Golf With Jay Delsing-Sunday,

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. Hey, good morning. This is Golf with Jay Delsing. I'm your host, Jay, and I got Pearly with me, longtime caddy friend, UCLA All-American, Pearl. Good morning.

What's going on? Doing good, man. Nice, bright day, a little chilly. Got a couple of rules of golf in yesterday, so the juices are flowing. Fantastic.

I know it's so exciting to see this weather change. Well, as always, the Golf with Jay Delsing show is brought to you by our friends at Darty Business Solutions. We love having them as a title sponsor.

More so, we love what they do in and around our community, so we really appreciate their help. We format a show just like a round of golf, so this opening segment is called the On the Range segment. It's brought to you by the Gateway section of the PGA. There's over 300 men and women that comprise the Gateway section of the PGA. They're out there right now, Pearl, trying to do things for all of us to make our golf experience better. We appreciate those folks a lot. This is a real grinding time of year for them to get things prepared.

Yep. We also want to thank Jeff Thornhill, Taylor Made Golf. Each week, we give away a dozen TP5 golf balls. Send me an email, jatjdelsongolf.com. Those emails keep coming in, and we just sent out the four dozen for the month of February.

So if you need some balls, get ready, get in there, send me an email, put the word balls into subject somewhere, and you will be entered into that drawing. I also want to tell you guys about a new podcast that just dropped last Wednesday. Our second one dropped this Wednesday. It's called Beyond the Fairways. I'm doing it with four-time Emmy Award winner, Danny Mac. And this week, we had Tom Watson on. Check it out.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It's Beyond the Fairways with an S. All right. So, John, I sat down this week with Bummer, Barry, and Ray Farnell. So these are two really, really cool men. Bummer comes from a long, strong lineage of good players, great family here in St. Louis. His brother, Taz, has been a stalwart in the amateur golf rankings in the ranks in St. Louis. And Ray Farnell is an Aussie. He caddied for Harold Varner on the PGA Tour.

He now lives in St. Louis. And it's really impressive what these two guys are doing for junior golf and for golf in general in the St. Louis area. Well, that's definitely a couple of supporters. And these are the people that really make it happen behind the scenes that a lot of folks have never heard of. So I sure am glad, Jay, that you've highlighted them this week.

Yeah, thanks, Pearl. And last week, St. Louis City, the newest member of the MLS, started off, launched its inaugural season at its second game in St. Louis at home, a 3-1 victory in their home opener against Charlotte Felt, my nephew, my favorite soccer player in the world, Taylor Twelman, newly signed analyst for Apple TV, Taylor Twelman, stopped by for a visit. And here's what Taylor had to say. We talked a little bit about how concussions have cut his soccer career short. It's funny how golf has stepped in.

Here's what Taylor said about that. I needed the competitive juice and I went to golf. And golf for me was four hours walk to get my exercise, cardiovascular stuff, turn the cell phone off and just compete. And so when I started at that time, I was about a three and a half to four handicap. And it gave me a purpose. It gave me something to challenge myself. That's awesome.

Right. And so that's where golf now is taking over my life. It's addicting because every you could play the same course 300 times a year.

You can have 300 different rounds. And I love that. Like many other really good competitive athletes. Golf fills that Jones, doesn't it?

It sure does for Taylor and it does for an awful lot of people. I just liked so much about his attitude. Unfortunately, I've gotten to meet him multiple times. You get to play golf with him several times. What a great guy. And I love that he threw in there that it's actually exercise as well because how does an ML or past superstar soccer players say that golf is a, is exercise, but it really is.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Former MVP in the league. And now it's interesting, John, because I said to him, what is the biggest change since you're retired? It's pretty extraordinary. Listen to this. If you have post-concussion syndrome or you've had an awful concussion that changes your life, you will not commit suicide. We've got to change the tone of CTE. CTE is a real thing. It is science.

It is not a myth, but there is a real misnomer right now that all of a sudden it goes from zero to a hundred. And so my entire life's purpose now is to survive and thrive, but then tell that story. So we get, we cannot get rid of you sports for kids. We cannot get rid of a lot of stuff that parents are being told because of what concussions do. Concussions are always going to be there. They're always going to be, they always have been there, but we've got to get rid of the conversation about prevention and what does it do about rehabilitation? And I'm going to use my body in my life experience to be the vehicle that tells that.

And if I do that, then I've done my life's work. So John is pretty cool to hear that his life's work is now to this concussion awareness for the, for the youth in America. Sure is. And I'll tell you, Jay, when he talks about keep playing sports, get rid of being over overly protective. I couldn't agree more. I that's, that's a big topic for another show. I suppose we're playing scared out there and we need to just go play.

Absolutely. And our final topic that we got to sit down with Taylor Twilman was, uh, regarding concussion awareness and here's what he said. And listen to these numbers, think taylor.org. Um, it is basically a non for profit that we are setting the standard for education and awareness. I wrote a think Taylor pledge. My whole goal with it is that every person takes ownership of their own brain, not a parent at a teacher, not a coach.

Each individual does. And we've had over 7 million kids take the pledge this year. We're probably going to have 10 million cause MLS is now going to get heavily involved. And all I'm saying to anyone, take, take ownership of your brain and start asking real questions, but don't stop playing sports cause sports are important.

