Speaker 1: Watching it go from a text of what do you
Speaker 1: think about this too? You know, two weeks later, I'm
Speaker 1: riding a Pinehurst on a Tuesday afternoon to go stay
Speaker 1: in the dorn At cottage and bringing a couple of
Speaker 1: buddies from home and sitting around the campfire having some
Speaker 1: beers with Riggs and boys before we played the night,
Speaker 1: you know, walking out there the next day and there's
Speaker 1: already a crowd around ready to watch this play. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, this is serious, you know, over me
Speaker 1: b s and with you over some text and and
Speaker 1: we got standard bearers carry its sides out there in
Speaker 1: the whole nine yard. We had a ball until Riggs
Speaker 1: made that budd on eight team put another log on fire.
Speaker 1: Nobody here is getting time. Welcome to the fire pit
Speaker 1: with Matt Chinella, always going to be back with yet
Speaker 1: another story to tell. This being part two of Sam
Speaker 1: Riggs Brazilians nine day Getaway to Pinehurst, it's mister Transfusions,
Speaker 1: total immersion into a town of Tartan. In part one,
Speaker 1: we learned Riggs from Missouri. His father was a golfer,
Speaker 1: but together they went to more driving ranges than courses.
Speaker 1: Riggs and his older brother learned how to play a
Speaker 1: lot of sports with an emphasis on the ice. Riggs
Speaker 1: played hockey at Harvard and thus had the outside chance
Speaker 1: of turning pro. Instead, he ended up writing a political
Speaker 1: blog for Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports. Once in the Door,
Speaker 1: he launched four Play, which very quickly became the number
Speaker 1: one golf podcast in the country, currently number fourteen in
Speaker 1: the category of sports. Riggs, with the six index, is
Speaker 1: the best golfer in the foursome of co hosts, which
Speaker 1: includes Lurch who's about an eight handicap, Frankie at ten,
Speaker 1: and Trent who's a twenty five. As Riggs explains, their
Speaker 1: failures on the course are in part their success as
Speaker 1: a brand of people fucking suck at golf. So like
Speaker 1: we look at the handicaps dispersion, they love it and
Speaker 1: they suck at it. And it might be they're trying
Speaker 1: to break a hundred and trying to break ninety, and
Speaker 1: like they're hitting awful shots and I'll post a score
Speaker 1: guard where I'll go, you know, double double bogey, triple birdie, birdie,
Speaker 1: and people are like that's my guy. Hell yeah, Like
Speaker 1: let's go. Riggs and team are a conveyor belt of
Speaker 1: golf content. But on March sixteen, when COVID nineteen started
Speaker 1: to overwhelm New York City, Riggs sent Tom Pashley, president
Speaker 1: of Pinehurst, a text. He told him he'd rather quarantine
Speaker 1: at the Carolina Hotel than at his apartment. A sixty
Speaker 1: two dollar flight later, it was day one of nine
Speaker 1: days of Riggs at Pinehurst. Pastially and his staff literally
Speaker 1: welcomed to what the guys out front referred to as
Speaker 1: quote home. Little did they know, he came out and
Speaker 1: played every day. It just was non stole up. And
Speaker 1: you have to love the game to come out and
Speaker 1: play it as much as he did. And he shared
Speaker 1: it with other people, and so uh, he is a
Speaker 1: the number one fan of the game right now and
Speaker 1: he's sharing it with a very wide audience. And I
Speaker 1: think I think we should, as we did, find ways
Speaker 1: to to support what he's doing and get behind it.
Speaker 1: Tendees into the trip. Riggs tapped into his extensive and
Speaker 1: loyal following and helped support and host an auction to
Speaker 1: raise money for the Pinehers staff, most of whom had
Speaker 1: been furloughed due to the coronavirus. Ben Bridgers Pinehers director
Speaker 1: of Golf reflects on the day that the community got
Speaker 1: to see yet another layer to the blue collar man
Speaker 1: and brand. That was one of those things where we
Speaker 1: knew who he was as a person because he cares
Speaker 1: about people and he wanted to help us and our employees,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's obviously starting to have a you know,
Speaker 1: having a better time, and I think you just really
Speaker 1: got engaged to it. And uh so the members are
Speaker 1: tuning in and just locals were turning in, and it
Speaker 1: was it was it was a lot of fun to
Speaker 1: watch together. They raised three thousand dollars that day. Riggs
Speaker 1: and what he donated accounted for fifty dollars. That moment
Speaker 1: sort of took it from Hey, I'm on like kind
Speaker 1: of a weird, like pseudo vacation thing to like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm now like part of this team and this team
Speaker 1: is trying to get through this tough time and and
Speaker 1: I was very much supplanted on that team and I
Speaker 1: was I was there to help and that kind of,
Speaker 1: I guess catapulted me into this relationship with more than
Speaker 1: just the golf courses in the golfer's or but like
Speaker 1: with the people, which which obviously culminated the other day.
Speaker 1: Not long after the auction, Mike Myers reached out to
Speaker 1: Riggs on behalf of Peter Myers, his twelve year old son,
Speaker 1: and they challenged Riggs to a match. Over eighty thousand
Speaker 1: people tuned in to watch Riggs get beat three and
Speaker 1: two by the accomplished and polished kid who was already
Speaker 1: and over fifty junior tournaments. So we shopped Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: on the um the front nine, and he said, can
Speaker 1: you beat in twelve year old? And Thomas applied and
Speaker 1: said a twelve year old yes, the one you're playing no,
Speaker 1: And that gave me a little confidence that you know,
Speaker 1: I could really beat him. The bet was lunch, and
Speaker 1: Riggs paid out by bringing Peter to a local hospital
Speaker 1: where they treated the doctors and nurses to a meal.
Speaker 1: Riggs could do no wrong. He had gotten away and
Speaker 1: he was given back, and when the circumstances called for it,
Speaker 1: he was even calling people. In. In Part one, you
Speaker 1: hear details of how and why Riggs officially became the
Speaker 1: moral compass of Pineers by blowing the whistle on a
Speaker 1: group of guys violating cart code by driving on the course.
