but become great members of society.
Speaker 2: And you know, I just think this is I get inspire,
Speaker 2: like you know, every time to your point, going to
Speaker 2: Golden Gate Park and walking around and listening and watching
Speaker 2: and learning, I just I it makes me feel and
Speaker 2: sharpens my focus on some of the good stuff happening
Speaker 2: in this game around some of these courses, these municipalities,
Speaker 2: the successibility and affordability and sustainability to your point being
Speaker 2: ten acres, seven acres. I think of Davis Saysna who
Speaker 2: started threes and other Part three coers. I mean, and
Speaker 2: we're going to get to the news out of Abandon
Speaker 2: Dunes at Shorties, which is another Part three course. But
Speaker 2: this to me is it makes so much sense. And
Speaker 2: ass I said, and I think the previous podcast after
Speaker 2: the Colorado Basin water Summit, in which one person asked
Speaker 2: the crowd, if we were to start building golf now,
Speaker 2: what would it look like if we erase the slate
Speaker 2: and started over, what would it look like? It would
Speaker 2: look like Golden Gate Park and Goat Hill Park and
Speaker 2: Canal Shore. It would be small, fun, accessible, sustainable, affordable, playable,
Speaker 2: you know, on on smaller piece pieces of land. And
Speaker 2: that's that's what I think deserves a lot of our time, energy,
Speaker 2: attention and storytelling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, let's talk about shorties just
Speaker 1: because there's something there's some there's some excitement around that
Speaker 1: anything banned and related. And obviously we talk about golf
Speaker 1: this century and part of why it's it's evolved in
Speaker 1: such a positive way. Clearly Bannon is a huge force
Speaker 1: in that, and it's almost a victim of its own
Speaker 1: success because it's so crowd it's hard to get tea time.
Speaker 1: They're building courses as fast as they can, and so
Speaker 1: shorties will take some pressure off the preserve. It's going
Speaker 1: to be another part of the recourse, and I think
Speaker 1: maybe they want to make it visually a little different
Speaker 1: than Preserve but whatever it's going to be, we know
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun. It's an awesome piece of ground there,
Speaker 1: kind of those who have been to Bandon Trails when
Speaker 1: you're playing the first hole and you're in those dunes
Speaker 1: and the second really, I mean it's really kind of
Speaker 1: just over the between those dunes and the coast, right
Speaker 1: that's where Shorties is going to be pretty wild and wooly.
Speaker 1: And what do you know about what's happening up as
Speaker 1: Shorty's Matt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean just that it's kind of coming online.
Speaker 2: I've talked to Rod Whitman and Dave Axlin, along with
Speaker 2: Keith Cutton. That is the team that ultimately got the job.
Speaker 2: At one point, you know it was going to be
Speaker 2: Tom Doak. I've heard a couple of different stories as
Speaker 2: to how and why he isn't doing it, and they are.
Speaker 2: I'll just save those for another time because at this
Speaker 2: point I don't have them confirmed. But Dave Axelin, Rod Whitman,
Speaker 2: and Keith Cutton, you know, and they were all part
Speaker 2: of the Cabot team, so Cabot Links and Rod and
Speaker 2: Dave worked on Cabot Cliffs. They are longtime Core and
Speaker 2: Crenshaw associates. Dave Axlan worked on Bandon Trails, he didn't
Speaker 2: work on Bandon Preserves, So as I told him, I'm
Speaker 2: a big fan of your work for what you did
Speaker 2: at Trails. Rod had never actually worked on Bandon Dunes.
Speaker 2: He'd been out there, but he had never had been
Speaker 2: a part of any of the Corn Crenshaw products. But
Speaker 2: can you imagine these guys having just sort of formed
Speaker 2: this new partnership fairly recently, not unlike what Keith reb
Speaker 2: and Riley Johns have done. They continue to work for
Speaker 2: Bill and Ben, but they also take projects on the
Speaker 2: side and work for themselves. Nineteen hole par three course,
Speaker 2: the shortest being somewhere around fifty sixty yards puddable, the
Speaker 2: longest being one hundred and fifty to one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty yards. There'll be a lot of variety, not unlike
Speaker 2: at preserve. You can kind of choose your own tea locations.
Speaker 2: Wild and wooly would be a good way of describing
Speaker 2: that land. Dave Axelon said, the land itself and that
Speaker 2: Dun's land. He called it a nine out of ten.