So Pearl, I'll give it to you, but these numbers are really impressive. Just the fact of don't quit playing sports, keep going, be aware of what's going on and making and encouraging people to be aware and responsible for their own brains. It just pumped me up so much. It's, it's so much of the message that needs to be throughout this country on many other subjects as well.

And Taylor's doing more than his part. Yeah. John, I love taking responsibility for your own brain, not your mom, not your dad. This is your brain. You might be seven, but you need to understand that we got to start protecting it and start thinking a little bit more for yourself.

I just fantastic really all the way around. It's just amazing. Jay, you know, we're all walking around with the most powerful machine on the face of the earth, our, our minds, our brains, and we know so little about it. So good for him for putting that awareness out there. I just think it's one of the questions and kind of kind of funny things of life that we know so little about our brains. And by the way, the information is out there.

We need to just start, as he says, being responsible for it, dig in and find out more about it. It's fascinating in so many fronts and I'm just thrilled that he's making his life life's work that type of work. And you know, John, just so our listeners, they don't know, you've done quite a bit of diving into the brain and to the psyche, the mental side of life and business. And, and, and I know that's a vital, um, component to what you do in the business world and how you help coach others. Well, absolutely. That's why I know that it's wildly important.

And by the way, it's wildly empowering. The fact that we're not learning that in high school, we're not learning that unless we take specialty courses in college, we're not learning it in elementary school. It's, it's, it's a shame. It's, it's the untapped resource. And again, the hard part is the information's there. It's not like we have to conjure it up.

You can read 20 pages the rest of your life and not cover all of it. So I'm so glad that a superstar celebrity like him is bringing that to the forefront. That's just pure gold down the, down the path for people to follow and learn more about our minds. We got to talk on this first segment about another wild finish at Bay Hill.

Wow. Kurt to the Yama getting it done for the first time star studded, um, leaderboard Jordan Spieth imploding with the putter on the, on down the stretch. And again, John Bay Hill just beaten up the boys. Well beat up John Rom early in the week, beat up, uh, Jordan Spieth after that. And you know, it's funny you and I were talking and you, you had thought that, uh, one of us thought that a kid Yama had won before, but I think that says about how many times he's been up there, been in the hunt, been right on the edge cause he had one before.

And then the wind in the midst of all those guys, this guy's got to just be on cloud nine this morning. Oh yeah. Pearl. Hey, we don't describe, I don't discriminate being wrong. Uh, just on the show. I'm wrong in life all the time. You and I were talking on the phone and I said, no, Katie Yama's already won before. And then I pulled up.

I'm like, no, yeah. But to your point, John, he'd been there so many times. He gets a lot of acclaim for his ball striking yet.

He duck hooks one on number nine into the driving range makes triple bogey yet still goes on to win the championship. John really impressive. Did you catch what the, what his nickname wasn't? I believe it was the project. It was the project. Yep. I love classic. That's such college guy.

Needle, needle work, that kind of stuff. But I guess there was, there was a lot of love behind it cause I guess this guy is about the nicest guy that you could be out there. And so the, uh, I'm sure it was with the, it was a term of endearment for those guys, but that's just classic. You know, and I still look at that swing. I'm not sure what you would call it. It's not traditional and it's really not the updated new swing either.

It's somewhere of a hybrid in between. He always looks like it's going to get lost way left or way right. It is one of the best iron strikers out there.

Oh yeah. He led the field this weekend and uh, and ball hitting for sure. And I got to tell you what a feeling it had to be for Kurt.

He's 30 years old. He walks off, he eats an unbelievable iron shot out of the left rough. No one mentioned the fact that he had a pretty dang good lie too, which, which made that shot just a little bit easier. But to get all of those guys waiting around for him, they were waiting for the playoff and then to be congratulated by Scotty Scheffler, by, um, Harris English, uh, by uh, Rory McElroy and the list goes on and on. That had to feel pretty damn good. It sure had to, but you and I were both having sweaty palms when he was hit that second shot out of the rough on 18.

Good lie or not good lie. That ball, if it squirts a little here or a little there, it could be a number. Yeah.

And I could have hit that into the bleachers. I I'll tell you if you put 52 or pros there, how many guys are going to knock it on the green from there? Less than half. Yeah, for sure. Less than half the situation and everything else. I would say somewhere in the 15 to 20 range.

Okay. So then we, the elephant in the room, how about the pot? I mean, we're both thinking, Oh dear Lord, this is such a tough putt. It's got what?

Five feet, six feet of left to right brake Pearl and it's breakaways fast speed wise. It's kind of over a Ridge and I called it, uh, to you, Mike, my call was three pots. Every time I watched the replay, I still thought that ball was going to fall in. I'm like, how does that ball stop? But what a feeling, I mean of all things to go through everything that that young man went through on that Sunday, forget the rest of the three rounds. And he hit that shot out of the left rough into think I just, you know, get this ball somewhere close to the hole and it stops literally within a dimple of going in. I mean, how much fun for, for Kurt Kidiyama and, and, and hats off and kudos to him for all the hard work. John, another overnight sensation that's been playing golf for probably 15 years, probably slept in his car somewhere along the line. And now a PGA tour winner and a big fat check in his wallet too. How about the fact that he marked the one millimeter part of the end?

