Norwood Hills Director of Golf Brandon Smith and the 2023 Ascension Charity Classic-Sunday, -Golf With Jay Delsing

This is golf with Jay Delsing, a two-time All-American at UCLA, a participant in nearly 700 PGA Tour events, seven professional wins to his credit, over 30 years of professional golf experience, a member of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame, this is Golf with Jay Delsing. This is Golf with Jay Delsing and this Sunday we're coming to you from Norwood Hills Country Club and this is the site of this year's Ascension Charity Classic. Our guest coming up will be Brandon Smith, the director of golf at Norwood Hills and much of the focus of this show will be a look at the Ascension Charity Classic. But first and foremost, with Jay Delsing, I'm Dan McLaughlin. Jay, great to be with you. Danny, thanks so much for being with me and I'm so excited to be up here at Norwood.

I'm actually sitting in a room that I haven't been in very often. Last time I was in this room you had this all set up for an interview with Nick Ragon and I think Ernie Els? It was Ernie Els, Nick Ragon. You had to talk about the tournament.

Yeah, I think the inaugural when it was getting ready, yeah, so yeah, really excited. Brandon Smith has been a golf lineage. His dad, Big Mike, is someone that we all know and love and has been involved in the game of golf for how many years?

50, 40? Back when I was a kid, I worked with Big Mike at Tower T. I know, and now Big Mike's running the caddy program at Old Warson and he's got his son, he's just a great guy. It's going to be good to sit down with Brandon and it's just nice when these families that have loved the game and have grown the game and given so much to the game get some recognition.

They need that. So I want to focus a little bit in this segment on Norwood Hills Country Club and for golf fans that don't know, this is one of the great stories I think in local sports. It's Jay Delsing who grew up as a caddy working at this place toting bags and now you're going to play in a PGA sanctioned event at Norwood Hills. It's a great story. It's great.

Well, thank you. And you're from North County. I know. It's something that, Danny, I never thought would ever happen. I mean, when Steve Spratt and Nick Vergone said, we're bringing a Champions Tour event here at Norwood, I'm like, tell me that's going to happen. You know what I mean? It's just amazing.

And this North County area, as we know, we talk about it all the time because we love St. Louis. It really needs help. It's getting it. It's really getting help.

There's leadership that is growing out of here. I know that Brian Williams does a phenomenal job up in North County and helps out a great deal. And then to have this sort of money being raised year after year, Danny, hopefully we can really make a difference and love the Charities Associated Boys and Girls Club, the Urban League and Marygrove. Great, worthy benefactors.

The man that runs the Ascension Charity Classic, it's Nick Vergone. Having an event like this, you understand up close what grows the game of golf is community engagement. It's not just seeing the elite pros on TV playing for a lot of money.

That's actually the easy part. The more important part is bringing a live event, having the community rally around it, raising money to support and do good for charities, and then growing that and making it more diverse and inclusive. You know, one of the things we did last year is we added a second event, the APGA Classic, which is the Advocates Professional Golf Association, a wonderful tour.

It's been around for 10 years. It's committed to making golf more diverse and inclusive at the elite ranks. And now it has a partnership with the PGA Tour. It's actually, over time, I think it'll become a feeder for the Corn Fairy Tour. But the point is, to grow the game of golf, you need community engagement and you need to give back.

And that's kind of the core of it. And I think the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions business model is the best in professional sports because it allows you to put on great sport, great entertainment, but it allows you to engage companies in a much deeper, more meaningful way because they understand the dollars that they use for pro-ams or hospitality, ticket sales, sponsorships, really goes back to supporting charities they already care about and support in the community. And for us to do it in an area, the St. Louis, that is underserved and underinvested makes it even more special. One of the things that Nick has talked about is not only making a difference in North County, not only making a difference with the Ascension Charity Classic, but the APGA. And I know you love this idea and what it brought to golf and certainly golf here in St. Louis.

Absolutely phenomenal, Danny. It's going to be it this year. It's not going to be tournament week.

It's going to be the second week of August. I'm going to MC something over there and we're going to have a junior clinic on August 9th. But this is about trying to get more African American, more underserved people involved in the game, regardless of what color you are. Let's get you involved in the game. Let's get you understanding what it offers. You know, we have Christian Heavens, who's just a great young man from St. Louis, a hell of a good golfer that's playing on that APGA tour all the time.

And I would love it if he won the championship this year. We're coming to you from Norwood Hills Country Club Golf with Jay Delsing presented by Doherty Business Solutions. One of the things that you had the chance to do, you hit the inaugural tee shot that was by design.

You were paired up with former college teammates. I see you're getting goosebumps right now and you get a little emotional, not a little, you get a lot emotional about that first tee shot. I've never experienced anything like that before, Danny, in front of my family, in front of my friends.

I look at Nick, we're going, I can't even make eye contact with him. I'm like, how in the hell am I going to hit this ball? When they announced me and I'm trying to get the ball to stay on the tee, Danny, I was shaking like I'd have too much caffeine, man.

I was like, holy smokes, what am I going to do? And I just said, I took a big deep breath and it kind of have a practice swing and I'm like, just hit it somewhere. Just get it going forward, you know? And somehow it went right down the middle and, ah, I was glad that that first tee shot's always tricky, right? All of these first tee shots of events are tricky, but when it means so much and there's so many, so many friends and loved ones around, man, it's, it's, it's tough. I was thinking in, in literally you probably hit a thousand, at least a thousand tee shots where you were situated with being back in the tips because you're a PGA pro for nearly 30 years. So, I mean, you think about all the times you played from the tips and specifically here at Norwood and then to have it on the line really means something that's emotional.

