Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in a fried.
Speaker 1: Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, Frida
Speaker 1: egg egg, fridagg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to
Speaker 1: run off of the hump course.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 3: I am your host, Andy Johnson, and today I am
Speaker 3: joined by the Patterson Clubs Director of Grounds, Jason Meersman.
Speaker 3: I've known Jason for a number of years now and
Speaker 3: I've always wanted to have him on the podcast. I
Speaker 3: don't know why it's taken so long. He is quite
Speaker 3: the person and I think this was a super fun conversation.
Speaker 3: It's very much about life, golf courses, golf course maintenance,
Speaker 3: and a little bit about the Patterson Club which is
Speaker 3: about to undergo a renovation in due time. We'll see
Speaker 3: how quickly it goes. But thank you to Jason for
Speaker 3: coming on. Before we get to Jason, just one thing
Speaker 3: that we're doing for the company. We launched a T
Speaker 3: shirt for to support Hurricane Helene relief efforts in western
Speaker 3: North Carolina. Obviously crazy thing that happened there and a disaster.
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable to look at, and we.
Speaker 2: Want to do our part.
Speaker 3: So this T shirt is our Donald Ross and North
Speaker 3: Carolina T shirt. I think it's an awesome T shirt.
Speaker 3: I'm wearing it actually right now. It's under a sweatshirt,
Speaker 3: so if you're watching this on YouTube, you can't see it.
Speaker 3: But the T shirt is a really neat T shirt
Speaker 3: and all the proceeds will go to the relief fund.
Speaker 3: Big thanks for everybody who's bought this already has been
Speaker 3: up less than twenty four hours. It's exceeded our expectations.
Speaker 3: At this point, we just want to deliver as big
Speaker 3: of a check as we can and to that extent,
Speaker 3: all listeners from Floridaite, I'm praying for you. I hope,
Speaker 3: I hope that Milton is not a catastrophic event as
Speaker 3: many are are predicting.
Speaker 2: So awesome.
Speaker 3: Prayers to both North Carolinas and Floridians who are having
Speaker 3: to evacuate.
Speaker 2: Be safe.
Speaker 3: And if you're interested in buying the shirt in supporting
Speaker 3: the relief efforts, go to proshop dot Thefrida egg dot com.
Speaker 3: All right, let's talk about Toro. Toro is the only
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Speaker 3: Toro dot com. Jason, what's it like growing up in
Speaker 3: a turf family, A superintendent family.
Speaker 1: Great question. I almost don't remember. No, so growing up, Yeah,
Speaker 1: third generation golf course superintendent. It was great. You know.
Speaker 1: I think I was fired multiple times by my father,
Speaker 1: but next day it was brought back onto the team
Speaker 1: with a nice cold water saying you're late for work,
Speaker 1: get up and to work. No, it was it was great.
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 2: How are you late to work?
Speaker 3: When you when you were in the house, like I
Speaker 3: assume you were getting a ride.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, No. My dad used to sit
Speaker 1: at the bottom of my steps and y'all, I can't
Speaker 1: see you, and you'd be dragging yourself to the top
Speaker 1: of the stairs and uh. And some days, it would
Speaker 1: just be a little ice cold glass of water. And
Speaker 1: then and then my brother got keen into doing that
Speaker 1: a couple of times, as if he was playing Dad's role,
Speaker 1: but no, it was early mornings. It was amazing, amazing people,
Speaker 1: you know, growing up on a golf course. You can't
Speaker 1: grow up on a golf course and then try to
Speaker 1: go to a different career path. It's it's next to
Speaker 1: impossible because of the people at the club, from the
Speaker 1: starters to the snackshack people, to the members, to the
Speaker 1: daily feed, depending where you are. It's just it's littered
Speaker 1: with great people who share that passion that we all
Speaker 1: do for this beautiful game of golf, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the uh, it was a it was an active, active childhood.
Speaker 1: It was basically me the golf course is basically my
Speaker 1: brother and I babysitter and we'd go early in the
Speaker 1: morning and I remember, like twelve years old, picking up
Speaker 1: trash and and helping cut cups and and and then
Speaker 1: the rest of the day Dan and I would go
Speaker 1: play golf, hit range balls, maybe build a fort in
Speaker 1: the woods, always something to do.
Speaker 3: That's using the golf course effectively as your playground. From yeah, like,
Speaker 3: what if you remember back when you were a kid,
Speaker 3: was it like when you were ten or nine, were
Speaker 3: you like chopping at the bit to go work? There
Speaker 3: was that the kind of the dynamic I remember like
Speaker 3: with me and golf, Like my dad would go play
Speaker 3: golf with my grandpa and uncle, or he'd go play
Speaker 3: early in the morning, and especially when we were on vacations,
Speaker 3: like I just was like, why can't I.
Speaker 1: Come absolutely absolutely well, and especially with like the equipment
Speaker 1: for us. You know, you get there and you'd be
Speaker 1: seeing these guys run this big equipment. You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to try that. You know. Dan was a
Speaker 1: little more methodical than I was when it comes to that,
Speaker 1: you know, but I could, uh yeah, at a young age,
Speaker 1: I could operate almost every piece of equipment we had
Speaker 1: and and really got into that aspect of it. I
Speaker 1: think at one point I was my father's mechanic slash
Speaker 1: bartender after he became the uh the general manager and
Speaker 1: things of that nature. But yeah, exactly that. You know,
Speaker 1: you would see everybody working having fun, and you're like,
Speaker 1: I want to get in there, and yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: really have a choice.
Speaker 3: But your your family tree kind of you're you know,
Speaker 3: people talk about like superintendent trees, your family tree, you know,
Speaker 3: is the lust. So where where your grandfather got into turf?
Speaker 3: Where did he work and could you just explain kind
Speaker 3: of the family in golf golf Baynut.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Meersman family kind of got into the
Speaker 1: golf world through a small part three golf course that
Speaker 1: was originally like a playland type place. It was called
Speaker 1: Playland and it was in South ben India. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and it had go carts and my grandfather was like
Speaker 1: the mechanic for the go carts and was the handy
Speaker 1: everything man at Playland and spectacular place I remember playing
Speaker 1: as a kid. However, when the owner decided to create
Speaker 1: a part three golf course and change Playland into more
Speaker 1: of a golf centric arcade slash driving range lit up
Speaker 1: at night par three golf course. So nothing better than
Speaker 1: waiting seven people deep on each tea box and you
Speaker 1: put your little ball, You put your little ball, and
Speaker 1: then the thing that goes down to the bottom and
Speaker 1: your ball shows up, it's time for you to play.
Speaker 1: But so my grandfather started running that did a great
Speaker 1: job there, did a great job to the point where
Speaker 1: you know South Bank Country Club, which I believe at
Speaker 1: that time was ranked like second in the state of Indiana. Uh,
Speaker 1: Dave MC that is a cool golf course, very cool
Speaker 1: golf course. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 3: I but Nick Nate, uh, superintendent of South Bend, has
Speaker 3: been on this podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh really, I did not. I'll have to go back.
Speaker 1: Sorry for my uh yeah, ignorance on that one.
Speaker 3: You guys got to meet, you would get along. He's
Speaker 3: a great guy. Uh, you know, diehard golfer, just complete
Speaker 3: golf nut.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great. Yeah. No, we
Speaker 1: actually stopped by looking for him the last time I
Speaker 1: was in South Bend. My father and I were God
Speaker 1: rest my mother's soul, but she uh we were touring
Speaker 1: our old homes, our own stopping grounds and and uh
Speaker 1: doing a little a little tour, and we stopped South
Speaker 1: Bank Country Club and my dad and I toured the
Speaker 1: maintenance facility and unfortunately he was on property. But we
Speaker 1: got to see some of his staff and and just
Speaker 1: shake our heads at like wow, wow, how time just
Speaker 1: changes and how it just keeps going. But yeah, special
Speaker 1: piece of property there, and a lot of great memories,
Speaker 1: a lot of great stories. Not so many of my
Speaker 1: memories as much as stories I know from there, and uh, anyway, yeah,
Speaker 1: but so that was kind of my grandfather's start of
Speaker 1: his like a career. You know, he was considered one
Speaker 1: of the gurus at that time in the area. If
Speaker 1: if he's telling the story properly, Steve Glossenger the gentleman.
Speaker 1: I did my apprenticeship for work worked in that area
Speaker 1: and had a great deal of respect for him in
Speaker 1: the product he always put out and his passion for
Speaker 1: what we do.
Speaker 3: And before we get your to your dad, what's your
Speaker 3: favorite story from from the South Bend? You know, you said,
Speaker 3: you know that they're not your stories, but lots of stories.
Speaker 3: What's what's the story from that period of your family
Speaker 3: kind of tree.
Speaker 2: That that you you particularly enjoy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a no brainer. So my very
Speaker 1: favorite story about my grandfather, and uh, there's many of them. However,
Speaker 1: I've heard it from a couple of different people, and
Speaker 1: I think Steve Glocester told the best about how he
Speaker 1: was known as being the superintendent, the only superintendent ever
Speaker 1: to knock a member out cold on the range too
Speaker 1: and keep his job. I don't know what the complaint was,
Speaker 1: but I know my grandfather had a short fuse, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately he took his swing knocked the guy out cold.
Speaker 1: Next day, air Parses walks up to him and slaps
Speaker 1: him on their shoulder and says that a boy, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: nobody liked that, you know, maybe so ob or anyway,
Speaker 1: so the old Polish band had had or Belgian Polish
Speaker 1: whatever we are, had a short fuse. Anyways, our era
Speaker 1: par Sia should give him the pass, you know, I.