Speaker 1: If we find ourselves at a crossroads, and we need
Speaker 1: to decide, you know, did we go down this road
Speaker 1: or that road. We're going to consult with the compass
Speaker 1: to make sure that we don't veer kind of from
Speaker 1: the north Star. Really. Through countless rounds on the Cradle
Speaker 1: the Nine Whole, Part three course, Riggs got so close
Speaker 1: to some of the staff that he and his girlfriend
Speaker 1: have been asked to be not at but in David
Speaker 1: Golinski's wedding. Golinsky is one of Piner's assistant pros. I
Speaker 1: get married on July team and him and his girlfriend
Speaker 1: are coming. Um, he'll actually announce us at our wedding.
Speaker 1: You know how cool is that? So Riggs is in
Speaker 1: deep not since Donald Ross has anyone brought more eyeballs
Speaker 1: to pine Hurst. And as we get to roughly day eighty,
Speaker 1: I'm bringing in Kevin Kissner, a tenure PGA Tour player
Speaker 1: who has three wins, one of which was last year's
Speaker 1: w g C del match play. Kissner on how he
Speaker 1: met Riggs three or four years ago. I had a
Speaker 1: good body of mine at Fallow Barstool and he's like,
Speaker 1: k you need to get in with this Riggs. Guys.
Speaker 1: He's starting his golf thing, and I didn't know who
Speaker 1: he was. I said, whatever, whatever he goes if I
Speaker 1: reach out to him when you do interview with him,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, if you want me to. And uh,
Speaker 1: I guess my buddy emailed him like three or four
Speaker 1: times and finally Riggs like, yeah, where you can get
Speaker 1: him on? He seems kind of like a straight lace
Speaker 1: guy and uh, my Buddy's like, now he's far from that.
Speaker 1: If you get him on, you love them. And I've
Speaker 1: did a podcast and they text me like what time
Speaker 1: do you want to do the podcast? I was like,
Speaker 1: well do you want like business? Kids are are laughing?
Speaker 1: Kids said laughing. I said, call me at eight thirty
Speaker 1: at night then, and we talked for two and a
Speaker 1: half hours or something on the on the phone doing
Speaker 1: this podcast. And he's like, this is the funniest dude
Speaker 1: I've ever met. I said, well, that's just because I've
Speaker 1: had four liquor drinks. Kids can do a long time ago.
Speaker 1: This was the kind of brand and content he wanted
Speaker 1: to be a part of. I have a huge, huge
Speaker 1: following that you know, people that are in a certain
Speaker 1: certain writing in certain areas wouldn't bring me by writing
Speaker 1: a story about me. So I think I kind of
Speaker 1: got in front of it five or five years ago
Speaker 1: examt and I've been you know, thankful that he's brought
Speaker 1: me along with him, and we've done a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff together, had a lot of fun, become good friends.
Speaker 1: And I just think that if the PGA Tour would
Speaker 1: embrace more of that type of media, you know, our
Speaker 1: sport would only grow immensely. Together, these guys are making
Speaker 1: a significant impact on breaking walls down, creating healthy discomfort,
Speaker 1: and expanding the game and their fan base. You know,
Speaker 1: the problem with golf is there's it's too slow, it's
Speaker 1: too expensive, there's too many rules, and we're gonna kill
Speaker 1: the sport with the way our culture is changing. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna tell all these young kids, hey, come be
Speaker 1: this country club guy, and where your sear sucker shorts
Speaker 1: and your college shirt tucked in and take your hat
Speaker 1: off inside and keep your you know, keep your belt on,
Speaker 1: and don't ride your golf card over there. And you
Speaker 1: can't bring a guest out this way. I'm like, who
Speaker 1: gives a ship man, Let's go play the game and
Speaker 1: have fun. And whatever these people want to do, they
Speaker 1: can do. And and I think that's kind of the
Speaker 1: way Riggs and and the four play body was go
Speaker 1: about it, and like, we don't give a ship if
Speaker 1: you're Bryce and d Shambo our kids. We just want
Speaker 1: to hear what you do and we want everybody to
Speaker 1: think it's cool, you know, like that's your special you're
Speaker 1: good at golf. We want to know why you're good,
Speaker 1: and we won't tell the people that you're This is
Speaker 1: what he does, but you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, in the process, they're raising
Speaker 1: a lot of money for charity, which brings us back
Speaker 1: to Riggs at Pinehurst kis with a need for a
Speaker 1: plan B you know, one of the the kids big motivations
Speaker 1: as the Kidsner Foundation and being able to raise money
Speaker 1: for that, and they're not able to do the events
Speaker 1: this year that they typically do because of COVID. So
Speaker 1: he was like, I'm looking for other options. So if
Speaker 1: you can come up with something, I'm I'm in. I'll
Speaker 1: come play and we'll figure it out. So I was
Speaker 1: just gonna play him from like you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: do something crazy, like I play from yards or half
Speaker 1: the yards or something and can I beat him? And um,
Speaker 1: and we started talking about the podcast meet Frankie Barelli
Speaker 1: want a four placed co host who was in New
Speaker 1: York at the time, and I was like, Ship, do
Speaker 1: I really have to come up with this? Like do
Speaker 1: I have to say this idea that popped in my hair?
Speaker 1: Because then then we're all going to go down to
Speaker 1: Pineers during this pandemic. I'm out to drive down their
Speaker 1: nine hours. But it's the right idea, it's a good idea.
Speaker 1: So I just blurted it out him, like four man
Speaker 1: scramble all four of our shots. We have to be
Speaker 1: able to beat them. Kissner was in Riggs is an
Speaker 1: unbelievable businessman, right. People don't give him the credit, but
Speaker 1: and they get annoyed as his little you know videos
Speaker 1: pumping these brands and whatnot. But that ship sells and
Speaker 1: these people are buying you know, these old mixers and
Speaker 1: Peter Millar pants because of the ship he's doing. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I'll get behind it. And we raised
Speaker 1: like thirty grand in two days from announcement, just from
Speaker 1: him and I talking Ship back and forth on Twitter again.