It is well, and it just, all of that can whack you mentally because you're like, wait, and then you try to get back to go, wait a minute, this is Norwood still. I know this hole, I know this tee shot, but the circumstances, the stuff that runs through your body, Danny, it's one of the things I love about being able to play professional golf, to play when you're crazy nervous and, and all it, you know, as an athlete and to have that adrenaline run through your body, it's a good thing as long as you can manage it. And that first tee, man, I was glad that thing was over. How nervous were you? Because you've told me you had a putt at one point, I don't know, it was five or eight feet. And that was to get your tour card, which then meant hundreds of thousands of dollars with sponsors and getting into things and whatnot. But how nervous were you on just that first tee shot?

Way more. Really? I was wondering, Danny, it took, it takes it all. I mean, I, I sat there and you know, it's almost like, you know how you hear you say you have your life passing for, there's all of these memories come rushing back and I'm like, wait a minute, man, you got to hit this shot, you know, because it'd be great if you just got to sit back in a chair and reminisce, but you're trying to play, you know, and especially playing with, with, uh, Corey and Steve, Corey Pavan and Steve paid. I wanted to beat their ass, man.

You know, I don't want to take them down. So yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. I can't wait for this year's event. I didn't play last year.

I, um, and to get to play this year again, it means a ton and I, I'm just super excited for it. Do you remember the first time as a kid that you were out here? And if so, how old were you when you started doing the various roles and what were those roles? So how old were you and what were the various roles that you had out here? Well, I started off as a caddy. My dad used to work for the St. Louis review and he'd go to work and drop me off, you know, in the mornings and I'd stay. So it was probably between six and six 30 in the morning and I was 12 or 13 years old and I started, you know, caddy and you get this back in the day, Danny, they probably had 30 or 40 caddies here every day. They weren't children.

There were a bunch of grown men. And so I remember sitting in the caddy room thinking, whoa, heard a lot, learned a lot. I've copied a lot of those words that I learned back then.

I use them a lot in my life today, but there's card games going on. There's, you know, you, you throw yourself into the caddy yard back in the day and it is, it's a, it's an eye opening experience. So I sat there and waited to get out and I didn't know anybody. It was a little intimidating, but you know, I was here with a purpose and now no one else knew that. Did you know that back then? Oh yeah, I, I, well, and the purpose was to get better and better and better and see where it takes you to try to get better, trying to get better.

I needed a way to get a scholarship for college if I was going to go because it wasn't going to be put on my parents and they couldn't afford it. So that and, and that's pressure in itself. But you know what, when you're dumb like I am, you just don't even realize it.

You just sit there. I'm thinking more golf, more golf, more golf. I mean, you and I are playing a ton of golf now. Danny, I played 36 holes almost every single day. I just walk in carrying my clubs, just up and down the Hills and finding those hooks, finding those slices and somehow or another, and being a parent, you can relate to this. I like that. You know, normal kids don't like that.

That's right. Like today, this is too much. I don't want to walk. And I read a card.

We never, you know, we couldn't take any cards. You're out there just hoofing it, going to play. And then, you know, some of the guys up here made it a little difficult at the beginning and they were like, you know, you need to sweep the parking lot. I'm like, which broom you want me to use. Sure. You got to clean the bathrooms. No problem.

Which ones? Once I got a little taste of this, it was, it was almost just like it was meant to be for me. I got so lucky if things could have gone so many different ways, but Norwood will always be such a major part of my life. Brandon Smith coming up, the director of golf at Norwood Hills. So we'll get into the course a little bit. What's happening here at Norwood.

They'll play on the West. There's 36 holes here, but what was the reaction of players that played at the Ascension charity classic about this course, specifically the West at Norwood Hills? Well, first of all, Danny, believe it or not, they raved about the old Spanish style clubhouse. We're sitting in it right now, but we talked to Lee Trevino about that. He Trevino said whatever they did, man, you know, you guys really need to be grateful for that guy.

But they talked about that too. Like, man, that's odd here in St. Louis are expecting, you know, not this kind of architecture. So the clubhouse is over a hundred years old. What they love about the golf course is similar about the clubhouse, Danny, old school.

It's right in front of you. You walk from the, from one green, the next tee is right around the corner. It's not like a real estate, you know, project where you're, you gotta get in the cart and be shuttled from, you know, the first green to the second tee, because it's a half a mile walk. Like we, like some of the major courses that are being built these days.

So it's old school. The greens are really tricky here. They're, they're beautiful. They're smooth as can be. They're fast as can be, but they're very tricky.

They're slopey. And that's the thing that holds the scores down ever. I even had VJ saying, and VJ doesn't compliment people much. And he gave, he said, I know you had a lot to do with this tournament.

And I said, you know, I really didn't. I'm glad to be involved, but it's really Steve Spratt and Nick Ragon. And he said, Nope, I know you had to, and I love the golf course. It's my favorite course that we play all year. And yeah, it's, but it's, it's right in front of you and look at Danny, the scores are not low. I mean, 10 under par Padraig Harrington wins 10 under par and same for David times right around there, the first, the first year.

So it also speaks to, we have major champions winning here. And I think that says a lot about this golf course on the range is brought to you by the gateway section of the PGA and family golf and learning center in Kirkwood. This edition of golf with Jay Delsing, we're focusing on Norwood Hills, country club and the Ascension charity classic. And that is only about 40 days away, 45 days away or so let's tip our cap. And I know you want to focus on Norwood Hills and what's coming up with the Ascension charity classic.