What'd you think about that? Well, that's because that's cause they wanted him to have the last putt, you know, as the winner to, to win. I know that I know that for plenty of times you've seen the guy just kind of go up and slightly tap it in, especially if it's super, super close. I just thought that was classic and I agree. It's, it's, it's the right thing to do for the other guys in the group so they can finish. But I thought it was classic because you kind of know you can't miss a one millimeter one. I don't think you can just, you just kind of savor the moment. I just, I just absolutely loved it. Well, Jay, one other thing before we move on from Kitty, if you would talk about how could it be that his iron play is top on the tour and his driver driver is one of the worst on the tour.

How can that be? The swings are so much different and you and I talk about this almost yearly when we get together, whether it's your game or my game or both of our games, but the iron swing is so much more steeper. You have the ground, the ball is sitting on the ground and it makes the, the ground makes that almost like a training wheel for a good player. For like a tour player, they'll use the ground to trap that ball on the face of that iron and pinch it and hit different trajectories and different shots with it, with the driver.

It is a, it's an entirely different beast, especially in today's world. That ball needs to be swung up on. And that is the exact opposite of what you're doing with your driver. And quite often, John, with the way these young guys play on tour, the hands don't necessarily lead on that driver swing anymore. And for most of them, they don't and the head gets out in front of the hands. And so the shaft is already flexed.

John, it's a, it's, it is not very often where you see a tour player dialed in with the driver and dialed in with the iron game because it's that much different and that much harder. Well, wait a second. Are you telling me I'm not supposed to be taking divots with my driver? Stop taking. What was the thing?

Your driver's never supposed to touch the ground when you're swinging and you know, I've blown that apart several times. What you've just kind of blown my whole game. Okay.

Right. Well, we're going to do the tip of the cap and the tip of the cap is brought to you by Dean team, Volkswagen of Kirkwood. And of course, my friend, Colin Burke, three one four nine six six zero three zero three.

Any sort of vehicle. Colin's your guy. I'm tipping our cap to our local golf associations, our sections, the men and women that run them, the metropolitan amateur golf association here, the Missouri golf association, the gateway section of the PGA. And the list goes on and on and on the folks on the east side of the river. All of these folks that do a great job. We got the gateway section of the PGA that sponsor the show.

They run these organizations, they run events, they keep track of our game, they grow the game, do all the little things to make our golf better. We are tipping our cap to them. And we thank you guys, as we get into another year of playing this great game of golf.

And that's the tip of the cap. And it's brought to you by Dean team, Volkswagen of Kirkwood, three one four nine six six zero three zero three. Thank you, Colin.

Guys, that's going to wrap up the on the range segment. I want to thank Darty business solutions as always for supporting the show. John and I'll be right back with the front nine and our interview with bummer and Ray. Don't go anywhere 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 j delsing golf.com.

Coming up, it's the front nine on golf with Jay delsing. I love having Darty business solutions as the title sponsor of the golf with Jay delsing show you already know that they're the number one largest it consulting firm and the largest software developer in the St. Louis region. You also know that there are over 2500 Darty teammates in 30 states and three countries around the world. But what you may not be aware of is what Darty business solutions does right here in our own community. They were the sponsor for the first advocate PGA event at Glen echo this past September Darty business solutions was also a presenting sponsor of the ascension charity class. They have created access point which builds diversity in the IT workforce. This is a game changer in our community. Literally hundreds of mostly young African American women are getting 50 to $60,000 per year jobs right out of high school.

And that training begins in high school. Darty business solutions believes talent is equally distributed, but access to that opportunity is not Ron Darty. Our founder at Darty business solutions is the chair of the 2023 heart ball supporting local, the local American Heart Association Foundation.

These are just a few examples of the positive things Darty business solutions is doing right now in our community. Hi, this is Peter Jacobson and you're listening to 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 5, 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 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 therapists 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 the front nine on golf with Jay delsing. 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. Good morning. This is golf with Jay delsing. I'm Jay.

I've got bummer Barry and Ray Farnell sitting with me. Guys. Good morning. Thanks for having us, Jay. Good morning, Jay.

Yeah, guys. Whitmore Country Club. You've been out there bummer. I know you've been out there for almost 12 years now and Ray, what three and a half, four years for you. Yeah, I've lived out there for about nine and been working there close to three.

So they've been a great supporter of the show and really appreciate their help. Talk to us a little bit about what is going on at Whitmore. I mean, we're talking about waiting lists for memberships. The junior golf program, from what I understand, has gone crazy.

Crazy busy. There's no other course like it. Our junior program.

We have kids from four years old up to 18. We try and do a next level. I teach the little ones, get them up to the next level and then Ray takes over, gets them into high school and college. And Ray, for folks that don't know, Ray, you caddied for 17 years on the PGA Tour, most recently for Harold Varner. And we've known each other, I think, probably 15 years or so.

Yeah, sorry about that. We've had a lot of fun. We've had a lot of fun stories. We were talking about a story off air where I had a caddy on Reno, where it's a very difficult place, altitude and things like that.

And we were laughing because I asked him which way the wind was blowing and he just put both hands above his head and made circles. That's I've wanted to do that a few times, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger. I've faked it through it a couple times. That's for sure. That's a tough place.