Speaker 2: And then the challenge being how do you make a
Speaker 2: golf course that lives up to that level of land.
Speaker 2: You know, He's like, you know, it's actually sometimes you know,
Speaker 2: the pressure is on when you're A you're abandon B.
Speaker 2: You're in this portfolio of these great architects and architecture,
Speaker 2: you know, Mike Kaiser's you know, legacy a big portion
Speaker 2: of it, and and your has to put in, you know,
Speaker 2: putting a nineteen whole part three course. So you know,
Speaker 2: Dave Axent was like, and they're so humble, these guys,
Speaker 2: you know, shocking guys that work with Corn Crench aw
Speaker 2: are super humble. But like to talk to Rod Whitman,
Speaker 2: who you know Sam Houston you know in college from
Speaker 2: Canada and Uh used to go out to pizza with
Speaker 2: Bill cor Bill Corr was a superintendent at the golf
Speaker 2: course that Sam Houston played at. Rod Whitman would show
Speaker 2: up with holes in the bottom of his shoes, not
Speaker 2: enough money to even buy the pizza they were eating, UH,
Speaker 2: and they would talk about how they both wanted to
Speaker 2: sort of get into architecture. It's one of the great stories.
Speaker 2: I told it in a podcast. They actually tell it
Speaker 2: in a podcast that we did on the Building a
Speaker 2: bit Bill and Ben the partnership and the and the
Speaker 2: and the and the company, and so to talk to
Speaker 2: Rod and Dave and to listen to their humility and
Speaker 2: the sort of their their honor and in the opportunity
Speaker 2: that they had to do what they did at Bandon
Speaker 2: Uh is just a very sweet and refreshing reality. And
Speaker 2: I'm very happy again for them for this kind of
Speaker 2: opportunity that they've had to do this. They there's no
Speaker 2: real set, definitive date for the opening of Shorties. They
Speaker 2: are taking reservations for sort of July on in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. There may or may not be an opportunity
Speaker 2: to open that sooner. That'll depend on the growing and
Speaker 2: the weather and all that kind of stuff. So they
Speaker 2: didn't really get a chance to have preview play this year.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how they'll handle preview play at the
Speaker 2: start of you know, or the late spring into the
Speaker 2: summer of next year. But it is, as you say,
Speaker 2: kind of that west of number two and three of trails.
Speaker 2: For the last few years you've been off the second
Speaker 2: tea of Trails, you've been able to see like a
Speaker 2: little pin flag out there. That was the only indication
Speaker 2: that that was what was coming. A lot of the
Speaker 2: people who've been out there say that these are some
Speaker 2: of the best views of any course on property. So
Speaker 2: think about that for a segment.
Speaker 1: I feel like on that first hole, I've pumped a
Speaker 1: few of my drives out into the shorties property. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: why is that the whole's always got that fierce win.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it kept.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's one of the hardest opening drives
Speaker 1: in golf. But that's just me. I'm a month away,
Speaker 1: actually less from flying down to Melbourne for for Ogilvie's tournament,
Speaker 1: the Sam Belt Classic, which is another of the really
Speaker 1: cool events and the sport that brings together a really
Speaker 1: diverse group of people and it's all for a great cause.
Speaker 1: So yeah that as you said earlier, I mean JEF
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas wants more positive stories. He should just pay
Speaker 1: attention to the fire pit channels, because what we're all about,
Speaker 1: it's telling these these feel good tales. Shout out JT.
Speaker 1: Love that guy. So I think this time that the
Speaker 1: time has come to release the listeners. We appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys sticking around and falling on with this little podcast.
Speaker 1: It's always tough to talk about and we'll keep filling
Speaker 1: up your your inbox and your your whole. That sounds inappropriate,
Speaker 1: but for Matt Janella this is Alan Schipnak. That was
Speaker 1: another fire drill. Thanks for listening. And this is the end.
Speaker 3: I'm bed big and I played the wind, made a fortune.
Speaker 3: When my ship came in, I ran the table. Never
Speaker 3: thought I could fall down in the winter time. Hit
Speaker 3: me like a cannon in the ball and now I
Speaker 3: can't shape this, losing the streak. Every road I take
Speaker 3: is a dead end street. I got thoughts in my head,
Speaker 3: can't get them out, trying not to think what I'm
Speaker 3: thinking about. I've got the thoughts in my head.
Speaker 2: I can't get them.
Speaker 3: Out, trying not to think what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 2: E