Absolutely. I'm tipping my cap to Norwood Hills and the Ascension charity classic and the North County area. Danny, this whole thing is a package deal. Nick and Steve were gracious enough to bring this tournament and all this money to our area. And they said it has to stay in North County. And so Norwood Hills is the perfect venue to host this thing. Then we've got guys like Brandon Smith coming on the show works his butt off in the world of golf to grow the game. And also the week of the Ascension charity classic.

It's hairs on fire if he had any hair, his hair is on fire. So we love it. We love our buddy Brandon Smith and we are tipping our cap to those guys. The tip of the cap is brought to you by Dean team Volkswagen of Kirk, Kirkwood and my buddy Colin Burt.

You can reach him at 314-966-0303. Colin is a great guy. Colin, thanks for sponsoring the tip of the cap segment. Danny, first week of September, St. Louis will literally be the center of the golf world because there's no other events going on. There's no PGA Tour event going on that week.

Pretty big. We're going to talk about the top players that are coming to St. Louis later in the show. Also, there's news with Tiger Woods and the Champion Store.

We'll talk about that. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. Coming up, Brandon Smith, the director of golf at Norwood Hills Country Club. That was On the Range with Jay Delsing. For news on the latest golf equipment tips and to ask Jay a question, log on to jaydelsinggolf.com. Coming up, it's the front nine on Golf with Jay Delsing.

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We build applications and effectively communicate with our partner clients to bring their goals and objectives to the finish line. Our award winning access point program is a community game changer with nearly 100 students in the program. Mostly young African American females are making between 55 and $60,000 per year before graduating from high school. That's right, 55 to $60,000 a year as a high school senior.

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You want to work on your short game? We have a short game area too, which features a 20,000 square foot green, three bunkers and Zoysia surrounds. Also at Family Golf and Learning Center, don't forget about our nine hole par three course, the indoor Trackman simulators and our Performance Center. If you're looking for the best golf instruction, regardless of skill, we can help find out more at familygolfonline.com. That's familygolfonline.com. Family Golf and Learning Center. We make St. Louis better golf. This is Dan McLaughlin inviting you to the 21st annual Dan McLaughlin Golf Tournament to benefit the Special Education Foundation. This tournament has raised over $5 million and 100% of the money raised has gone to children with special needs in our community. To sponsor, volunteer or to play in the event on October 9th at Norwood Hills Country Club, please visit sef-stl.org.

I'll see you on October 9th at Norwood Hills Country Club. If you're in the market for a new or used vehicle, any maker model, then you need to visit the Dean Team Volkswagen of Kirkwood. They are the official vehicle provider of the Golf with Jay Delsing show. My daughter and I both drive vehicles supplied by Colin and the Dean Team Volkswagen of Kirkwood.

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Find out more at ascensioncharityclassic.com. This is Golf with Jay Delsing and we are originating from Norwood Hills Country Club, which will be the site for the Ascension Charity Classic. And our guest, really looking forward to this, Brandon Smith, the Director of Golf at Norwood Hills. Brandon, thanks for joining us. Great to see you.

Should be a lot of fun to visit. Dan, thanks for having me. Jay, always a pleasure. Smitty, we are so delighted to have you not only on the show, but to have you here at Norwood with us.

You're in your second year. It's a lot of work, man. I see you're running around every day doing things, but man, it's a great get for we members here at Norwood. Got a really good team around me. Really excited to be here.

And I tell you what, I couldn't do it without the guys around me. Bobby Pavlonas, Jody Armstrong, Matt Dillman, Tyler Weigert, Kyle Schahowski just came on. Great crew.

And yeah, we're really excited. Tell us about the average day for a Director of Golf here at Norwood Hills, because you have two 18s, you stay busy. So what's the average day like for Brandon Smith? Well, in the summertime, you're a little busy. They're long days, but you know what?

We knew that going into it. And again, we were showing up at dawn and the last guy to leave is leaving at dusk. Wow, dawn to dusk.

And how many months is that you think? Or is it just when the weather turns warm and then when the weather turns cold? When the weather turns, we're ready to go. Some of the things that you brought to the table for us out here just stands out is the outside staff, the outside staff and the kids. And it's a mixture between some young guys, some older fellows. But I think Brandon, it's such a critical piece to a golf operation because it's really the first point of contact, whether you're a member or whether you're a guest, you pull up your car, you know, you got one of these guys greeting you and you've done a great job because that sort of culture that you brought, it permeates all the way down and it has to start at the top with you.

Absolutely. We have a we got a great crew. And yeah, when a member or guest pulls up, their first expectation is met right there at the backdrop. And we got to knock that out. So the crew does a great job of that.

And, and I'm so proud of them. Brandon, let's talk a little bit about the courses. So the East, the West, and the membership here at Norwood Hills Country Club.

So that's got to be awfully challenging for you to make sure that you get everybody out, everybody happy. But with two 18s, it's certainly got to help. The East course, you know, probably our secondary course, compared to the West being the championship, but both receive a lot of play. And honestly, the East course could be more challenging.

I think I've mentioned this to you before, Brandon, you can concur. The scores are similar and the par on the East is 69. The par on the West is 71.

And the East holds its own every single time. Both courses are fantastic. Mike Nolan, his staff does such a great job. 36 greens, and they all roll great. Yeah, they're second to none. Brandon, I tell people all the time, the best golf experience and the best golf value in St. Louis is at Norwood. They look at me, I'm like, I'm telling you, you'll always have a place to play with 36 holes. You got a phenomenal, outstanding staff with what you brought with you over here.

