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. Golf with Jay Delsing presented by Doherty Business Solutions. I'm Dan McLaughlin. That's Jay Delsing coming up on the show.
Really a treat. We've got 17 time LPGA Tour winner Dottie Pepper, two major championships and now one of the best analysts on television with CBS. But first and foremost, Jay is always great to see you.
Danny, it's great to be with you. And Dottie Pepper is, you know, when I got a chance to compete with her a little bit in the old JCPenney mix team, which I can't wait to talk to her about. We have a weird little story that I wonder if she'll remember. I have a feeling she will. I just love the way she competes and competed. And I love what she brings to the broadcast now.
It's not a completely different point of view, but it's a it's a different point of view. And I think she's really well-spoken and I like the way she broadcasts. Well-spoken, well-respected too. And that's something so important. I don't care what walk of life you're in, what analyst you are and what sport, but if you have respect, it comes across to the viewer. No, absolutely.
It does. And I mean, you know, Danny, she's respectful, but she also calls a spade a spade. That doesn't piss a player off.
They know when they've hit a bad shot. She doesn't berate them, but she'll also go. That wasn't very good, right? Yeah. And so, I mean, what the hell? And I think it's great to have her on the show and just coming off the heels of this U.S. Open.
Danny was awesome. The LPGA has got a future star in their hands with Rose Yang. And so, yeah, lots of lots of fun stuff to talk about.
On the range is presented by the Gateway Section of the PGA, also Family Golf and Learning Center, which is located in Kirkwood. What do you see? And I want to ask Dottie about this, but from your perspective, what are the biggest differences in the game from the men's side to the women's side? What do you see? Well, unmistakably is the power.
I mean, the male body and the things that the male body can do is just different than the female body. But what's really strikes me, and I'll never forget this. I was standing with Craig Norman and Brad Faxon and Scott McCarran. And we were watching our first U.S. Open at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania. And we were watching these.
There wasn't one woman, Danny, that was over swinging. You know, they just stayed so disciplined. And I'm like, man, I can't wait to hit balls. So Scott McCarran and I did all of our work on the golf course. And we went out and played and hit some balls. And it took me like seven swings. I'm like, nope, can't do it. I got to give me this.
I got to hit hard. You know, it's just I don't know what it is. It's just a different mentality.
We said this before and I'll say it again. I really believe the average golf fan, the majority of all golf fans, I should say, can learn more by watching the LPGA. It's just more relatable. The speed, the body's not moving quite as fast and it just is more relatable.
We want to get into that, I'm sure, with Dottie Pepper. So you're talking about being more technically sound. So from your perspective, obviously a well-trained eye, nearly 30 years on the PGA Tour. When I say technically sound, what are you looking at? Try to explain to a listener what you're looking at when you say, oh, that swing is right. That's a technically sound swing.
Well, we're talking about a couple of different things. We're talking about what I look at is for their fundamentals and what does their setup position look like? Because Danny, I learned 90% of my bad swings happen before I even swung, because I wasn't set up properly to hit the shot I was trying to hit. And when I watch these girls, especially the Koreans, the South Koreans, they are so superior in their attention to detail. And when it comes to some of their setups and then are they on plane, they're almost always on plane. Their body positions are just correct, you know, and it sets them up to hit better shots and more frequently.
Cromwell, Connecticut has the Travelers Championship, TPC, River Highlands, and that'll finish up today. But I want to go back to a week ago, the US Open, Rickie Fowler, three nights he's sleeping with the lead, Jaybird, and couldn't quite finish it up. Yeah, you know, you felt for him. It looked like Danny from the get go. He just was out of sorts.
He wasn't the same player. And there's just a weirdness about golf. When you have a ton of adrenaline that runs through your body, your nine iron goes further, your driver, everything goes further, your putters, it comes off softer. And you saw Rickie leave a lot of putts short, hit a lot of weak looking putts in. And I can relate to that because for whatever reason, the putts come off soft and you almost have to remind yourself, stay aggressive, man, stay aggressive. And I will say, Wyndham Clark did a phenomenal job of staying aggressive. And as his mom would say, play big and get into that.
Be that cocky golfer. Did you see a difference in Rickie's swing? He's been working with Butch Harmon.
It's now been what, a year plus, almost two years. Did you see a difference in the swing? Yeah, I don't think it's a glaring difference, but I think there's just a reliability that Rickie has and trusting Butch. Here's one thing that I'll tell you about Butch Harmon that you can't say about any other teacher.
Tell me a player that Butch Harmon's ruined. No kidding. And I mean, he's worked with some of the biggest names, including Eldrick.
Absolutely. And, and, and look at him. And then, I mean, look at the success and it's almost down the line, Danny. He had great success with Phil.
He had great success with tiger DJ, a Ricky. So why do these guys change though? If you're having great success with a swing coach, why do all of a sudden they jump from player to player? I just don't understand Danny.
It's just us. They want to get better. They feel like they're stuck.
They feel like the message is that it's an old message and they're not getting it. Sometimes it's the swing coach doing it to the player. Sometimes it is, but I know, but, but sometimes, you know, we just get, you can just, a relationship can just run dry. It can just run out and hats off to Ricky for going back to Butch. Cause I got to tell you, if tiger would have gone back to Butch, which would have never happened, but if tiger would have gone to Butch instead of Hank Haney, tiger would have won twice as much. I'm proud.