Speaker 1: Tom Passionlely, president of pine Hurst. The generosity of people
Speaker 1: with their time and with their resources. Is one of
Speaker 1: the foundations of this whole story, that that Kissner would
Speaker 1: come up um, and that that Riggs and the four
Speaker 1: play guys would have enough creativity to come up with
Speaker 1: that four man amble not surprising. The more Frankie thought
Speaker 1: about his idea, the more he liked it, until he
Speaker 1: didn't anymore. UM, And confidence was really high at first.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, man, like, I actually think this is
Speaker 1: this is something that we can be competitive at. Right,
Speaker 1: Because when you play in your local um restaurants, golf
Speaker 1: outing or something, and you're playing at a public track
Speaker 1: and you see these scores coming in of all these
Speaker 1: these local drinkers at at the local pub, they're coming
Speaker 1: in seven under, six under, You're like, wow, you can
Speaker 1: actually put together a pretty good score here. So, um,
Speaker 1: I think confidence was high to start, and then the
Speaker 1: more attraction it got on on Twitter, everyone's saying, you
Speaker 1: know the yards pine us number two, you have four shots,
Speaker 1: but all four shots are bad, right, and we're getting
Speaker 1: a lot of hate on Twitter about there's no chance
Speaker 1: we have it. So for me, it was a huge
Speaker 1: roller coaster. First day I said automatic win. The second
Speaker 1: day I said, we're absolutely dusted. This is the waste
Speaker 1: of a trip. Anyone who plays golf a good amount,
Speaker 1: Like you've played four man scrammas before, whether it's a
Speaker 1: charity event or whatever the hell it is, and you wonder,
Speaker 1: like I wonder how good we could really be as
Speaker 1: a four man scramble on And so this was our opportunity,
Speaker 1: Like we can play the top player ranks player in
Speaker 1: the world at a US Open course from US Open
Speaker 1: teas and we'll just see what we shoot. Like we
Speaker 1: might shoot eighty, we might shoot sixty, No idea, Let's
Speaker 1: just do it and see what happens. It was amazing
Speaker 1: to watch Riggs the whole day. I mean, he treated
Speaker 1: the match like it was a tour event. When I
Speaker 1: got to the range that day, he had like focus,
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to me. I'm like, dude, what's
Speaker 1: going on here. He's like, we're gonna beat your ass. Kids,
Speaker 1: We're gonna beat your ass. And I'm like, okay, you're
Speaker 1: gonna take it serious all day. Riggs was so serious
Speaker 1: he called on the services of Thomas Trinkitella, a longtime
Speaker 1: Piner's caddy who has carried banks for both Tiger and
Speaker 1: Rory in US open practice rounds. Even Thomas was in
Speaker 1: camp Kisner. Yes, no, yeah, I was on Kisner side.
Speaker 1: I figured we were gonna be done around fourteen fifteen.
Speaker 1: Closed out. I hate to say, but that was my
Speaker 1: first time ever seeing Lurch. He can absolutely murder the
Speaker 1: golf ball. My not go in the right place, but
Speaker 1: he can hit it very far, and that was part
Speaker 1: of their chemistry. Even Riggs leading up to it said
Speaker 1: that they he thought they were gonna shoot seventy five
Speaker 1: and I would be right around there, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna shoot seventy five. So if y'all shoot
Speaker 1: seventy five is over, I mean it's not. It wasn't
Speaker 1: in like us open conditions, so it wasn't that firm
Speaker 1: and that fast. No one thought they had a chance
Speaker 1: at all. Um. We were really stretched out about this distancing.
Speaker 1: You know, there were people showing up and people calling,
Speaker 1: can we can we spectate? And we really weren't comfortable
Speaker 1: having people spectate. But they came and we spread everyone out.
Speaker 1: They maintained their distance. The standard bearer was Peter Myers,
Speaker 1: twelve year old match playing ninja who beat Riggs earlier
Speaker 1: in his stay. The first to the first team was
Speaker 1: Trent Ryan, who admits he's the worst golfer in the
Speaker 1: four play foursome. No, I was nervous too. I couldn't
Speaker 1: get my ball in the tea on the toll. I
Speaker 1: was like freaking out and so much to the point
Speaker 1: where I looked over and doing Kissers Caddy was he
Speaker 1: was just like just breathe, Like this is my competition.
Speaker 1: He's looking at me and he's like, you just gotta
Speaker 1: breathe because otherwise you're gonna have a panic attack. And
Speaker 1: we also had thousand people watching on a live stream,
Speaker 1: and I think that was also because, like you said, Math,
Speaker 1: there's no live sports. People are looking for something to watch.
Speaker 1: But you know, playing that close to a guy like
Speaker 1: Kevin Kissner and it sounds stupid every time we say it,
Speaker 1: but we had played with him before Paul Meadow, and
Speaker 1: he's a professional golfer, and you're still just completely wowed
Speaker 1: by the guy when he plays golf, like Frankie saying,
Speaker 1: you have these moments of barstool where you just gotta
Speaker 1: pinch yourself and be like, I can't believe I'm doing this. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: fort Play was holding their own. They birdied the fifth
Speaker 1: hole to go one up, and Thomas the caddy was
Speaker 1: being converted with the scramble with them, it was so
Speaker 1: odds and evens. Everybody contributed at different times of the match.
Speaker 1: That's what was more impressive. Yeah, uh, not play out
Speaker 1: as I plan. I assume that I could play very conservatively.
Speaker 1: Obviously I need to play conservatly. I only have one ball, right,
Speaker 1: so I'm playing pine nurse number two with us open pins.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of birdies, so I'm thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out and play conservative. Hit it towards
Speaker 1: the middle of green two caught him to death, and
Speaker 1: when they screw up, I'll just pop in there and
Speaker 1: makeup car for a win. I don't expect him to
Speaker 1: make a lot of birdies. They made three birdies on
Speaker 1: the front nine, including one at eight which tied the
Speaker 1: hole four play stays one up as they approached the turn.
Speaker 1: I guess they they really did play to the definition
Speaker 1: of a scramble, because really it always came down to
Speaker 1: one one guy who everyone else was out of the hole,
Speaker 1: but one guy hit the miracle shot. Kids played great. Um.