Speaker 2: I don't think that would fly today.
Speaker 1: I don't think so every member is my favorite member,
Speaker 1: all right, that's how we play it these days.
Speaker 3: That's right, That's right. You have everyone's a favorite. That's
Speaker 3: a good, good political stance to have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it has its truth to be, to
Speaker 1: be quite honest with you there, you know, you gotta
Speaker 1: love everything, you know. It's easier to do that than
Speaker 1: the opposite.
Speaker 3: So anyways, your your grandpa's at South bed that I
Speaker 3: imagine your dad starts working there for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so I think you know, all of his
Speaker 1: siblings at one point worked for him. My father, my
Speaker 1: uncle became golf course superintendents. From there, they took over
Speaker 1: municipal golf courses in South Bend. Everheart and Erskine. I
Speaker 1: believe is my my uncle Pat's first job from there,
Speaker 1: I think was anyway, I might I might be missing
Speaker 1: that a little bit, but I remember very well growing
Speaker 1: up there. My uncle lived on the golf course and
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe my cousins and my brother would
Speaker 1: would terrorize the uh the maintenance dump or you know,
Speaker 1: building fort, start running around on the property late at night.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was the greatest playground ever. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the uh and then Everheart, where my father grew up,
Speaker 1: or we grew up right down the street. You know,
Speaker 1: we'd walk there, ride our bikes there. It's another really
Speaker 1: great golf course that the San Cho River cuts through
Speaker 1: some really beautiful bridges, and you know, going back there
Speaker 1: with him. If it's not there, it's it's South Pineview
Speaker 1: golf Club where we also grew up, like from about
Speaker 1: twelve on. We it was thirty six hole golf course there.
Speaker 1: But I like going back to with my father and
Speaker 1: pointing out his terrible tree plantings. Wow, is this fairway
Speaker 1: gotten narrow? Anyway? It's easy?
Speaker 3: Are they sil silver maples? Or that's a that's a
Speaker 3: that's a tree to tree?
Speaker 2: Did Joure of.
Speaker 3: The Midwest Midwest unis is the silver maple. You know,
Speaker 3: my favorite thing about having one of them in my
Speaker 3: backyard was that, you know, the thing about silver maples
Speaker 3: is they hold on their trees really long, you know Midwest. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're leaves, so you know, they routinely would hold onto
Speaker 3: their leaves almost into December. And you know, you're you're
Speaker 3: looking at this tree. Every other leaf in your in
Speaker 3: your yard is gone, You've you've disposed of them, and
Speaker 3: you're looking at this tree like that that asshole won't
Speaker 3: get rid of its leaves. And then sure enough cleanup
Speaker 3: when it was with snow, knock all the leaves down,
Speaker 3: and you're looking into your backyard. It's like a perfect
Speaker 3: we got snow and leaves, and I'm going to go
Speaker 3: out there. And just so you know, for golf course, uh,
Speaker 3: golf course super tense. I could only imagine that feeling
Speaker 3: magnified by having.
Speaker 2: Hundreds of them.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, property, absolutely yeah yeah. And you know you
Speaker 1: just that that's exactly right, because like there's a fall
Speaker 1: clean up, you're sitting there waiting waiting for I always
Speaker 1: tell my guys get the tree shaker out, you know,
Speaker 1: as if we're actually gonna get the tree shaker out.
Speaker 1: Let's speed up this process. You know, one year we
Speaker 1: when my one of my first years here at Patterson,
Speaker 1: Hurricane Sandy came through, and you know, we lost a
Speaker 1: lot of trees, but more than but one of the
Speaker 1: silver linings. I hate to say there's ever a silver
Speaker 1: line with a hurricane. However, one of the silver linings.
Speaker 1: We woke up that next day, came out here and
Speaker 1: I don't know where leaves went. I mean, they're they're
Speaker 1: in Ireland, you know. A couple of weeks later, I
Speaker 1: don't know what was going on, but I was like, well,
Speaker 1: that's just nice. Just chop up all these trees and
Speaker 1: make some firewood, and uh yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: There's nothing better.
Speaker 3: There's nothing better that I imagine again this is multiplied
Speaker 3: by x when you're a superintendent, but there's nothing better
Speaker 3: when you look out on your yard.
Speaker 2: And this is the perfect time of year to have
Speaker 2: this discussion.
Speaker 3: When you look out of your yard you see just
Speaker 3: leaves everywhere, and then there's just a really windy day
Speaker 3: and you look out later that day and there's no leaves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the neighbors yard not my problem.
Speaker 1: Al Yeah, yeah, yeah, you just keep them over there. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: that's a great that's that's that's so true. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: I have a tree dot right out right in front
Speaker 1: of my neighbor's tree actually comes over to my yard.
Speaker 1: I got a nice little white picket fence though that
Speaker 1: that that plays defense. And then I got out the
Speaker 1: big blower and just kind of shove them back halfway.
Speaker 2: Do you ever bring maintenance equipment from the shop to never?
Speaker 1: Never?
Speaker 3: No, come on, Like, have you ever done like an
Speaker 3: air ration? Have you brought like the air raidor over
Speaker 3: to do it on your own yard? Like? Like, do
Speaker 3: you do you do that?
Speaker 1: I don't think.
Speaker 2: Really no.
Speaker 1: I have actually asked grounds chairs like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I owe my wife, you know. I think it was
Speaker 1: like one of our early anniversary presents. She's like, day,
Speaker 1: our yard is awful, and we've been living there for
Speaker 1: about three years. But it hadn't struck me exactly what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do yet. And I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I shot your lotor back hole over there, you know,
Speaker 1: And I drove it all the way there with the
Speaker 1: flashers out, and you know, I got the thumbs up,
Speaker 1: and you know, yeah, I don't know and if I'm
Speaker 1: if I'm unemployed after this come, no, no, but they were, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did get to borrow at that time. But you try, now,
Speaker 1: you know, you try obviously not to do or mix
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. But at the same time, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's right there. You're like, oh, baby, I could
Speaker 1: use a good verification. Give mean, that's six forty eight
Speaker 1: over to my house would be lovely. But yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: Got to be a conflicted feeling after the yard, your yard, because,
Speaker 3: like I imagine you do this all day, the last thing
Speaker 3: you want to do is come home and look at
Speaker 3: it from You have to almost detach yourself.
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, the shoemaker thing is so true. Like you
Speaker 1: come home, the last thing you want to do is
Speaker 1: go out and scar up your yard and start seeding
Speaker 1: because it's been an awful year and you know, my
Speaker 1: yard typically looks a lot worse than the golf course.
Speaker 1: So that's good, it's good news. But yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1: It is you don't want to come home and do
Speaker 1: that stuff. You know. I actually have by synthetic putting
Speaker 1: green in my backyard and a little tea box. I
Speaker 1: call it. I call it Pooh National because of the
Speaker 1: dog poop. But Uh, it's just as nice as firing
Speaker 1: up the blower. I'll fire up a blower any day
Speaker 1: of the week, you know. But uh, but yeah, going
Speaker 1: out there push mowing.
Speaker 3: Is it embarrassing at all to have a synthetic synthetic
Speaker 3: in the backyard.
Speaker 2: It's not. There's no I'm not top dressing.
Speaker 1: I'm not going home after doing it all day to
Speaker 1: do that all over again. No chance. No.
Speaker 3: Ill know, you know, in your back of your head,
Speaker 3: you could have as good of a greed as you
Speaker 3: want back there, but you've gone to the synthetic.
Speaker 1: You know, nothing wrong with cheating a little bit.
Speaker 3: What I will say, one of my favorite, you know,
Speaker 3: superintendent ground staff crossovers is that you know, justin to Pippo,
Speaker 3: the superintendent at bel Air.
Speaker 2: You know, obviously some of the biggest, some.
Speaker 3: Of the most expensive homes in the world litter, you know,
Speaker 3: surround his golf course and one of his one of
Speaker 3: his perks of his job is he gives an extra
Speaker 3: day off for his staff so that they can take
Speaker 3: landscaping jobs on the surrounding homes. And he's like, it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, all the homeowners apparently come to him.
Speaker 2: How should I take care of this yard.
Speaker 3: And he he sets him up with his guys and
Speaker 3: they probably you know, it's a substantial boom in their salary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to may take these you know, eighty.
Speaker 3: Million dollar homes and uh and you know he gives
Speaker 3: them an extra day off, and it's just like a
Speaker 3: symbiotic relationship. But I imagine also, you know, it keeps
Speaker 3: the it keeps the relationship of a of a homeowner
Speaker 3: as we've seen. As we've seen in the Northeast, there
Speaker 3: have been some contentious homeowner golf course relationships. Some actually yeah, yeah, Quaker,
Speaker 3: the Quaker rich one, to me is the most ridiculous carry.
Speaker 1: On top right, Yeah, yeah, that is that is cream
Speaker 1: of the crop, that one. You know, you're hundred percent right, Like,
Speaker 1: you have to have great relationships with your neighbors out here,
Speaker 1: and and that is an act. I've taken pieces of
Speaker 1: equipment from the club to other neighbors homes on property
Speaker 1: more frequently than my home because it's easier to it's
Speaker 1: easier and more important, I would say to to take
Speaker 1: care of them. So those mornings when you kick on
Speaker 1: a blower too early, you know, you got a new
Speaker 1: guy out there, and he's he's not following or rules
Speaker 1: or you know, forgot the rule or whatever the case
Speaker 1: may be. You know, but we've definitely gone over and
Speaker 1: chipped up fallen trees or or scarified a yard or
Speaker 1: or just you know, just trying anything and everything to
Speaker 1: keep them on your good side. However, golf courses tend
Speaker 1: to be the best neighbors you can have and other
Speaker 1: than the early mornings. But you know, it's it is
Speaker 1: a very important relationship for sure, especially right now we're
Speaker 1: getting ready to do some renovation work and uh and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm actually getting ready to go out and
Speaker 1: do a couple of walk arounds and knocking on doors
Speaker 1: and you know politician, Oh baby, yeah, absolutely, it's it's
Speaker 1: that's That's the one thing Michigan State taught me. Well,
Speaker 1: this is you're not going to school to just grow grass,
Speaker 1: you actually also to be a politician.