I promise you. And this is no disrespect to Hank. Butch is the man LA country club was fabulous.
Seeing it on television, you've played it a ton, having been a two time, all American at UCLA, got a chance to play that a bunch. So on television, it looked magnificent. What didn't though. And you and I talked about this, the crowds, the crowds look to be down, or at least the tickets weren't issued. I was talking to you and texting you while I was going on. And I was, let me say this first of all, though, how cool was it to be on father's day evening? You could have dinner and then go back and watch the last six holes. I just thought that was spectacular.
I love that. But to your point, not enough golf fans, not enough of the average fan. It looked too corporate to me. It looked like the, you know, from the stuff that I've read and, you know, we're in the weeds on all this stuff, Danny, it looked like a lot of the ticket volume was controlled by the members of LA country club and they wanted it to stay low and they did.
And that sucks to me. I want some kid and his dad out there from Watts or from wherever. And it doesn't have to be some country club kid to get out there and get introduced to the game and say, dad, this is pretty cool.
Let's try to do this. We talked about the Ascension charity classic on television. It looked to have better crowds than what the US open looked like in that to me. Well, first of all, it's a testament to the Ascension charity classic, getting the fans that they do out there. But that was an indictment on the USGA and not divvying up these tickets properly. It should have been bigger crowds, more active crowds on the scene, on the premises.
No question. I mean, we had way more fans than 22,000 and are held almost every day at the Ascension charity classic for, for the last two years. I mean, St. Louis turned out and delivered.
I mean, it was amazing. What happened here in my opinion is that the USGA went really corporate on this thing, Danny, and they got plenty of money. And so they hit some of the goals that they were trying to hit through the corporate dollar, but then the average dollar, the average golfer is left out the room can't afford.
It just looked weak to me. Dottie pepper is calling in for us and she'll be a part of the show. Golf with Jay delsing presented by dirty business solutions. So because she's calling in, that means we got to go to a break, but first it's our tip of the cap. And our theme with this one is about women in the game of golf.
Yeah, absolutely. And we're thanking Colin Burton, the Dean team, Volkswagen of Kirkwood, three one four nine six six zero three zero three. If you need to be introduced to Colin, email me, Jay at jdelsongolf.com. I'll personally introduce you to Colin.
He's a great guy and he'll take care of any vehicle that you need. I want to tip my cap to the LPGA. I want to tip my cap to Ali wells to Sue Richter to Carol from with who coaches at St. Joe's Academy who's won numerous girls state golf titles. Any of those women that are in the trenches are doing whatever they can do to get women and young ladies involved in the game. The LPGA is the LPGA product Danny has never been better.
And it's great to see Rose come out on tour when her first event and start breaking records. It's just a great product. And so I'm tipping my cap to them. It's happening right here locally with Ali and her team at the Gateway section what they're doing. Adam Betts has got several LPGA instructors down at Family Golf and Learning Center, taking care of you know, sometimes you'd rather take from a female listen to a female voice and a male voice or vice versa.
That opportunity is there. We want to thank those guys. And we want to thank Colin Burnett, team Volkswagen and Kirkwood 314-966-0303. That's Jay Delsing. I'm Dan McLaughlin. It's golf with Jay Delsing presented by Darty Business Solutions.
Dottie Pepper is coming up. 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. Darty Business Solutions, the title sponsor of the golf with Jay Delsing show, is a leader in our community in so many areas. Do they have over 2500 teammates in over 30 states and three countries? Yes, they do. Are they the largest IT consulting firm in our area? Yes, they are. Are they the largest software developer in the St. Louis region?
Of course they are. But here are a few other important things to know about Darty Business Solutions. They are the presenting sponsor of the Ascension Charity Classic. They are the presenting sponsor and we're the first presenting sponsor of the advocate professional golfers event at Glen Echo that will be held there this year as well. They are also the founders of Access Point.
This is a community game changer. It builds diversity in the IT workforce. Hundreds of mostly African American women are getting 50 to $60,000 a year jobs right out of high school.
That's right, right out of high school. Ron Darty, company founder, chaired the 2023 Heart Ball this year. It supported the local American Heart Association chapters and raised over $600,000 in one evening.
These are more examples of the many things that Darty Business Solutions does in our community. The legends of golf return 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 official vehicle provider of the golf with Jay Delsing show is the dean team, the dean team Volkswagen of Kirkwood. They provide me, Pearly and our families with all of our cars. The reason we went with the dean team is because we could trust them. We knew at the dean team, they were going to take care of us. And they have they made the entire car buying experience so simple.
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When you're with the dean team, they become lifelong friends. The dean team Volkswagen of Kirkwood located on Manchester Road in Kirkwood, the dean team. 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 9 at Norwood Hills Country Club, please visit s e f dash s t l dot org. I'll see you on October 9 at Norwood Hills Country Club. This is the front nine on golf with Jay Delson. The front nine is presented by the Ascension Charity Classic, September 5 through the 10th at Norwood Hills Country Club.
Find out more at Ascension Charity Classic.com. This is golf with Jay Delson. I'm Dan McLaughlin. That's Jay Delson. And our guest has 17 LPGA Tour wins, two major championships and one of the best analysts on television with CBS.