Reno is a very difficult place to judge the wind. But talk a little bit about your experiences on the PGA Tour. You're from Melbourne. You've been living in the States now for what, almost 25 years? 20 years. 20 years.

Yeah. Came over to Caddy, like in late 03 on the PGA Tour. Did a few events on the, now the Corn Fairy Tour.

And then full time on the PGA Tour since 04 through to 21. The last five years I caddied for Harold Varner III. And then when COVID hit, we took the break.

Obviously we were not sure what was going to happen. And so I spent some time at home with my kids. I got two girls that are 11 and 9. Really enjoyed being at home. As you know, it's tough traveling 35 weeks a year and you miss so many things. But yeah, led to some teaching and just seeing the need for golf in St. Louis is growing. It's healthy and popular and it was nice to be home. Guys, I'm sitting across from two men that can help your children, your golf games so much.

Bummer. Your family, your brother Taz is a dear friend of mine. You and I have been buddies forever. But you play golf at a super high level and you've basically dug it out of the dirt. You were self-taught and have a great career in amateur golf around town. And then you played pro for what? Five, six years? Yes. I had two lessons in my life.

One was with Terry Grosh and the other one was with Jerry Tucker on the short game. And I still teach that to this day. The clock, he taught the clock and teach everybody the clock and it's helped me and I think it's helped a lot of my students. Oh, for sure.

So when we're talking about the clock as we're talking about the club mimicking the hands of a clock and how far back it goes and things like that in the short game, right? Correct. But we don't want to tell, we want people to pay for that. Yeah, we're going to give them just a little bit of tease for that. Yeah.

And then Ray, getting to watch golf on the PGA Tour, it doesn't come across for me because I've been honking this for so long and people are probably tired of listening. But talk a little bit about that because the experiences and watching the different players do it, there's so many different ways to kind of skin the cat. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, you've got all shapes and sizes of people, different limitations. And I've been lucky enough over the last, you know, 20 years to work with players that have worked with some of the best coaches in the world with Butch, Scott Hamilton, David Leadbetter, you know, Todd Anderson, Justin Parsons, there's a bunch of guys that, you know, I've been really lucky to pick their ear and learn from and listen. And like you said, everyone, there's a lot of different ways to do it. So not everyone's the same.

And it's just a matter of, you know, getting the best out of that person with what they have. And how about some of the great players that have come from Australia? Wayne Grady was a dear friend of mine, Ian Baker Finch were both guys, my constituents about my age. How about you? And who did you see growing up with? And what, what kind of got you with the game? Because we're going to talk about bummer and his family.

We know about, about them. Tell us a little bit about growing up in Australia and, and what golf was like back there. So no one in my family actually play golf. I grew up in a school in Melbourne that happened to be right next door to a golf club called hunting Dale. And every year they played a tournament there called the Australian masters, which was, it was the gold jacket. It was a tradition, traditional tournament, same golf course. So after playing hooky a couple of times and hop on the fence and watching golf, I'll never forget. I was following this guy around and he had, there was this huge crowd and so followed this guy around for a couple of holes. And when he got done, he walked through the lot, signing autographs, hopped in a red Ferrari and drove off.

And it happened to be Greg Norman. So I thought, man, that's pretty cool. Like I want to do that.

Yeah, absolutely. So, um, little did I know how hard that would be, but, um, but you know, that was kind of my introduction to golf. And then, um, obviously that was in the early nineties, you know, that was when he was in his prime. And, um, I feel like he changed the game a lot, you know, and then obviously handed her over the tiger and it's, you know, ever since then, it's been good, but that was the main reason that I got into golf was because of the shock. I'm visiting with Ray Farnell and bummer Barry here at the golf with Jay delsing show bummer, your family, your brother has got a, he, he stayed amateur.

He never, uh, Todd's never did turn pro, but he's known throughout town. Your family name, you guys came from a big family. I remembered the stories at hitting balls at night, hitting balls under the light. I think over at Normandy, lots of fun in your family. Yes, we, we grew up right at Normandy golf course. And, uh, like I was seven years old and they Terry Breck, Tom came and said, if you're going to be here, you're going to pick the range. So I would pick the range by hand with 13 ball tubes and he'd give me a hundred bucks every two weeks at seven years old.

So man, I wish I'd have been hanging out with you. We lifted that a hundred dollars and then at Normandy. So I was probably 13. These guys said, Hey, can you clean my car? I said, sure.

I drive them down to my mom and dad's house, clean them, bring them back up. And when I turned 16, I said, Hey, I need to borrow somebody's car. They said, for what? I said, uh, cause I'm going to go get my license. They said, you don't have a license. I said, no, you asked me if I could clean your car. You never asked me if I had a license.

So who needs a license to drive a car? I mean, come on, man. When you grew up in a family of what did you have? Nine, nine. I mean, you learned a lot of things at early age. That's where I got my nickname when my mom came home pregnant with her ninth kid, they said, what a bummer.

And I hung around all my older brothers and sisters and that's where I learned how to do play sports. I wouldn't change it for a minute up there at Normandy. They took my brother and I in and gave us the red carpet and we need places like that to keep kids going.