Speaker 2: Jay, What do they do in that regard?
Speaker 3: Like I you know, I think like going to school
Speaker 3: to be a superintendent is a very science like technical
Speaker 3: heavy education.
Speaker 2: What is what is the schools?
Speaker 3: How do they kind of prepare you for navigating the
Speaker 3: political landscape of a club or a course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So when I was there, we started, uh, doctor
Speaker 1: Rogers started a like an etiquette class, like an etiquette
Speaker 1: training as if like like, so, look, this is how
Speaker 1: get fitted for a suit. This is uh the silver
Speaker 1: war you should use, you know, if there's multiple forks,
Speaker 1: this is what this one is, and work your way outside.
Speaker 1: So you know, we would, we would, uh we we
Speaker 1: created a little class like that. I'm sure it's an
Speaker 1: existence because I thought it was kind of a story
Speaker 1: of genius for a lot of our guys. But you know,
Speaker 1: he's also you know, they're also very good, like especially
Speaker 1: like a doctor Rogers or mister Crumb or you know
Speaker 1: a lot of these great professors we have in our industry.
Speaker 1: You know, they understand the the world we're getting ready
Speaker 1: to dive into, and they have a number of stories
Speaker 1: that they tell you. You know that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: it gets the point across to be all right, you've
Speaker 1: got to be buttoned up and polished. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know, you're still your passion for growing
Speaker 1: grass is still the key that gets you. It gets
Speaker 1: you home safe every day, you know. But yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a fine line between breaking bread and and managing somebody's
Speaker 1: piece of property. You know, you've got to be able
Speaker 1: to do both a little bit.
Speaker 3: I you know, we're going to get back to the
Speaker 3: family tree in a second. I've heard, I've heard from
Speaker 3: multiple people that you are extraordinary dealing with with members,
Speaker 3: you know, interacting with them, raising money for projects, getting
Speaker 3: buy in on on on different things, you know, working
Speaker 3: with various committees. What what are the you know, what
Speaker 3: are kind of if you were going to synthathize, size
Speaker 3: it down into a couple of keys with how you
Speaker 3: do this? And I think this like applies to all
Speaker 3: aspects of life, like right, this applies to somebody who's
Speaker 3: a consultant. It applies to somebody, you know, anybody that
Speaker 3: works with people. Really what what are some of your
Speaker 3: keys to to navigating the complexity of al of life
Speaker 3: at a club? As you know, I think like this
Speaker 3: is like one of the trickiest things. You are the
Speaker 3: person in the room that knows the most about about
Speaker 3: the subject matter most likely, but you know you're in
Speaker 3: a room with a bunch of people that think they,
Speaker 3: you know, know the most.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know some simple stuff, you know. I always say,
Speaker 1: what does it keep it simple? Stupid? Right? I think
Speaker 1: that's a great line for this. The reality is is
Speaker 1: my father taught me a young age, treat people the
Speaker 1: way you want to be treated, right, and if you
Speaker 1: don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
Speaker 1: Those are two keys, right. So I've also learned a
Speaker 1: great deal of patience from a number of my members
Speaker 1: watching them navigate these waters. So I would think that
Speaker 1: first of all, the treating people the way you want
Speaker 1: to be treated is. My brother told me a line
Speaker 1: one time before I started interviewing, and and Dan, sorry
Speaker 1: for giving this one up, but it's people don't care
Speaker 1: how much you know until they know how much you care.
Speaker 1: And I think that's to a golf course superintendent, that's reality.
Speaker 1: You know, these greens out here, these are my kids.
Speaker 1: You know, I have two beautiful daughters, but then I
Speaker 1: have these nineteen greens out here that are at my
Speaker 1: absolute babies, and you think about them all the time,
Speaker 1: and you need constant coverage and babysitting. And so if
Speaker 1: you treat your greens, you treat your members like you
Speaker 1: treat your greens, you know what I mean, You're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing well. So my job right is to educate
Speaker 1: everybody to make sure they're as educated as possible. And
Speaker 1: I do that simply by getting people much smarter than myself.
Speaker 1: Steve McDonald, for instance, he's been on this podcast Smartest
Speaker 1: Man in Golf, Jaeger Kovich or a former architect at
Speaker 1: the at the Patterson Club and with a faz Yeo group.
Speaker 1: Here was Tom mars Off, extremely intelligent man. You know,
Speaker 1: I would use the people that we have hired to
Speaker 1: basically sign off on what we're trying to accomplish here,
Speaker 1: as in, you know, Steve, what are your thoughts on
Speaker 1: the aconomic side of what we're trying to do here?
Speaker 1: What's the design factor? Okay, those two were got sign
Speaker 1: off on those two. You can even throw a guy
Speaker 1: like Herb Stevens in our weather guy. You know, people
Speaker 1: people have there's a lot of chatter about Steve, Herb Stevens.
Speaker 1: But it's nice to not have to be the guy
Speaker 1: that cancels the outing. You know. It's nice that Herb's saying, you, guys,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get out there and you can be soopping
Speaker 1: white the whole day. Not Jason Meersman. What's that?
Speaker 2: Is he a member?
Speaker 1: No, he's not a member, but we we we subscribe
Speaker 1: to his his his weather forecasting it's long runed weather forecasting.
Speaker 3: And I was gonna say, Larry David warned us of
Speaker 3: meteorologists weather man.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're oh, yeah, one of my
Speaker 1: favorites ever getting started. You know, I was there.
Speaker 2: It's perfectly sunny.
Speaker 3: He's the only one on the golf course after he
Speaker 3: told everybody it was going to.
Speaker 2: Rain all day.
Speaker 1: One of my favorites, by the way, that one, or
Speaker 1: when he stole the tip, then stole the tip from
Speaker 1: the bench and then went out and hit the guy
Speaker 1: and uh forge Danielle four because the guy was deaf. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Larry David, I almost went down to you know, when
Speaker 1: I was graduated in Michigan State, I was one hundred
Speaker 1: percent ready to go with Steve Gloucester CAP's Valley, and
Speaker 1: I'm so glad I did. But there was a part
Speaker 1: of me that so desperately wanted to go out to
Speaker 1: like Riviera, just to just to try to get to
Speaker 1: know Larry David. Yeah, my single favorite, maybe of all time.
Speaker 2: I think the.
Speaker 3: Like by Dream Foursome, he's he's gotta be gotta be
Speaker 3: at itad like absolutely the commentary. He's just so himself,
Speaker 3: Like you could tell that's exactly who he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, it would be awkward and funny
Speaker 1: the whole time. It would be great, Like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: misspeak all the time, so it'd be perfect. You know,
Speaker 1: he'd be he'd be tear me apart and then anyway,
Speaker 1: it'd be great. It'd be great. But yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I ever buttoned up that beautiful
Speaker 1: question you asked me. But at the same time, like
Speaker 1: you know, I kill him with kindness, be yourself, you know,
Speaker 1: love them. They're gonna love you back. And I mean
Speaker 1: that wholeheartedly. You know, I'm not I'm not here to
Speaker 1: sell a project or or raise money for this thing.
Speaker 1: You know. My reality is is I have to, uh,
Speaker 1: I have to keep people understanding where we stand, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and keep them educated on that. And then
Speaker 1: and then as a team, we have to make you know,
Speaker 1: the decisions for what's best for the club period, you know.
Speaker 1: And you know, and I think with these intelligent people
Speaker 1: around yourselves, with and and calling my brother for a
Speaker 1: little advice, or calling Steve Revenue for some advice, or
Speaker 1: you know, just Mike de Husky down at Shelter Harbor,
Speaker 1: Like we got a great group of support out here
Speaker 1: in the in the Northeast, and and you know, there's
Speaker 1: a number of people that come to your back and
Speaker 1: aid to make sure you have the the answers and
Speaker 1: and the knowledge to be you know, to to help
Speaker 1: lead these these these people through what is very tough
Speaker 1: decisions for them, you know.
Speaker 3: And I think, like one of the things that you
Speaker 3: said that resonates to me is be yourself. I think,
Speaker 3: like so often you see, like it's like, as someone
Speaker 3: who grew up working at a club, you you feel
Speaker 3: like you have to put up this facade of like polite,
Speaker 3: always politeness, and that can sometimes mask your personality. But
Speaker 3: when I think back to like as as young Andy
Speaker 3: coming of age, you know, in college, like who became
Speaker 3: My best.
Speaker 2: Relationships were as who are members were.
Speaker 3: Often people that caddied for regularly where I would spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time, and you like you lose that
Speaker 3: veil of of of how you felt like you had
Speaker 3: to act because of how much time you spent with someone,
Speaker 3: you know, And this was me in my twenties, right
Speaker 3: when I was young, and like, when I think back
Speaker 3: to it now, is like those people actually got to
Speaker 3: got to know me. You know, and if you just
Speaker 3: let people in sooner and and kind of you know,
Speaker 3: be polite, be you know, be a you know, understand
Speaker 3: like you know, the politeness, but like also show them
Speaker 3: who you are. Speak like, speak to them the way
Speaker 3: you would speak to your friends, you know, and they
Speaker 3: are more likely going to develop like a real relationship
Speaker 3: with you and respect you, because like you know that.