You see her weekend and week out. That's Dottie Pepper. And Dottie, thanks for your time. And thanks for having a little chat with us.
Thanks. I look forward to whatever we throw out there. It's always fun, Dottie. Thanks so much for joining us. You know, I want to talk to you about the LPGA Tour, because I just love the product. I love watching what they're doing right now.
Talk to us a little bit about the biggest differences I think that you see from when you're played to what we're seeing now. Well, it's certainly a worldwide tour. I remember being in Japan in the well when when Norman first proposed his world tour idea, and Charlie Meacham, the commissioner at the time saying, we're just gonna hold our course, we're not going to be overtaken by this, because we already are a world tour.
Well, it's even more so now. Because I was at the what they call the commission, it was Tuesday of the Chevron championship, the old diner from from our days. And they had leaders of sports and business and with a particular focus on women's sports, and the LPGA had put together this, it was a global. So you got a real look at the LPGA schedule. And it was absolutely dizzying because of all the time they spend in the Far East, and now spending even more time in Europe than than we did before.
So if you want frequent flyer miles, just hit up an employer, because they probably don't want them themselves for other than maybe a vacation or is that a staycation? And what you're saying, I don't think the the listener has any sort of clue someone last year did this brilliant overview had the globe on a piece of paper on a post and had these little lines drawn from where the LPGA flew to and how they did it. And it was Yeah, it was staggering. I mean, it's it's beyond belief, where you guys would go from point A to point B, that's exactly the sort of graphic I was talking about. And, you know, and it was also I think people forget that the LPGA had felt the impact and knew about COVID coming faster than anybody else, because they were already over in that in that arena, like one and his staff knew something was up faster than anybody else. When it came over domestically, it's fascinating your perspective, I think, in covering the men's tour, but also having played at such a high level on the LPGA tour, a simple question, what are the biggest differences you see from the women's game to the men's game, strength and speed.
And that's about it. I think the guys might be a little more creative because they have the strength to get out of difficulties a little easier than the girls. But the the margin is, is definitely narrowing. As the girls train differently, as equipment has continued to improve, that gap has has definitely shrunken. And it's also interesting, too, if you and Jay and I talk about this a lot. Technically, if you watch a female swing the golf club, it looks like technically a perfect swing where with guys, it could be going all over them. I mean, Jon Rahm is a great example.
You watch him swing. It's just technically not as sound as maybe watching what you're seeing on the LPGA tour. Would you agree?
I would. And I think think strength is a part of that. You can you can mask some some need for compensation if you have the strength that a lot of the male players do. But I would say, you know, you're starting to get players like like Nellie Korda. And if you go back a decade, even Brittany Linscombe that are crazy strong, and they also have very technically sound golf swing.
So when you put those two together, you really have a great weapon. Daddy, when I watch Nellie swing the golf club, it reminds me of Tiger Woods. It reminds she does it so elegantly but has so much power.
Yeah, I would say too. And I think if you go back and look at Michelle Wee when she was age 15, there were a lot of those similarities too. You could compare her shoulder turn at age 15 to what Ernie Els had, what Tiger had, the extension, the power, the explosiveness, all of that. But watching Nellie swing a golf club is people pay attention because you can learn a lot just by watching.
I think it's great perspective that you could have on this too. You grew up and correct me if I'm wrong, but your dad was a Major League Baseball player. And then you mentioned Michelle Wee, who seemed to be programmed at such a young age and all these kids seem to be programmed to play just one sport.
When you see that, what do you think coming from your background to what you're seeing today in the game of golf? He in many ways held me back because I wanted to be all in really probably too early. And he saw a burnout as a big problem.
He saw a specialization, early specialization as a big problem. So I skied all winter. I didn't play golf from sunup to sundown, 365. And I think it probably helped me because you were so yearning for the golf season to come in April growing up in upstate New York that there really wasn't that much of a chance to do it. And it was a difficulty for me, or it's just an adjustment for me when I went to college, because although it was cold in the upstate of South Carolina, at Furman during the winter, we could still play all year long.
And I'd never had to balance that. I think the early specialization and parents being helicopter or lawnmower parents or whatever you want to call them, being overly involved in youth sports and the revenue of youth sports, there's a long list of not so pretty, pretty outcomes. Daddy, we've had Tom Watson on the show, Andy North, a bunch of guys, you know, and I'm from St. Louis and did the same thing you did. When the leaves changed, we played basketball. When we played for Andy North and Tom Watson, we're both talking about how it just kind of made them hardier. It made them like you said, man, when is it going to get warm enough to play golf? Because around Christmas time, I didn't even know where my clubs were.
Yeah, same thing. The most I ever did during the winter was hit pit stops into a, into a sheet that my dad rigged up in the basement. That was a, that was it again, the ceiling was too low to take a full swing.
So I just hit pit shots. That's awesome. I lived in the basement, daddy, and I'm six, five now. I don't think I could have even walked down there. It's like a dungeon, but my brother and I lived down there. I don't know how the hell we did it.
That's incredible. So what, what were some of the other things in, in Jay mentioned Andy North, Tom Watson, Curtis strange was another one we had and they all have said, if we could do it differently, we'd finish our round. And instead of going to pound balls, we'd go around the green, we'd putt. We would work in our short game 90% of the time after our round was finished. Where do you see, where do you, well, first of all, where do you stand on that? And what do you see now on the PGA tour with guys maybe potentially doing that?