And then you have the golf course and the condition that it's in. Mike Nolan, in my opinion, is a top five superintendent in the country. Absolutely. He's unbelievable. Mike Nolan, been in the business a long time, obviously stems from Roger Nolan, who's well known in the industry, especially the St. Louis area.

The assistants under Mike, Jimmy and Zach, they do a fantastic job. It's a really special place. And honestly, it's filled with a lot of tradition as well.

It really is. And not to be disrespectful to Mike, but he probably wouldn't take offense to this. He's kind of a guy that likes to play in the dirt. You know, he likes to get his hands dirty. He's there with the guys, whether it's in a bunker, taking down trees.

He, he supervises every single thing. And that can't be easy on a, on a property. Brandon, do you know how many, roughly how many acres we have here? I think we have somewhere around 400 acres up here at Norwood and it's a hell of a task to try to keep all this stuff going.

Probably the biggest property in town and Mike staff and probably even understaffed does such a tremendous job. Brandon, let's talk about the Ascension Charity Classic again will be held at Norwood Hills Country Club. When do you have to shut down the West and when do you maybe do different things with where you hit balls, how you set up the course, all those things. When does that start happening? How soon before the Ascension Charity Classic?

Absolutely. So the tour, they've already come in and met with Mike, talked about the course, but you'll really see mid, mid August is when things will start to change. They'll start setting up the grandstands and the cabanas. Honestly, our, our members will play right up to Labor Day. So the East and West will be open that weekend. And the tournament is only two weeks or something like that right afterwards. Right. On Labor Day, we'll actually have the Monday qualifier here at Norwood, which is also rare to have the Monday qualifier at the championship course.

Absolutely. And what a tribute it is guys to every, to you Smitty and to, to, to Mike to really not shut the course down. Now there are, there's going to be operational stuff.

They'll be building sky boxes and all that stuff. But the fact that he doesn't have to close the golf course tells you what kind of condition this course is 24 seven. About two weeks out, we will go cart path only, but that's understood by the membership and the guests that are coming out.

It's just really neat to give them the opportunity to play right up until that date. How about the volunteers and do you get the membership involved with the tournament? Dan, the membership is fantastic.

It's well supported by the entire membership. Volunteers are needed. However, our members do a great job, but there's anyone out there interested in volunteering, you can definitely access that through the Ascension charity, classic.com volunteer registration is open still. So I know the team's definitely looking for volunteers.

How about the volunteer, what they get, what they do describe that if there's someone listening and they say, well, I'd love to volunteer. Is it holding signs? Is it being by the ropes? What do you, what do you got?

I can jump in a little bit. Smitty started to talk all over you, but, um, there's different areas. There's, there's a cat. I know a good, my brother-in-law's brother took care of Mike Twoman, took care of the caddy, the caddies and the caddy registration came back with so many stories.

It was really fun. There's also transportation department. There's locker rooms, there's driving ranges. You know, then there's, there's whole locations. Smitty there's guys out.

I mean, it really, the term it takes a village. Couldn't be more descriptive than it is for the membership in the volunteer force and your staff for that week. There's so many moving parts. Just like you said, Jay, from staging the carts for the programs all week with the range, the range balls will change.

Those will have to be swapped out. Sorry to interrupt you. One of the things that I was thinking about is if I was a kid and I saw all those pro V's on the range, man, I would have stopped Danny out of stuff, a bag full of those golf balls. So you still do, by the way, you get to walk out and practice with brand new pro V's that never gets old for, for a tour event. It's, it's definitely an exciting time. So happy to be a part of it and really honored and to have it here at Norwood Hills, one of the top courses in the area, if not the entire state, it's a just tremendous. Hey Brandon, thanks for stopping by. We know you're busy on this Sunday. You got all the members coming through, but we really appreciate it. And best of luck with the Ascension charity classic coming to town guys. Thanks a lot for having me. Thanks for all you do for golf and the club really appreciate. Yeah.

We drive you a little crazy. A lot of exciting things going on here in Norwood. So absolutely happy to be a part of it. That's Brandon Smith. And Brandon is the director of golf here at Norwood Hills country club. This is golf with Jay Delsing presented by Doherty business solutions.

And when we come back, we'll talk about the top players that will be participating at the Ascension charity classes. That was the front nine presented by the Ascension charity classic coming up. It's the back nine and more of golf with Jay Delsing. The legends of golf returned to St Louis in 2023. You won't want to miss one of the strongest fields in golf. Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Bernard Langer, John Daly, and many more when they compete for the 2023 Ascension charity classic title, September 5th through the 10th at historic Norwood Hills country club, all proceeds benefit area charities. Together, we were able to donate over $1 million to those most in need last year, visit Ascension charity classic.com. The gateway section of the PGA led by Ali Wells is the center of golf for us here in St. Louis. With over 350 men and women in the organization, you'll be hard pressed to find a golf course, driving range, or practice facility for one of these men and women members are not present working tirelessly to enhance your golf experience from PGA reach the charitable foundation arm of the section, which raises and donates millions of dollars to the needy in our community to PGA hope that helps and supports our former military through the game of golf to the PGA junior league, which has turned out to be a game changer for creating opportunities and bringing more young players into the game. Our gateway section remains committed to growing the game of golf again at this year's Ascension charity classic PGA reach will be one of the benefactors of our legend charity shootout where half of the money raised will go to PGA reach the gateway section of the PGA helping us all enjoy the game we love for the best in Italian cuisine in St. Louis.