Speaker 3: I think that's something as you get older, you like
Speaker 3: kind of realize. But it's like, you know, there's no
Speaker 3: sense putting up this like false facade, right because you're
Speaker 3: ever then going to have a relationship of significance, and
Speaker 3: especially in your position where you're trying to get things done,
Speaker 3: you need to have that deeper relationship with with people
Speaker 3: in order to push things through.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you got to build that trust, right, Like
Speaker 1: you know, I always tell people that come up to
Speaker 1: me and they're like, hey, Jay, there's something over here,
Speaker 1: there's something over there, and you know you want to
Speaker 1: get to it. I always say, you know, if you're
Speaker 1: seeing it, I'm losing sleep over it. You know I've
Speaker 1: already I've already seen it, I promise you, And if
Speaker 1: I haven't, I'll jump right on it. You know, sometimes
Speaker 1: people will give me what I call layups, right, you know, Hey, Jay,
Speaker 1: is there any chance we could get an extra flower
Speaker 1: pot over here? Done? Jay, the trash can over here?
Speaker 1: And sometimes I might explain to them why we tried
Speaker 1: that it doesn't work out. But other times I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: that's a layup. Cut a path to the forward tea
Speaker 1: box on two from one, so you don't have to
Speaker 1: walk through the tall grass or walk around. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: cut you a little path. Let's do that. That's a layup.
Speaker 1: Let's get that one done. Check the box.
Speaker 3: What's what's your least favorite? You know, if someone tells
Speaker 3: you something like is it is it? Like there's there's
Speaker 3: some Doug grass somewhere? Is that re least favorite?
Speaker 2: Like? What what we the least favors?
Speaker 1: When you don't know, you know, it's communication with your staff,
Speaker 1: you know, forgot to mention, Oh, I forgot to mention
Speaker 1: that my bad No no, no, no, no no. I
Speaker 1: need to know everything. There's there's a stone that's been turned,
Speaker 1: I need to know it, right Like, uh, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can't not and uh you know, this year we've done
Speaker 1: so much work with communication and really trying to communicate
Speaker 1: to the membership about all the either work that's coming
Speaker 1: at us here and and uh, you know, you're you're
Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to it's hard to be everywhere
Speaker 1: at once, and and you're really line on your people
Speaker 1: for this communication. And so when you get caught and
Speaker 1: you you don't know what they're talking about, that's when
Speaker 1: it's the worst. Other than that, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm either going to ride the complaint wave with you
Speaker 1: and try to do better, or else I'm gonna or
Speaker 1: else I'm gonna go fix it right away. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, here's a good one for you. A lot
Speaker 1: of people are asking me about this project we're doing.
Speaker 1: They're like, we're gonna ask about the project, j J,
Speaker 1: what's what's what's your favorite part? They all think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be like, you know, like you, I'm an architect
Speaker 1: nerk right, Like oh I love number four or number five,
Speaker 1: or oh this is gonna be a great mound here,
Speaker 1: it's going to get the ball rick ische and moving
Speaker 1: all over the place, or we're gonna open up the bunkers. No, No,
Speaker 1: the most exciting part to me is not wasting money
Speaker 1: on bunkers that are seven years past their last their
Speaker 1: life expectancy or an irrigation system that's been you know,
Speaker 1: leaking like a sieve for five six years. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm just really excited to not be wasting that money
Speaker 1: because we're gonna be able to do so much more
Speaker 1: for you, you know. I mean, we're gonna have divots
Speaker 1: feel quicker, We're gonna be plugging davids, We're going to
Speaker 1: be you know, what else can we do? Let's get
Speaker 1: more done? You know, That's that's the reality of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, but so anyway, it's exciting.
Speaker 2: Your your golf course.
Speaker 3: I you every time I talk to you, you remind
Speaker 3: me that it's I think I big the numbers the
Speaker 3: ninth rtj.
Speaker 1: Oh number eleven eleven, it.
Speaker 3: Was between I knew the two numbers that were coming
Speaker 3: into my had were nine and thirteen. And it ends
Speaker 3: up being right in the middle ourtj golf course. You're
Speaker 3: you're gonna do a major project on this golf course.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Jaeger Kovich is going to to uh you know, you know,
Speaker 3: figures crossed.
Speaker 2: I think the best we're in the.
Speaker 1: Middle of the boat right now. I don't know what
Speaker 1: it looks like. I know there's been great participation by
Speaker 1: the members and uh and I know the team that
Speaker 1: has done the communications for it is there's there's a
Speaker 1: there's a love fest there. We just we've been working
Speaker 1: so many hours together. It's it's it's been fun. They've
Speaker 1: done an amazing job. And uh, yeah, fingers are crossed
Speaker 1: that this is going to go through. The reality is
Speaker 1: the master planning is done and so what we're going
Speaker 1: to do it has already been planned out. It's just
Speaker 1: how we're going to execute that is is not one
Speaker 1: hundred percent set in stone yet, but pretty close.
Speaker 3: With with just the history r d J Robert Trent
Speaker 3: Jones one of the you know, most revered golf architects
Speaker 3: in the in the history of golf. You're an early
Speaker 3: golf course of his, which I think for the most
Speaker 3: part the early work was was the most celebrated of RTJ.
Speaker 3: What has been you know, the kind of process for
Speaker 3: maybe pushing slightly away from his original work and what
Speaker 3: has been the kind of how have you guys gone about,
Speaker 3: you know, getting the membership to the point you're at now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, yeah, great question. I I I one second
Speaker 1: though on that. I do want to remember remind you
Speaker 1: the first time we ever met. Do you remember this
Speaker 1: National Golf Link?
Speaker 2: I was yeah, oh yeah, National Golf Link.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I was touring National Golf Links with mister
Speaker 1: Sell and Eddie, the amazing superintendent there. It was my
Speaker 1: first time on property and I'm like a Kidney Candy store,
Speaker 1: just just looking around, and I see you out there
Speaker 1: and you're playing. I'm like, I ran up check and
Speaker 1: Jason Meersman uh golf course superintendent of the Patterson Club,
Speaker 1: Robert Trent Jones eleventh and you started laughing like you
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, that's exactly anyway. That was how we met.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, the perfect perfect way to.
Speaker 1: Intro right to a golf historian, right number eleven. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's so funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so god, that was my twenties.
Speaker 3: Twenty eighteen, yeah, yeah, right right, yeah, twenty seventeen maybe no.
Speaker 1: He was yeah right? When then when was she? When
Speaker 1: did Chinnacok host the US Open? I had a picture?
Speaker 1: I was twenty eighteen, so that was eighteen? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Is the second second major championship that I covered in person?
Speaker 1: Oh awesome?
Speaker 2: Maybe third.
Speaker 1: You're just hot, You're just getting hot, that hot you're
Speaker 1: playing National two.
Speaker 3: I didn't stay the whole week. I couldn't afford to
Speaker 3: stay the whole week. We didn't have enough money in
Speaker 3: the business account. So I was only there from like
Speaker 3: Monday or Tuesday to Friday.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are early early, early years.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, yeah, I was volunteering for mister Jennings
Speaker 1: me to work. Great stuff, great week. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: back to the So, first of all, our history, you know,
Speaker 1: there's some there's some fun stuff that I like to
Speaker 1: talk about when it comes to Patters Club's history. And
Speaker 1: you know number one is yeah, first of all, we
Speaker 1: were eleventh golf course. But if you look at his archives,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll see that Augustin National hired Robert Trent Jones
Speaker 1: Senior at the same year that we that we employed
Speaker 1: him to build our golf course. Excuse me, the Patterson
Speaker 1: Club was originally a ge established club. So the president CEO,
Speaker 1: who most likely were members at Augusta Nashville and pretty
Speaker 1: tied in with the boys there just doing some of
Speaker 1: the world's best work. I always say that I can
Speaker 1: only imagine the the interview process and one of these
Speaker 1: guys from g saying, hey, let's hire this young guy,
Speaker 1: and then by the way, why don't you stop up
Speaker 1: in Fairfield and whip us up a golf course real quick,
Speaker 1: you know. And so long story short here number eleven.
Speaker 1: He comes up here and and it's just an amazing
Speaker 1: piece of property, just a beautiful piece of property. And
Speaker 1: he put out some you know, some some beautiful golf holes.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's some interesting facts, like our eighteenth
Speaker 1: hole was never finished. They were they were working on
Speaker 1: some tree work through the driving which is currently our
Speaker 1: driving range. And you know, one hundred thousand dollars, shy
Speaker 1: finished the tree work. We'll just do it next year.
Speaker 1: Never happens.
Speaker 2: Wait, wait, so it wasn't finished.
Speaker 1: Oh no, this is walked to the top of the
Speaker 1: hill and put the te's instead of going through the
Speaker 1: woods and playing the golf hole. They had finished the
Speaker 1: green so the green green. Yeah, well no, this is yeah.
Speaker 1: So they basically fifteen would have been our current fifteen
Speaker 1: would have been seventeen originally, and it would have been
Speaker 1: a great final stretch of holes. And and you know
Speaker 1: they were getting ready to finish eighteen and you know,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna get those trees clear in time. Let's
Speaker 1: put the teas at the top of the hill, played
Speaker 1: down the hill, and like I said, they probably were like,
Speaker 1: we'll just do it next year.