Speaker 1: He just kept waiting for them to to show some
Speaker 1: weakness and they just never did. On the front nine
Speaker 1: four play shoots thirty four Kissner shoots thirty six four
Speaker 1: play one up. All his kids said all day long,
Speaker 1: one hit wonders. Here they come, one hit wonders. And
Speaker 1: I hate to say it, that's exactly what happened. I
Speaker 1: knew I was in trouble early because it would be
Speaker 1: top shank and then all of a sudden, the third
Speaker 1: or fourth guy would stripe it in there to ten
Speaker 1: ft or they would not have a ball in play,
Speaker 1: and Frankie, out of nowhere would drive it to ninety
Speaker 1: down the middle. And I'm like, man, this this is
Speaker 1: not working out well. Early they're they're like, one shot
Speaker 1: wondering me to death. So I'll tell you a good one.
Speaker 1: On on the thirteenth hole, they moved us up so
Speaker 1: everybody could try to drive the green. Well, kids never
Speaker 1: put it right in the middle of the green, and
Speaker 1: so we had two choices we had I don't remember
Speaker 1: who had to drive, but we had a fifty yard
Speaker 1: chip shot and uh Lurge hit it greenside left to
Speaker 1: the left of the green, okay, And so I talked
Speaker 1: him into using the fifty yard chip shot from below
Speaker 1: the hole. Well, the first two chunked it, and so
Speaker 1: I started really sweating. Then I just talked him into
Speaker 1: this ball, and Riggs pulled out a chip and stuck
Speaker 1: it there two ft from the hole. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1: When the tides turned on, I birdied uh ten. I
Speaker 1: think to go back to even, and then they bow
Speaker 1: you to eleven and I was like, all right, this
Speaker 1: it's over now there there, there's no way they're coming back.
Speaker 1: And Lurch hits his five iron on twelve from two
Speaker 1: hundred yards into the wind, so a pen literally hanging
Speaker 1: on an edge to four ft and I've already got
Speaker 1: six iron out just in front of him. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hit it thirty ft right of the pin and just
Speaker 1: make my car and stay one up. And when I
Speaker 1: saw that shot, I'm like, oh ship, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: make birdie here because I'm not gonna hit it that flag.
Speaker 1: And we go back to even. And then the two
Speaker 1: shots that Riggs hit on thirteen and fourteen last got
Speaker 1: a chip. I'm like, I can't win. Ben Bridgers, pine Hurst,
Speaker 1: director of Golf, was in the small gallery these guys
Speaker 1: and it was funny. We were out there while and
Speaker 1: and kids just kind of gives it looks you know,
Speaker 1: he looks back and the guys they got four push cards,
Speaker 1: they're all on their phones, and he's like, what am
Speaker 1: I doing here? You know? It was awesome. It was
Speaker 1: so awesome. I'm like, man, I don't even know what
Speaker 1: he's thinking right now. They have toles through fifteen with
Speaker 1: the birdie and two parts, then four play Birdie's they
Speaker 1: go one up. It was so much fun. Kids was
Speaker 1: such a trooper. Uh. He was genuinely like rattled, like
Speaker 1: he wanted to win. Um, he's competitive. You don't get
Speaker 1: to that level without being crazy competitive. So he wanted
Speaker 1: to win badly. He could not believe that we kept
Speaker 1: pulling shots out of our asses. On the seventeenth hole,
Speaker 1: in which Kisner had a much longer put for part four,
Speaker 1: play offered the pro good good. My dad always says
Speaker 1: there are two kinds of fools in golf, those who
Speaker 1: give putts and those who don't take them. Kissner went
Speaker 1: to the one down. Um, I don't know if it
Speaker 1: gave me the charity twelve foot or seven team when
Speaker 1: they had five feet. But as we were walking the
Speaker 1: eighteen riggs goes Kids, we had a long discussion over there,
Speaker 1: and we could not fathom the idea of you making
Speaker 1: that putt and us missing the five ft and having
Speaker 1: to go to eighteen all square. So we just wanted
Speaker 1: to get it out of the way for one up
Speaker 1: on eighteen. For those of you don't know, eighteeth holl
Speaker 1: par four up the hill with the clubhouse behind the green.
Speaker 1: Kissner is on in two while four players over the
Speaker 1: green and two chipping in front of the assembled crowd
Speaker 1: on the porch advantage. You know, as I saw them chipping,
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, they can't get it within twenty
Speaker 1: ft where this pin is and where they are, and
Speaker 1: and that was about right, and I was already looking
Speaker 1: at my butt. My put was breaking like four and
Speaker 1: a half feet from fifteen feet, and so I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to lag the ship out of it,
Speaker 1: just so they'll give me the par to win the whole.
Speaker 1: Frankie Batt's third in the fourth place scrambled lineup, But
Speaker 1: I think everyone once we were on the green and
Speaker 1: we saw that kids had to make whatever that was,
Speaker 1: a thirty five forty ft slider to to win the whole,
Speaker 1: I think we all felt pretty comfortable because his position
Speaker 1: wasn't too great to make that put, and ours was
Speaker 1: barely moving. If anything, I had a little bit of
Speaker 1: a turn at the end. You have four tries at it,
Speaker 1: and it's almost identical to pain Stewart's. But in fact
Speaker 1: Tom pat pactually was on the green with me, and
Speaker 1: I'd go that that's almost the exact put they ain't
Speaker 1: have when they were standing over starting the put, and
Speaker 1: he said, no doubt. And everybody looks at it and
Speaker 1: wants this ball to go left to right, but it
Speaker 1: goes the other way. And so all as I pleaded
Speaker 1: with him, is just that, you know, hit the ball
Speaker 1: firm and hit it straight. So Lurch hit his trend,
Speaker 1: hit hiss, but both were super close. I went up there.