I think it's where, where you, where the bills are paid. Yeah. What turns, what turns around of 73 into 70 and we all have those days. You can't oversell the value of a good solid short game with some creativity. And yeah, so now a lot of the guys, yeah, you'll see them go to the range for just a tiny bit. They're spending more time, the great players on their short game, and then they'll go actually cool down, warm down, which we did not do. So there there's a big emphasis on recovery that I think will probably help these guys longterm because you're not training for speed and we didn't really do that, but there's, there's a risk and there's a, there's some wearing of the human body by training for speed.
So if they can go to the other side of that and start to work on the recovery mode, whether it's cryotherapy or ice pass or whatever it might be, I think you can get by with a lot of that and still see the positive benefits. There's a price to be paid for this kind of speed. People don't realize, you know, every single iron shot we hit, we're taking a piece of turf out of here. I can tell you my body's a disaster at 62 and these guys, what their ice baths in the cryo. I mean, it's all this tiger woods effect, isn't it?
So much money at stake it is. And I think if you go prior to tiger, I mean, people used to laugh at Norman because he would, he would work out before around. That was never heard of. So it's been little by little by little.
It's been stepped up and now you're seeing people that are training whether it's, and it's that all encompasses not just being on the golf course, this is, we're in the gym, it's what you're putting into your body and how you're taking care of it post round. How did TV start for Dottie Pepper? I called Judy Rankin. I wanted her job. Oh God, what a sweetheart she is and how good. Oh man.
The best. I wouldn't have cared if I was in local television, chasing high school kids around for a story posts playing. I really wanted to get into communications somewhere. I remember saying that to Judy, it was, they did the sit down sort of the fire fireside chat. One of those old, um, one of these three tour challenges. And they asked the question of everybody, when you finished playing golf, what do you want to do? And I point blank said to her, I want your job.
That's great. We still laugh about that, but she was my really first push to doing any television. I had won my second major in 99. And in that summer, the women's amateur was coming to Asheville at Biltmore forest golf club.
And it was an off week on the LPGA schedule. And Judy said, I think you should do this this week. Do it with me. I think you'd be okay.
Would it be okay if I talked to the people at ESPN about doing that? And I said, well, yeah, sure. So, um, that was really the beginning of it for me. I played another five years on tour, but that was my true beginning. You were one hell of a front runner. I look at these, you won by two by three, by three, by four, by six, you won your major championship in 99 by six strokes. Talk a little bit about that mentality, how difficult that is and how you did that. I was pretty decent at keeping the, my foot on the gas pedal, but I also was absolutely awful. If you look at my playoff records, so you can't, there's, there's a big disconnect there somehow. I didn't, I won my first event, uh, on tour in a playoff and I won my first major in a playoff, but I think that was, that was essentially, I didn't do much more in playoffs than that.
Uh, it was pretty awful, dreadful. A lot of times people get in the lead and they get afraid of it and they forget how they got there. And so now we're going to play differently when in fact, you just keep doing what you're doing.
And that was, that was great advice I got early on in my career. When you covered the PGA tour, like you do basically every single weekend, how close are you with the players or how do you separate that with trying to be completely objective to what you have to do? Because you have to have a relationship with the players to get information, but yet you also have to tell the truth to the viewers.
So how, how much do you tow the line on that? I told the line by having a very professional relationship with the players. They know I'm not going to throw them under the bus just to make a statement, but I think they also know that I played at the level I did and that helps. They also know that I know the game's really hard and I just kind of call it as I played it.
And as I see it, I haven't had too much sandpaper as a result, I guess, as a way to put it. You know, I greatly admire the players that I cover because you know, it's hard being on the road. It's a difficult game. It's hard personally to balance everything off the golf course, on the golf course.
And I try to try to be empathetic to a lot of that while still covering it in a really factual manner. I got to work with Fox a little bit and just get to really engulf myself in the LPGA game is the South Korean internet and that whole phenomenon, the Siri POC. Can you take us back and talk a little bit about that? Because I can remember when she first came on board and now, man, it's, it's a tidal wave. Siri's coming out party was in 1998 when she won the LPGA championship.
And that was, that was a bit of a light bulb turning on the first click. But when she won the U S women's open later that summer, that was full tilt. Gosh, it was a game changer for women's sports in that part of the world.
And part of it was because when, when the Korean national television came on every morning, the national Anthem was played. And one of the things, one of the bits of video that was run every day with Siri POC on the 72nd hole at whistling straight or not whistling straights, um, golf course at Kohler where she won that women's was a black Wolf run. It was black.
Yeah. It filled in the water to the left. Now, when they played the wonderful world of golf with that match with Ernie Els, it was open and it was sort of a kind of a waist bunker, but during the women's open, it was filled in with water and they show her with water up to her calves, hitting the shot out of the edge, making bogey, getting into the playoffs and then ultimately winning.
So when you're, you're looking at that as a model of what could be every morning as a young child, you believe it. Parents pushed kids and they pushed them hard. And you saw five years later, six years later, an entire flood coming to the LPGA tour and frankly playing on their own KLPGA tour and also on the Japanese tour.