Speaker 2: It just never happens.
Speaker 1: Never, never happen. You know, things happened. That's how that's
Speaker 1: how it works. And you know, and in the late sixties,
Speaker 1: I think nineteen sixty I've looked at all the old overheads.
Speaker 1: You know, I think like nineteen sixty eight they started
Speaker 1: using as a driving range and you know, piped off
Speaker 1: a stream that would have been strategic in the final hole.
Speaker 1: And and long story short, what's a cut to your
Speaker 1: club without a driving range? Now? So this actually, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny how this works, but it almost
Speaker 1: kind of helps us in a way that like what
Speaker 1: we're trying to accomplish now is to really improve our
Speaker 1: shortcame practice driving range. And we can do that with
Speaker 1: a slight re route to our golf course, which you
Speaker 1: know was highlighted by a number of architects in the past.
Speaker 1: But we really cast Yagurkovich with during this how do
Speaker 1: we create you know, these better shortcame practice area driving range,
Speaker 1: but at the same time improve our golf course. And
Speaker 1: he's created a great opportunity for us. He saw this
Speaker 1: after many days of walking around in the cold and
Speaker 1: our car hearts and anyway, the uh, you know, that's
Speaker 1: going to be the kind of that was kind of
Speaker 1: the biggest hurdle is trying to get everybody to understand that.
Speaker 1: But then the rest of that renovation, we're looking at
Speaker 1: about you know, seventy percent restoration thirty percent renovation. You know,
Speaker 1: so really kind of paying a lot of homage to
Speaker 1: Robert Trenchones Senior and bringing some of his earlier work back,
Speaker 1: some of the things he had planned earlier, bringing those
Speaker 1: things back and really kind of highlighting those. For instance,
Speaker 1: our fourth hole, you know, we're going to kind of
Speaker 1: do what you would see like eight at Augusta National,
Speaker 1: the big mounds around the greens and let the ball
Speaker 1: just bounce and run around and it's a really neat, narrow,
Speaker 1: banana shaped green and just kind of improving the interest
Speaker 1: of that golf hole. Also making a little bit more
Speaker 1: playable for the higher handicap golfer and more strategic for
Speaker 1: the lower handicap golfer. You know, so we're really focused
Speaker 1: on doing a number of those types of things while
Speaker 1: you know, really paying homage to him. You know, on
Speaker 1: number six. He had a really great hit it high
Speaker 1: and hope volcano hole short part three. It was really
Speaker 1: the only short part three in property. And you know,
Speaker 1: now we're we're looking at kind of bringing something back,
Speaker 1: not one hundred percent back to what he had because
Speaker 1: it was a little diabolical. People stopped playing it for
Speaker 1: a reason. So let's do let's pay a little image too,
Speaker 1: Let's cut it into the side of the hill, make
Speaker 1: a little postage stamp out of it, and you know
Speaker 1: it's going to be the sixth try on our sixth green.
Speaker 1: It's been done multiple times, so you know, let's just
Speaker 1: start turned to try to get it right.
Speaker 3: It's an interesting you know, I think like one of
Speaker 3: the things when I think about golf history and I
Speaker 3: know you're in golf history, is like the Great Depression
Speaker 3: in World War Two created like this like just stop
Speaker 3: and almost like like very abrupt restart almost twenty years
Speaker 3: from the last time new golf was being built. There
Speaker 3: were a few, okay, a few golf courses. But what
Speaker 3: happened was, you know, like all of the ties to
Speaker 3: the old style, like the this of rapidly evolving new
Speaker 3: practice of golf architecture, all the ties were pretty much broken.
Speaker 3: There were a few that had ties to that that
Speaker 3: era of golf design, RTJ Dick Wilson being two of
Speaker 3: the two of them. And it's like the early stuff
Speaker 3: with RTJ has a flare to it. You know, if
Speaker 3: you looked at and and you think about like Dick Wilson.
Speaker 3: You know, if you look at some old pictures of
Speaker 3: Dick Wilson's designs, you know, actually early in his career
Speaker 3: there was a you know, a real late Golden Age
Speaker 3: look in style to it. But then when you when
Speaker 3: you know, it almost was like they became part of
Speaker 3: the next era. And a lot of it had to
Speaker 3: do with, like I think, societal trends, Like it was
Speaker 3: kind of what was going on in the world, this
Speaker 3: like manufactured this like peak manufacturing era, this like simplicity,
Speaker 3: Like yeah, subdivision you knows are are huge in housing
Speaker 3: in the fifties and sixties, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just like a very you know, like I think
Speaker 3: like RTJ built so many golf courses over so many
Speaker 3: years and had his thumb his fingerprints on so many
Speaker 3: of the great Golden Age golf courses that sometimes like
Speaker 3: the he built a lot of golf courses, and a
Speaker 3: lot of golf courses might not be the greatest golf courses,
Speaker 3: but he did build some that were fascinatingly unique, particularly
Speaker 3: early in his career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I could only imagine, right, you're you're
Speaker 1: you're over five hundred golf courses. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got to be getting to a point where that's
Speaker 1: my favorite. Here's my list of thirty two grades. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you a seven, a twelve, fourteen, let's have
Speaker 1: a you know, I mean, I don't know that's not
Speaker 1: Also in another way, it.
Speaker 3: Gets to the point where you're not even visiting, right,
Speaker 3: Like it's like I show up on on for the
Speaker 3: for the sales.
Speaker 2: Meeting, opening day and opening day.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Now you're one hundred percent right,
Speaker 1: it's uh yeah. He became a he became like the
Speaker 1: first kind of you know, I mean, he was the
Speaker 1: big name golf course architect, right, he was the he
Speaker 1: was the first guy that was like, this is my career,
Speaker 1: this is the only thing I'm going to do, and
Speaker 1: and this is who I am. And so five hundred
Speaker 1: golf courses, you know, I wonder how many heat didn't
Speaker 1: show up to right, he's never been to. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, he's got a number of people in
Speaker 1: this career he started off there there, you know, their
Speaker 1: careers in golf, building, golf courses for him, junior architects,
Speaker 1: you know. So just amazing footprint or dumb print in
Speaker 1: the in the business itself. H kind of uh sparking
Speaker 1: all these jobs and all these professions. And you know,
Speaker 1: I always like even my little role in the golf
Speaker 1: right as the golf course superintown, the director of grounds
Speaker 1: and greens and.
Speaker 2: Don't call me a superintendent.
Speaker 1: Yeah director, I have my golf ball director of grounds.
Speaker 2: Don't call me a super intendent.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so I yeah, well, you know.
Speaker 3: I like I personally like across the pond when they
Speaker 3: get master greenskeeper, Like if you could get master in.
Speaker 2: Your in your in your title, I think that's just
Speaker 2: like a huge you know.
Speaker 1: I remember my grandfather back to back to him, he
Speaker 1: was very against the greens keeper title. He wanted it
Speaker 1: to be the golf course superintendent, you know, and.
Speaker 2: Now it's like disrespectful to say superintendent.
Speaker 1: I know, no, that's the that's the best role there is.
Speaker 1: My superintendent Steve Kobiki is a wild man. And then
Speaker 1: I have a superintendent facilities Mike or chef. Amazing guys.
Speaker 1: They're killing it on a daily basis. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, like like that's the fun stuff. I get
Speaker 1: to go, what's that.
Speaker 2: I heard a recent story of a friend of mine
Speaker 2: meeting a new superintendent and uh and them correcting them saying,
Speaker 2: I am the director of agronomy, not the superintendent.
Speaker 1: And I thought, I don't do any corrections. Back to that,
Speaker 1: I think the first or second question. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: correct people very often.
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's interesting my you know, personal opinion. Hey,
Speaker 2: you've been you've been.
Speaker 3: A part of this. This might be like a great
Speaker 3: question for you, it might be a terrible question. You
Speaker 3: grew up in Turf, you've lived your life has been this, Yeah,
Speaker 3: with young young people in Turf. Now, like how do
Speaker 3: you think that the role in the people have changed?
Speaker 3: Like how how is the profession industry and the young
Speaker 3: people coming into the industry, how how's it evolved?
Speaker 1: Yeah, good question, good question. You know when I started out,
Speaker 1: when I was an assistant, it was sixty to eighty
Speaker 1: hours a week. You know, it was go go, go go, go,
Speaker 1: go go. Nowadays, it's very different and your employees are
Speaker 1: very different, and and you know, how has it changed
Speaker 1: the the professionals themselves. I mean, deep down we're all
Speaker 1: the same, right. But at the same time, you know,
Speaker 1: you have your what I call tinker bells, right, the
Speaker 1: guys who were to try everything, you know, the guys
Speaker 1: who who just can't help but to keep trying new things,
Speaker 1: love it, and then I'm very much on their shoulder, going,
Speaker 1: how's that working out for you? But then you have
Speaker 1: the uh, you know, you have the guys.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: That's the that's an entrepreneur right thereial spirit, like they
Speaker 3: want to just they wanted to test boundaries.