Speaker 1: I honestly thought mine was going in. I like, it's funny,
Speaker 1: because like you want to do something like you're thinking
Speaker 1: about what's your celebration gonna be. And I know pros
Speaker 1: don't think that way because they just do it like
Speaker 1: straight up. But I was like, all right, I have
Speaker 1: a little bit of a backboard like rings behind me,
Speaker 1: so let me just think. If this goes in, what
Speaker 1: am I gonna do? I didn't even know what I
Speaker 1: was gonna do maybe something embarrassing, like high knees or something.
Speaker 1: The mind just dipped off. At the end, Riggs's new
Speaker 1: best buddy, David Golinsky is also watching. I just I
Speaker 1: turned towards Ben and a couple other guys that we're
Speaker 1: standing right there, and I was like, can you imagine
Speaker 1: if this guy drains this punt and everything that Riggs
Speaker 1: is done here at Piners and this is basically like
Speaker 1: the capstone event his entire existence at Piner's. Anybody would
Speaker 1: anybody who plays golf would kill for this chance. You're
Speaker 1: on you know you're we had I think we had
Speaker 1: our peak twenty six thousand people watching live on Instagram live.
Speaker 1: You know, the video is gonna get tons of views.
Speaker 1: And we put the edited video out, which I think
Speaker 1: it has six seven hundred thousand views something like that
Speaker 1: already on YouTube. Um, there are a couple of hundred
Speaker 1: people there, and you're not just playing against your Joe
Speaker 1: Schmo like weekend Golf group. It's this is to beat
Speaker 1: Kevin Kissler. So it's like all of that. I think
Speaker 1: the Instagram pull that I put up when I said, um,
Speaker 1: who's gonna win us? For kids? It said like eighty
Speaker 1: four percent of people, said Kissinger. So it's like, now
Speaker 1: I have this chance to prove that we could do it.
Speaker 1: I know the put because I just got three perfect
Speaker 1: looks at it, so like I know what it does.
Speaker 1: All I gotta do is hit a straight put the
Speaker 1: right distance, and it's just it's gonna go in. So
Speaker 1: um so yeah, I mean part of me was absolutely like, good,
Speaker 1: I get I get my moment, and now it's up
Speaker 1: to me to deliver. Let's go to where it's Riggs
Speaker 1: putting for bar stool glory walk. You're kidding me. Start
Speaker 1: when when Riggs walked into that pud and I was
Speaker 1: on I was actually over there near him when he
Speaker 1: hit it started walking it in, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, there's no way I'm gonna make mine now.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you could hear all the
Speaker 1: people in the video, but there was a bunch of
Speaker 1: people on the on the boorch and throughout they all
Speaker 1: game the roar when he made it. It was pretty
Speaker 1: pretty epic scene up there. You kidding me. As unlikely
Speaker 1: as it was, the pain would make that putt even
Speaker 1: less blankly that Riggs is going to make that putt,
Speaker 1: and it just it brought so much of his time,
Speaker 1: you know, the the amount of of hate that people
Speaker 1: spewed at him about his putting stroke anytime he would
Speaker 1: post a video of his stroke. Oh my gosh, the
Speaker 1: putting aid recommended every everything. And so the thing that
Speaker 1: it could come down to eighteen that the anchorman, after
Speaker 1: three guys have missed it, would step up, hit the
Speaker 1: putt and then walk it in. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I don't think it could have worked out in any
Speaker 1: better way. Riggs walking that putt in. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the benefit of being there for months on months on
Speaker 1: months is you know, you know that green like the
Speaker 1: back of your hand, and he knew as soon as
Speaker 1: he hit it, Like Frankie said, he started walking with
Speaker 1: you know, eight to ten feet left and it's just
Speaker 1: an iconic moment. Also, his putting stroke stink, So he
Speaker 1: gets made fun of all the time, but he actually
Speaker 1: is a pretty damn good putter. He gets the ball
Speaker 1: to the whole. So like him being the anchor um
Speaker 1: was huge that that whole day. And then you know,
Speaker 1: he solidified it on a team as much ship as
Speaker 1: he's gotten over that putter, and how bad his stroke
Speaker 1: is for him to hoop that butt to win. Uh.
Speaker 1: I get to experience cool shit all the time with
Speaker 1: mostly me achievings, but to watch him, to watch him
Speaker 1: do that, he'll never forget that the risk of his life,
Speaker 1: absolutely And I just respond A lot of times I
Speaker 1: just copy that link to like my video of that pot,
Speaker 1: and I just respond to people like you have the
Speaker 1: ugliest putting stroke in the world. I just respond on
Speaker 1: that video, like what can you say about this? Like
Speaker 1: I found a way to get myself to the eighteenth
Speaker 1: green of Piers number two with a huge pot to
Speaker 1: win a big match, and I made it so like
Speaker 1: that's just what else? What else can you really ask for?
Speaker 1: But you're right, It's like I don't know how it
Speaker 1: could possibly get better than that for someone like me
Speaker 1: or like us are doing what we do, Like I
Speaker 1: don't play a major championships like that was it? Like
Speaker 1: we we got to play a p G A pour
Speaker 1: Pro Touring pro pg w g C winner at this
Speaker 1: iconic golf course where I have all these connections now
Speaker 1: and this kind of emotional history and I got to
Speaker 1: hit the pot. It was It was awesome. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: It was great. Having having Kisner here. After the match,
Speaker 1: there was a session around a fire pit at Doring
Speaker 1: at Cottage with with Kisner and the and the barstool
Speaker 1: guys um. So with the theme of this podcast, there
Speaker 1: was another fire pit moment that happened at the end
Speaker 1: of that match, which I don't think ended the way
Speaker 1: anybody thought it was going too. We got into the
Speaker 1: livation is pretty well, we all sitting in the rocking
Speaker 1: chairs by the fire pit, and I mean, just an
Speaker 1: incredible even We ended up, you know, doing a couple
Speaker 1: more auction items on on Instagram and Tom Tom was
Speaker 1: being super generous with giving us a couple more trips
Speaker 1: to Pinehurst for the foundation. So, uh, you know that's
Speaker 1: where where all good things happening around the fire pit,
Speaker 1: you know that, And it was it was just a
Speaker 1: cool experience to go there and do that. I tell
Speaker 1: you what, I felt some kind of terrible that next day,
Speaker 1: having to draft home. I took my tail between my
Speaker 1: legs with my loss and got out of there. I
Speaker 1: asked kids her the obvious question, is there gonna be
Speaker 1: a rematch? You know, Rigg has been up there for
Speaker 1: ninety days when we played, or eighty days. He knew
Speaker 1: every break, every ship. I hadn't played there in five years.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna take them back to a place that
Speaker 1: I know everything, and I'm gonna dust their ass. As
Speaker 1: you might know, Riggs has inquired about the potential for
Speaker 1: a statue commemorating his putt. You know, Matt, I'm trying,
Speaker 1: like I'm hard, trying to like poke poke passionately a
Speaker 1: little bit and like like I'm kind of kidding, but
Speaker 1: also like give me something like I want to be
Speaker 1: maybe in one of those one of those UM displays
Speaker 1: when you're walking through the hallway, there's like a subtle like,
Speaker 1: wait was that was that? Riggs? And I just saw
Speaker 1: it that like what was that? Like that would something?