So it was really a worldwide movement. Dottie Pepper is our guest. This is Golf with Jay Delsing presented by Darty Business Solutions. Dottie, if you could hold tight through the break, we'd appreciate it. Want to get into your biggest influences in sports as well as broadcasting and a lot more with you.
This has been really, really fun. This is the great Dottie Pepper with this Golf with Jay Delsing brought to you by Darty Business Solutions. 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. I want to thank the Gateway section of the PGA again for supporting the Golf with Jay Delsing show.
This is their third year of support. Over 300 men and women in our area supporting golf and making our golf experiences so much better through PGA Reach, PGA Hope, the Junior League and the list goes on and on. These are just examples of programs and charitable aspects, different opportunities that our section supports and enhances in our community. Whether it's a driving range somewhere, your country club or whatever it is and it has to do with golf, our section and their members will have their hands in it and involved in it.
Our professionals are there making the game better for everyone. We want to thank the Gateway section of St. Louis. Family Golf and Learning Center. No matter your age or skill level, Family Golf and Learning Center located in Kirkwood has something for you.
They've got it all. PGA and LPGA instruction, double decker driving range, par 3 golf course, track man simulators, a large short game green design to help you with all your shots around the green, bunkers, rough and zoysia fairway pitching and now open the Tahoma Bermuda grass tees. The best turf to hit from in St. Louis. It's all at Family Golf and Learning Center. To schedule a lesson or to find out more, visit familygolfonline.com. That's familygolfonline.com. Family Golf and Learning Center.
We make St. Louis better at golf. This is Jay Delsing. Did you know that Marcon is the largest authorized appliance parts distributor in the world? That's right.
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Sweets at St. Louis Blues games have been donated and auctioned off in which all proceeds were given to the backstoppers. Then there was the Marcon police and firefighters viewing deck at the Ascension Charity Classic this past year. It was a huge success, so much so that it's being implemented on other tour stops around on the PGA Tour. To Jim Sowers and his incredible team at Marcon, we want to say thank you. Thank you, Marcon, a proud sponsor of the golf with Jay Delsing show. For the best in Italian cuisine in St. Louis, look no further than Paul Mano's located in Chesterfield. It's traditional Italian cooking and their best ingredient.
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That's powersinsurance.com. Hi, this is Nick Gergone from the Ascension Charity Classic, and you're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. This is the Back Nine on Golf with Jay Delsing. The Back Nine is presented by Pro-Am Golf, located in Brentwood.
See what Pro-Am Golf can do for you. Dottie Pepper is our guest. This is Golf with Jay Delsing, presented by Darty Business Solutions.
And Dottie, thanks for holding through the break. And again, your resume speaks for itself. 17 LPGA Tour wins, two major championships, and now working as an analyst on television with CBS. So you're a great athlete. We talked about your dad being a professional baseball player.
That's some of your background. You're very influential for women in sports. How about your biggest influences in sports? Who were they? My heroes as a kid playing were Seve on the men's side, Nancy Lopez on the women's side.
I got a chance to play with people that were icons. It's just the time that I came up. So my first major as an LPGA member, the Debisco, the Dinah, I was paired with Louise Suggs. Oh my gosh. Right. I mean, that's crazy.
That is concerning. Marilyn Smith was around all the time. Kathy Whitworth was still playing on a regular basis when I was a rookie and a second year player in 1990.
She was my first Solheim cup captain. So these are all all those touches on ungrateness that I was so fortunate to be around, even if they weren't playing for a lot. A lot of the years that I did, they were still around and you couldn't help but just be in awe of what they did.
So let's advance the story. Now you're in broadcasting and you're working with Jim Nance and Vern Lundquist and guys that are really legends of being behind the mic. So who are your influences and who's really helped you along in the broadcast side too?
Certainly Judy. Mike Tirico was hugely helpful early on and remains a very, very good friend and confidant about not only just personally, we used to be roommates at the at the Masters, but just his the way he prepares for shows and how he critiques his shows. Vern Lundquist has become a dear, dear friend and the way Vern in particular uses his voice as an instrument. He can say not a whole lot. And you know exactly that this moment is really important.
Those three are hugely important. But I think back into production too. I mean, Tommy Roy gave me my first real big chance at NBC. And one of his biggest things was that microphone doesn't know if you're male or female, and I want you to talk about the game the way you played it.
Okay, I can I think I can do that. It's not easy doing what you're doing when you're walking around. There's a whole timing you get you have to get in and out. It's hard to learn and Curtis was talking just a couple weeks ago with us talking about how powerful silence is. No question. It lets the drama of the moment builds. It's even more valuable I think now because the pictures are so good.
The quality of the stuff that those camera operators churn out whether it's on the gym, whether it's on a on Mr. regular handheld, whether it's on you know, from a drone, just let it breathe. And there was a there's a common denominator with Curtis because we both worked for Mike McQuaid at ESPN. Mike's big thing was unless you have something that greatly adds to the story.
Don't bother good way to avoid the drivel of of a long show that doesn't necessarily need to be filled with words all the time. I loved what you said about it doesn't matter male or female behind the mic. I am the father of four, two of which are daughters.
Jay has got four daughters. So we pray for me. I pray for both of us. Thank you very much.