Speaker 1: They're testing boundaries twenty four to seven. I mean I
Speaker 1: could name a list of them, and they're they're spectacular
Speaker 1: what they do. And then there's the uh you know,
Speaker 1: so you always have your same people, right, like like
Speaker 1: the guys that we're all kind of let's figure it
Speaker 1: out and get it done, you know, present a superintendent,
Speaker 1: director of grounds, whatever you want to call them, with
Speaker 1: the task, and they're going to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to do it, right. They're always going to come up
Speaker 1: with fifteen different ways and then you know, it might
Speaker 1: not be the might not be the best time, but
Speaker 1: they're they're never going to stop thinking about it until
Speaker 1: they figure out the single best way to accomplish what
Speaker 1: they're being asked to do. Which that's kind of the
Speaker 1: nature of our business, right and love that the people
Speaker 1: that are constantly, you know, coming up with new ways.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, the world has changed so much.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is like people aren't
Speaker 1: signing up to work sixty to eighty hours, and oh
Speaker 1: the increase in wages. We can't pay the overtime that like,
Speaker 1: like like that anymore. And and so you have to
Speaker 1: get creative and think out of the box. We we
Speaker 1: do a lot of evening maintenance, you know, and in
Speaker 1: a lot of evening maintenance, a lot of part time,
Speaker 1: a lot of just finding really good people in the
Speaker 1: community come out and help you out. You know. Just
Speaker 1: yesterday I was talking to somebody and and this this
Speaker 1: woman was like, oh, my my husband's retiring. He's going
Speaker 1: to be a retired firefighter. And I'm like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm licking at my chops. I'm like, oh, get him
Speaker 1: in here, let's get him all and rough, let's just
Speaker 1: get him own fairways, you know, like anything to take
Speaker 1: a little bit of stress off the core team. So
Speaker 1: you know, you're always kind of you have to evolve.
Speaker 1: You have to be willing to change, you know, or
Speaker 1: you'res to cowboy and you're sticking to your guns and
Speaker 1: you're saying, I'm gonna work these guys eighty hours a
Speaker 1: week and you better be able to pull all the
Speaker 1: best college students if you're that guy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So you know it's changed a lot. The people hands
Speaker 1: are still callous though, you know, the hands are still callous,
Speaker 1: and the hours are still real. So I don't think
Speaker 1: that much has changed when it comes to that.
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Speaker 3: All right, let's get back to Jason Meersman, how.
Speaker 2: Do you with with two daughters?
Speaker 3: How do you go try and have work life balance
Speaker 3: in your own life?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a that's a great.
Speaker 2: Question, maybe one that you haven't solved.
Speaker 1: I I definitely have not solved that. I'll be quite
Speaker 1: honest with you. And when I saw that, yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: let you know. No. But you know, for me, it's
Speaker 1: been basketball coaching their basketball teams. So wintertime slows down
Speaker 1: a little bit and I get to go be coach
Speaker 1: j instead of coach K.
Speaker 2: What kind of.
Speaker 3: Uh are you on the forefront of girls basketball analytics?
Speaker 3: Are you?
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you? Are you here out of the
Speaker 1: ball to teach them how to pass before they dribble?
Speaker 1: You know, but get the ball they want to dribble. No, No,
Speaker 1: we're gonna play with a flat basketball. And I want
Speaker 1: you to think it past first. You know we started.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I've had so much fun coaching girls basketball.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately is the first year I'm not doing it a
Speaker 1: lot going on this I'm really bummed, but I'm I'm
Speaker 1: still actively at their practices, cheering them on.
Speaker 3: You're not even going to move into assistant role, special assistance.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll see, We'll see. I'm not nearly as
Speaker 1: good of an assistant coach as i'm a head coach.
Speaker 1: I'd like to be leading the conversations at those practices
Speaker 1: and then and then uh behaving myself during the games,
Speaker 1: you know. But uh no, I've loved it. I've loved
Speaker 1: it to death. That's that's It's been a great one.
Speaker 1: I'm also just like you know, date days, right, I
Speaker 1: just got to have those date days. I just had
Speaker 1: a day day with my daughter Luella. The other day.
Speaker 1: We went to a Patriots game and I was wearing
Speaker 1: my Bears T shirt. Yeah, I was wearing my Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears T shirt. And I almost dressed up as Dica.
Speaker 1: I like to put on the fake mustache and some
Speaker 1: aviators and my cool sweater. But you know, she talked
Speaker 1: me out of it. Oh my gosh, you have to
Speaker 1: give you. Yeah, we'll off to trade for something nice
Speaker 1: that's spectacular.
Speaker 2: By the way, I'll send that out. That was a
Speaker 2: headcover free ad here in this toropod.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That thing's yeah. Yeah. I hope that one finds
Speaker 1: its way at Fairfield, that's for sure. I will I.
Speaker 3: Ope PJ wh who's producing this. I owe him a
Speaker 3: package of champions to her gear. So I need to
Speaker 3: go to the UPS UPS facility near me and I'll
Speaker 3: send I'll send that as well.
Speaker 1: Well. I'll be happy to send a bluebird back. All right.
Speaker 1: The best logo in golf, I don't know how we
Speaker 1: get Oh, we don't get the nod there from time
Speaker 1: to time.
Speaker 3: My brother, you know what, The whole ranking logos thing
Speaker 3: is such bullshit because because they're they, every nobody can
Speaker 3: take a part that like can remove the the.
Speaker 2: Logo from the place.
Speaker 3: Like you look at them, and I want to be clear, Yeah,
Speaker 3: this is as someone who did the first ever logo
Speaker 3: madness Be exacted it like eight years ago.
Speaker 2: Now now everybody does it, and you know it's we thought.
Speaker 3: About making an annual thing, but we're like, it's just
Speaker 3: gonna be the same logos.
Speaker 2: And guess what happens every time somebody does it.
Speaker 3: Next year will be the same, The same logos make
Speaker 3: it And and if they're all great golf courses, like
Speaker 3: I would respect the logo contest. If some golf of
Speaker 3: course I'd never heard of, that has an awesome logo,
Speaker 3: maybe it's the far on there, but it's Marion uh
Speaker 3: wingfoot Maidstone's gonna make it far, Sleepy Hollow is gonna
Speaker 3: make it far.
Speaker 1: It is like gets in there. They always in the light,
Speaker 1: like top twenty. I'm like, what bluebird on the hickory stick?
Speaker 1: Come on, that's I'm.
Speaker 2: A burder so.
Speaker 3: So anyways, there's my rant on the logo contest is
Speaker 3: if you if you could somehow remove the names and
Speaker 3: remove if you could do.
Speaker 2: The men in black, you know light thing.
Speaker 3: PJ probably never even saw men in black, but you
Speaker 3: could do them the memory thing where you just wipes
Speaker 3: away everybody's memory.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the logos that win wouldn't win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because because screen speed shouldn't be in the conversation
Speaker 1: when you're picking logos, right, Like I.
Speaker 2: Want to talk about green speed. No, you probably like, honestly,
Speaker 2: I don't know where we're going.
Speaker 1: We've been all over the place. Let's keep going.
Speaker 3: We still have to get back to the family tree.
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not gonna you know, but the family
Speaker 3: tree it's gonna be the jumping off point. It's the
Speaker 3: through line of the whole episode. But the uh Greens,
Speaker 3: I honestly find myself sometimes and people are probably gonna
Speaker 3: think I'm a snob or I'm some like golf hipster.
Speaker 3: I don't know, you either get described as a hippie
Speaker 3: or like, oh that golf course stop. Like I find
Speaker 3: myself like actively hating Northeast golf golf in the Northeast
Speaker 3: like active, I actively dislike it because of how fast
Speaker 3: the greens are, because it's.
Speaker 2: It's honestly like ruined some of the golf courses.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, well, I mean if they haven't softened,
Speaker 1: you know, why.
Speaker 2: Are we softened the slopes? You know, So, as as
Speaker 2: a superintendent at your club around green speeds, how does
Speaker 2: that work?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I try to my golf pro is
Speaker 1: adamant with me about Jay don't make him too fast,
Speaker 1: and I completely agree with them. You know, we first
Speaker 1: of all don't have many whole locations on our greens
Speaker 1: right now anyways, So you know I have three to five,
Speaker 1: I mean eleven and a half the green's played perfect
Speaker 1: and twelve's like a member guest invitational something like that.
Speaker 1: You know, you get over that here and there's nowhere
Speaker 1: to put a whole location. And by the way, you're
Speaker 1: just turning six is into sevens and sevens into eight right,
Speaker 1: and yeah, what fun is that? And you know, we're
Speaker 1: very much a family club here and we try to
Speaker 1: make you know, we try to it's very important to
Speaker 1: know who your customer is, you know, so you know,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest compliments ever got was from Dave
Speaker 1: the Donus during our we were hosting a MET event
Speaker 1: here for the MET superintendents and and he said, Jay,
Speaker 1: your green speeds were perfect for your greens, you know,
Speaker 1: for the slopes. They were actually perfect. And I thanked
Speaker 1: him kindly for that, because that's truly what we're trying
Speaker 1: to do. I want to see puts go in. I
Speaker 1: don't want to see people embarrassed, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to make the game unplayable. You know, it's too easy
Speaker 1: to do that. It's too easy to do that on accident,
Speaker 1: let alone on purpose. I had a member one time,
Speaker 1: a board member, who we were talking about modifying greens
Speaker 1: because the green Speeds technology is that, you know, greens
Speaker 1: were growing so fast that back in nineteen forty six
Speaker 1: when we were created, you know, it just didn't match, right,
Speaker 1: it doesn't match. And one of our board members is
Speaker 1: their handkxhious. Why don't we just slow down the Greens.
Speaker 2: I was going to vote vote.
Speaker 3: It's the most logical thing that like it rarely is
Speaker 3: even discussed as an option.
Speaker 1: Right right, right, right right? Yeah, I hear you, I
Speaker 1: hear you. You know it's a balance that I isn't it.