Speaker 1: I need something? So again I think that they think
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, but they also know that a part of
Speaker 1: me is like, you know, come on, like what am
Speaker 1: I gonna do to get on the wall here or something.
Speaker 1: It's there's been a lot of amazing moments that have
Speaker 1: happened on that green and uh, that was certainly one
Speaker 1: of them. UM and we'll just we'll just leave it
Speaker 1: at that. Was that here's a guy who did the
Speaker 1: nine for nine for days, he did the putts. He
Speaker 1: should have made the chip really close, he should have
Speaker 1: made the butt from all that practice, am I right
Speaker 1: pastially told me a statue is out at least for now.
Speaker 1: But how good is the game of golf that it
Speaker 1: facilitates and fosters the unlikely chemistry between barstool Rigs and
Speaker 1: the president of pine Hurst, And after ten years of
Speaker 1: updates and enhancements, how relevant is this resort that man
Speaker 1: and and his ability to juggle everything to miss nothing,
Speaker 1: to also have the foresight to create the cradle and
Speaker 1: how bold that was and blowing up two golf holes
Speaker 1: that have been there forever to put on the front lawn,
Speaker 1: a freaking nine hole golf course that has speakers in
Speaker 1: the trees and people were playing barefoot at Pinehurst. Um
Speaker 1: is just so amazing that he was able to do
Speaker 1: all that and and for him to now have become um,
Speaker 1: you know, legitimately one of one of my closest friends
Speaker 1: is UM. It's something that I'm like proud of, Like
Speaker 1: I think it says I think it says a lot
Speaker 1: about me that Tom Ashley likes me. Like that's like,
Speaker 1: that's incredible, because that that guy is awesome and so
Speaker 1: I'm as surprised as he is that that the host
Speaker 1: of four Play podcast is a good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: And I mean it's it's something that I don't think
Speaker 1: either one of us would have ever anticipated it. We
Speaker 1: met through through your event at the Uncle Tony, and
Speaker 1: we began to find commonalities, and then the more time
Speaker 1: we spent together, the more we realized, you know, with
Speaker 1: kindred spirits. And I think, like I said, when when
Speaker 1: he came here, I don't think any one of us
Speaker 1: knew what to expect, but I think we both got
Speaker 1: more out of it than we ever dreamed of. I asked, passionately,
Speaker 1: going back ten years and prior to all the enhancements,
Speaker 1: if he thought Pinehurst could have held the interest of
Speaker 1: a guy like Riggs for more than three months. The
Speaker 1: fact that he can be here for ninety nine days
Speaker 1: and not be bored out of his skull and find
Speaker 1: a way to entertain in himself each and every day,
Speaker 1: and keep an audience all over the world captivated watching
Speaker 1: him and his pine Urs experience, it really does kind
Speaker 1: of validate everything that's happened here over the last decade.
Speaker 1: For them to have done that is easy for us
Speaker 1: to say now as a success, but but back then, um,
Speaker 1: it's so ballsy and worked out so well that I'm
Speaker 1: really pumped that I got to share it with people,
Speaker 1: because you know, they deserve proper exposure and proper excitement,
Speaker 1: right And I think that that's something that I'm able
Speaker 1: to convey, is that, like, I'm not I'm not posting
Speaker 1: the stuff that I post because I feel this deep
Speaker 1: obligation to I. I share things in my life that
Speaker 1: I've experienced and say, holy ship, this is so good,
Speaker 1: I have to share it. And like the Cradle was
Speaker 1: something that I shared all the time because I just
Speaker 1: couldn't help it. I was like, people, the Internet has
Speaker 1: to see this right now, like they won't believe it.
Speaker 1: And and so you're right, like they deserve that, and
Speaker 1: and the place really is that awesome and it never
Speaker 1: gets old. Frankie has now been to Pineurs three times,
Speaker 1: all within the last eight months. Pastially at one point
Speaker 1: made a statement when we were there saying, um, you know,
Speaker 1: Pineers used to be this place where the dad would
Speaker 1: drag the kid there and hope that the kid would
Speaker 1: fall in love with it. But now it's kind of
Speaker 1: turning into like the kid drags the dad there and
Speaker 1: been like, look at what I saw on Twitter, Look
Speaker 1: at this place, look at look how cool this par
Speaker 1: three courses, and like, let's go. Let's go hit the
Speaker 1: same place that Frankie, Trent and Riggs did. And like
Speaker 1: instead of saying like oh Tiger Woods and paints, like
Speaker 1: it's weird like that. It used to be this like
Speaker 1: untouchable place that like only Payne Stewart's putt could go
Speaker 1: in and maybe you see it on TV every once
Speaker 1: every ten years whenever there's a tournament there. But now
Speaker 1: it's like, oh no, you can just go there. You
Speaker 1: can just stay at the Carolina Hotel. You can you
Speaker 1: can you can eat downstairs, you can get that room
Speaker 1: service Sunday that we talk about on the podcast, and
Speaker 1: you can just go play Piners number two anytime you want.