Absolutely. Given a place to go. I was kind of the same way we would. Um, they didn't verbally say bummer, but they may have thought of that. We had, my parents had three daughters first and I was the first son.

So God only knows what they thought. But to your point, having those places in uh, the, the area where the kids live is crucial so that they don't have to go travel so far to get to the golf course and then the accessibility and make it, make it affordable where these kids can spend their time. We're now having kids being dropped off from 10 year olds, you know, to 15 year olds and they're hanging out at the golf course. And that's what Ray and I love. They're, they're working, not messing around and you see those kids getting better and we push them to chip and putt more than just go blast your driver. And Ray has a game that a putting game and stuff and chipping game. It's cool to see them working because somebody gave that to me and I want to give it to a, to a kid.

And, and Ray chime in here if you feel like it, but I, it drives me crazy guys. When I hear people say, Oh, this is a game for rich kids. You have to have a bunch of money to that.

It's hogwash man. Correct. And we, we take care of kids that, that need help get, get them clubs, you know, and their parents. Well, what do we owe you?

No, no, we got it. And then when he gets bigger or she gets bigger, just give those clubs back. And if we need to get them another set, we do it and you recycle them down to the next 100%. And it, it's, it's so cool because I played with left handed clubs and right handed clubs. So my six iron and eight iron were left handed. My dad said, there's clubs in there. And I said, dad, this is left handed.

He goes, good luck. You know, I might like hockey skates. When I learned to play hockey, they were three sizes too big. No, no laces. So I taped them, stuffed them with socks. And then when I grew into them, I was killing everybody. I had left handed skates. Bummer.

That's why I can't skate. But anyway, Ray again, seeing these kids come in, it's gotta just light you up. Yeah. It's just a, you know, my whole thing is I just want people to fall in love with the game. You know, it's a great game, not only, you know, at the professional level, but just in general, you know, making relationships like we're sitting here right now, I'm a kid from Melbourne that had nothing to do with golf. And here we are in St. Louis talking today, you know, it's amazing how far the game can reach. And, you know, and just seeing these kids start out and fall in love with the game like you did and like back in the day and, you know, spending the time and being around the club. And like I said, it's more than just golf. It's meeting good people. It's, you know, creating those relationships that last a lifetime.

Yeah. And the game is such a uniter. It doesn't matter what color you are.

It doesn't matter what shape you are. And again, this money thing, it doesn't matter if you're wealthy or not. We can have a game and play on the same golf course as some of the great pros do. It's ridiculous. There's no game like it.

Exactly. 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 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 ascensioncharityclassic.com. Okay guys, here comes the best golf raffle of all time. It is being offered again to all of you in the listening area. The next step has got their great golf raffle. The tickets need to be purchased by March 19th. Go to thenextstepstl.org. Tickets are one ticket for $100, six tickets for $500, or you can buy 10 tickets for $750.

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All tickets need to be purchased by March 19th. Folks, get online, get involved, support a great charity. TheNextStepSTL.org. You're listening to golf with Jay Delsing. To connect with Jay, log on to JayDelsingGolf.com. You'll see the latest in equipment, find the latest innovations in golf, and get tips from a PGA professional.

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That's PowersInsurance.com. This is Jay Delsing, and if you're like me, you're always looking for the best ways to improve your game. That means getting the best, most up-to-date equipment you can find in golf. You can find that equipment at Pro-Am Golf. Pro-Am Golf is located in Brentwood, and since Pro-Am Golf opened in 1975, they have been more than just selling golf equipment. Pro-Am Golf is dedicated to helping build your game inside and out. Pro-Am Golf can custom fit all your clubs specifically to your build. They offer private one-on-one lessons, and they carry golf gear for every part of your game.

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This is Jay. I'm with Bummer Berry and Ray Farnell, and we're headed to the Back 9. Guys, talk a little bit about the PGA Junior League and what your numbers look like. And anyone, regardless of whether they have gear, whether they have money, they're welcome in your place. We had, last year, I think about 80 kids signed up in our junior program in the junior league. We're open to anyone, not just members of Whitmore.

It's a great program. It gets kids from, again, all over, uniting, whatever level they're at. If they're younger and they need a little more instruction, and we help with that, then also getting them on the golf course. Some of the bigger kids play nine holes or six holes, and the little guys, a little bit more on the range, and then three holes. So whatever level they're at, we catered all that. If you don't have clubs, we'll take care of you. Again, we just want people to fall in love with the game, and it's a great place to start out.

It gets you a little bit of everything, a little bit on the course and some instruction. You know, Bummer, it reminds me of, what was it, a couple of years ago when we did that little exhibition. You absolutely whipped my ass over there. But we had probably 150 or 200 members follow us for nine holes. There's so much support going on at Whitmore. One of the things that strikes me whenever I pull in that parking lot, it's full every damn day. It's like no other 18-hole course, 36-hole course.

We had 280 players on Sunday, and that's with having a frost delay and starting at 10 o'clock till 5 o'clock. 280 players that we ran through there, and there's no other place like it. I mean, golf pros have ran through there thinking they can do it, and they're out the door. You got to be mentally strong and patient.