Speaker 3: The thing that I find amazing about the whole discourse
Speaker 3: is Scottie Shuffler. I you know, in terms of like
Speaker 3: if he came to your club, he'd be the best
Speaker 3: putter on the grounds that day.
Speaker 2: Like people people.
Speaker 3: Are always suck to putting, such a puttings when compared
Speaker 3: like he's not great at putting when compared to like
Speaker 3: the greatest putters in the world.
Speaker 1: Andy, I never miss. I don't know if you've known
Speaker 1: that about me on the golf course. I've yet to miss.
Speaker 3: Okay, So anyways, like I think about his all time
Speaker 3: bad putting performances, and I think that nothing was worse
Speaker 3: than his putting this year at the at the Open
Speaker 3: at Troon.
Speaker 2: It was like unwashable. You know why because the Greens
Speaker 2: were slow nine nine and a half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you gotta take a real stroke at the
Speaker 1: ball when the greens are rolling.
Speaker 2: Like that, you know, you have to be like so aggressive.
Speaker 3: It's not like I have to just wiggle this onto
Speaker 3: the line and then I got it on the line.
Speaker 3: It's going in and because of how fast they are,
Speaker 3: there's not a lot of slope, so it it. You know,
Speaker 3: I probably just have to get this on the edge.
Speaker 3: It's not going to break that much. When the greens
Speaker 3: are slow and your stroke doesn't feel good, it is
Speaker 3: like a horrifying, horrifying proposition, Like you are terrified of
Speaker 3: three footers, you're terrified of five footers everything. You know,
Speaker 3: when you're fifteen feet away, you have no shot of
Speaker 3: hitting a ball online. But then like conversely, when you're
Speaker 3: like feel great about your stroke, it's like I can't miss.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I just like don't understand.
Speaker 2: Like I was a couple of years ago at like
Speaker 2: a very historic golf course.
Speaker 3: And they were telling me about how they're going to
Speaker 3: change the screen. It's like it's one of the most
Speaker 3: revered holes in the world. It's like, what, you're going
Speaker 3: to soften the green?
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, the greens are four feet too fast, and
Speaker 2: you're going to soften the.
Speaker 1: Green right right, You're gonna.
Speaker 3: Eat Like this is famous green and you're gonna change
Speaker 3: the green rather than just slow the greens down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's a tough one. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: the greens are always evolving, but you're one hundred percent right,
Speaker 1: like you know, between bunker splash and mo lions and
Speaker 1: things like that. But at the same time you're you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's almost like we've confused ourselves and made it very
Speaker 1: challenging to come up with a proper answer there. You know,
Speaker 1: people want fast greens just for peacock feathers, you know.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
Speaker 3: It's like they go down the street to club and
Speaker 3: the greens are fast and they put one off the
Speaker 3: green and they're like, oh, that was freaking awesome.
Speaker 2: You know, can we do that here? Why can't we
Speaker 2: have that here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think I think the other thing that gets misunderstood
Speaker 3: and is like the trueness. People I think associate trueness.
Speaker 2: With speed, sure, and.
Speaker 3: And don't think you could have a reasonably paid screen
Speaker 3: with with.
Speaker 2: That same trueness. Is that is that harder? Is it?
Speaker 2: Is that something that like you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, yeah, smoothness is everything. Yeah, Like so like
Speaker 1: you think about it, like during our invitationals, right, we
Speaker 1: run out there and roll greens or reroll them with it,
Speaker 1: even with the squeegees. From time to time, if they're
Speaker 1: too fast, we'll just get them with a squeegee. It
Speaker 1: just get them smooth again. And that's just for footprints.
Speaker 1: That's just for ball marks, you know, things of that nature,
Speaker 1: well fo foot scuffing and things you know like that.
Speaker 1: But the reality is, yeah, I always try to you know,
Speaker 1: you always try.
Speaker 3: To keep them.
Speaker 1: They got to just fit where you are, you know,
Speaker 1: those speeds have to fit where you are. But like
Speaker 1: the smoothness and trueness is everything to me. Like if
Speaker 1: I see a line and once you hone in your
Speaker 1: speed and you see that line, yeah you wanted to
Speaker 1: stay online, period, but yeah you didn't have to ramp
Speaker 1: up the speed just to get that trueness.
Speaker 3: Is it easier to have true greens if greens are
Speaker 3: let's just say a ten or a thirteen.
Speaker 1: No, true is just on smoothness, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times it's early out, you know, early out on or
Speaker 1: frequency of roles. So yeah, you can have them ten
Speaker 1: and a half eleven and it can be true as
Speaker 1: can be, and just like they would be at a
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen. You know, don't get me wrong, twelve or thirteen.
Speaker 1: It's just going further past the hole, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the same scuff marks, the same ballmarks, the same you know,
Speaker 1: somebody walk in your line is going to create the unevenness,
Speaker 1: the lack of true true ball roll.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't those scuff marks and stuff be amplified. The tighter
Speaker 3: the grasses.
Speaker 1: Now, the longer it is, typically you would have more
Speaker 1: the scuff show longer. So and then in the summer months,
Speaker 1: when you know you're August and it's puffy and and
Speaker 1: maybe you've backed off heights of hair. Yeah, when people
Speaker 1: start scuffing their feet, it shows a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But again you're out there checking moisture and hitting it
Speaker 1: with the hose and blowing bunker splash and you know,
Speaker 1: tapped on spike marks. You know, they don't have to
Speaker 1: be cruising it thirteen fourteens.
Speaker 3: But what what evolution in agronomy are you most excited for?
Speaker 3: Like what type of new Like what's the new thing
Speaker 3: that you would most like to see?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I've been we're talking to agronomy, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been big this year. We brought in fourteen new
Speaker 1: robot robotic mowers. We have the little the Little Husk
Speaker 1: of ar I don't know IF's supposed to do plugs here,
Speaker 1: the Little Husky of Varn and the robot mowers spectacular.
Speaker 2: They're cute little guys.
Speaker 1: Cute well guy, yeah, oh yeah, we're talking. We got
Speaker 1: to name them here at the club. All my members
Speaker 1: want to name them. So we're gonna auction off naming them.
Speaker 1: Maybe find a good charity to promote and and and anyway.
Speaker 1: But they you know, it's just about consistency, about noise,
Speaker 1: about safety and and you know, minimizing the amount of
Speaker 1: times we still mo with the regular mower that rough
Speaker 1: from time to time. We also do our range tea
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping that you know, we demoed a fairway
Speaker 1: unit this year and loved it. Just helps with you
Speaker 1: keeping up on the consistency of the the you know,
Speaker 1: the playability and uh, you know those big moors, those
Speaker 1: big motors are loud and uh, you know you're training somebody,
Speaker 1: you're filling with fuel and all this, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know you still have to do it, but just
Speaker 1: not nearly as much. If we could go from having
Speaker 1: the more our fairways four times a week to two
Speaker 1: times a week with the big units through these robots,
Speaker 1: I think it's a no brainer. Gives us more time
Speaker 1: to to do some of that that detail work that
Speaker 1: our members know more than anything.
Speaker 3: The fairways are the big fairways are the big one
Speaker 3: left to like really solve.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so again you know a number of people will mow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it depends what your fairway heights are. The one that
Speaker 1: we had, we have our fairways just under you know,
Speaker 1: right around three tenths of an inch. So this robot
Speaker 1: was definitely cutting grass. And and if we, like I said,
Speaker 1: I think we went to mowing it twice a week
Speaker 1: versus like three to four times a week. And these robots,
Speaker 1: they just keep you looking good looking, right, give it
Speaker 1: a nice clean cut and then that's way. Also when
Speaker 1: you go back out to cut, you're not taking so
Speaker 1: much grass off the plant, right, that will stress it
Speaker 1: a little bit more. But also the uh also just
Speaker 1: the grass that's building up in the reels and things
Speaker 1: of that nature. It just gets a little mess here.
Speaker 1: So again it's more about just consistency, you know, are rough.
Speaker 1: This year has been spectacular with a first time I've
Speaker 1: ever heard our rough is too easy. So I was like,
Speaker 1: never thought i'd hear that. I heard from a twenty
Speaker 1: two handicapper. But you know, I like our golf course
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun, and the greens are are
Speaker 1: are pinched off by bunkers from our last renovation, and
Speaker 1: so it's very challenging to hold our greens. So you know,
Speaker 1: I really try to just keep the rough maintained a
Speaker 1: you know, inch and a half inch and three quarters
Speaker 1: and let you get on the back of the ball.
Speaker 1: You know, I wanted to be a quarter shop penalty,
Speaker 1: not an entire shot penalty. So you know, these robots
Speaker 1: have allowed us to do that and execute our rough
Speaker 1: exactly how we want to, you know. So that's been great.
Speaker 2: Let's get back to the family tree.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, we're at We're.
Speaker 3: At your your father and uncle maintaining South Bend Municipal
Speaker 3: Golf Course is yeah, this is this is where your.
Speaker 2: Brother and you come into the into the equation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So he started working for my dad a
Speaker 1: year before I did, and that's when I was like,
Speaker 1: you were saying, that's when I was jealous. That's when
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I remember, like yesterday, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean like, oh, he's getting the gout there
Speaker 1: at work. I can't wait. I can't wait. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he started working. I think I I started when we
Speaker 1: moved up to Michigan. So we were in South Bend
Speaker 1: and I would just I just got to hang out
Speaker 1: at that property and and uh and watch them work
Speaker 1: and kind of see it all unfold. But when we
Speaker 1: went up to Michigan, that's when I got to start working.