We need it. So the point would be, though, you're you're covering a male dominated sport, at least on your side of it, because you're on the PGA Tour covering this. Did you have any obstacles to get over in doing that? Or was it pretty smooth sailing once you got in because they knew you were an upper echelon player when you played? When I started in in 2005, USA with Thursday, Friday coverage of the PGA Tour, you just didn't even bother start walking, looking at bunkers until 265 275 cover bunkers.
And that was, even if that was into the wind, it was probably more like that. The other bit of advice I was given was by Roger Maltby. And he was talking about covering tiger. And he said, just be aware that you never say he doesn't have a shot. So you can't go Rossi on tiger.
Because, right, because he'll make you look like a fool faster than anybody else who's ever played the game. And how many times have we been tempted to say, Oh, he's got no shot. And now you know, he's got 10 feet for birdie. We had David Ferdy on the show. And he talked about this, this example when they were playing at Akron in the World's first golf. And David had just told Lanny in the booth that tiger had no shot and tiger proceeded to hit it about a foot from the hole. You know, and Ferdy and his beauty had a off color description. Yes. And everybody kind of went crazy. And Ernie else had a comment that snuck on air that wasn't supposed to.
I know you know all those stories. But really is interesting, isn't it? When you get these golf lovers, and they love going to the men's game. But going back to what Danny said, and what your comment was, I really think if you want to learn the game or try to improve your game, even if you're a male amateur, you can learn more from the women, I just feel like it's, it's so much easier to, to watch and understand and relate to agreed. And if you have the opportunity to go to an LPGA event, go hang out at the range, go hang out around the putting green and see how they practice. See the things that they're working on how they're keeping it very basic and getting so much out of it because I think people do get lost. They get sort of caught up in the jetwash of the PGA Tour golf swings. When we physically can't do that.
Let's also ask you before we let you go and I we could talk for a long time. So just buckle up. So Dottie, you've covered tiger. Now you're seeing him in the tough times. And for anybody that watched the Masters, it was it was really gut wrenching to watch him just even make the cut, which was amazing.
Yeah. You know, where are you at in watching Tiger now and just thinking about his career? Well, I think I've been like so many other announcers that you even if you get this privilege to be able to watch, watch him play golf, and how he's changed the game. And now we're seeing that next generation and how he he paved paved the way but just set a different bar for them where the only thing that matters when you look look at Justin Thomas now hanging with Tiger he's on the only thing that matters is I'm winning.
That's all Tiger City, you know, winning takes care of everything. It pains me to watch him go through what he's doing because you know that it just it hurts to just get out of bed and get back in bed. And that's his his will to fight. It's his will to win and prediction here. I think he's gonna save PGA Tour champions. Not that far down the road. That's that could you know, he's not going to have to walk. And that's the thing that that is so difficult for him.
I think that that tour goes goes on a rocket ride. As soon as he goes back out there. He loves people.
You bet he does. What do you think, by the way, as we continue to talk about some of the guys that are making headlines, but where are you at with live and how that has affected the PGA Tour and just golf in general? I am not a fan. And I'm not a fan at all. And I and I come at it from the from a female perspective, because that the group that is funding all of this has little or no value for for females in general. But I also think it's really, its foundation, its roots are in the vengeance of Greg Norman, going back to 1993 1994.
And he finally got somebody to bankroll it. It is what it is right now. There's some space for it to kind of coexist. I mean, the majors keeping themselves open by qualification, I think is wonderful.
But you are always trying to get the best players together at the most times we can during the year. I greatly fear for the LPGA Tour. If this doesn't work, or the Saudis all of a sudden, turn cold on this, where does it leave those players who have decided to go to that tour? But where does it leave the LPGA?
Is that their next target? There's so much talking out of both sides of your mouth and your actions speak way louder than your words in your history. And as you said, the complete disregard for women in general, and then you're going to come over and talk to the best players in the world and offer them ungodly amounts of money and act play nice.
And by the way, the timing of that wasn't by accident. It was Tuesday of the first major of the year that I was not happy when I when I listened to that press conference, and I just thought it was there's a there's a pattern there. Daddy, the child childishness that of the Greg Norman Phil Mickelson experience here is just it's worn me out. I gotta tell you, I, I was never the player I hope to be on tour. I didn't make the money.
I didn't win the championships. But I love the game and the game provided and it continues to provide. And this is just disrespectful to me. It's always been a look at me for those two particular people. And I think there's there's so much greed and unhappiness at the root of it that it makes it makes me sad. I have to give Phil and I hate to do this, but out of fairness, I mean, what the hell he did it Augusta I, I found myself going Holy smokes.
Is he gonna win this event? I mean, good rum have a, you know, some problems coming in. And I was all over that I still great theater. It is amazing. Of course it is. And I think too, that's why why it is good that the majors still have that. But on a day to day basis, if you're going to go chase that, whatever you want to call live, then just go just be there. But if you want to come back, and if you qualify for the major championships, if you've played continued to play well enough in them, peak yourselves for those, then I think the doors is is justifiably and it should be open. Hey, Donnie, I'm gonna try to end this on a really bright note.
Okay. I think it was you that was getting crowd surfed with Bill Murray at Pebble Beach. Am I right about that? Did he throw you up and everybody started, you know, doing a little crowd surfing with you? Yes, it was actually 2016.
It was my first AT&T Pebble Beach with CBS. Completely caught off guard. There was zero planning to it. And all I when I came in, the whole production trailer was a gas that what happened in all season, my director kept saying that was running through his head. This could end very poorly.