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It's Paul Manos located in Chesterfield. You all know by now that Marcon is a fantastic community steward from donating service dogs for our wounded heroes in need to supporting our men and women first responders through the backstoppers this year at the 2023 Ascension charity classic Marcon will once again sponsor the military viewing deck on the 18th hole at Norwood Hills. This is a specifically designed area for our military police and fire and first responders Marcon will have complimentary food and beverage as well as ample seating for our friends to watch some great PGA Tour champions golf from a perfect vantage point. And did I mention that entrance into the Ascension charity classic the entire week is complimentary? That's right is completely free for men and women in the military police and fire and first responders reach out to us at Ascension charity classic.com or me at Jay at J Delson golf.com.

For more information and tickets. It's Marcon proud sponsor of the golf with Jay Delson show. This is the back nine on golf with Jay Delson. The back nine is presented by Pro-Am golf located in Brentwood. See what Pro-Am golf can do for you. Golf with Jay Delson rolls on and this Sunday and we're coming to you from Norwood Hills Country Club the site of this year's Ascension charity classic. I'm Dan McLaughlin. That is Jay Delson again our thanks to Brandon Smith the director of golf at Norwood Hills. All right I'm just going to simply throw out some big names that are coming to St. Louis and whatever first comes to mind with these names let it rip.