Speaker 1: And that's where so Dan and I would be there
Speaker 1: in the morning and we'd either be raking all thirty
Speaker 1: six holes of bunkers or we're in Michigan three Rivers,
Speaker 1: Michigan place called pine View, it's a thirty six hole.
Speaker 1: It was a single owner, semi private. Still is spectacular
Speaker 1: golf course. My brother got married there. It's just our
Speaker 1: home away from home. We go back and it's like
Speaker 1: a time capsule, you know, like nothing's changed. People are
Speaker 1: still amazing, so friendly. Like I said, the only the
Speaker 1: only problem with the place is my dad's tree plantings. No,
Speaker 1: not true. It's still a great place anyway. But we
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun in our last couple of
Speaker 1: visits there. But yeah, you know, Dan and I got
Speaker 1: there in the morning, first thing in the morning, we'd
Speaker 1: work our tails off for about four or five hours
Speaker 1: and then we'd go out and start golfing. You know,
Speaker 1: he would be starting he would be out there with
Speaker 1: towels on the driving range. Remember this, Well, I was
Speaker 1: always trying to clear the tree line in the back
Speaker 1: of the range, while he was, you know, very methodically
Speaker 1: had towels laid out every five to ten yards and
Speaker 1: he was chipping and working on a short game. And yeah,
Speaker 1: what does.
Speaker 3: That tell you about the two of you and how
Speaker 3: you are as superintendents. That sounds like drastically different personalities.
Speaker 1: Different personalities. Yeah, he's the single greatest consultant I could
Speaker 1: possibly have because he balances me so well. You know,
Speaker 1: that's amazing, it is, it is. It's very fortunate for
Speaker 1: that that consultant slash brother.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh so.
Speaker 3: Then so then you guys got into the industry and
Speaker 3: and any any cousins that have gotten into it too.
Speaker 1: No, our cousin was smart enough to get out of
Speaker 1: the industry. No, no, they didn't. Yeah, no, I think
Speaker 1: we you know, we caught the book early, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we both kind of looked at going to
Speaker 1: leave an industry at one point and we were like,
Speaker 1: now it just pulls you right back in. Like I
Speaker 1: said earlier to the the people surrounding this game are
Speaker 1: just so good and it's hard to get away from.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, so basically what happened is, you know,
Speaker 1: we both went to the Kalamazoo Valley Communit College to
Speaker 1: play golf and to figure out if this is exactly
Speaker 1: what we want to do. And then we ended up
Speaker 1: going to Michigan State. You know, it's party on grass
Speaker 1: program there. Doctor Rogers, doctor Crump, two of my favorite people.
Speaker 1: We lost, uh mister Bargus, our doctor Argus recently, but
Speaker 1: just some some great people there that that again passionate
Speaker 1: about growing grass and and and there are a bunch
Speaker 1: of bunch of tinker bells. You know, we're all just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the best way to skin the cat.
Speaker 3: You know, what's the what's the best from you know,
Speaker 3: it could be your brother, it could be one of
Speaker 3: your classmates, it could be superintendent down the street. What's
Speaker 3: an example of a of a tinker bell uh trying
Speaker 3: something in a becoming standard practice?
Speaker 1: Well, I also Steve Glossinger made this little snout that
Speaker 1: Pat Sisk perfected. It was a little snout on the
Speaker 1: end of a pushblower. We call it a little wonder.
Speaker 1: I forget what we what's actually called. We call it
Speaker 1: a little wonder because that was the name of the pushblower.
Speaker 1: But it's a little attachment that grabs the the wind
Speaker 1: and forces it straight down, so after you put top
Speaker 1: tresting on top of holes, it helps it blow it
Speaker 1: in the holes. That was one that worked out well
Speaker 1: until we realized buffalo blower is probably just as good,
Speaker 1: if not better. You know, it's a long list. So
Speaker 1: my father and I always called it fence climbing. Right
Speaker 1: we would go, we'd be traveling, you know, we would
Speaker 1: always travel in our and our old celebrity to the
Speaker 1: family vacations and they were usually wrapped around to the
Speaker 1: golf conference or something of that nature. And we would
Speaker 1: camp on the way out and camp on the way back,
Speaker 1: and and oh, every time we saw a golf course,
Speaker 1: it was like squirrel, squirrel. You know.
Speaker 3: I love driving on the road, and yes, even the
Speaker 3: ones on the highway that are never good.
Speaker 1: There's a maintenance facility. Let's go in there. We bop
Speaker 1: in there and see, oh wow, creates on the back
Speaker 1: of a bunker rake so we could hold our tools
Speaker 1: in there. All that makes too much sense. You know,
Speaker 1: you're always grabbing great ideas from people. We talked about
Speaker 1: bell Air Country Club earlier. I was out there and
Speaker 1: stole their trash cans. This year, they have these trash
Speaker 1: cans that look like stumps. They've been a huge hit
Speaker 1: at the Patterson Club, you know. And all we did
Speaker 1: was line the old ones with with with wood and
Speaker 1: then cut out the TI. It was genius. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you're always taking these ideas from other people,
Speaker 1: and and you know it's celebrating them. I never pretend
Speaker 1: like they're mine, you know. I mean, heck, Steve Raven
Speaker 1: who let us borrow some cores from his eration on
Speaker 1: his greens, and we have greens expansions that are gonna
Speaker 1: be done during our project with wing football up. Basically,
Speaker 1: so you're always you're always trying to.
Speaker 3: If you listen to any professional golfer though poet stinks,
Speaker 3: you know, they're all holding on to I feel like
Speaker 3: all the all the old golfers that are on TV
Speaker 3: hold on to like nineteen ninety six pebble beat screens,
Speaker 3: you know, like that is why they just they hold
Speaker 3: this resentment towards the service.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, First of all, that Northeast Poet is some
Speaker 1: of the best poe you've ever seen, Right, It's right
Speaker 1: up there with that Pittsburgh Poe. So those guys obviously
Speaker 1: have never played wing foot, all right, none of them
Speaker 1: except for that d Shamblefill I think did pretty well there.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, no, I you know, I've played some
Speaker 1: of the some of the best greens in the world,
Speaker 1: I think, and and and uh, I've seen them both
Speaker 1: bent and poeist. So a lot of it's just like
Speaker 1: you said earlier, it's kind of just a hi. Your
Speaker 1: rolling it that day plays an important role in your
Speaker 1: true view on on on the type of grass. So
Speaker 1: if it's going in, it's going in, you love it.
Speaker 1: If it's not, you don't love it, it's.
Speaker 2: Uh, we're we're gonna get you out of here. Now.
Speaker 3: You know this has been a fun conversation. Well they
Speaker 3: do part two someday. Last question, how how are you
Speaker 3: feeling about the beloved Bears?
Speaker 1: Oh Chicago Bears, Oh buddy, I hate. I originally wanted
Speaker 1: him to get a king's ransom for that first pick,
Speaker 1: but after watching hard knocks it kind of like Caleb.
Speaker 1: He seems like a good guy that that's going to
Speaker 1: figure it out. Love that last game he looked he
Speaker 1: looked pretty good. But uh, you know, like any team,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta get a little further into the
Speaker 1: season before you got it all figured out. That offensive
Speaker 1: line needs to keep solidifying their purpose for us, right,
Speaker 1: stop laying down on plays.
Speaker 2: To have it seems like they need to have a purpose.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last two they looked better, all right.
Speaker 2: So you know, as a.
Speaker 1: True Chicago Bear fan, I don't you know, I do
Speaker 1: all my trash talk in the off season and then
Speaker 1: I just, uh you know, I go to the games
Speaker 1: and support and and and talk as if I have
Speaker 1: no clue about anything. Right. Bears one thousand, Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: negative sixteen for the Patriots, that's.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, the Patriots resemble a lot of our Bears
Speaker 3: teams in a couple of decades right now. So Jason, big,
Speaker 3: thanks for coming on. I mean this should cover boxed
Speaker 3: up our friends. We're gonna tell our friends this swag
Speaker 3: that it's it's uh, it's fine in a home, it's
Speaker 3: really going.
Speaker 2: To appreciate it, and uh just appreciated at my home.
Speaker 3: It just I think I've found somebody that might appreciate
Speaker 3: it even more.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, thank you for coming on. People can find you.
Speaker 2: You're you're on Twitter, right, I'm.
Speaker 1: All over the place, so yeah, I'm all over the place.
Speaker 1: I'm easy to find.
Speaker 2: The conversation was all over the place, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we knew that was coming.
Speaker 3: Big thanks, and uh look forward to seeing you maybe
Speaker 3: at the show. This the Swimmer San Diego. That's an
Speaker 3: easy one for me. It's a home it's a home
Speaker 3: game for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's try to get around of golf in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should. We should love to. I'd like the
Speaker 2: idea of that, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it would be just like this conversation. We'll
Speaker 1: be all over the place, all right. Thanks, all right, Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday
Speaker 3: Golf Podcast. Hey, big, thanks to Jason for coming on.
Speaker 3: Big thanks to PJ. Clark for editing and producing this podcast.
Speaker 3: As a reminder, as I said at the top, we
Speaker 3: have the Donald Ross North Carolina shirt in the Pro Shop.
Speaker 3: All proceeds from that are going to support Hurricane Helene
Speaker 3: relief in North Carolina. Thank you to everybody whose bottom
Speaker 3: is way exceeded what.
Speaker 2: We thought when we were going to launch this. We
Speaker 2: hope to keep it going.
Speaker 3: We would love to really give them a sizeable check,
Speaker 3: so you can check those out at at proshop dot
Speaker 3: the fried egg dot com.
Speaker 2: It's right there at the homepage.