It'll test you. And the vibe out there, though, there's nothing better than seeing a place where people are loving their facilities, and they're out there with 36 holes. And then there's also the other membership opportunities at the Bluffs and links to Dardeen and things like that too. Now that we've gotten taken over, they have access to 30 private clubs around the country. The Bluffs and Dardeen and Wentzville will dwindle away, but anywhere in Florida, I think there's like 14 courses. All through the country, there's 29 other country clubs. They can go play for cart fee. Yeah, that's amazing.

So if you travel, it's a benefit. And just to let you know, our junior PGA, 16 to 18 year olds won the championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with five players. We were short one player. You're supposed to have six, and we won the overall championship. Where did they play in Tulsa? Do you know? Think it was Tulsa.

No, it wasn't Tulsa Country Club. That's okay. That's such a crazy, amazing accomplishment. So there's no age requirement. You're not turning anybody away. So if the parents are out there listening, you know, St. Charles County and that whole west area has grown so much. There's so many families out there.

I went to the Cottleville area not long ago, and I couldn't believe how much it had grown and changed. No one should be concerned about not understanding what to do, not understanding how to play golf or just the fears that keep people away. You guys will take care of that for them. Again, we have kids that never picked up a club, and we moved them along.

Now, I mean, they're there every day. I've learned so much from him standing on a tee with the best coaches and players in the world, teaching that person he might be taller, teaching them that way, teaching them shorter. There's no limitation to what he's taught me and can teach you. And Ray, I wanted to mention that earlier when I was talking to you, but you know, when you're out on tour and you're playing with, when you're hanging around with a great player like, let's just talk Harold Varner, because you spend a lot of time with him, almost no time where there isn't a chance to learn something, is it? You guys might be playing nine holes on a, on a Tuesday evening by yourself and get into some high rough around the greens or something.

And he starts talking and starts experimenting or trying a new wedge or something like that. I can remember when I first went out with Andy North, he kind of took me under his wing and there were these opportunities where I was like, oh man, I didn't even realize I was going to learn this today. Right.

Yeah. There's a, uh, just, you know, I was lucky enough once, for example, uh, I was carrying for Greg Owen back in 2006, I think. And, you know, we played a practice round with Jose Maria Lazabal and spending some time around the greens at Memorial at Jack's place, thick, rough, tight lies. Um, you know, the amount of shots that he would show him around the green. And, and then after that, you know, it was super nice enough to, we spent two hours with him after the round around the short game area and just, you know, you, you watch and you learn so much.

There's so many different ways to do it, you know, and then the experienced guys, guys like yourself played out there forever. You might learn a certain shot out of a different lie that you've never seen every day. I felt like I learned something different, but you know, also too, there can be too much information.

And, uh, I just think it's important to filter it, can't live and die by it. And I just think the better players definitely do a really good job of that. They're not too technical. Uh, they work on what they need to do, but then definitely get more into playing the game and getting in that game mode. And see, that's what I think, especially for more of an elite player, guys and gals that want to get better. The blend of the stuff that you guys bring to the table, that's where it's at. And you mentioned something, Ray bummer, you and I both know the value of this too much information can be so dangerous.

Correct. What we like doing is we might have two lessons and then take a group of kids that are around the same level out on the course and go, okay, why are you going to hit that club? I want you to hit a seven iron wedge instead of trying to hit a three wood out of that and roll it, get something out of every shot and teach them different chips. Like using the hybrid. I, I show that hybrid rolling it when there's nothing in front of you. And these kids just, it's just amazing because then they come running into me. I just, I just chipped in with a hybrid, you know, that makes my day.

Oh my gosh. It just makes you feel like this isn't the, this is really working. What I'm, what I'm doing, what I'm believing in, you're seeing these guys take a hold of it. It's a great feeling.

So we had Benjamin burger, this kid who called us after he won the harden, the district junior district and that's cool. You know, it's, it's, he's so happy and he doesn't realize we're even more, it makes our day more than his day. You know, getting those guys out on the golf course, going to Memorial, then going to say Texas or Florida, where you get all the variety of grass. It's a different, uh, sand getting these kids, these different experiences showing them the different lies. It's a, it's a big deal.

Yeah, it is. And learning how to play it. You, like you said, grain or Texas where it's firms like get on the ground, you know, and then Memorial lush, a lot of rock, get it in the air. So like totally, you know, you get to learn a lot about the lies, uphill lie. What's it do downhill lie. What's it do.

What's doing the balls above your feet. So many different shots, so many different ways to play them. I'm finding that. And you know, it's like, it's, it's finding what works under pressure in those situations that you can go to that you own it and you're comfortable with it.

If you go in there, you know, on that stage and you're, you know, half into a shot, the chances of you executing it right at a very low. So those sort of things make a huge difference. And what a benefit to be able to tell people what it's like to play tournament golf, because we all know that that's an entirely different beast, right? As, as you know, like it's, uh, you've played forever. It's, it's tough because really at the end of the day, it's, it's just golf.