All right you ready? You got it. I'm going to start with one of our favorites huge Cardinal fan he gets some huge crowds that follow him and that's John Daly. John is a crowd favorite everywhere he goes even if he doesn't play well people love to watch him. I probably played a hundred rounds of golf with him when I think about him throwing out the first pitch trying to throw it into the upper deck. What's he doing? He's doing whatever he wants is what he's doing and it's just he's just he's great for the game. I hope his health improves I know it's it's it's okay now I hope he gets a little better. He gave you some family advice on tour didn't he? So Danny I'm going through a divorce and I'm playing with him down in Memphis just down highway 55 and I'm on the 12th green and we're walking over to the 13th tee and he said yeah man I heard you're getting divorced I'm sorry it's hard to go through and I said yeah it sucks man it's tough on all of us and getting ready to hit our tee shots and I said what do you pay in alimony each month and he goes oh man hey hang on let me think about it and he had to get up and hit hits his big duck hook. I'm sure he's like great Delsing way to bring up the alimony while I'm hitting and then I got up and I hit this little fluffy fade out to the right so we were miles apart so we walked about our tee shots were miles apart I walked about oh 10 or 15 yards with him and he's counting you know he's there's Betty and then there's been you know and and I see him again about 10 minutes later we're up on the green and I'm marking my ball he walks right by me and he goes about 75 and he walks on and my head snaps over to the side 7500 I said 75 what and he said about 75,000 oh I went oh man my heart just sunk and he goes yep yep and then he had a pool he lived right on the 16th fairway there and had a had a pool with a big Arkansas Razorback you know because he's a huge Arkansas Razorback fan and um in his office he had had about five or six trash bags full of hundred dollar bills is that right he had been hot down at Tunica he said is that right yeah so you know you don't know what I love about this man he just talks like it's yeah my shirt's black yeah or or yeah I hit the big duck hook he just doesn't try to sugarcoat it he doesn't try to hide it he just wears it and he was one hell of a player oh Danny's so far ahead of his time so far ahead of his time distance wise with the great hands that he had man alive I asked him one time I said JD that swing he said man I grew up with my dad's clubs and I was a little baby kid and when I swung back to the top they were so heavy I couldn't hold it anymore interesting it went all the way down to vertical interesting how about Bernard longer he'll be here he's already set the all-time mark on the Champions Tour for wins and wins the senior US Open he'll be in St. Louis he's a machine he's like a German machine a well-oiled machine I played golf with Danny this is interesting my brother's getting for me down in the Honda classic back in the middle 90s and we for some reason it was in the evening and there was no one else out of the course of my brother was with me and we were just I was working on some of these shots out of Bermuda rough because it's really really difficult and Bernard had already won the Masters see you know super quiet super respectful guy and I played with him held the second tournament I ever played and I got paired with him three times that day so we have always been kind of friends and he just kind of comes up behind me and he's quiet he says do you mind would you mind showing me how to hit that shot I struggle hitting that shot and I went me Bernard longer asking me I know and that my brother looks at me he's like dude are you sure you want my brother you know go down the list a little bit find somebody else but yeah so I showed him how to hit that shot he was so grateful and he talked about it and I'll never forget that because I was kind of shocked I was looking around at one moment to make sure he was talking to me he's so smooth when you watch him and that is Ernie Els can't wait to see him back in St. Louis a big easy he's a great guy I played with him when he first came over on the PGA Tour and I could just tell this kid is going to be a star he is a world-class athlete in a lot of different areas Danny when he was a kid he was one of the best rugby and one of the best cricket players from South Africa and Ernie has a son named Ben who has autism and I got to tell you Ernie and his wife Liza have raised millions and millions of dollars for autism in honor of their son just just a great guy and I won a four-time major champion in a terrific addition to our field you mentioned how great of an athlete he is I ran into him at the ascension charity classic I don't remember if it was last year the year before but I couldn't believe how big he is he is a big big man Danny he's probably got a 42 inch waist or 44 inch he's not as tall as I am but he weighs every bit of 240 250 pounds and that rhythm that he swings a golf club with is so amazing people are blown away at how powerful you know how much power that swing produces because it's it's almost slow and it's so smooth and you just see the ball jump off the club it jumps off the club it reminds me a lot of Fred Fred couples who's got that rhythm in that beautiful kind of quasi pause at the top of his swing and then at the bottom man that club comes in there fast I believe he is a brand ambassador for the ascension charity classic and that's Tom Lehman yeah hello Tom Lehman is a great guy time he's a major champion winner he nearly won the US Open I don't know how many times and it's great to see you know and his son is actually this week going to be playing into 3m under a sponsor exemption his son Thomas so yeah Tom's a great guy he is a he's on the ascension charity classic team and in a great addition to our our field I played so many rounds of golf with him and it took him quite a while before he was able to get onto the PGA Tour but he won the British Open so he's an open champion which is the champion golfer of the year which is a one hell of a thing to be able to put on your mantle there's a name that fans know and you love this guy and that's Jerry Kelly Jerry Kelly's a great guy he's a Midwesterner he's from Wisconsin and he's really a golfer trap he's a hockey player trapped in a golfer's body he loves hockey he played a lot of it as he growing up as a kid and this guy is a competitor Danny he is a competitor and he is out there playing every single week on the champions tour and he's always in the top five on the money list every single year he's one of those guys you could be standing right next to in the grocery store line and wouldn't wouldn't know who he is but he's a great family guy he's been traveling the world and made he's made over 25 million dollars on the PGA Tour you know he's ringing the register like crazy on the champions tour well we talked to Adam long this last week and he mentioned how important it is in his opinion to play other sports and if you're a great athlete you'll gravitate potentially to golf but that really can help not just specializing in golf but like a guy like Jerry Kelly growing up playing various sports Adam played hockey Jerry plays hockey and how beneficial that can be yeah absolutely and Danny you're playing golf now and getting in getting in to play a little more and you played baseball at high levels I mean that hand-eye coordination but as you know it doesn't go away and it's it's such an intangible and it makes a big difference and when we talk about to how many times do parents come up to us when you and I are sitting at bread co or sitting at the shnooks and and and grabbing something and they say to us you know what should I do with my son what should I do with my daughter and we tell them all the time play more than one sport let if if that's what their how they're designed and how they're made play more than one sport one of the names that I know will rattle a lot of memories he's a character I'm gonna see you push him over when he's trying to stretch and he's hitting balls but mr. Jimenez is coming to st. Louis can't wait this will be his first Miguel's first adventure here and the guy this is a great golf course for him it would not surprise me at all if he doesn't why is it a good course for him specifically he's not super crazy long but he's long enough but he's a great iron player Danny and a great putter and that's what you need to do that's what you need to win around Norwood you don't have to be exceptionally long it doesn't hurt but this guy just is he's in the mix every time he plays he's a world-class player his nickname is the mechanic cuz he kind of look like an auto mechanic when we first saw him but man he doesn't swing like an auto mechanic and he's got a bank of a bank account like unlike any auto mechanic I've ever known he's just a world-class player Ryder Cup star for the Euros and it's great to see him in st. Louis it'll be great to have him here in st. Louis this year so those are some of the biggest names that are coming to the ascension charity classic could a nether huge name maybe the biggest in golf start playing on the champion store not too