Speaker 1: This was Kisner's first time seeing the Cradle the Part
Speaker 1: three course. What a cool place to learn how to
Speaker 1: play the game right, Uh short short holes, run ups,
Speaker 1: cool little valleys and stuff to stop your ball. You
Speaker 1: can play off of different slopes, you can gamble, you
Speaker 1: can drink liquor drinks. I mean, the whole, the whole
Speaker 1: setups unbelievable and and to see the transformation. As a kid,
Speaker 1: you know, I grew up playing all these tournaments. Pinehurst
Speaker 1: was the mecca, not only at the Connurst Resort but
Speaker 1: around there and all the different courses, and pine Hurst
Speaker 1: was probably always the kind of stuffy place, you know
Speaker 1: that it was the you gotta pay full d dollars
Speaker 1: to play number two. And now it seems like it's
Speaker 1: it's more of a friendly opening. Let's go, let's go
Speaker 1: see this awesome place and you can. You can have
Speaker 1: access to it now, and I think that's really cool.
Speaker 1: Riggs had had access to it for ninety eight days.
Speaker 1: And so here we are the evening before departure. And
Speaker 1: as the Great Dr Seuss once wrote, don't cry because
Speaker 1: it's over. Smile because it happened the night before. We
Speaker 1: actually did, you know, pastially put to other a crew
Speaker 1: that played the Cradle. So it was Barksdale, Bridgers, Dave Pastilely, myself,
Speaker 1: a few other folks on the staff that I'd become
Speaker 1: close with um and we took a spin on the
Speaker 1: Cradle and it was kind of our last finale around
Speaker 1: in the Cradle and we we had a couple of drinks.
Speaker 1: She La had it got us a couple of drinks
Speaker 1: up with the pine cone, and then we did um
Speaker 1: uh dinner at the brewery in the back room at
Speaker 1: the at the Pioneer's Brewing Company. Afterwards, we had a
Speaker 1: lovely dinner and to me, this was this was my farewell.
Speaker 1: I thought, I really honestly thought that was it. And
Speaker 1: I actually, you know, I got a pin flag, a
Speaker 1: pineers pin flag from the pro shop and I wrote, um,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, I kind of poured some of my
Speaker 1: feelings out too patially in the whole team on this
Speaker 1: pin flag and put the date on it and signed
Speaker 1: it and presented it to patially at dinner, and I
Speaker 1: read it out loud and I started crying that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was kind of an emotional mess then because I
Speaker 1: was telling them, you know, right in front of them,
Speaker 1: to their faces, sort of how much they meant to me,
Speaker 1: and how them going above and beyond was not something
Speaker 1: that they had to do. Which brings us to the
Speaker 1: morning of day. And so I'm running around all the morning.
Speaker 1: I finally get up there we're leaving at noon, it's
Speaker 1: like eleven fifty five, and I'd run over to the
Speaker 1: golf shop and I actually looked for Bashley to say goodbye.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to say bye real quick, you know,
Speaker 1: I know last night was the whole thing. But um,
Speaker 1: he wasn't there. I went to see Dave and and
Speaker 1: he wasn't there, and I was like, something's going on here.
Speaker 1: I don't know. The bell staff knew him, the front
Speaker 1: desk staff knew him, the coffee shop people at the
Speaker 1: Carolina Hotel. He really had ingrained himself into the daily
Speaker 1: lives of so many of our staff that it felt
Speaker 1: like we wanted to send him off in the right
Speaker 1: way and thank him for what he did, because he
Speaker 1: really did shine a bright, bright light on pine Hurst
Speaker 1: during a very challenging time. And I've got four bags.
Speaker 1: So I've got, you know, two huge Duffel bags full clothes.
Speaker 1: I've got a golf travel case with my golf clubs,
Speaker 1: you know what that's like. Um, and then I've got
Speaker 1: a backpack. So I've got all this stuff. And I
Speaker 1: barely get on the elevator and the elevator door opens,
Speaker 1: Pastially standing there in his in his blazer and um
Speaker 1: and Kevin, one of my guys from the front door
Speaker 1: standing there with Kevin says, you know, Griggsy this is
Speaker 1: gonna be your last walk out. You're not You're not
Speaker 1: carrying your bags, man, I got them here. I am
Speaker 1: just a nobody from Missouri who would have been lucky
Speaker 1: my whole life to just make one trip to Piners
Speaker 1: where I pay every dollar they asked me to pay,
Speaker 1: and here I am. I've been here for ninety nine days.
Speaker 1: And the people that make Piners so special, they came
Speaker 1: from the restaurants, they came from the pro shop. People
Speaker 1: that I've become very close with, have lined up passion.
Speaker 1: You didn't even say it work, and you just said,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of people wanted to see you off.
Speaker 1: I was. You could see me in my finger at
Speaker 1: pastially in the way out, like you son of a bitch,
Speaker 1: because I he knows I'm an emotional guy. I had notes.
Speaker 1: I was gonna, you know, I was gonna say a
Speaker 1: few words, and he just kept walking straight out the
Speaker 1: door into the car, and I had no chance. In
Speaker 1: that moment, I was overcome with the motion. I was
Speaker 1: surprised by the whole thing. I have so much respect
Speaker 1: and like love for those people, and to see them
Speaker 1: reciprocate that, it just meant so much to me. That
Speaker 1: I I mean, I couldn't even handle it. It just
Speaker 1: meant the world to me. Some reflections on the tearful
Speaker 1: Goodbye Frankie. First, it's not like they like picked him
Speaker 1: up off the street, like he went to freaking Piners
Speaker 1: to go golf. Pinders number two in the Cradle every
Speaker 1: single day. It's like, so obviously you're gonna be emotional
Speaker 1: when you leave me. It's the best place to be
Speaker 1: in the world. I was in my five by five
Speaker 1: room for nine days watching people dropping in the streets
Speaker 1: in New York City. He's he's at the Pioneers Brewery
Speaker 1: playing the Cradle everything when that was transfusion in his hand,
Speaker 1: So yeah, he better be crying when he leaves. It's
Speaker 1: the greatest thing of all time. It's the greatest move
Speaker 1: in this world during the whole world has been shut down.