Yes. It's on a bigger stage. The real battles with yourself feeling comfortable, you know, the weeks you go out and you don't they don't, you know, you don't feel good about your game. You happen to have a big week that week because your expectations are low. I've seen guys when they're like, I'm playing unbelievable this week, had a great preparation and go and miss a cut, you know, so, and, and you know, the runs of it, you know, it's, it's great when you see like John Rahm winning every, every week, he's having an unbelievable run right now, but then there's also the flip side where a guy might miss 10 cuts straight, you know, and you get to learn a lot about that guy, about his personality, his character in those situations. And those are the ups and downs because we know this game's going to punch everybody in the nose or lower. That's what happens. That's what we tell emphasize over and over. Guys, if you can go hit the ball after you hit it, it's not a bad shot.

You're still in the game. You got to grind, grind, grind. Nothing's perfect. Like kids today all want to hit perfect golf shots. Good. So do I know how many of those do you hit a year?

Let me know. You know, and they think that these guys on tour hitting perfect shots and they're not, they're hitting it in the perfect spot. You know, they play to a spot, not perfect shots, you know? Right.

I've seen some pretty 73s and some ugly 65s. It's like, you know, again, it's just get it done. Just get it done. You know, the best you can with what you have. If you live and die by every shot, it's going to be a long day. Yeah. A couple of weeks back guys, when Max Homa was trying to run down John Rahm at the LA, uh, open, he couldn't hit it off the tee.

He was all over the place off the tee, but he was, as you said, grinding it out and just trying to shoot a score. And at the end of the day, guys, that's what it's about. If you can teach these kids, these men and women, young boys and girls, it's all about the number. It's not about what it looks like.

That's a huge hurdle for today's kids. I think Benjamin burger, he would get upset. And the faster I told him that Stan Utley told me one day, the faster that I stopped getting angry, the better I'm going to be because there's nothing. Once that, that thing's off the face bounces on a cart path, goes out of bounds, bounces like Rahm hit one off the bleachers a couple of weeks, go right next to the homemade Eagle on Saturday. Once it leaves the face, you better start figuring out how to deal with it because before you know it, you're going to have to hit another shot. And if you're still pissed or your mind's racing or your heart's racing, you're probably going to screw that one up to correct.

Your muscles don't work when they're tight. No, as a caddy, I always was like, you're going to hit bad shots, but it was like, it was always the next one that I was worried about. You know, a three part walking to the T angry, totally not engaged.

Boom. One out of bounds, like off the planet out of nowhere. And that's just a mental error because carrying that baggage over Ray. And that's so hard for caddies because you really have to learn your guy. You have to learn what that's like because it's not the same for everybody.

You can't even for me and you can't even for bummer. It's two different animals, right? I've had guys I've had to yell at. I've had guys I've had to cry with, you know, Pat them on the backside that need a lot of nurturing than guys that don't want to talk at all. Everyone's different. Everyone's got their way of doing it. And like I said, you're more of a psychologist than anything. Get the most out of that person that day or, you know, he might be fine with his wife or, you know, one of these kids is sick and he, you know, he's still going to perform because people pick it up and look and say, Oh, what's wrong with Jay?

Like why is he taking it? Well, they don't know what's going on in your life that day. So, you know, that was my job regardless of that, to try and get them in the present mind and in the present spot and, you know, get the best out of what they had that day.

Yeah. And you guys as coaches have seen such a variety of stuff. I mean, from all levels, it's going to help because I know we golfers think, Oh, it's never happened before. This is unique.

And for you guys, there's very little that you haven't seen. I've seen guy hook one on 16 at Normandy. He breaks his club, hits off the garage and went in the hole. He broke his club, hit the garage. And then I said, look, and it went in the hole for a hole in one.

So he went angry, breaks his club to jumping up and down. And we're like, no, we're nuts. We golfers are completely certifiable.

So guys, what does it look like? Now? We're, we're just hoping to get out of some of this bad weather. We probably still got some cold weather, but, but tell folks how they can get a hold of you, how they can join the PGA junior league or whatever it is that you guys are doing.

How can they reach you guys? PGA junior league. If you go on the PGA junior league website, search Whitmore country club, it'll come up. There'll be a link to sign up for that.

And you can generally find bummer. I add a Whitmore most days, you know, send us an email or look us up online and give us a shout. Yeah. There's so much that you can help them with. How about numbers from the junior program? Drop a couple of numbers on us. If you guys know individual teaching, I think we're at like 60 to 70 kids, individual lessons.

That's amazing. And we're talking about anybody from what? 17 and under.

Well, I had it. I had a kid yesterday. Uh, he's four, four years old to, I teach a lady that's 83, 84 years old from Florida to 90. You're never too young and you're never too old, man. If you can move that body a little bit to come out and play the game guys, thanks so much for joining us. Please keep doing what you're doing, growing the game from little guys to older folks. It's it's spectacular.

And I really appreciate it. Thanks for having us. 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. This is Jay Delsing. Did you know that Marcon is the largest authorized appliance parts distributor in the world? That's right.

The largest in the world. Did you know that Marcon is based right here in our backyard of St. Louis, Missouri? Well, that's pretty impressive. What's more impressive is the way that they get back to the St. Louis community and our region. CEO Jim Sowers has donated service dogs to the wounded service men and women of our armed forces.

Suites 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, Marco, a proud sponsor of the golf with Jay Delsing show. Hey golf fans, it's Dan McLaughlin. I've teamed up with Jay Delsing for a new golf podcast beyond the fairways. It's some of the biggest names in golf week one David Faraday, week two Tom Watson next week, the great Lee Trevino wherever you get your podcast.