Very poorly. Now what was running through your head, though? That's the most important. How fast?
How fast can I get to my chiropractor? Exactly. Oh, my gosh. That's awesome.
It was absolutely I was like, what's happening? Donnie, we so enjoy your commentary. I loved watching you. I got to play a couple practice rounds of the JC Penny with you and just loved the way that you competed and love what you're doing for the game. Just please keep doing it.
And thanks for joining us today. Well, I have some minute close the one day delving story. This is not gonna this shouldn't terrify you at all. But you did terrify me. Back during that JC Penny, we were staying off site in another hotel on like it was a route 19.
I think that goes up to Tarpon Springs. Oh, yeah, I was out. I was out late walking my dog. And you were running. You would come in from a run. And you came around the corner and I screamed and you scream. Daddy, I used to do that just to blow some steam off, you know, just to try to but but yeah, I don't I would pick odd times to do that.
I do remember that story of freak this book. Hey, Daddy, thank you so much. And I truly enjoy your work on CBS. It's amazing.
You've had an amazing career as a player, obviously. And this has been a lot of fun. Thanks for doing this. Thanks so much.
That's the great daddy pepper and daddy. Again, thank you so much for being with us. This is golf with Jay delsing presented by dirty business solutions. And when we come back, it's the 19th hole. This has been the back nine presented by Pro Am golf. We'll make the turn into the clubhouse and head into the 19th hole. That's next on golf with Jay delsing delsing here and since 1975, time to grant and his children have founded and run the top golf store in all of St. Louis. It's located on South Brentwood, the grants and pro amp golf centers have been helping all of St. Louis play better golf through better equipment lessons on the indoor simulators and by getting you fitted using the state of the art technology call 314-647-8054 and set up your personal fitting with CJ he's the best and he will help you find the right equipment that's perfect for your game for nearly 50 years St. Louis has trusted their games to Pro Am golf don't you think it's time to take your game to the next level call 314-647-8054 or visit them on the web at Pro Am golf usa.com it's Pro Am golf family golf and learning center no matter your age or skill level family golf and learning center located in Kirkwood has something for you they've got it all PGA LPGA instruction double-decker driving range par 3 golf course track man simulators and so much more this is St. Louis's premier practice facility to schedule a lesson or to find out what they can offer you and your family visit family golf online.com that's family golf online.com family golf and learning center hey guys Jay Delsing here and listen up remember this name Redbird heating and cooling that's Redbird heating and cooling 314-320-9507 this is a family owned and operated St. Louis business owner and CEO Jed Dickinson leads their apprenticeship program called the veterans vocational he will teach and sign off on educational and mechanical work hours while you get licensed as you get paid working for the company that's Redbird heating and cooling 314-320-9507 or RedbirdHVAC.com start your new career as a licensed HVAC specialist with Redbird heating and cooling this is Paul Leisinger and you're listening to golf with Jay Delsing hey this is Jay 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 title is 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 this is golf with Jay Delsing and let's head to the 19th hole golf with Jay Delsing rolls on presented by Darty business solutions Jay Delsing Dan McLaughlin this is the 19th hole where that was great division with Darty Pepper more on that in a moment because a lot of fans have been waiting for you Jay to give away some golf balls just send me an email Jay at Jay Delsing golf.com put the word balls in the subject matter somewhere I probably get oh five to ten of these a week but we're still pumping them out there at the end of the month we got four names we'll draw them out of the hat and you'll get a dozen balls coming your way TP fives Taylor made baby our buddy Jeff Thornhill great guy great supporter of the show and that is a damn good ball it is I actually got three different boxes of TP fives for Father's Day and I doesn't mean I'm hitting him straight but it is a nice golf ball they never give us a straight hitting one so they keep it all for themselves I I said I want the straight hitting ones like nope we keep them for ourselves when I was listening to Darty Pepper all I could think about is man she is so respected in the golf world among the females obviously when you're a 17 time LPGA tour winner two major championships but then crossing over is an analyst to be on the men's side and if you're watching golf on CBS she's popping up and she's one of the best in the business all the time Danny and she's very you're right she's you know the other thing is she's respectful she gets it she knows what it's like to be a player she knows you're gonna hit bad shots she doesn't mince words but she also doesn't throw you completely under the bus either or not as a player you know they all appreciate that and you know Danny she was I didn't want to bring this up but she was so close to getting into the Hall of Fame just past go around and she's really really deserving in my opinion anybody that wins multiple major championships is in my opinion ought to be almost just straight into the the World Golf Hall of Fame I thought it was fascinating her look at live and what's happening with the PGA Tour and all the big news that's going on and she said quote little or no value for females and she said you know you could tell in her tone of voice she's not a fan of live I know you're not a fan of live so it really was a statement that stuck out to me oh absolutely and I mean you know I think she was I think that answer was kind of lying in the weeds for her she's waiting for us and it's hard hard to you know you can't really ignore it Danny it's it's it's been the the the basic elephant in the room for the last almost two plus years now and we've got way more questions than we have answers with this latest Saudi kerfuffle and and the PGA Tour and now Monahan's fallen ill there's been a there was another players meeting in Cromwell this week that I'm still waiting to get more and more details on I got a few details but nothing really worth reporting yet and the the biggest thing is where do we go from here because everything I read says we are going to be locked in litigation or some sort of congressional panels in all of this inquiry and all of this stuff that really has nothing to do with the game that we love and what's that look like from a time frame