far away that could happen we're talking about Tiger Woods we'll talk about that when we come back this is golf with Jay delsing presented by Darty business solutions as we head to the 19th hole this has been the back nine presented by pro and golf we'll make the turn into the clubhouse and head into the 19th hole that's next on golf with Jay delsing a delsing here and I've got some exciting news my show golf with Jay delsing brought to you by Darty business solutions is expanding to two hours in August listen every Sunday starting in August from 8 to 10 on Sunday mornings that's golf with Jay delson this is Adam Betts from family golf and Learning Center located in Kirkwood our motto is play your best golf we have the best instruction for every skill level two female instructors along with our eight PGA instructors we're there for the kids and the adults who are starting to play and trying to refine their game Family Golf and Learning Center features a double decker driving range grass tees and a short game area along with indoor simulators and a performance center that's not all don't forget about our back nine bar and grill find out how we can help you and your family head to familygolfonline.com that's familygolfonline.com it's Family Golf and Learning Center where we make St. Louis better at golf I want to welcome Redbird heating and cooling to the golf with Jay delson show you can reach them at 314-320-9507 or on the website redbirdhvac.com CEOs Jed Dickinson and Jerry Pearson run the area's most responsive and dedicated heating and cooling company that's been conscientiously supporting the St. Louis area for the last decade just last month when my air conditioner stopped working Jed and his team were at my home at 7 a.m to replace one unit and then repair the other your money like it's our money was Jed's statement to me and the repairs for unit two was less than two hundred dollars if you want to work with a family-owned business that you can trust then call 314-320-9507 or visit them at redbirdhvac.com that's redbirdhvac.com hi this is Peter Jacobson and you're listening to golf with Jay delson 30 business solutions the title sponsor of the golf with Jay delson show has been enhancing the business of our customers for the last 37 years how do we do it through our expertise in technology better use of data and analytics artificial intelligence and machine learning we also roll up our sleeves and collaborate we build applications and effectively communicate with our partner clients to bring their goals and objectives to the finish line our award-winning access point program is a community game changer with nearly 100 students in the program mostly young african-american females are making between 55 and 60 000 per year before graduating from high school that's right 55 to 60 000 a year as a high school senior that's when they begin training ceo ron dardy believes talent is equally distributed but access to the opportunity is not so here is access point providing more and more opportunity for those in and around our community that's starting business solutions changing our community for the better hi this is nick gergone from the ascension charity classic and you're listening to golf with jay delsing this is golf with jay delsing and let's head to the 19th hole this is golf with jay delsing we move to the 19th hole we're presented by darty business solutions that's jay delsing i'm dan mclaughlin could there be a time when we see tiger woods on the champions tour nick ragon runs the ascension charity classic he saw my shirt uh this is a charity classic is that your event i said yep it was where st louis he asked me where it was played i said at norwood hills he said 2018 at belle reeve was the single best experience he ever had in a professional event he said i love playing at st louis then here's what's amazing he said to me what time of year is your event i said uh second week of september right after labor day he goes oh that's wonderful and i said why he goes my allergies won't be a problem then they're really bad in august and i'm thinking who thinks like that yeah and so jokingly i said well you know i'll have your cart ready in three years and he immediately said 2.2 years he knew exactly when and he goes absolutely have my cart ready and so i was giggling and i said oh i got a commitment from tiger about 30 minutes later during dinner apropos nothing in front of this crowd in front of rory and jay he said he looked around and goes where's my friend in st louis and he pointed at me he goes i said have my cart ready have my cart ready and so at that point i stood up and i said in front of everybody's witnessing it i'm looking at rory and jay monahan i'm like all right tiger is committing and if you've seen since then this was in november multiple times at his press conference at the hero at the genesis press conference he mentioned he said i can't wait to get in a buggy and play with freddy three times he has said now so i know he had surgery uh to fuse his right ankle for arthritis i think i'm sure he is going to play a fairly regular schedule on the champions tour he could still hit it if you saw him at the masters he still gets ball speed up to 180 he just can't walk so put him in a cart he's going to want to be competitive i don't know how much more golf he's going to play on the big tour he might not we might have seen the last of them i'm not sure he could walk anymore but i'm convinced he'll be out there and i'm convinced he'll be playing in the charity classic that's nick rigone and jay could you imagine what tiger would mean to the tour what it would be like in st louis as nick said he loved playing at bell reeve he loved the tournament but if you could get him on the champions tour and you get to use a cart that is all the difference in the world potentially to seeing him play more what would he shoot around norwood hills what do you think i don't so ten under has been the champions here at the ascension charity classic right he still hits it a mile he still is able to make cuts on the pga tour even it seems like on one leg and major championship yeah did it at the masters yep i i mean danny i don't know i'm saying anywhere between eight if he has a bad bad week and 18 who moves the needle more in golf still than tiger woods i'm not sure there is anybody he is a needle like roger mopey said to us he is the needle and it's i mean there's john daley has a big impact phil mickelson has a reasonable impact although that's questionable in in the last little while but it's tiger and it's tiger only and i mean we're we're looking for someone to kind of jump in and and take on some of this mantle but i mean look at what he's assuming to try to be in tiger shoes it's impossible to fill d yeah i i was just going to ask you that i mean you had a little run there by dustin johnson you've had spieth you've had jt you know guys that people gravitate towards they like watching them play they're good personalities but the consistency that he had for so long and the way that he changed the game of golf they had to change the courses i mean they had to change everything about it they were talking about changing the equipment i i just don't see another person as he said it wasn't hello united states when he made his debut it was hello world danny roy mcelroy i should have that's another one in there because he's he is the europe parent but but i mean he doesn't want to major in 10 years he doesn't win like tiger does he doesn't he doesn't win to the same percentage he doesn't win enough and so that's and look i'm not saying it's easy and that is not being saying anything disparaging about roy mcelroy but he's not tiger woods no and it's um danny when i look back and i think if someone said to me coolest moments you've ever been a part of or seen on tv or whatever in the golf world i gotta put that shot he hit at 16 at augusta from the left almost in the water and hits it up the hill rolls downhill stops on the lip flashes the nike logo and falls in the hole i've never seen anything like it it looked fake it was so perfect if you're the marketing executive for nike you are high-fiving you're partying you're saying this is the we could not plan this any better this is the greatest shot we've ever seen in golf how many times has that been replayed oh everywhere and it's a nike ad all over again every year at the masters yeah when they talk about the greatest shots in golf that that might be number one might be i mean and the thing that that is so cool about it is that he walked us through it i mean he walked up on the green you could see what he was trying to do he knew he couldn't go directly at the hole he's going to play it up the hill to spin it a little bit to slow it down i mean what i mean come on just just that if you think about the theater let's just talk about golf not the extracurricular stuff off the course as well but just the theater that he's brought to the golf course in this the way that he's won how about at valhalla when he beat bobby may he hits his drive denny and i'm an exaggerator at least 50 yards offline on 18 and still makes a par exactly if that's you and i we're still looking for that golf ball hell they still might be looking for you and i