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Hey, welcome back. This is golf with Jay Delsing. Pearly's with me.

We're headed to the 19th hole. Jan, I just love the passion and all of the energy that comes with Ray and with Bummer. Oh, absolutely. And they make a heck of a tag team, Jay. I really liked the way they split things up. I like the way that their enthusiasm, what they're trying to accomplish with the kids. And they clearly see the importance of the work they're doing, which is it truly is just kind of a beautiful thing. And what a story with Ray coming from Australia to the tour, to St. Louis, working with kids. It's just phenomenal for the story he tells. I'll never forget.

I had Wesley on the bag and Wesley was a character to say the least. And we're playing at Reno and you've caddied at Reno probably 10 times. Quite a few times. You bet.

Yep. It's beautiful. And it's an extremely difficult place to play. It's it's up on a mountain. The golf course is called Montreux and it's extremely difficult to, to try to figure out which way the wind is blowing. And I stood on the eighth tee, John, which is without question, the highest elevation point on that course, water left water, right?

What, John, probably 200 foot elevation change from we're going down probably, but maybe, I don't know, maybe that's 200 feet. How much it's quite a bit. It's enough to, it's hard to figure out. I know that much. Yeah. Hard to figure out. And I look at Wesley and I said, which way is the wind blowing Wesley? And he took his hands and put them over his head and just made circles. So you're doing exactly what to do.

Chip it off to the front of the ladies tee and then hit a wedge in. Exactly. Exactly. When, when you think about what, um, Kurt, kitty Amma's caddy did for him on 18, where he's very succinct, very positive, very, that was exact.

Wesley gave me the exact opposite. Well, who's a Kurt's previous, uh, player. He had it. Oh, it was a D Shambo. Yeah.

You mean his caddies? Yes. Right.

Right. Bryson D Shambo. That caddy that caddy's been under fire, both from under fire relative to the pressure of the moment. But I think the pressure of the moment with, with, uh, Bryson D Shambo with all that, they had a whole different system of figuring out how far back the swing was, how far the follow through. So he, that, that caddy knows pressure and he obviously handled it extremely well.

And John, that is a girl. This is really an interesting segue to go into that because that is so important when you're under that kind of stress and, and kitty Amma had a horrible angle and I know he wasn't shooting at the flagstick, but the way that that green runs straight along with you, if this ball jumps three yards offline to the right, it's in the water, but another three or four yards off offline to the left and it's in the bunker. Yeah. And either one of those places, it's not very easy to get up and down from just for the record.

I tried the water. I I've only been in a bunker once. I think I'm over over in that bunker as well. So anyway, what a great finish and, and having bumper and Ray working in our golf community and in our community with the youth, man, I'm telling you that it's just a, it's a, it's a great, great thing for us. It's a great thing for Whitmore. I know those guys are working hard at developing a new project down in Chesterfield Valley.

So there'll be news on that coming soon. Really great, really great. You know, and so we're segue, segueing straight into the PGA tour schedule and some of the changes they make, but it's, it's an interesting thing, isn't it? I, I just, I really don't know what to make of it.

I don't like, I don't like some of it. I don't like the fact that it creates a, a tiers of furthers, a tier system within our sponsors, you know, because now you have the haves and the have nots of the tournaments, not only the players, but the tournaments and the players are based on, Hey, look, play better and things will take care of itself. And unfortunately that is probably your mantra on the PGA tour. If you play better, things will take care of itself. I think that's a lot to do with life right there. I think if you do whatever you're doing better, things will probably take care of yourself.

By the way, that's the only thing you have control of possibly. So I think that's a good, a good message. But Jay, you've talked about this. There's always been an element on the tour of from your days, your days on the players advisory board that wanted more of this type of thing. And I think they pressed against it and stayed away from it for the most part for many, many years, but live just kind of made them play their hand. Well, it's interesting too, John.

Yes it did. This is so similar to what Greg Norman wanted to do in 94 and back again in 97, what he called the super tour. But this is really, really fueled by money, John, from the other end, from the sponsors. Because if you're going to go back to the sponsors and say, Hey, we want an extra 10 million, 5 million, whatever it is, they want something in return.

And they want that guarantee that Rory McElroy, Colin Morikawa, Tiger Woods, they're going to be around for the weekend. They wanted that. They pushed for that and they got it. Absolutely.

They sure did get it. And so far it seems to be working out pretty well. But it's still it's still separates the haves from have nots. I don't know if that's going to matter to the regular public or not.

We'll have to see in two or three or five years from now. Absolutely. Pearl, another show in the books, man. Love it. Love it. Great subject matter, Jay. Just great, great interviews with Taylor and Bummer and Fun Show. Well, thanks so much for being with us. We want to thank Darty Business Solutions again for being the title sponsor of the Golf with Jay Delsing show. Really appreciate appreciate Ron and his team. Kelly and John and the list goes on. We'll be back with you next week for more Golf with Jay Delsing.

Hit them straight, St. Louis. You're listening to Golf with Jay Delsing. To connect with Jay, log on to jaydelsinggolf.com. You'll see the latest in equipment, find the latest innovations in golf and get tips from a PGA professional. That's jaydelsinggolf.com.