Speaker 1: It is the single greatest move that I've ever seen yet.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if someone wants to pick point
Speaker 1: someone else out that had a better pandemic, but I
Speaker 1: think Riggs had the greatest pandemic, which is a crazy
Speaker 1: thing to say, but listen, it's a funny thing that
Speaker 1: you know that we get to joke around with him
Speaker 1: about it now. And I'm not a sociopath. I I
Speaker 1: understand feelings and connection and and maybe I was a
Speaker 1: little hard on him on the podcast, but like I said,
Speaker 1: I feel like one of them. We had to do
Speaker 1: it to some degree. But like we've been saying the
Speaker 1: whole time, having that sort of connection, meeting those people
Speaker 1: and having friends for life. And I think he is
Speaker 1: going to go to one of the guy's weddings once
Speaker 1: everything is you know, the pandemic is over and all that.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, it's like I said before, it's
Speaker 1: great for bar Stool, great for Barstool Golf, great for
Speaker 1: four play, for Pinehurs and Barstool to have that sort
Speaker 1: of connection. And maybe, who knows, if I had stayed
Speaker 1: there for ninety nine days made the friendships that he did,
Speaker 1: maybe when I was walking out, I would have wagged
Speaker 1: my finger and the tears would have fallen down my cheek.
Speaker 1: Who knows. I wasn't in that position. But Frankie made
Speaker 1: a good point where once you get down there, you
Speaker 1: realize how tight the community is and just how great
Speaker 1: of a place it is. So leaving there after nine
Speaker 1: nine days, I could see how someone could maybe get
Speaker 1: a little emotional. Kevin Kisser. I know we've all seen
Speaker 1: the video of him crying as he was leaving, but
Speaker 1: I can guarantee you. I can't speak for you, but
Speaker 1: for me, if I went somewhere for ninety nine days,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get that same reception leaving. They'd probably like, kids,
Speaker 1: get the hell out of here, we're so sick of you.
Speaker 1: I don't think the entire staff would line in the
Speaker 1: halls and give me a walk out. Thomas the Catty.
Speaker 1: That's what Pinehurs does for you. You know, it holds you,
Speaker 1: it cradles you in Golf of America, and then when
Speaker 1: you leave, you're like, what am I I'm missing out?
Speaker 1: Why am I leaving? David Lynsky, who provided some tough love.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I was driving away in a golf
Speaker 1: card and he's just started banging out the vad door
Speaker 1: trying to get our attention. See thirty days, buddy. Unbelievable
Speaker 1: Ben Bridgers with a final thought, he's just a genius.
Speaker 1: Like when when you think about the whole kids match,
Speaker 1: and and how you know you think about what he
Speaker 1: did in the nine days, I mean, you know he's
Speaker 1: pretty humble about these kind of things. But you know,
Speaker 1: he raised uh, you know what a quarter of a
Speaker 1: million dollars for us and then probably almost almost a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand for kids in his foundation. The kidsner Verse
Speaker 1: four play four man Scramble video, which is an hour
Speaker 1: and seventeen minutes now has over eight hundred and fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand views. I had nothing going on, and so I
Speaker 1: needed to go playing something to get to get kind
Speaker 1: of serious about golf. Right before we went back, Um
Speaker 1: drove up there. We had a great time, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think we raised like ninety thousand dollars together in
Speaker 1: that event. So that's that's the incredible especially you know,
Speaker 1: with our our crowd is kind of the common man,
Speaker 1: and we didn't give a shot if you give a
Speaker 1: dollar or ten thousand, you know. And I just love
Speaker 1: watching all these people, you know, betting with each other
Speaker 1: while we were going, and twenty dollars you know here
Speaker 1: and twenty dollars there. That stuff adds up over time,
Speaker 1: and those are the people we want to support us,
Speaker 1: you know. And lastly, Riggs told me he figures he
Speaker 1: played the Cradle a hundred times, number two forty times.
Speaker 1: Pine Hurst and passionately are still tabulating the tab working
Speaker 1: on it, and and you you gave me some good information.
Speaker 1: I didn't. He's not disclosed the number of times he
Speaker 1: played the Cradle or number two. We've it's soft, it's
Speaker 1: fuzzy math um. But we're working on it. We're we're
Speaker 1: working on that invoice. We're trying to decide, you know,
Speaker 1: what's the guest fee. He had a lot of accompanied
Speaker 1: guest fees. He he uh, but he did some good
Speaker 1: you know, the auction. What what value do we assign
Speaker 1: to him hosting the auction? So my senses the in
Speaker 1: the end, it's gonna net out. It's gonna net out
Speaker 1: to to you know, be less than a hundred bucks
Speaker 1: either way. But like I said, I think we both
Speaker 1: got more out of this than either party ever anticipated.
Speaker 1: I ask everybody at the end of the podcast, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite fire pit and why do you have Do
Speaker 1: you have a place that that sticks out amongst the
Speaker 1: rest where me and pastially sat down at that fire
Speaker 1: pit that as at Bandoned and that's when we first
Speaker 1: got to know each other. And that's where this friendship
Speaker 1: began and spawned, and then it concluded and it's sort
Speaker 1: of or I guess grew and flourished at the fire
Speaker 1: pit at the Dorknet Cottage, which is just out back
Speaker 1: it's god maybe a hundred steps or so from the
Speaker 1: third Green at Pineheers Number two, Donald Ross's old home.
Speaker 1: And you know, pioneers bought it and they restored it
Speaker 1: and they made it so so so cool. And we
Speaker 1: had several nights where pastially myself, from kiss Ner to
Speaker 1: some of my friends too Ridgers to Dave, to all
Speaker 1: kinds of different people. UM sat around that fire pit
Speaker 1: many different times and talked about God knows what my
Speaker 1: favorite fire pit is. UM in the backyard on the
Speaker 1: back patio at the Doornat Cottage. Are you looking for
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Speaker 1: G M A T T Y G. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to the fire Pit. It's produced by Alex u Peggy.
Speaker 1: It's edited by Rex Lint. The theme song is by
Speaker 1: Joe Horwitz. Please rate and review this podcast on Apple
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