we might have got ours our person lost out there because it was so far off the grid well we're coming to you from norway hills country club you made me think of something as you know jay i'm all over the course you're a ball hawk from your days of being a caddy you know every nook and cranny of this course man after after year one danny and and as i embarrassed myself to a to a new high or a new low however you want to look at it i know every single part of you really do i really do i mean when you hit a ball over there i try to never lose a ball for what whether you're playing in my for my foursome with me in a pro am or when it's just you and i you're like let's go i'm like i can find this ball i saw it went right in here most of the time we do you hit two of the best shots i've ever seen so on the west course for those that know this you pushed on number nine all the way over to 11 you're on that tee box you're in jail on 10 on 10 excuse me yeah and you're on number 10 t box you put one over the trees you hook it more than a banana it looked like it took a 90 degree turn and winds up being about three feet then the other one that was amazing was on 18 under about 210 maybe away from the stick and you put one under the trees you had to go right and that made basically like a banana 90 degree turn it is amazing watching you play watching these guys play you're never out of a hole because of the shots that you've created over the years and been able to make yourself viable on these holes but because i've hit them there before too you got to figure out a way to get out you know but it's it is fun i i it's been a thrill just to get to to hang out with you and get to play more golf with you and work on our games together and and then to do the show together it's been awesome but when you get out and play in the game you just don't ever know i think what's so cool about this game danny is that you never know what you're going to get that day you feel great on the range you go out on the course you stink it up you're over in the range you're slapping balls all over the place you go to the you know the first hole it turns into a stripe show we've seen it all happen and we've had a lot of fun and it's going to be great to have the tournament on you're the only guy i've ever seen or heard that puts one in those spots most guys are you know there's some select words that are going on maybe they slam a club and you're the only i mean this sincerely you're the only guy i've ever heard say oh this is gonna be fun yeah i can't wait for this shot this is gonna be fun go ahead try to look at it and it is kind of fun there's a lot thank god we don't have an extra hour of a show or else i can tell you about that but it's it's you gotta look at it that way plus you get those challenges and sometimes you get certain shots danny with trees around you and stuff that actually help frame a shot and help you you know dictate how to how to hit it well that's one of the things you've told me you can pound all the balls you want and that's fine you go on the range you're trying to perfect a swing that's going to be imperfection as we all know but the best way to practice get on the course get those nasty lies get under trees do those things that you're going to have to do if you're playing 18 holes of golf oh hell yeah get in a bunker you know get around the green and try to figure out how you're going to chip this thing close when the flag sticks close to you and you got that ball sitting way down i mean you can't duplicate those things danny i got the best advice from the late great pain stewart and i'll never forget it we we started playing a lot of practice rounds together and he said to me dels you have got to hit you've got to work the greens out around the greens you've got to because we never have those sort of places to duplicate the kind of lies that you're going to get and if you're going to want to try to get one up and down to win a tournament you want to have practiced it before bingo i know that's simple i know so danny we would go out there and i counted the first hole that i played with pain stewart he hit like 37 chips and pitches on that hole is that right just in the practice round just messing around getting the field didn't get out there doing a bunch he was working out those greens and he knew what they're you know flag sticks going to be back left flag sticks going to be front right flag sticks going to be over this bunker what if i hit it over and he just was was wearing it out so like a sponge i just started doing that all my practice rounds after that were just like that we should tell our fans you're talking about an extra hour we're going to add an extra hour to golf with j delsing and that's coming in early august looking forward to that oh my gosh you couldn't be more excited about it we're gonna the first i think our first uh two hour show is going to be august 6th and um yeah we're gonna have we're gonna keep the format we're gonna add to it obviously we've got great support from the community duh like st louis yeah like they do and so um yeah espn came to us and i looked at you and we were like let's do it so i'm really excited we're gonna you know if this puts you to sleep then we're gonna put you in a coma we got about a minute to go last week the british open brian harmon you talk about being steady bunkers found he had a total of three j and he went 13 for 14 from five or 10 feet on the green you do that you're gonna win and and who picked him to win that'd be me you picked him to win that was a great pick he went off at 12 000 to one maybe even more than that something like that i mean one of the long shots of all time to win at the british open i don't think the longest but you know if you check out our podcast we drop it on wednesdays it's called beyond the fairways with an s we have a pick segment in there and the reason we don't have a pick segment in here is because we're on sunday mornings but folks if you like to throw a nickel or two at the pga tour we are on fire beyond the fairways with an s that's j delsing i'm dan mclaughlin and this has been golf with j delsing and j are thanks also to brandon smith great to visit with him and i cannot wait for the ascension charity classic danny it was absolutely our gain to get brandon from old warson and now he's our director of golf he fits right in he works his tail off he surrounded himself with a bunch of great people and we couldn't be happier j bird how do we end the show hit them straight st louis hey this is j delsing for ssm health physical therapy our golf program has the same screening techniques and technology as the pros on the pga tour use ssm health physical therapy as the titleist performance institute trained physical therapist that can perform the tpi screening on you as well as use a k vest 3d motion capture system proper posture alignment etc can help you keep your game right down the middle we have 80 locations in the st louis area call 800-518-1626 or visit them on the web at ssm physical therapy.com your therapy our passion hello friends this is jim nance and you are listening to golf with my friend j delson hey this is j delson and we golfers are always looking for ways to improve our games for me that means i want the very best and the very latest in equipment and in technology the place for me is pro am golf in bretwood tom degrand opened pro am golf center in 1975 and ever since then he and his family have provided st louis with the finest in golf equipment instruction and the latest in the ever-changing world of golf technology whether you are a scratch golfer looking to find the latest in range finders or a newcomer looking to find your first set of clubs pro am golf is just what you're looking for you say you're looking to get yourself custom fitted for a new set of clubs you need to call tj he has fit me personally and he is the best in town if you mention my name cj will take 50 off the already low fitting price so if you need anything from golf balls to a new pair of shoes or a lesson from tom who by the way has been helping st louisans play better golf for over 45 years pro am golf in bretwood is the place for you you can also visit them at pro am usa.com that's pro am golf for the best in italian cuisine in st louis look no further than paul manos located in chesterfield it's 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technology better use of data and analytics artificial intelligence and machine learning we also roll up our sleeves and collaborate we build applications and effectively communicate with our partner clients to bring their goals and objectives to the finish line our award-winning access point program is a community game changer with nearly 100 students in the program mostly young african-american females are making between 55 and 60 thousand dollars per year before graduating from high school that's right 55 to 60 thousand dollars a year as a high school senior that's when they begin training ceo ron darty believes talent is equally distributed but access to the opportunity is not so here is access point providing more and more opportunity for those in and around our community that's darty business solutions changing our community for the better you