standpoint what's it look like for the LPGA Tour this can trickle down into their tour as well correct me if I'm wrong oh you're 100% right and I mean if I understood this correctly the live golf is going to fall under Monahan's control which if that happens and we know there's not going to be a round however if this thing gets locked up in court then we may not have an answer beat all of next year which means Greg Norman's going to run that circus for another year I know you love the game of golf it's apparently evident every single week that we come on you talk about growing the game all the time so you're watching the PGA Tour you're watching corn fairy you're watching many tours how closely do you pay attention to what's happening on the LPGA Tour I do I pay attention to it a lot I mean being involved and exposed at a very front row level with the Fox golf team really made me admire and appreciate what those women are doing out there and they have come a long long way the Siri POC effect Danny on her coming to the United States and in 20 years 20 plus years having this tidal wave of South Korean superstars that one after another is just an amazing phenomena to watch and then you start talking about some of the US players and the Lexi Thompson's of the world and the Rose Yang of the world and there's plenty to get excited about no matter where you're from or who you like to root for after Dottie I always thought about Michelle we there was so much pressure put on her so much attention was put on her it was in the era of Annika Sorenstam who was just dominating the LPGA Tour oh she did she absolutely dominated the LPGA Tour and that Michelle we came out as an entirely different breed of cap really super tall six foot plus tall very much athletic swung the club like like very few women have ever swung the club and had exceptional speed in her driver 300 yards you know stuff like that had not ever been seen on the LPGA Tour and you know we talk about whenever I think of Michelle we I continually think of mismanaged I really do day she was so young remember she was so young and she's 15 and she's turning pro and she's this that and I'm thinking if I'm her parents let her be a teenager let her be a kid and let her beat the hell out of all of these young kids and grow as a golfer so that the bottom line is phenomenal talent phenomenal she a winner out on the LPGA Tour but really won very very little now she plays hardly at all she does some commentating and and she's getting on with her life and doing some cool investing and and things like that for women but man I just think of gosh I just let her do her thing Danny when we were at the US Opens I would watch her almost explicitly and her mom and her dad were with her every step of the way every single shot charting every shot in the practice rounds both of them had Bushnell's and lasers and figuring all this stuff out and I thought oh my gosh you know I love my parents I don't want them out on the golf course with me I want to be able to do my own thing well it leads me to this we're almost done but you and Dottie Pepper both had parents or at least a father that played Major League Baseball and it goes to kind of a tip here or what you preach many times to parents and that have kids are involved in the game of golf which is it's great to be involved in the game of golf and get them to the next level if you can but man let him play other sports let him do some other things no question no question my my daughter got a volleyball scholarship to d1 school and had a really nice career but wound up hurting her knee from too much early repetitive motion and the great Jack Nicklaus at a function that you hosted at Norwood Hills was telling us just that let your kids play other sports you know it's wintertime they're 14, 15, 13 whatever they are let them do something else that's good for them Jay we got about a minute left you have reached out to Barbara Nicklaus how about that she's going to be part of the show Jack's lovely wife and they've done so much for kids charities play yellow is their initiative and we're going to get into that on a future show I cannot wait it's going to be one of my favorite interviews the mother of golf this woman is besides just a incredible human she has taken so many golfers under her wings and I know Ricky follower refers to her as mom and will text her and you know she I just can't wait to talk to her about what that life and her life was like how about at the memorial when Jack is waiting for everybody to come off the 18th green and she's right there with them oh yeah she's right there with them and I mean Jack will say that without Barbara he would have he was he was good for probably two or three majors on his own and she's she's responsible for the rest isn't that great hey this has been a lot of fun our thanks to Dottie Pepper are my thanks to you as always and how do we finish the show let's hit him straight say Lewis hey guys Jay delsing here and listen up remember this name Redbird heating and cooling that's Redbird heating and cooling three one four three two zero nine five zero seven this is a family owned and operated st. Louis business owner and CEO Jed Dickinson leads their apprenticeship program called the veterans vocational he will teach and sign off on educational and mechanical work hours while you get licensed as you get paid working for the company that's Redbird heating and cooling three one four three two zero nine five zero seven or Redbird hvac.com start your new career as a licensed hvac specialist with Redbird heating and cooling dirty business solutions the title sponsor of the call for Jay delsing show is a leader in our community in so many areas do they have over 2,500 teammates and over 30 states and three countries yes they do are they the largest IT consulting firm in our area yes they are are they the largest software developer in the st. Louis region of course they are but here are a few other important things to know about dirty business solutions they are the presenting sponsor of the ascension charity classic they are the presenting sponsor and we're the first presenting sponsor of the advocate professional golfers event at Glen echo that will be held there this year as well they are also the founders of access point this is a community game changer it builds diversity in the IT workforce hundreds of mostly african-american women are getting fifty to sixty thousand dollar a year jobs right out of high school that's right right out of high school ron dirty company founder chaired the 2023 heart ball this year it supported the local american heart association chapters and raised over six hundred thousand dollars in one evening these are more examples of the many things that dirty business solutions does in our community.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-19 07:03:15 / 2024-02-19 07:27:11 / 24
